How to grow closer (in and to) God's Love, November 04, 2012

How to grow closer (in and to) God's love.

Rev. Kathryn Ransdell

November. 4, 2012

Mark 12:28-34:  28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ 29Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you 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.” 31The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ 32Then the scribe said to him, ‘You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that “he is one, and besides him there is no other”;33and “to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength”, and “to love one’s neighbour as oneself”,—this is much more important than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices.’ 34When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ After that no one dared to ask him any question."

Scripture Reader:   Hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL:   Thanks be to God.

This is a sacred Scripture for us.  If I said, consider John 3:16, you would know what I'm talking about, maybe.  If I said, consider Mark 12: 28-37, well, even I would have to run to my Bible or google to refresh my memory. If you ever wanted to try-out the practice of committing sacred scripture to memory, I would say this is a good text for that practice.  

In and of itself, this Scripture is complete.  However, the gospels are a historical and theological way of remembering those very brief 3 years of Jesus' life.  Consider that...how quickly three years pass and that's pretty much all the history we have of this man's life.  Three years.   It's been 3 years, 2 months since I've been with you.  Placing this passage in the larger context of Scripture helps us to understand more of what was happening.  And remember, chapter and verses are a later layer added to the text, but for the sake of ease, we will use chapter and verses as designated breaks. 


Mark 12:1-12 (to high priests, religion scholars and leaders) Jesus tells the parable of the Vineyard
Mark 12:13-17 (question posed by Pharisees and followers of Herod) Paying taxes to Caesar
Mark 12:18-23 (question posed by Sadducees) Hypothetical question about seven brothers and one woman and the resurrection.
March 12:24-27 You're way off base
Mark 12:28-34 (question posed by one religion scholar) Which is the most important of all the commandments?
Mark 12:35-37 (while teaching in the Temple) Jesus poses a question to them regarding an inconsistency in what the religious scholars teach them.
Mark 12:38-40 (while teaching in the Temple) Jesus warns them to be wary of religious scholars.
Mark 12:41-44 Woman who tosses in two coins..."All the others gave what they'll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn't afford--she gave her all." 

What we have in chapter 11 is Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  It's sometime after Palm Sunday and before Maundy Thursday...so we must place this text within the tension of that week.  Chapter 11 tells us that Jesus is walking through the Temple and the high priests, the religion scholars and the leaders confront him.

Then Mark 12 is interesting from a content perspective, but first let's look at whose involved.  First, Jesus tells a parable to the high priests, religion scholars and leaders.  It's a parable that has been abused by those outside of the Jewish faith to be critical of the Jewish faith.  But place it in its context.  Jesus was a Jew speaking to Jewish leaders.  (that's all I can say for now, lest this be a 1-hour sermon and we don't have time for that).

Then, he takes on the Pharisees and followers of Herod and he doesn't fall into their trap. 

Then, he takes on the Sadducees and doesn't fall into their trap.  

Then, this exchange with a religious scholar and there's actually an affirming of Jesus by the religious scholar and an affirming of the religious scholar by Jesus.  Then, that rather interesting compliment, "You're almost there, right on the border of God's kingdom." 

Then, Jesus teaches those in the Temple to be wary of these same religious scholars.  

And then the scene ends with this reflective Jesus watching how people are putting money into the Treasury.  And he calls his disciples to him and says to them, "Truly I say to you this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put out of their surplus but she out of her poverty put in all she owned, all she had to live on."  

Let me tell you, Jesus didn't give us this story--and the gospel writers did not include it in the gospels--so that preachers would have a sweet story to tell at the end of a 4-week stewardship campaign to inspire you to fill out the box, give me all you got, because we have a 2013 budget to fund.  

No, Jesus told the story and the disciples--their disciples--recorded it because this story affirmed their call.  Think about it...Jesus is in the temple and he is surrounded in a high-stakes q&a by high priests, religious scholars, Pharisees, Saducees, and followers of Herod.  He is surrounded by the "best of the best" (Rob Bell's description from the Nooma video, "Dust.").  

