Oct. 29, 2014

Unless he keep the commandment of God, a man cannot make progress, not even in a single virtue. – Abba Agathon

What is the commandment of God?  In this Sunday's gospel we heard Jesus lay down the two great commandments:  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.  He closed that discussion by saying, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

At last Wednesday's 12:15 Eucharist, we commemorated James of Jerusalem, the brother of Jesus.  In Acts 15 we are told of the first heated and divisive doctrinal disagreement within the Church.  That disagreement had to do with whether or not Gentile converts to the church needed to be circumcised.  There were vocal factions on both sides of the argument.

Peter stood up and said, “[God] has made no distinction between them and us.”

James supported Peter and the non-circumcision faction and summed up the Church's official position by saying, “My judgment is that we should impose no irksome restrictions on those Gentiles who are turning to God” (15:19; unknown translation).

This is a hard thing to do.  We want boundaries.  We want to know who is in and who is out.  We want, and some say need, heretics so that we can more clearly define the circle that tells us we are inside while they are outside.  Because, let's face it, life is just easier when we have rules and boundaries.  Without those rules and boundaries, life devolves into anarchy and Calvinball, and we can't have that.  Or so we think.

But life is messy.  God is messy.  And when we get involved in both, our hands get messy.

When we love God, we actively work to bless all families.  We work to care for widows, orphans and the least of these.  We work to bring a sense of Gospel Justice to earth; that is, a sense that all people are created in the image of God and deserving of our respect.

And when we do these things, we love our neighbors as ourselves.  If we ourselves would not want to live in poverty, without food, without health care, without shelter, without clothing, without respect, then why would we assume it's okay for our neighbors to live like that?  This is part of the reason why we have adopted Ft. Vannoy Elementary School.  By dropping clothing in one of the two barrels in the parish hall, by purchasing food for the snack packs, or by donating money at the potlucks, we are getting involved.  And that involvement is breaking down boundaries and barriers.

If we follow the letter of the law, but do not have love, then we are making not progress, only noise.

Let us keep the commandments:  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Change the world.

Amen.