Beyond Thoughts and Prayers
From my friend and colleague in ministry, Rev. Sara Keeling.
Read: Matthew 22:34-40
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
This Sunday, Jesus continues his teaching in the temple.
He silenced the Sadducees with their tax question when he said render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s, managing to tiptoe that line between civic treason and religious blasphemy.
If Jesus had said, “There’s no need to pay your taxes because Caesar is not Lord,” then that would be treason.
Had he said, “Yes, pay taxes because Caesar is Lord,” then that would’ve been blasphemy. You shall have no other gods before me, which means Caesar cannot be considered God in the same way the Romans think of him.
He didn’t make either claim; his answer was squeaky clean.
So, one of the Pharisees, particularly a lawyer, comes forward to see if he can test Jesus and get him to trip up.
Knowing there are many rules, laws, and guidelines—not just the famous top 10, he asks, “Which commandment of the law is the greatest?”
Which one is the best one? The most important?
Is it honor thy mother and father, or thou shalt not commit murder?
Is it the one about mixing textile fibers in your clothing or about lying?
Jesus displays his superior scriptural knowledge by quoting what is Judaism’s most ancient, fundamental passage from Deuteronomy, known as the Shema: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”. Then Jesus adds his own twist—
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Orthodox, but with a twist, or a bit of spice—enough to be dangerous, speaking in the temple, days before his arrest.
All of the laws, rules, guidelines for living flow out of these concepts:
Love God with your full self
And love neighbor (as you love yourself).
And it’s true:
Each of the commandments
Flow from love—in all its forms: whether its honor, worship,
Or refraining from harm: murder, theft, lying.
Each of the ways that we honor and worship God with our lives
Or the way that we live in interconnected harmony with others
And yes, a bit of love and respect for our own selves here too— not the selfish me-above-all-others kind—but the same sort of gentleness that we hold for our dear ones, we ought to hold for ourselves.
The rules of faith—
The guidelines of belief—
Are not terribly complicated—
Or difficult to remember.
These are basic rules we teach to children:
Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Because it is basic, foundational, who we are and who we strive to be, both our reality and our aspiration.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had similar guidelines:
“Do no harm, do good, stay in love with God.”
But the question of loving neighbor is dangerously relevant:
When the news swirls
Of the Hamas attack on Israel
Of Israel’s attack of Gaza—in what is now Gaza’s deadliest war.
Or the deadliest mass shooting of the year—so far, in Maine
18 lives gone, 13 injured how many altered and impacted? (How many times did I update this before Sunday?) What else will happen in the world until then?
How long?
How long will we wait and wonder and question,
While our children hide in darkened classrooms,
While we manufacture bullet-proof doors and backpacks,
While we manufacture firearms and missiles,
While we send both aid and weapons,
While we just accept that this is just a Wednesday in October,
it has happened before, and it will happen again.
Because our nation has an idolatrous addiction to firearms.
Our 2nd Amendment rights have become nearly unquestionable and unwavering in the way that gods or idols become—false deities, false tokens in the name of protection, as they put us all at ever-increasing risk for harm.
Our right to bear arms, specifically military-style assault rifles and handguns, has become more important than the rights of our children of other innocent people to live.
Thoughts and prayers we send to yet another cohort of families.
“Thoughts and prayers” becomes rote, meaningless.
What do we say of Israel and Palestine,
Also entangled in violence and weapons.
Years, decades, ages of unrest and dispute, conflict over land, identity, culture, ethnicity, and religion, but also power.
“Pray for peace in the Middle East” has become rote, meaningless.
All of these souls—Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, Palestinian, Israeli
Every single one is a precious, beloved child of God made in the divine image.
Full stop.
And it does not matter who is abusive or oppressive.
It does not matter who struck first.
It does not matter who has taken or lost more lives.
We know that violence does nothing but beget more violence,
Whether it’s on the streets of any city in America or the Gaza Strip.
We are failing, anytime we human beings:
Value gun ownership, over our love for God and each other
Value land ownership, over our love for God and each other
Value cultural, ethnic, or religious identity, over our love for God and each other
Value government, over our love for God and each other
Value anything Over our love for God and each other
We are failing.
Failing to love God.
Failing to love our neighbor.
Failing to love ourselves.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. reminds us that “Violence never really deals with the basic evil of the situation. Violence may murder the murderer, but it doesn’t murder murder. Violence may murder the liar, but it doesn’t murder lie; it doesn’t establish truth. Violence may even murder the dishonest man, but it doesn’t murder dishonesty. Violence may go to the point of murdering the hater, but it doesn’t murder hate. It may increase hate. It is always a descending spiral leading nowhere. This is the ultimate weakness of violence: It multiplies evil and violence in the universe. It doesn’t solve any problems.”i
Hear that again: It multiples evil and violence in the universe.
It doesn’t solve any problems.
It doesn’t end war.
It does nothing, but multiply evil and violence.
In Luke’s account, when Jesus says Love your neighbor as yourself. Those listening have questions: who is my neighbor?
How do we live this out? They might have asked.
And in response, Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, reminding us that Jesus came for the whole world, and did not value one culture or ethnic group over another. The people we need to care for and love, are not defined by bloodline, or tribal identity, or zip code.
Jesus teaches us that through God’s top-two of the top-ten, we cross over barriers and help—
If someone is in need, if someone is beaten and bloody on the side of the road, if someone is desperate, if someone is lonely,
That is your neighbor. That is the one you love—tend to, help, care for—just as you would for yourself.
Full stop.
In response to the mass shooting in Maine, a fellow colleague and friend from undergrad, Rev. Laura Martin, who is one of the pastors of Rock Spring UCC up the road, wrote a poem entitled, The Right to Bear Hope.
What about the right to bear
hope and levity and sudden joy?
What about the right to run across a green field
and not wonder if an assault rifle
and its owner
will come to the baseball game?
What about the right to stay up late and
laugh with wiggly children
and count fireflies on a summer night
and to think of nothing else?
What about the right to feel at ease,
to not imagine where you would hide
if someone comes in shooting
in the theater,
the department store,
the bank,
the church,
the synagogue?
What about the right to play,
and to sing loudly in the backseat,
and to make s’mores over a fire and to
fall asleep under constellations, trusting?
What about the right to bear a future,
to bear innocence,
to bear another tomorrow?
When our hearts break with each news story
The tragedy of war and violence
The unspeakable acts
The violence and vengeance
What do we say?
What is important
Love, says Jesus.
Love.
Love of God.
Love of Neighbor.
Love of self.
Which is all so much easier said than done, but it begins at least by listening to the voices that we disagree with, or even despise. It means praying for those we might be tempted to label as enemies. It means being slow to judge, and quick to be kind.
All tied up in the greatest of these, which is Love.
 | A guest post by
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