Local friend, Randy is speaking at The Place, Sunday evening continuing the conversation around Discipleship with part one of a two-parter looking at Christ's call to love God with all we've got and our neighbour as ourselves.
And I read the scripture, and tried to look at it through the lens of community, trying to discover something maybe I've missed.
About two thousand years ago, Jesus was asked a question on one occasion by a man who had been well-trained in Jewish law: "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'"
"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
Desiring to justify himself and to show that Jesus' reply was far from conclusive, the expert asks, "And who is my neighbour?"
In reply Jesus told a story: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'"
In essence, Jesus defines a neighbour not by physical convenience but by life situations. He is anyone who lies in need at life's roadside. And life's road side is this path that all humanity walks along the corridor of history. It is the person sitting next to you in the midst of community. My mind keeps wandering back to the question, " What must I do to inherit eternal life." Could not " eternal life " and the " Kingdom " be synonymous...is not eternal life, the Kingdom. The man comes to Jesus with his religious portfolio in hand, asking what it will take to inherit the Kingdom.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind + Love your neighbour as yourself = and you will inherit the Kingdom
This is where the missional heart of community is formed, this is where the Kingdom is revealed and expanded...this where community becomes life. When a community learns to love God with heart, soul, strength and mind...there is a communal transformation...it takes on the reality that God is Love. The community can then love like God, the scandalous love that dies to self ... and lives out of an eternal well of gracious love. It reminds me of this reflection of grace, by theologian Paul Tillich...
Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaning-less and empty life. It strikes us when our disgust for our own being, our indifference, our weakness, our hostility, and our lack of direction and composure have become intolerable to us. It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for-perfection of life does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades ... Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into the darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted. You are accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know."... Simply accept that you are accepted! If that happens, we experience grace. After such an experience we may not be better than before, and we may not believe more than before. But everything is transformed... and nothing is demanded of this experience, no religious or moral or intellectual presupposition, nothing but acceptance.
It is that light whether we recognize it or not that is constantly shining and breaks into the midst of community...it transforms community. Then we can love " anyone " that lies at lifes roadside. The community then becomes a revelation of the Kingdom, a place of eternal life...that lives, breathes and gives the same life.
Community cannot be better if we all love our neighbours as ourselves. This is only possible if we obey the first law: total devotion to God. Altruism is a combined result of a God-centred life and a constant exercise of His transforming power in and through us. It requires taking a new common viewpoint on all things -- God's perspective. It requires assimilating God's values, caring what He cares and loving what He loves.
Once again you land beautifully, my friend. May I quote you again this week?
Posted by: Randy Hein | January 22, 2007 at 04:19 PM
Hey Randy, what's mine is yours, share the love brother. Peace...Ron+
Posted by: ron | January 23, 2007 at 06:27 AM