Thursday Sermon on Green book Trinity 18 readings

Mark 12:28-34
In the Gospel this morning we find Jesus in controversy with the Sadducees, he has just stated that the biblical God “Is not the God of the dead but of the living”. A scribe, no doubt a pharisee asks him a question debated among the learned “Which commandment is the first of all?”. As usual, Jesus’ answer becomes a challenge.
There is not one major commandment, but two of them: Love of God and love of neighbour. In Mark’s Gospel, it is preceded by another statement which is taken from far back in Deuteronomy. “The Lord God is one”. It means that although there appear to be TWO loves; God and neighbour, they are in fact from the same source and cannot be separated.
Our biblical faith is a process through which we acknowledge God as the immovable force in our lives. God is not something imagined or part of a theory, God is a ‘someone’ we must love “With all our heart and mind and with all our strength” as it says.
As we know, there is a danger in putting our trust in others – we are being told in this reading to trust in God.
There are times when I think we all would like to be able to separate the commandment into easy parts. Love of God, and love of neighbour – Can’t we just love God, because our neighbours are more difficult to love. We have all thought that, however it can’t be done – we must love both God and neighbour – because if we fail in loving our neighbour we fail to love God.
There is another problem – when I went to Bible Club and Sunday school in the chapel as a child, I learned verses of the Bible by rote, and they have stayed with me all my adult life. It wasn’t until it became my duty as a priest to explain the Gospels did I see the true and complicated challenge.
We can all say “love the Lord your God and your neighbour as yourself” but that actually means living in a different way – It means having the ability to forgive readily, to listen to others, to join in Christian community and the wider community, it is thinking about others over our own needs and wants, and finally it is about forbearance (one of my favourite words). Without honestly doing our best at these things, we cannot say we really love God.
The scribe in the gospel reading understands this. He even senses that this is what gives meaning to worship, which would otherwise be empty. Jesus approves of his opinion and says so. The scribe agrees with us too, it is easier to talk than do.
May God give us strength to live for Him, in our love for others.