Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
Original Manuscript:
Several years ago I made my way out west to Montana. On the way I stopped by at that year's General Convention.
A past mentor and good friend happened to be serving as a delegate for the House of Deputies that year. He was taking a break, and so we caught up for a bit.
And then they began to announce some of the legislation they were getting ready to vote on. One was recognizing the dignity of some marginalized group. Which is quite commendable, and something the church should do.
But then I stopped and thought about it. And I turned to my friend and mentor and said "Doesn't the Bible have something to say about that? Love your neighbor and all that?" Which I think got a little chuckle out of him.
We shouldn't have to say "we respect this or that group that is being marginalized in this world". Because it is in the Bible. We're supposed to love our neighbor as ourself. And as Leviticus tells us this morning, our neighbor isn't just those we're fond of. It isn't just our kin, although our neighbor is that too. Our neighbor somethings is the poor and marginalized. Sometimes it's the mighty and great. Sometimes our neighbor is the person we don't like very much. The one we'd like to see get his or her comeuppance.
Our neighbor is basically everyone. Everyone we want our neighbor to be. And everyone we don't want out neighbor to be.
And as much as I'd like to end now by saying "look, just love your neighbor", it's not that easy. There's a reason General Convention makes resolutions that if you read the Bible, you'll they're already there. Because sometimes it is hard for us to listen.
Sometimes, For whatever reasons, we find it hard to love our neighbor. Maybe sometimes we find it hard to love ourselves.
But at the center of the command to love our neighbor is the first great commandment:
"You shall love the Lord with all your heart, and all your soul, and all our mind."
God is at the center. And God loves us. He loved us so much He was willing to die for us.
And God loves us in spite of all that we have done. After the countless times He was rejected. After how He was rejected again after helping His chosen people. After how He was rejected even when He came down Himself to try and bring us back to Him. After all of that, He still chose to love us all.
And if that is too distant, just stop and think about all the times you have gone astray. Because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
And that is how we love our neighbor, even at the worst of it. Because at our worst, God still loves us. When our neighbor comes to us with any weakness, we can remember God on the cross. And we can remember that even in that moment, God chose to love those who were persecuting Him. We can remember that God still chooses to love us.
Sometimes we just need that extra reminder. That God loves us, and so if we love God, we love those God loves. Our neighbor. And sometimes, we need a resolution passed to remind us who are neighbor is. But if we keep in mind the scope of what Jesus did, then just maybe we can have the courage, even when we don't feel like it or it seems neigh impossible to do so, maybe in those moments we can love our neighbor just as God loves us.