Pentecost XXI
This week, our somewhat continuous reading in Matthew's Gospel has Jesus in yet another dialog with those who are trying to trip him up, or expose him as a fraud, or just engage in plain old debate. Last week: where does authority reside, and what authority do you respect? Should we pay taxes used for the worship of idols? 'Render unto Caesar,' but...
This week: well, then, what is the 'greatest commandment?' They ask both to test him (everyone knows the answer already -- "love the Lord your God...") and to set up the terms to criticize his teaching later on. How shall we properly worship God, or join together in worshipping God, if we do not know if we understand God or worship in the same/correct way? Skilled debaters!
Jesus gives the answers they're expecting -- and which they probably share, in most ways. And, his appendage of the 'second commandment' (to love your neighbor as you love yourself) is nothing new -- it's a restatement of the levitical expression (which we also read today) of what the implications are of remembering God first in all things. It has implications for all one's relationships, and all one's neighbors. And implications for how one 'loves' one's self, as well.
Love is identified as a stance more than a response or a reaction or emotion. Be in a stance of orienting toward God (whom Jesus calls 'Love'), toward being open to God's real-ness, God's presence-in-silence, God's presence in other creatures of God, from the cosmos and planet and other creatures down to the pulses of our own heart and breath. Be oriented toward this presence, which is Love.
And, then, this love orients us toward our neighbors. Some of whom we love. Others of whom we pray for a right, good, healed relationship with -- that we may all be oriented toward God and godliness in all things. For, in this is transformation -- that of the world and of our hearts and relationships.
What practices orient us toward this stance, make it more real and more solid -- more dependable over time?
Other religious traditions have -- and a more ancient Christianity had -- a good sense of practice. Alms-giving; praying five times a day, even in brief; pilgrimage -- these are practices that we can adapt, still, to orient ourselves in this stance of love toward God's presence in all things, and in love turned toward others (and ourselves). What might they look like in your 21st century life? In a time of ecological collapse and social turmoil? Amid the anxiety of your own heart?
A pilgrimage can be around the block. Alms-giving can be a dollar, or the gift of paying attention, truly present. Prayer at regular intervals can be as simple as a recalling the loving silence of God's presence in your own breath, and certainly is also prayer-with-feet, gardening or protesting, writing and reading. Justice is love with feet.
Rather than be in that state of continual debate (like the poor Pharisees in Matthew's gospel) over the finer, historical points of divergence and contention, seek to be aligned with this deepest truth -- this is a 'commandment,' to return to the deepest truth of the cosmos -- that God is Love, is present, and is for your life and the healing and transformation of the world, continually being brought to birth among and within us. Even now, in these latter days.