St. Timothy's Church

October 26, 2008

What does it mean to love with all one’s: heart, soul and mind?

The Rev W Terry Sweeney

 

“Even conservative Christians have so privatized their faith that they do not regard it as a source of knowledge but as merely theological reflection on topics given by secular academia. . . the typical strategy is to cede to science the authority to determine the facts, then try to salvage some area of Christian faith in the realm of value.”  Phillip Johnson, Total Truth, p. 118

 

 

In the Name of God: + Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

I want to begin by welcoming all of our guests this morning.  Many of you are here to celebrate the anniversaries of your marriages at St Timothy’s Church in years past.

 

WELCOME!  I pray the Lord blesses you and your marriages abundantly!

 

Our country is at a crossroads. . . . .

 

We are fighting a war against Muslim extremists;

there is a growing sense of politically inspired class warfare emerging;

Morality has eroded;

promiscuity and pornography has escalated –

there is an ever increasing culture of death –

thousands of innocent children are aborted every year in the name of CHOICE.

 

Our country is at a crossroads, what started out as a good and right policy of helping people own a home has been turned into an organized movement to intimidate banks, pay off politicians, and enable policies which have brought not only this nation but the world to the brink of depression and ruin.

 

Some of our congressmen and senators have lied to us – in days past they have lined their pockets at our expense as have some – and now look to vilify others and shift the blame from themselves.

 

CEO’s of those at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Countrywide, AIG, and other companies have made millions of dollars while falsifying financial records and running their companies into financial ruin.

 

Congress ignored the calls for investigation of Fannie and Freddie and have been complicit in creating the crises we’re in which included an additional $250 billion just for Fannie and Freddie!

 

And it’s laughable to realize that government has been handed $700 billion to fix the very problem it caused to begin with. 

 

Our country is at a crossroads, fear of inflation and recession (stagflation) is prevalent –

            fear breeds fear –

and the media is very good at breeding fear! 

 

World markets are skittish and there is great fear among business about what could happen to them depending on how the election turns out.

 

Our country is at a crossroads, Iran continues to talk about Israel as all but wiped off the face of the earth,

 

The war in Iraq is nearer to complete victory;

Afghanistan offers challenges;

China’s leader hasn’t been seen for many weeks,

Russia is being its bad boy self,

            North Korea and Pakistan offer different challenges,

India has launched its own lunar program. . . .

Technology and advanced weapons systems are no longer only in the hands of the super powers (the USA being the last of the great ones).

 

Our country is at a crossroads, our boarders are porous – millions of “Illegal persons” walk freely around our streets – some have been given sub-prime mortgages - some committing heinous crimes – some living as good, contributing parts of their communities but unable or unwilling to become citizens lawfully - many with stolen or phony social security numbers – seeking government services – receiving tax dollars to keep them illegally in this country! 

 

Our country is at a crossroads – in the next few years possibly one to four Supreme Court Judges will retire.  Those appointed will have extraordinary power to shape this country as they see fit.  Depending on who is appointed and confirmed our constitution can be honored or violated.

 

Our country is at a crossroads, we have a real threat of being governed by a super majority of a single party. . this in its self is dangerous regardless of which party has the majority. . . . we need healthy checks and balances which in this election is in jeopardy.

 

Our country is at a crossroads, our Constitution and accompanying Bill of Rights recognizes the place of God in our foundation and the equality we all share under our creator – that in America we have the freedom to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

Our country is at a crossroads.

 

As your pastor I make every effort to minister to every person equally, showing no favoritism.

 

I also refrain from public political speech which recommends one candidate over another or one political party over another. . . but obviously like you I have one.

 

But what I will do is to express my prophetic concern for us as a body, us as a community, us as a nation, us as a world – and I will do it out of love and to the best of my ability – God being my helper.  Amen.

 

Are the crises we experience nationally and worldwide the result of failed social experiments?  In the US has the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson resulted in nothing more than a failed entitlement give-me society?  Is it all a matter of just engineering the right programs and keep the playing field of life level and all will be well? 

 

Or is there a basic problem found world wide?

 

I would suggest the crises we consistently see in our country and around the world are the result of our sin of NOT loving God and one another.

