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Hallows, Souls, Reformation and the Judeo-Christian Ethic - The Rev. Carol Duncan
Sermon from the Rev. Carol Duncan for the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 26. Today's readings are:
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Psalm 119:1-8
Hebrews 9:11-14
Mark 12:28-34
Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BProp26_RCL.htmlHallows, Souls, Reformation and the Judeo-Christian Ethic
The Rev. Carol Duncan, Carol Duncan, 2021
Hear, O St. Martin's: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
On this All Hallows Eve, Halloween, which is also Reformation Sunday, our lessons invite us to consider the core foundational texts of Judeo-Christian values. As your preacher for this awesome day, I will attempt to honor hallows, souls, Reformation and the essence of Judeo-Christian values.
To get started, let me just say the name of Martin Luther, and pay tribute to him as the progenitor of the Reformation. Now, about Halloween, I will say that at the LIFT service at 9:00 was splendid. We blessed the costumes children and adults worn to this service, and the children who wear them in all their spookiness. We prayed that trick-or-treaters' joy serve as a sign to all who do not know Jesus that Jesus' Love reigns over all things in heaven and on earth. Now let's see what we can do about the core Judeo-Christian values.
Seriously, today's texts are foundational, and we must treat them as Moses advised. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away. These brief texts are our touchstones, our guiding light to keep God at the center of all we do.
Our bit of Mark's Gospel today is fascinating. You may recall that Jesus often intensely debated with Scribes and Pharisees who were the arbiters of Jewish law. In fact Jesus has just told them the parable of the wicked tenants, and pointing his finger, which sent the Scribes and Pharisees slinking away. Only the crowd wanted to experience Jesus' healing presence.
But now another Scribe approaches who had heard the bitter interchanges. This scribe was intrigued by how Jesus handled and subdued his opponents. The atypical scribe asked the central question. "Of all the many obligations, which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus must have received those scribe's words and him like a surprising friend in a dark place. The scribe listened reflectively to Jesus' words and Jesus told him he was not far from the kingdom of God. In other words a "small s" saint for all hallows.
So what was Jesus' response to that question, after which no other opponent dared to ask him any questions? As everyone accepted, then and now, Jesus first gave the true heart of all the Law: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."
Jesus took this part of his answer almost, almost, straight from Moses' lips as we heard today in Deuteronomy. Moses summary of the law was "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." This phrase is the Shema, words that every observant Jew recognizes then and now as the clarion call to faith. The Shema is a symbolic representation of total devotion to the study of Torah. Torah is for Jews what Jesus is for Christians, the ultimate expression of what humans can know about God.
Jesus agreed that the Shema is first, and yet he delivered an even larger truth by adding a single word - "with all your mind". My favorite Episcopal bumper sticker is "Jesus died to take away your sins, not your mind." That's a good one right? I like that one. And thus Jesus obligingly anticipates a key concept of the reformation on Reformation Sunday. We now live by grace, and not works. We now live by grace and faith alone. Fulfilling legal obligations from any faith tradition is not enough to reach the kingdom of God.
Then Jesus changed the question by adding a second greatest commandment. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." His addition still affirms Torah law, but it emphasizes complexity. Jesus' second greatest law comes from Leviticus, home to the majority of the 613 individual commands contained in Torah.
I have been accustomed to treating those 613 commands as barriers to the full-hearted love of Jesus. I felt confirmed in my skepticism when I discovered that this key commandment is only half the original Leviticus sentence. The whole sentence is "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself." Even worse, the very next sentence is "You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials." I bet everyone here is condemned by that one.
How did Jesus pick out that half sentence to be the second most important command? Only when I began to study for this sermon did I find out the rest of the story.
The neighbor command is in the middle of Leviticus 19, which deals with the holiness of God as the source and model for all human behavior. It explains how Jews shall do this in practical concrete terms. Holiness is found in neighborliness, specifically regard for the poor. Holiness involves leaving the edges of fields available for gleaning by the poor. No keeping wages back from laborers (no wage theft). No revealing the disabled. It covers refugees, saying "The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt." And it contains all kinds of practical details. "You shall not cheat in measuring length, weight, or quantity. You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin." Even if we don't know what a hin is, we see that details down to the smallest measure are important in the eyes of God and in dealings with our neighbors. You can't truly love God if you don't behave with specific concrete acts of love toward your neighbor. All your neighbors.
