Reverend Ref +

SERMON
PENTECOST 23
PROPER 25A

(This is the sermon I would've preached, had I not been in Chicago-land for Jane's priesting.)

In the movie "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure," the time-traveling boys find themselves dropped into a future world that is based entirely on their music. The people of the future are awestruck by the appearance of these two great prophets and eagerly anticipate words of wisdom from the framers of their society. Bill & Ted are simply awestruck.

Finally, Bill says to Ted, "Say something, dude."

After thinking for a moment, Ted says, "Be . . . excellent to each other."

And Bill, not wanting to be left out, adds, "And party on, dudes!"

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

While not exactly the same as what Jesus said, the sentiment might be similar. A lawyer asks Jesus, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" In typical Jesus fashion, the answer isn't the standard black and white version that people expect. What Jesus does is to combine two verses of scripture into one summary of the law. This was not unknown, and Jesus was following Jewish precendent when he did this.

Supposedly there are 613 commandments which were given by Moses. In Psalm 15:2-5, David reduces those commandments down to eleven; Isaiah gets them down to six (33:15); Micah whittles them down further to three (6:8); Amos down to two (5:4); and Habakkuk summarizes all 613 commandments into one (2:4). So this was a long-standing tradition in which the religious leaders participated in. And now those leaders want to know how Jesus will summarize the law.

Jesus first quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5 and says, " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment." This is the first and greatest because it recognizes God as God. It elevates God to his proper place in our lives -- first. He is the God of the harvest. He is the God of the wedding banquet. He is the God who created us, and he is the God whose image we carry in our souls. As the Nicene Creed says, ". . . one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen." If that is something that we proclaim and something that we truly believe, then it is only proper to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Jesus follows that up with the second part of his summary which comes from Leviticus 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If you believe that God created everything and that, going back to last week, he minted us with his image, then we are required to love our neighbor. You cannot claim to love God while despising other people, other humans who were created just as much in the image of God as you.

We are a polarized society. In the political realm there are Bush-haters and Bush-lovers, political conservatives and political liberals, and both sides, it seems to me, are busy demonizing the other. Whether it is the conservatives who see any questioning of the Bush administration or their party as completely un-American, or whether it is the liberals who see people blindly following a party line that is leading the country into ruin, each side uses language that reduces the other side to mere caricatures that can easily be denounced.

And it isn't just in politics that this is happening. It is happening in our own Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church. The battle is currently raging around the issue of homosexuality, scripture and who has the authority to determine our belief system. The conservative bloc sees the acceptance of gays as nothing more than biblical revisionism and is sure that the other group is leading the church directly into the jaws of hell. The liberal bloc sees the hard-line position of the other group as being one filled with hate and blindly Pharisaical.

Two sides. Two points of view. And both groups are guilty of despising the other. I don't care what group you associate with, you can't claim to love God with all your heart, soul and mind while despising and demonizing those with whom you disagree. God's image is in every one of us, and God's image is in every one of the "other," whoever the "other" is.

And this is especially important for us Episcopalians. Think back to the Baptismal Covenant for a moment. "Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?"

We can't do that if we are busy demonizing the other person.

Jesus summarizes the law by saying that loving God and loving our neighbor are so closely intertwined that they can't be separated. Love God first and foremost with everything you have because God ultimately is the ruler of everything, seen and unseen; and love your neighbor as a corollary to that because your neighbor is made in the image of God, just like you.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

So, back to Bill & Ted. Love your neighbor as yourself. Regardless of the other person's religious affiliation or political persuasion, be excellent to each other.

And love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. Love the God of the harvest. Love the God of the wedding banquet. Love the Lord of the dance. As Point 5 of our mission states, rejoice in a new life found in Christ.

Party on dudes.