Understanding the assignment
Mark 12: 28-34
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
November 3, 2024
Yard sign with the same message in Spanish (green background), English (blue background), and Arabic (orange background): No matter where you are from, we're glad you're our neighbor. |
When I was eleven years old, I started sixth grade in middle school which was a new concept to me. My art teacher, Mrs. Thompson, also did things differently in her art class. Instead of everyone completing the same project together, Mrs. Thompson would put each assignment on a bulletin board with the instructions, a list of supplies needed, an outline of the expected outcome, and a due date for the art project. Each student could progress at their own pace. As soon as one student finished the first project, a new assignment would go up on the bulletin board. There may have been a minimum of projects we had to complete but there was no maximum.
I took this as a challenge. I was good at art, I was in a new school, and I had found something at which I could shine. Before anyone had completed a project, I was on to the next, determined to do more assignments than anyone else. At the end of the year, I received an award: “Perseverance in Art” and she used my full name too. Like a mother would when she calls you out.
On each project I got either an A or an A-, so even though I was fast, I was still fulfilling the assignment. Or was I? I could follow the instructions and replicate the example, but I wasn’t really making the art my own. Instead of allowing my art to be a form of self-expression, I had turned it into a competition.
There are times when we turn faith into a competition or something we have to be good at rather than a form of self-expression. In this morning’s gospel lesson, Jesus is in the temple in Jerusalem for the last time. It’s his closing argument. He’s being questioned by the chief priests, scribes, and elders. Jesus answers them in parables that provoke them to have Jesus arrested, but for fear of the crowds, they send him to some colleagues, Pharisees and Herodians to trap him with his words. Instead, Jesus amazes them. Then he gets into it with some Sadducees, telling them that they are quite wrong, knowing neither the scriptures nor the power of God. Dude knows how to make friends and influence people.
But instead of Jesus asking them the question “Which commandment is the first of all?”, in Mark’s gospel, a scribe asks him the question, almost like a politician’s favorite reporter who asks the softball questions. But it’s not a softball question at all. Jesus’ answer is the heart of everything he has done before this; it’s the reason why he’s in Jerusalem, risking his neck.
At the crossroads of empire and the marginalized, Jesus not only spoke unceasingly about the poor, the sick, those in debt, the imprisoned but welcomed them first into the kin-dom. He spoke against the rich who robbed the most vulnerable people, against bystanders and their indifference to the plight of others. Jesus didn’t just know how to respond to a question with the right answer, he lived the right answer. He understood that the assignment wasn’t a test or a competition but a way of life.
Often we will ascribe the reason why he could live this way is because he is the son of God. But then what chance do we human beings have to live this way? A traditional faith would say that it is because Jesus died to save us from our sins, it is then possible for us to live this way. My friends, no matter what we believe or don’t believe, loving our neighbor as ourselves shouldn’t be dependent on one particular religious faith but on the belief that everyone, every human being is our neighbor and to then live that way.
Pastor Carlos Rodriguez of Vega Alta, Puerto Rico reminds us, “To truly love your neighbor, you must reject the systems that oppress them and demand as much for their family as you do for your own.” Just like Jesus.
Jesus wasn’t the first one to strive to live that way and thankfully he wasn’t the last. This is one reason All Saints’ Day is so vital to Christian community. We remember those who understood the assignment to remind us to live out the assignment to love our neighbor as ourselves, to love what is holy with all our mind, heart, strength, and soul. Rich Wildonger understood the assignment in his way. Bob Cassels understood the assignment in his way. This church is a community that strives to live out the assignment in our own way.
Understanding the assignment, being a saint or a community of saints doesn’t mean we live with love perfectly, far from it. It means we also understand that grace is part of the assignment, both for ourselves and for others. None of us are going to get this right all the time. Together we help each other to not jump ship when it means loving not only our flawed, human neighbor, but even our neighbor who would rather swallow their pain and hate anyone who is different from them.
What if we called upon our saints—help me love like Rich, help me love like Bob—as much as we also pray “help me love like Jesus”? This is what the communion of the saints means, to be surrounded by a cloud of witnesses who know how hard it is to love some days and did it anyway in their own human way. Help me love like Martin Luther King Jr. Help me love like Dorothy Day. Help me love like Marsha P. Johnson. Help me love like liberation theologian Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez. Help me love like living saints, like Greta Thunberg and Imani Barbarin. At this Table we pray, “Help me to love and not lose myself but lose everything that keeps me from loving my neighbor and loving what is holy with all my mind, heart, strength, and soul.” Amen.
Benediction – enfleshed.com
Go forth, your actions echoing the heartbeat of God,
for the pulse of Love and strong and determined.
Go, supported by the Love flowing within you,
between us, and beyond us—connecting all things.
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