 

In fact we have turned to idols – we give lip service to faith – we hold hatred in us – we do not practice keeping a Sabbath – or not being jealous of our neighbors property or his wife – in other words our country (and the world) is at a crossroads because we have gone far astray of God’s Word.

 

For goodness sake with all the huge moral and social issues we face and those throughout the world everything I hear from the news media says the number ONE thing we’re concerned about in this election cycle is our banks accounts –the economy.

 

NOT national security, the war, world hunger, abortion, genocide in the Sudan - NO

 

We’re on the brink of electing a new president based upon what he says he’ll give us!

 

How pathetic is that!  How self serving!  If we have not already become, we are becoming idols unto ourselves – self indulgent, me-first, entitlement driven!

 

If the crises we consistently see in our country and around the world is a result of sin and NOT loving God and one another, how can that be changed?

 

I want us to turn to Matthew 22:34-40 this morning and retrace Jesus’ answer to the expert in the law. . . . .

 

[Keep in mind that a favorite topic of discussion among teachers of the Law was which laws were minor and which were major, even which was the most important one to keep.]

 

Here’s what Jesus says beginning at v.37: Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' (Deut. 6:5) 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Lev. 19:18) 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

 

The law of Loving God and subsequently one another is a foundational element that for the Christian is inescapable and incumbent.

 

The greatest commandment is found in the condition of a man’s being – its where he places his utmost affection – where his thoughts often wander to; where he finds his peace and confidence – with God – and from there he then finds the ability to love his neighbor.

 

The twice daily reminder of reciting Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18 was intended to shape the heart, mind and soul in such a way as to result in life that honored and pleased God.

 

Loving Him meant it was incumbent to love ones neighbor – the two are co-joined.

 

A first question might be how does one love God with all of our hearts, soul and mind?

 

Are there three compartments that make us up that we must train-up or is the command worded in such a way as to highlight that our full personhood is to love God – hearts, soul and mind?

 

It’s sort of like Jesus asking to wash the disciples feet as a sign of His humility, and servant hood to the disciples and their call to be servants to others.

 

Peter says, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” John 13:9

 

Wash all of me!  I avail my whole-self to you Lord.

 

The command to LOVE God with all of our heart, soul and mind means our total being loves Him;

 

The command to love God comes from a sovereign God whose love for us exceeds anything we possibly imagine but also comes from One who has the authority to instruct us to Love Him and one another.

 

In other words, the instruction or command to love Him and one another is not grounded in some value system that is outside of a universal law or truth.

 

It’s not a subjective sort of value that we are free to either view as positive or negative.

 

It’s grounded in a LOVE that sent God to earth in the person of Jesus; a LOVE that freely and with obedience taught, ministered, beckoned and eventually suffered a brutal death in our stead.

 

This LOVE is found throughout God’s Word to us and taught in stories that depict a saga of man’s sins, failures, rejection of God and draw toward idols.

 

God’s Word teaches us that God has made a Covenant promise to Abraham – that He has grafted believing Jew’s and Gentile’s into One body, One Faith and One Baptism through faith in Jesus, His Son.

 

God’s Word contains all that we need to know about salvation – it is inerrant, infallible,  in other words it just doesn’t contain God’s word it IS God’s Word.

 

How then can we begin to Love God with all of our being and to love one another equally?

 

By OBEDIENCE - By being obedient to the Lord Jesus by following His Word.

 

Jesus said that if we loved Him we would follow His commands –

            If He is who He says He is –

                        If the Bible is what it says it is –

                                    If God’s commands found in the OT and NT have authority –

                        THEN we love Him out of obedience with all our being

            BECAUSE He has set us free from the bondage of sin and death into new life.

 

Loving God and neighbor is built on a foundation of faith and obedience and is manifest in the various situations we encounter each day.

 

Let me suggest that perhaps the most profound and fundamental examples are found in the Ten Commandments:

 

The commandments are often treated as the “ten suggestions” or the “ten impractical ways to try to live”.

 

They are in fact God’s universal and fundamental truths applicable to all men, women, and children.

 

I won’t go thru all of them but will choose a few to give an example how loving God and neighbor applies.

 

v. 2-6  First & Second Commandments "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  3 "You shall have no other gods besides me.  4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.