And somewhere standing at a distance because they are not the "best of the best"--they are not the ones who made the cut to go on in their religious training.  No, they are the ones who had to leave and enter the family trade of fishing.  They aren't the smartest or the most degreed or the ones with any outward designation or ordination.  See this story from their perspective.  Who were they to step into this kind of debate?  Who were they to say anything to any of these religious elite?  Who were they to consider themselves anything more than a fisherman?  
And when the debate all ends, Jesus gets it.  Jesus tells them, you are giving everything you've got.  You've gone all in.  And that matters more than any person who gives from "what they'll never miss."  

"She gave her all."  (From The Message translation).

And that's the difference between immigrating in to the kingdom of God and staying just on the other side of the border, "You're almost there, right on the border of God's kingdom."  

And here-in lies the answer as to my question:  How do we grow closer (to and in) God's love? 

1.  We draw closer in God's love by going deeper with this sacred text, Mark 12:28-34. Notice I didn't say draw closer in God's love by becoming more educated with this sacred text.  You do not need to be any smarter than you are right now to go deeper with this text.  This is that y-axis of the cross...our relationship from here to God (yes, I'm imaging God as "up").  Which commandment is the first of all?  Interesting you should ask, Mr. Religion Scholar.  The first one in importance is actually the Shema that you are commanded to say twice a day, Deut. 6:7.  The second most important is Lev. 19: 18, "Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD."  This isn't a text to be discussed by those PhDs who live in ivory towers and the ordained ministers.  

It's interesting to take note of a religious scholar asking Jesus that of all the commandments, which one is "protos pas" (Greek transliteration).  Do you know how many commadments there are?  613.  

The 613 commandments comprise of "positive commandments", to perform an act (mitzvot aseh), and "negative commandments", to abstain from certain acts (mitzvot lo taaseh). The negative commandments number 365, which coincides with the number of days in the solar year, and the positive commandments number 248, a number ascribed to the number of bones and main organs in the human body (Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b-24a).

2.  To go back to where we were with that woman putting the two cents into the treasury.. we draw closer to God's love through our practice of being all-in.  Misfit as we are, mistake-prone as we are, uneducated, un-professional, all the mis- and un- words that you can come up with...what matters is that you are all-in.  It's the praxis of being all-in.  The praxeological way of being peculiarly Christian involves what we do on the inside and how we behave with one another on the outside.  It is the x-axis of the cross; the horizontal; the earth; our connectedness with one another, with creation, and with "all my relations."  

On this last Sunday of Stewardship, all I'm asking is that you find yourself at least jumping-in.  Maybe right now you feel like being on the border of the kingdom of God is the best place for you.  Maybe you aren't ready to be all-in, because it takes more than money to be all-in.  

But if you are hanging out on the border because you think you aren't good enough to be loved by God or you don't have enough "belief" in God to be all-in, well, here the good news:  you are enough and this peculiar way of being is all about questioning and wondering and sometimes even thinking "maybe I've got it all wrong."  

I want to close with a story about me and my ordination day.  I started that day on the treadmill at the gym, as I did every morning for many years of my life.  I chatted with the person next to me and we discussed what our days would hold.  The words came out of my mouth, "Um, I will be ordained tonight."  

After 9 years of preparation, that's when it hit me that there's not too many days in this world when you can say, "This is my ordination day."  And it did happen.  I was ordained that night before my family, friends, and communities of faith.  One of the most significant African-American preachers in Methodism gave the sermon.  Rev. Dr. Zan Holmes.  

He began his sermon by telling us ordinands, "Check your ego at the door."  He preached that one of the major problems facing the denominational church is that too many of us--clergy and lay--have not checked our egos at the door so we run our churches based on our egos, our desire to look good, be the biggest, have the most. In so doing, we may look like we have it going on, but we are doing nothing for the gospel and everything for ourselves.  

And he went on to say, we don't run just our churches like this--we run our lives like this.  When we hold on to that ego, then we are making whatever IT IS about US.  

We forgo checking our egos at the door of the churches and we take authority because we've been here the longest or given the most--and then we make it about us.  

At the end of his sermon, he said, "We must remember--never forget--that we are here, that we do, because of God's grace."  

Friends, we are called to the task of making all of this about God -- this life, our daily habits, our practices, our church --it's all about God and not about us.  

May you give extravagantly of what you cannot afford--May you give your all.