I now believe that when Jesus picked out that half sentence, he was inferring all the rest of that holiness code of Leviticus. In the same way, when on the cross Jesus mourned "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?", he was inferring all the rest of Psalm 22. That's the first sentence of Psalm 22 and he meant the whole thing. Jesus contained all scripture within himself, so he didn't obliterate the practical concrete rulings of Torah, he fulfilled them.
So now I want to determine how in our day we can live whole-hearted, whole-minded love of God and love of neighbor. I think that we find good pointers here at St. Martin's. For example, our refugee ministry cites that very verse of Leviticus I mentioned earlier. They are finding practical ways to relieve the suffering of Afghan refugees, as they did earlier for Syrian refugees. And I commend Stephen Ministry to you. Stephen ministers spend hours in reflective prayerful listening to care receivers who have suffered a loss or a death in their family or an illness, or some long-term trouble that needs prayer more than treatment. And we have Women Connecting, another form of sacred listening. Nothing huge, just disciplined chosen neighborly service. Likewise with Men for Others. And I think Choir teaches a very detailed disciplined practice of ministry for the whole community. I know my soul is nourished by their trained voices. Also, trainings offered in Becoming Beloved Community provide another way to approach neighborliness. Faithful Jews in Jesus' time wouldn't understand what implicit bias is any more than we know what a hin is, but in order to love God and neighbor in our culture, we need to learn about it. Altar Guild is probably the closest to the details of living found in Leviticus. They take such good care back there (in the sacristy). We mostly don't see its work but the smooth running services ease our hearts into contemplating the holy.
There are many more examples I could name. Hold up your own participation in any ministry to check if it does indeed help you abide by love of God and love of neighbor. I suspect that it does.
So, happy Halloween, happy Reformation Sunday, happy All Souls day, and peace on your path of salvation.
Amen.
Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved.
Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org
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By St. Martin-in-the-FieldsSermon from the Rev. Carol Duncan for the Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 26. Today's readings are:
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Psalm 119:1-8
Hebrews 9:11-14
Mark 12:28-34
Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BProp26_RCL.htmlHallows, Souls, Reformation and the Judeo-Christian Ethic
The Rev. Carol Duncan, Carol Duncan, 2021
Hear, O St. Martin's: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
On this All Hallows Eve, Halloween, which is also Reformation Sunday, our lessons invite us to consider the core foundational texts of Judeo-Christian values. As your preacher for this awesome day, I will attempt to honor hallows, souls, Reformation and the essence of Judeo-Christian values.
To get started, let me just say the name of Martin Luther, and pay tribute to him as the progenitor of the Reformation. Now, about Halloween, I will say that at the LIFT service at 9:00 was splendid. We blessed the costumes children and adults worn to this service, and the children who wear them in all their spookiness. We prayed that trick-or-treaters' joy serve as a sign to all who do not know Jesus that Jesus' Love reigns over all things in heaven and on earth. Now let's see what we can do about the core Judeo-Christian values.
Seriously, today's texts are foundational, and we must treat them as Moses advised. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away. These brief texts are our touchstones, our guiding light to keep God at the center of all we do.
Our bit of Mark's Gospel today is fascinating. You may recall that Jesus often intensely debated with Scribes and Pharisees who were the arbiters of Jewish law. In fact Jesus has just told them the parable of the wicked tenants, and pointing his finger, which sent the Scribes and Pharisees slinking away. Only the crowd wanted to experience Jesus' healing presence.
But now another Scribe approaches who had heard the bitter interchanges. This scribe was intrigued by how Jesus handled and subdued his opponents. The atypical scribe asked the central question. "Of all the many obligations, which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus must have received those scribe's words and him like a surprising friend in a dark place. The scribe listened reflectively to Jesus' words and Jesus told him he was not far from the kingdom of God. In other words a "small s" saint for all hallows.
