All Saints Sunday – A Day of Holy Communion
Scripture Readings:
Hebrew Scriptures – Deuteronomy 6: 1-91
[Moses said to the gathered people of Israel,] 1“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that the LORD your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, 2so that you and your children and your children’s children may fear the LORD your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. 3Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.
4Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Gospel Lesson – Mark 12: 28-342
28One of the scribes came near and heard [Jesus and the Sadducees] disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; 33and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.
“You Are not Far from the Kingdom of God."
Today is a Sunday that gives us a marvelous juxtaposition of remembering those we have loved and lost, and remembering just what our love for God must mean in the relationships that we’re then called to have with our neighbors. It reminds me of an essay that I came across a few years ago:
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more but have less, we buy more but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge but less judgment, more experts yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom but not our prejudice. We write more but learn less. We plan more but accomplish less. We've learned to rush but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.
Remember, spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember to say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart, and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember to say "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it…. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there…. Give time to love, time to speak, and time to share…precious thoughts…. Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.3
As overly-sentimental as all of that might sound, we know in our bones that there is a lot of truth in those words. Self-awareness is never enough. Self-love surely isn’t enough. At some point the strength of our will has to be matched with the longing of our heart. The decisions that we make in life have got to let a curious, creative, even vulnerable love lead the way.
We become whole people – people of shalom4 – by knowing our mistakes and our ignorance, the inaccuracies of our assumptions and the endless ways in which we deceive ourselves and others. And yet we can learn how to embrace all of that with compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. I’m thinking of the attitude of Old Lodge Skins – a character in that 1970’s film called Little Big Man – whose favorite remark seemed to be: “It’s a good day to die.” As I recall, his final prayer to God went something like this:
I thank you for making me a human being, Grandfather. I thank you for my victories. And I thank you for my defeats…. I thank you for my sight. And I thank you for my blindness – which has helped me to see even farther.5
Some analysts of the human condition say that we’re just coming out of a time in our society when women as well as men have wanted it all: career, family, leisure, material well-being, happiness. Sadly, we’re beginning to realize that it’s just been a dream. We can’t have it all.
So our priorities need to be re-set. With all of the things and all of the people that make claims on our lives, we need to figure out what’s most important. In the midst of a lot of important things, we’ve got to decide – almost daily – what’s most important. And a lot of times that means we have to distinguish between what we want and what we really need.
Some religious institutional leaders of Jesus day also lived in a world of competing claims and possibilities. One thing that pulled them in a lot of different directions was the Torah, the “law” or “teachings” – hundreds and hundreds of them actually. Some were negative: “You shall not,” and some positive: “You shall.” Is it any wonder that one of the scribes asks Jesus a question involving priorities in how to make up your mind what to do first?
It seems like Jesus dodges the question at first; he doesn’t give one answer, but two. Love God…love your neighbor. But the two are one. They’re not an either/or but a both/and – like two sides of one puzzle.
The story is told of an exhausted father trying to sit down and read the newspaper after a very busy day, while his young son clamors for his attention. Finally the father takes a piece of newspaper which has a picture of the earth on it, cuts it into pieces, and tells his son to put the picture puzzle back together. The father is stunned when just minutes later his son returns with the completed picture. “How did you do that so fast?” his father asks. To which the boy replies, “Well, there was this picture of a person on the other side, and when I put the person together, the world came together too.”6
Love God…love your neighbor, they’re two sides of the same puzzle. When one side begins to come together, the other side amazingly begins to fit as well. The two can’t be separated, even though we may only see one side of the puzzle at a time. They’re part of the same puzzle.
While we can’t “have it all,” paradoxically enough we can give it all – or, at least, Jesus says we can: love with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind…with as much strength as you can muster. No percentages are given, not even a mention of a tithe, just all of you.
There’s another story’s of an African mission church that had experienced incredible growth in a very short time. People wondered how they did it. One recent convert, overcome by his experience of God’s love, took the offering plate when it was passed by one Sunday morning, set it on the ground, and stepped into it. For a few moments, by making his whole body an offering, he made a gesture of sheer thanksgiving with his very life, offering it all to the One from whom it had come.
It makes a tithe – 10% – look a whole lot easier, doesn’t it! Somehow this “all” business seems to go above and beyond simply prioritizing our goals for the coming year. Because, in one sense, that’s what stewardship is: being good caretakers, responsible managers of what’s been given us. Making decisions, planning, recruiting, funding, resourcing…we finally come to recognize that we can’t “have it all” and so we try to discern just what’s most important in the light of who Jesus shows us God is.
In another sense, though, stewardship is coming to understand that it’s all a gift, and much is required. We are to love God with all that we have, trusting that life and blessings will still come our way. This leaves no room for envy or jealousy, guilt or fear, only room for the comfort and freedom that placing our whole selves in the offering plate can bring. Standing in such a place as that we are not far from the kingdom of God.
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1 At least three settings for the book of Deuteronomy are relevant for interpreting this text. The literary setting is the banks of the Jordan River, between wilderness and the Promised Land. The people Israel are on the verge of taking possession of this land that they assume is a gift from God (The local residents, the Canaanites, of course, would have a different perspective!). So the Israelites are almost, but not quite, there. This is a speech delivered to them by Moses, then, situated as they were between homelessness and home.
The predominant historical setting is during a period of reform when the people do have possession of the land, but they’re in danger of losing it. The call to reform is grounded in the foundational myth of Israel – namely, the land as gift in the context of covenant. And this prophetic call appeals to the authority of Moses.
A third historical setting is relevant in that these verses represent the final redaction of this book – i.e., that the exile and loss of this land came to be interpreted as God’s judgment on them all.
By the way the admonitions in the last two verses here (vv. 8-9) gave rise to the Orthodox Jewish customs of wearing the phylactery – a small leather box containing those earlier words (vv. 4-5) – strapped onto one’s forehead and arm, as well as placing a mezuzah – a small fixture also containing these words – on the doorpost of one’s house (If you’ve ever visited Don and Polly Fellers’ they’ve got one on their doorframe themselves!).
2 During this – the final – week of Jesus’ ministry, the Gospel According to Mark depicts an atmosphere of tension and conflict between Jesus and the temple authorities. They think to pose trick questions to discredit him, but in each case Jesus confounds his attackers. Then a scribe, another of Jerusalem’s elite, approaches Jesus, but he doesn’t seem to have the same intent as the Sadducees; he seems genuinely curious to hear what Jesus has to say.
3 Credit for this belongs, not to comedian George Carlin (another urban myth!), but to Dr. Bob Moorehead, former pastor of Seattle's Overlake Christian Church. The essay first appeared under the title "The Paradox of Our Age" in Words Aptly Spoken, Dr. Moorehead's 1995 collection of prayers, homilies, and monologues used in his sermons and radio broadcasts.
4 Again, that Hebrew word – the essence of my theology – is rich because it doesn’t just mean “peace” (although it does mean that), but “wholeness,” “well-being,” “health,” “harmony”…even, I would argue, “self-actualization.”
5 This was one of Chief Dan George’s finer roles as he played opposite a young star named Dustin Hoffman.
6 Tim Hansel, When I Relax I Feel Guilty (Elgin, IL: David Cook Publishing, 1999), p. 83.