“First Things First”

(Mark 12:28-34/Mark 13:1-8) 

(Mark 12:28-34)         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?”  Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘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.’  The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these,”

Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ – this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  When 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 questions.     

(Mark 13:1-8)             As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”  Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”  Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray.  Many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and they will lead many astray.  When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines.  This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

            If I were formulating an index for the Bible and one of the headings was First Things First, I know what scripture passage would be listed there.  It’s the first one you heard Pat read a moment ago.  It’s Jesus’ answer to the one religious legal expert who had noticed that Jesus was being challenged and tested by the other religious authorities.  “All right, Jesus,” he asked, “Which commandment is first of all?”

Jesus responded by reciting an ancient verse from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy that includes the first commandment: “Hear, O Israel.  The Lord your God is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, your soul and your strength.”  In other words, Jesus is claiming and affirming the faith of the ancestors.  He was reminding the scribe and the others who were listening that all of them and all of us are under the absolute care of God. 

Jesus went on to tell us the second most important commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There are none as important as these two commandments,” he said.

So, here’s the First Things First:  It’s really very simple if you think about it, but, clearly, not easy.  Love God, love your neighbor.  If we really take this seriously, this will cause us to re-order our lives and our priorities.  These commandments demand it as they demand obedience, repentance and faith. 

All the arguments about religion, about religious law, about who’s right and who’s wrong ought to be settled with these few verses. 

Unfortunately, the religious leaders of the time were more interested in being right and being in power than they were about living as part of the Kingdom of God.  When Jesus closed the conversation, seeing that the scribe had “answered wisely,” he said that this scribe wasn’t far from the Kingdom of God.  What he left unsaid was, “You’re not far from the Kingdom of God”– unless you are all about the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law.  You’re not far from the Kingdom of God unless your focus is entirely upon yourself and your own self-serving goals.

It IS pretty simple, “Live your life as one who loves God and loves neighbor.”  This is what the Kingdom of God, what the Jesus House, ought to look like…. 

The way of love will show us the right thing to do.  It’s how we stay decent in indecent times.  This understanding of community as Household was a theme that both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. used when they talked about this love between us and God and us and our neighbor. 

And if we work to create this sort of community, both locally and globally, we will find that our lives are re-ordered.  We will find ourselves beginning to know how to put God first, letting God rule our lives rather than our own self-will. 

We will find ourselves thinking of others differently, looking for things we admire or are curious about or things we have in common.  We will no longer be looking for enemies, but we’ll be looking to make friends.  And then…we will find that everything is changed….  May it be so….

Which brings me to the second reading: Jesus begins by responding to one of the disciple’s observation, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”  Jesus said, “Do you see these great buildings?  Well, not one stone will be left on another here.  All will be thrown down.”  …This isn’t the only time in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus asks, “Do you see?” 

A couple of weeks ago we heard Jesus talking to blind Bartimaeus. Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He asked to receive his sight.  This is always a teaching moment, a time for us to examine how we are blind and cannot see.  

In fact, in Mark’s Gospel there are two blind man stories bookending some teachings, healing stories and passion predictions.  Bartimaeus is the second one.  The first one is the blind man at Bethsaida.  Jesus asked him twice, “What do you see?”  And the truth is, the blind man who was healed by Jesus had the eyes of faith, seeing far more than those others whose optical nerves were intact, but whose eyes were clouded by concerns of power, greed and money.

Do you see that Jesus is calling us to a life in which the Kingdom of God is ruled by 2 simple rules: love God, love your neighbor? 

Do you see that what really endures is not the buildings (I know….  We’d like to think our steeple will endure forever), but what endures are the matters of the heart.  Jesus struck down the status quo and taught us a new way of being.  No stone of the old way will be in its place once we follow Jesus. 

Do you see that when the end comes (and that IS an important part of what Jesus is talking about here) is NOT our concern? 

Do you see that our job is to stand firm in the time of testing? 

Do you see that we can stand through the hard times only through prayer and love? 

Do you see that we need to live and love in the now, for we don’t know what the next moment may bring? 

Do you see that living in the Kingdom, dwelling in the Jesus House, is about loving God and loving our neighbor? 

Do you see that living this way will cause us to re-order everything in our lives, that we need to have a look at all our preconceived notions.  They need to be taken apart stone by stone, and we need to ask the question, “Does this pass the ‘love God/love neighbor’ test?”

Now, speaking of end times which this text DOES refer to: none of us knows when that is going to be.  None of us knows when our OWN time on this earth will end, but God knows, and that is all we need.  Whenever it will be, it will seem sooner than we thought, I guess. 

Yet, our comfort is in knowing that when the time comes for us to meet the king, there will be no crying there, no tears, only peace and contentment. 

Last week in our observance of All Saints Day we talked about how God will wipe away all of our tears and God will swallow up death, lifting the shroud that has us worrying all the time about what’s to come. 

There is a tune in our UM Hymnal called “Soon and Very Soon” written by Andrae Crouch.  It’s on page 706.  Some of you may know it.  The words are: “Soon and very soon we are going to meet the king.  Hallelujah.  Then No more dying there we are going to meet the king.  Hallelujah.  Then No more crying there.  We are going to meet the king.  Hallelujah. 

Today’s message is that we know how to live for today: we must love God and love our neighbor.  And this is how we will deal with everything else: trust God in all things.  Faith in God is to have confidence in Love itself.

…I admit to you that my trust has been wavering over this past week.  I would be dishonest and inauthentic if I stood here and jumped immediately to the message that is going around in church texts: pray for unity.  Of course we need to do that, but let’s take some time to pull ourselves together, to again commit to loving God and loving neighbor. 

It’s my job to preach the Gospel, and today that is about allowing Jesus to heal our blindness.  I trust us all to ask ourselves “In what ways are we blind?”

This time of division in our nation is a hard time to model what we have on our signs, “Love Your Neighbor,” but we must.  Jesus told us to love our neighbor, not if it’s convenient or if we don’t have to think about it or if they’re easy to love.  Nope, it’s love God!  It’s love your neighbor.  This is organic.  It is not to look at the whole big picture and all the behavior. 

This is what can we do now to look after those who are in need.  This is what we can do now to show compassion to God’s people.  This is what we can do now to feed and clothe the little ones.  This is what we can do now to resist anger and hatred.  This is what we can do now to connect with those who are lonely or afraid.  Love God.  Love neighbor.  First things first!