So what was Jesus' response to that question, after which no other opponent dared to ask him any questions? As everyone accepted, then and now, Jesus first gave the true heart of all the Law: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."
Jesus took this part of his answer almost, almost, straight from Moses' lips as we heard today in Deuteronomy. Moses summary of the law was "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." This phrase is the Shema, words that every observant Jew recognizes then and now as the clarion call to faith. The Shema is a symbolic representation of total devotion to the study of Torah. Torah is for Jews what Jesus is for Christians, the ultimate expression of what humans can know about God.
Jesus agreed that the Shema is first, and yet he delivered an even larger truth by adding a single word - "with all your mind". My favorite Episcopal bumper sticker is "Jesus died to take away your sins, not your mind." That's a good one right? I like that one. And thus Jesus obligingly anticipates a key concept of the reformation on Reformation Sunday. We now live by grace, and not works. We now live by grace and faith alone. Fulfilling legal obligations from any faith tradition is not enough to reach the kingdom of God.
Then Jesus changed the question by adding a second greatest commandment. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." His addition still affirms Torah law, but it emphasizes complexity. Jesus' second greatest law comes from Leviticus, home to the majority of the 613 individual commands contained in Torah.
I have been accustomed to treating those 613 commands as barriers to the full-hearted love of Jesus. I felt confirmed in my skepticism when I discovered that this key commandment is only half the original Leviticus sentence. The whole sentence is "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself." Even worse, the very next sentence is "You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials." I bet everyone here is condemned by that one.
How did Jesus pick out that half sentence to be the second most important command? Only when I began to study for this sermon did I find out the rest of the story.
The neighbor command is in the middle of Leviticus 19, which deals with the holiness of God as the source and model for all human behavior. It explains how Jews shall do this in practical concrete terms. Holiness is found in neighborliness, specifically regard for the poor. Holiness involves leaving the edges of fields available for gleaning by the poor. No keeping wages back from laborers (no wage theft). No revealing the disabled. It covers refugees, saying "The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt." And it contains all kinds of practical details. "You shall not cheat in measuring length, weight, or quantity. You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin." Even if we don't know what a hin is, we see that details down to the smallest measure are important in the eyes of God and in dealings with our neighbors. You can't truly love God if you don't behave with specific concrete acts of love toward your neighbor. All your neighbors.
I now believe that when Jesus picked out that half sentence, he was inferring all the rest of that holiness code of Leviticus. In the same way, when on the cross Jesus mourned "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?", he was inferring all the rest of Psalm 22. That's the first sentence of Psalm 22 and he meant the whole thing. Jesus contained all scripture within himself, so he didn't obliterate the practical concrete rulings of Torah, he fulfilled them.
So now I want to determine how in our day we can live whole-hearted, whole-minded love of God and love of neighbor. I think that we find good pointers here at St. Martin's. For example, our refugee ministry cites that very verse of Leviticus I mentioned earlier. They are finding practical ways to relieve the suffering of Afghan refugees, as they did earlier for Syrian refugees. And I commend Stephen Ministry to you. Stephen ministers spend hours in reflective prayerful listening to care receivers who have suffered a loss or a death in their family or an illness, or some long-term trouble that needs prayer more than treatment. And we have Women Connecting, another form of sacred listening. Nothing huge, just disciplined chosen neighborly service. Likewise with Men for Others. And I think Choir teaches a very detailed disciplined practice of ministry for the whole community. I know my soul is nourished by their trained voices. Also, trainings offered in Becoming Beloved Community provide another way to approach neighborliness. Faithful Jews in Jesus' time wouldn't understand what implicit bias is any more than we know what a hin is, but in order to love God and neighbor in our culture, we need to learn about it. Altar Guild is probably the closest to the details of living found in Leviticus. They take such good care back there (in the sacristy). We mostly don't see its work but the smooth running services ease our hearts into contemplating the holy.
There are many more examples I could name. Hold up your own participation in any ministry to check if it does indeed help you abide by love of God and love of neighbor. I suspect that it does.
So, happy Halloween, happy Reformation Sunday, happy All Souls day, and peace on your path of salvation.
Amen.
Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved.
Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org