 

In very simple terms once we get the first commandment sealed and secure in our minds and behaviors the second commandment makes sense and is easier to appropriate and thus so does the third and fourth and fifth and so on through the tenth.

 

There is a progressive building block laid out as we read these commandments.  They are all vitally important – none of them should be ignored or violated.

 

It’s just that loving God and neighbor as He requires us to do begins at the beginning J

 

When our lives are so ordered as to have room for one God and only one God – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ – then and only then can we make true inroads into loving with our entire being: heart, soul and mind. 

 

To acknowledge Him as God – the One who is the maker of heaven and earth – the One who simply told Moses to say I AM sent me – means that we acknowledge His greatness and our smallness.

 

When we get the order of things in the proper perspective we can move on to the instruction that tells us he is a jealous God who has no equal in reality but also knows our hearts are prone to idols – false gods – whom we bow to and worship.

 

We cannot allow room for false gods or fake gods – gods of convenience or gods of commercial enterprise or gods of our looks or bank accounts.

 

The TRUE God lays claim to be the saving redeemer whose mighty arm brought a body of slaves out from underneath a power oppressor – later this same God will make them into a nation – then disperse them because of their idolatry –then make them new again and once again allow their defeat because of turning to idols.

 

God will time and time again be the God whose love is steadfast and everlasting – He is the God who spoke from the mountain; who lead with a pillar of fire at night and cloud by day.

 

When we begin to order our selves around His truths we discover His great love for us – His saving power through His Son – a LOVE that goes to every end to capture us and save us from an eternity separated from God and His LOVE.

 

For some reason we look for heroes in sports, movies, industry – high achievers whom make life a bit of a fairy tale –

 

We feel good about the ball player who hits the home run for “our team”.

 

The football player who scores the winning field goal.

 

Reality TV keeps us on the edge of our seats whether its Super Nanny, or Dirty Jobs or following around Hulk Hogan or some dried up has been.

 

Brittany Spears captures the attention of hundreds of thousands of people as does Simon Cowell, or Miley Cirus or Guy Ritchie well maybe not anymore since Madonna dumped him!

 

We have unsuccessfully allowed the culture to take too much of our time – we’ve bathed ourselves in it – we’re way too much in and of this world.

 

I love sports! Go to any Oriole game or Ravens game or Wizards game and you’ll see thousands of people who in many cases have spent $200 for a jersey that has a favorite player on the back.  They’ll spend 50, 60 dollars on beer; 25 on food, 20 to park and think little of it.  They’ll use profane language in mixed company – the “F” word will be everywhere.  They’ll have a good old time.

 

If they’re a person of faith they’ll most often say that their faith is private.  They’ll treat their faith as if it were simply a set of personal values – they decided to choose.

 

Unfortunately we mistakenly place the bible in the category of “values” and turn to popular culture for the “facts” and operate much of our lives out of the what we call the facts of society instead of the timeless truths of the Bible.

 

It’s little wonder why we say we love God but deep inside don’t trust Him – not really.

 

It’s little wonder why we too often steal from our employers through unproductive time, and taking what is there’s and making it ours; casually toss expletives around then when we take God’s Name in vain for some reason place it in the same category; we’ll cheat on our taxes and hope we don’t get caught; we’ll gossip about our neighbor and we’ll do virtually nothing about many of the “problems” we see around us.

 

Our speech is growing cruder; our manners slipping; our value of the elderly lessons; we covet what others have – look at the long lines every time a new phone is released – we just have to have one.

 

There is item after item one could use as an example to make this point:

 

We love God and neighbor less because we love other things more and when we love other things more we pursue them and push God further and further back, and making a greater mess of our lives and this world in doing so.

 

v. 7 Third Commandment "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.  

 

v. 12 Fifth Commandment: "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”

 

v. 13-16 The 6^th, 7^th and 8^th Commandments:  "You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.”

 

v. 17 Tenth Commandment: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

 

All of these begin with step one:

 

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  3 "You shall have no other gods besides me.  

 

Loving God with all of our heart, soul and mind begins with the first commandment and moves to the second then the third and so forth; it begins by acknowledging that we have only one God and from there real love begins.

 

Amen.

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