Rev. Eugene N. Nelson, Jr.
The Community Church of Sebastopol
October 23, 2005
Matthew 22: 34-40
Calvin and his tiger buddy, Hobbes, are engaged in another philosophical discussion. Calvin asks, “What do you think is the secret to happiness? Is it money, power or fame?” Before Hobbes can answer, Calvin provides his own answer: “I’d choose money.: he says. “If you have enough money, you can buy power and fame, and that way you’d have it all and be really happy! Happiness is being famous for your financial ability to indulge in every kind of excess.” Hobbes listens to all this and responds, “I suppose that’s one way to define it.” But Calvin, with visions of fame and power dancing in his head, continues, “The part I think I’d like best is crushing the people who get in my way.” Well, certainly that is one way to relate to the world and the people of the world. But there is another.
A true story, shared by poet and theologian, Wendell Berry. I actually wrote about this in a recent newspaper column. In 1569 in Holland, a Mennonite named Dirk Willems was under capital sentence as a heretic. He was fleeing from arrest, pursued by what was known as a “thief-catcher.” As they ran across a frozen lake, the thief-catcher broke through the ice. This was Willems opportunity to escape. But, without help, his pursuer would surely drown. What was Willems to do? Was the thief-catcher simply a dangerous enemy to be hated? Or was he a neighbor to be loved as one loved God and oneself?
What Dirk Willems did was to turn back, put out his hand, and pull his pursuer from the water, thus saving his life. The thief-catcher, who by then wanted to let Willems go, had no choice but to arrest him. Dirk Willems was brought to trial, sentenced and burned at the stake by a “lingering fire.” In that situation, what would you have done? What would I have done?
“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. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” I hear these familiar words of Jesus and am reminded of something once said by Dean William R. Inge: “Religion is a way of walking, not a way of talking.” Then there are these words from George Bernard Shaw: “Christianity might be a good thing…if anyone ever tried it.” And finally, these closing words from a sermon preached by the famous black preacher, Father Divine, in New York City. He was in top form one night as he preached, “Brothers and Sisters, the trouble with most Christians is that their faith is too much theory. It’s all in their head and not in their heart. It is too vague; it is not practical enough…So I tell you, Brothers and Sisters, if you want to be a real Christian then you have got to tangibilitate the faith!”
That’s the challenge isn’t it? The constant need to practice applied Christianity. The continual urgency to let our faith permeate all the hours of all of our days. The persistent call to make visible and vibrant in our lives the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. “You have got to tangibilitate the faith!” And it would seem to begin with love, wouldn’t it? Love of God and love of neighbor.
These words of Jesus are so familiar. I wonder if we have heard them so often that we no longer hear them. As one author has said, “We know the words so much by heart that we scarcely know them any longer as words spoken to the heart out of a mystery beyond all knowing. We take the words so much for granted that we hardly stop to wonder where they are seeking to take us.”
And yet, look where they took Dirk Willems, reaching out his hand to save the very one who would turn him over to the executioner. Look where they took Jesus of Nazareth. “Love God with your heart and soul and mind…and love your neighbor as yourself.” Are we ready for such love?
I’ve shared this Fred Craddock story with you before; “I used to go home to west Tennessee, where an old high school chum of mine had a restaurant. I called him Buck. Go home for Christmas, go the restaurant, ‘Merry Christmas, Buck,’ and I’d get a piece of pie and cup of coffee for free. ‘Merry Christmas, Buck.’ Every year it was the same…except one.
“I went in, ‘Merry Christmas, Buck.’
“He said, ‘Let’s go for coffee.’
“Coffee? I said, ‘What’s the matter? Isn’t this a restaurant?’
“He said, ‘I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder.’
“We went for coffee. We sat there and pretty soon he said, ‘Did you see the curtain?’
“’Yeah, I saw the curtain. Buck, I always see the curtain.’ What he meant by curtain is this: They have a number of buildings in that little town; they’re called ‘shotgun buildings.’ They are long buildings with two entrances, one at the front and one at the back. One is off the street, and one’s off the alley, with a curtain right in the middle and the kitchen is in the middle. His restaurant is in one of those buildings. If you are white you come in off the street; if you’re black you come off the alley.
“He said, ‘Did you see the curtain?’
“I said, ‘I saw the curtain.’
