All Saints Sunday~ November 5, 2006

Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And 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.” (Mark 12:29-31, ESV)

In our Gospel lesson and in our Old Testament lesson we hear the summary of the commandments – love God and love our neighbor. These commands make sense to us. Even if they may not always be easy to do, we understand what they are saying. And on this All Saints celebration we remember those who have gone before us in the faith as people who loved God and loved their neighbors.

So, we would assume that the command in this text is “love.” In the Greek language a command is almost always put in the form of an imperative. In the words of Jesus here the imperative is not in the word “love” it is in the word “hear.” This is important for us today to consider, that God is commanding us to first “hear” and then out of hearing His Word we can respond in “love.”

By recognizing that faith (which comes by hearing the Gospel) is a gift from God then we can lead a Gospel driven life. You may have noticed the play on words here with a popular Christian book The Purpose Driven Life. This is a good book but we must not put the “cart before the horse” when it comes to our Christian life. The free gift of the Gospel of Jesus Christ always comes first! While it is not the intention of the author, Rick Warren, to say that we have to work for our salvation, we can fall into that trap easily. We often can think that if we do our life “right” then things will go our way and we will get into God’s good graces. But that can’t be farther from the truth. We can’t ever earn our way to God!

We have to begin with our human condition – we are sinners and in a spiritual sense – DEAD. An image that I think is appropriate here is the image of a straight jacket. Sin is like a straight jacket that confines and keeps us from doing anything. We may think we can do something, but we soon realize that sin has so bound us that there is really nothing we can do to get free. Well almost nothing – we can listen! How does faith come to us? Through hearing God’s Word (Romans 10:17). Yes hearing God’s Word is how we let the God work faith in our lives. And it is the only thing we can do since we are bound by sin. We need to hear God’s Word and let it work in our hearts and minds. Hearing is the command – let us listen to God as He comes to us in His Word and in His Sacraments.

Then, as we hear the Word of God and as it works faith in our lives, we are set free to respond in love to God and to our neighbor. It is only by faith, a gift of God through hearing the Word, that we can truly love. Love is not something that really can be commanded. Have you ever tried to command someone to love you? It doesn’t work. And in the case of our spiritual lives, because of sin, we can love at all even if commanded. So hearing the Word of God, letting it work faith in our lives, is the first and most important step. Then, in response to the Gospel, we can reach out in love since we have been freed from the bonds of sin.

Jesus says that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Basically – our whole lives. We don’t just love God with our intellect. We don’t just love God with our emotions, or with our strength. We love God with everything we have!

We are to love our neighbor as our selves. This means that we are to focus on the needs of others as much as we focus on our own needs. Love for our neighbor can only truly flow out of the Gospel. We need to hear first and then respond in love to the world.

The best image for this summary of the commandments is the cross. Not only is it the symbol of the sacrifice Christ paid for us out of love but it also illustrates these two commands. First the vertical beam. This part of the cross first draws our attention to God’s Son coming down to earth. He came to us to be our Savior. God is the one who takes the first initiate and breaks into our world of sin with the way of freedom from our bondage. He reaches out to us to offer forgiveness and new life in Jesus who took away our sins on the cross. But the vertical beam also draws our attention heavenward as we respond in love to God through Jesus. We have been freed from sin so that we can love God with our whole lives. It is through the cross that we learn of God’s love for us and our response in love to Him.

Then we come to the horizontal beam of the cross. This is where Jesus stretched out his hands and was nailed to the beam. God’s love for the human race is found most evident here as he gives His life for us. The horizontal beam points to the world. First and foremast of God’s love for the world but also for us, who have heard and for whom faith has worked in our lives, as we are called to love our neighbor. In another Gospel the story of the Good Samaritan comes right after this account of Jesus as an explanation of who our neighbor is – anyone who we can help who is in need. We all are in need and by focusing on the needs of other we are showing them love – loving our neighbor. Just as Christ sacrificed His life for the world we are called to sacrifice ourselves for our fellow man. God does not need our good works but our neighbor does.

Jesus also knows that for us to fulfill the command of love for God and for our neighbor is a process. The command to “hear” actually is more accurately translated, “keep on hearing.” We need to keep on listening to God as He speaks to us in His Word. As we listen and hear He continues to strengthen our faith. And in that faith then we can respond in love for God and love for our neighbor. It is a Gospel driven life we lead as we let God work in our whole lives as we open our ears to His calling.

You want to have purpose and meaning in your life? You want to know how to love God more and serve your fellow man in love? Then listen. Hear the Word of God and allow it to work faith in you. As we “hear” we will be freed to love – love God and love our neighbor. So “Hear, O Israel (that is you, a saint of God): The Lord our God, the Lord is one (He is the only one we need to truly hear). Amen