Tuesday, November 6, 2012

The Royal Law

Sermon as preached 11/4/12 at Lambs and Evington UMC
 
Scripture- Mark 12: 28-34
 
For those of you who have ever wondered how I determine which scripture I’m going to use each week,  I don’t just randomly choose them myself. I actually follow what is called the lectionary, which is a weekly list of  Old Testament, Psalm, Gospel, and Epistle writings that Christians have put together to fit with the seasons of the Christian calendar, like Advent, Christmas, Lent and so on. The lectionary is on a three year rotation so that after three years almost all of the Bible would have been read. I then read them all pray about them, and usually choose my text a least a month in advance so that I am not reacting to some personal feelings or situations in the church when I choose the scripture, and instead can try to stay faithful to what the text is really trying to say to us. And yet, with the lectionary texts being determined years ago, and with me selecting this text about two months ago, I am astonished by how relevant this text is for this week; that this text comes the Sunday before elections.

            In our passage for today, we find scribes debating about commandments, or in other terms there is a debate about law. The whole debate centered around who was right, and who had the best understanding of which law or laws were the most important. Sounds familiar right? We as Americans are in the middle of  multiple battles between politicians at all levels arguing that they have the best understanding of the law, that they know what is best for the country. We cannot turn on the tv, or the radio, or open up a newspaper without seeing an add that demonizes and portrays the other candidate as a villain, and then the very next add is the other candidate doing the same thing. This election has caused communities, families, and even churches to be divided based upon who they support. But what if, what if in the middle of all, we like the scribes stopped our bickering, stopped the anger and the hate,  stop the division, and took the time to ask Jesus, What is the greatest co mmandment? What would we hear? Well we would hear the very same thing that we hear in our scripture today. “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."  Love God, and love each other. In our Bible study on James at Evington, we ran across this commandment, and James had an interesting title for the commandment. He called it the “royal law” But what does he mean when he says the royal law. Well this could have two meanings, and as I read both James and our text for today, I believe that both meanings are true. The first understanding of the term royal law, is that the law is royal because all other laws are encompassed by them. At first glance the law of loving God and loving each seems easy, especially compared to the long list of hundreds of laws that we find in the Old Testament. Many read this and think that it simply replaces the laws in the Old Testament. The Ten Commandments become no longer relevant, we don’t have to keep the Sabbath holy, we don’t have to be as concerned with murder, stealing, or even lying. But when you really think about it, though the royal law seems shorter and easier, it doesn’t nullify these other laws. If we are supposed to love the Lord with all of our mind, and all of our heart, and all of our strength, then doesn’t that mean we do need to take at least a day of to keep holy and spend time with God. If we are supposed to love our neighbor as our self, then doesn’t that mean that theft, and murder, and lying is out of the question? You see the royal law, is actually harder than all of these others. It is no longer just a list of things that we should avoid doing to avoid sin, but now it is a commandment on how we live our lives. It’s no longer good enough to just avoid evil, but the royal law tells us to go further, that in everything we do we must love God with all of our hearts, minds, and strength, and that in every encounter that we have with another, in every thought that we have about someone else, we should do it love. You see, the reason that this commandment is the royal law, is because whoever is following this law is living a Christ like life.

            And still there is another reason that this commandment by Jesus is called the royal law, and it is something that we need to be reminded of often. In these times of debates, of elections, there is so much hope put into our nation, and some of it rightfully so. America has done and continues to do great things among the world. We are the land of freedom and of opportunity, and yet the hope we have begun to put into our nation has quite frankly become problematic.

Both politicians have campaigned using this idea that America is going to be bringing hope to all. Hope is one of the buzzwords of the Obama campaign and in the latest presidential debate Romney said that “America is the hope of the future” The problem is that Americans have taken this message to heart so much that they feel as if the world is going to end if their candidate isn’t elected. That all hope will be lost if the other guy wins. And yet as Christians we know our hope does not rest in either Obama or Romney, that even our wonderful country is not what saves us. We are only saved by the one who died and rose again for the forgiveness of our sins. This scripture for today, this royal law reminds us that our hope rests in God!  It reminds us that though we are citizens of the wonderful nation that we live in, that we along with Christians around the world are also citizens of the Kingdom of God, A kingdom established by Christ. Our country and the future of our country is important,  and debates and elections about it are important as well, but we must be reminded that there is still a higher law, a royal law, a law that all Christians no matter their race, gender, age, political affiliation, or even our nationality, that all of us are called to follow. Follow God with all of your heart, all of your soul, and all of your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Now there is hope in that Kingdom, because there is hope in God.

            Do not take this as me claiming the elections are not important, they are and I encourage everyone to take them seriously, but we must keep it all in perspective. John Wesley’s advice for voting in his day still is good advice for us today. He told those voting to, “To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy. 2) To speak no evil of the person they voted against. 3) To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.” This reminds us that though we need to take who we vote for seriously, voting for the one we judge as most worthy, that we must not let it damage the way we think and speak about others. We  must hold fast to that royal law, loving God and loving each other, knowing that no matter what happens, God is ruler of all.

 

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