“He said, ‘That curtain has got to come down.’
“I said, ‘Good. Bring it down!’
“He said, ‘That’s easy for you to say. Come in here from out of state and tell me how to run my business.’
“’Okay,’ I said, ‘Leave it up’
“’I can’t leave it up.’
“After a while he said, ‘If I take that curtain down, I lose a lot of my customers. If I leave that curtain up, I lose my soul.’”
“And love your neighbor as yourself.” Again, are we ready for such love? Am I ready for such love? What risks, what sacrifices, am I prepared to take in the name of love. Which enemies, if any, am I prepared to embrace in the name of love? Am I prepared to disappoint or anger others in the name of love? “If I leave that curtain up, I lose my soul.” Reflecting on this challenging commandment to love, Wendell Berry writes, “As every reader knows, the Gospels are overwhelmingly concerned with the conduct of human life out in the human commonwealth. Jesus is asking his followers to see that the way to more abundant life is the way of love. We are to love one another, and this love is to be more comprehensive than our love for family and friends and tribe and nation. We are to love our neighbors though they may be strangers to us. We are to love our enemies. And this is to be a practical love; it has to be practiced here and now.” (“You got to tangibilitate the faith!”)
In the church, this church, we talk about outreach, we talk about attracting new members, we talk about increasing our visibility in the community. But I’ll tell you…if those folks outside the church do not see within this Christian community a measure of this love, this unexpected love, this different kind of love in the midst of a world where the pursuit of self-actualization is the highest value, if the world does not see this love in us, then there is no reason for the world to take anything we say seriously.
But it isn’t easy. I can think of areas in my life where I need to take the curtain down – the curtain of suspicion, of anger, of fear, of old hurts and grudges gone unforgiven and unhealed, of distrust or of an unwillingness to trust. So much gets in the way of loving my neighbor. So much comes between me and you. I try to live my life under the influence of the Gospels, under the influence of Christ, but there are times when my confidence wavers, when I’m, not sure I can do it. Because to take words such as these about loving God and neighbor seriously, can require a lot of changes, even a certain amount of risk. As Berry says, “The Gospels stand at the opening of a mystery in which our lives are deeply, dangerously and inescapably involved.” And I ask, do I want to get involved? And yet… “If I leave that curtain up, I lose my soul.” How can I not get involved?
The story was told of the eminent philosopher, Planck, that when he died and arrived in heaven, he stood at a crossroads. One sign pointed, “This way to the Kingdom of God.” Another sign said: “This way to a Discussion about the Kingdom of God.” Now which side do you suppose the philosopher took? But which direction do you suppose Jesus would take? Which direction would you take? Again, it’s an easy matter to quote and discuss scripture; a much more difficult matter to live it.
Look at this church. Well-built, substantial, heavy furniture with pews bolted to the floor, a nice pipe organ, a big piano. It gives the illusion that it will all be here forever. There’s plenty of time. We can come back next week and talk about all of this all over again. No need to rush to judgment. We can debate. Question. Think. There’s always tomorrow, and always there is surely another committee we can form to talk about it. There’s nothing we can’t talk to death in the church! That may not be totally fair, but urgency is not always our strong suit. Which can be a good thing…the willingness to take some time reaching a judgment. But finally there is that moment when Jesus looks at us and says, “Enough! Enough of your questions. Enough of your discussions and debates. Enough evasion and dodging and ducking. Are you going to love each other or not!”
Earlier I spoke of my own uncertainty in the face of the Gospel call to love. But we must never forget, never forget, that the One who commands us to love is also the One who empowers us to love, so that, in the end, the command is really less a command than a promise; the promise that even those such as us, who travel on the weary feet of faith and the fragile wings of hope, even those such as us, as we partake of his spirit and breathe his breath, will come at last to love one another as he has loved us. So I try to hang in there – cling to that hope, even as I seek to cling to the One who offers it.
And so, concluding with some words of Barbara Brown Taylor: “Love God. Love a neighbor. Be a neighbor, and let us not complicate things by arguing about the specifics. You know what it means to do love because some time or another you have been on the receiving end of love…If you want the world to look different next time you go outside, do some love. Do a little or do a lot, but do some, and do not forget to get some for yourself...Just do it, and find out that when you do, you do live and live abundantly, just like the man said.”