By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, RectorIn the first lesson, Moses told the people of Israel that "The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings..." That sounds pretty good. There is a catch, of course, prosperity comes after obedience to the commandments. But they are not to worry, the commandments are not too hard, they are not so very far away, they are near. The "words" as they call them, are in your heart and in your mouth.
Often the idea of commandments seems very burdensome, like a whole set of hoops to jump making life too difficult to imagine. There is a fear that whatever God is asking of us, it has to be far greater than we can accomplish. But Moses assures the Israelites listening to him, and perhaps us as these words come to us this day, that the commandments of God are not in heaven, as if we might say "Who will go for us?" Nor are they beyond the sea, so that we might ask Who will cross to the other side for us. No, they are very near to us, they are in us and they are part of us.
Many centuries after Moses said these words, Jesus walked with his disciples when a man asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus reminded him about following the commandments and asked the man to summarize them for him. The man did so quickly saying they are to love God with all our heart, soul and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
He should have stopped there but he didn't and his arrogance lead to another wonderful lesson that comes to us in the form of the parable of the Good Samaritan as a way of explaining just who our neighbor is.
But before we get to the actual parable, let's spend some time with the summary of the law. This same summary appears in other Gospels as well and is worth a little more attention.
There are three loves called for in the summary of the law. God, our neighbor and ourselves. We demonstrate our love for God by loving our neighbor. We love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The presumption of all this comparison is that we love ourselves. To modern ears this is not as obvious as it might first sound.
I recently took part in a seminar examining issues and concerns that were personal and deep over the range of a lifetime. Many of the issues, mine as well as virtually all of the participants, inevitably raised problems with self esteem and self worth. As the trust level grew and the conversation deepened many stories were shared from childhood through adulthood about the many assaults each received to that very important sense of self. Childhood stories of living through nightmares of alcoholism, incest and other forms of abuse both physical and emotional began to emerge. For some stories of racism and how confusing it is for a child to process this kind of hate. Those of us growing up gay and fearing discovery and rejection. Still others whose grades didn't distinguish them or their clumsiness and embarrassment at sports, for others physical handicaps or appearance. Childhood stories reverberated through the years after childhood, often those scars were covered with masks of laughter or accomplishment. Sometimes they were hidden by abusing power over others, whether their own children or subordinates at work. Very often the scars emerged as chronic anger, fear or depression. Self love could be replaced by self hate showing up in a myriad of ways.
Loving oneself is not quite as cut and dried as it appears in the Gospel, but then nothing in the Gospel ever is, really. Puzzles upon puzzles and layers of onion skin to be peeled. Growing up I remember hearing of self negation and sacrifice as the way to live. To think too much of yourself was narcissistic, selfish or self indulgent. It becomes quite difficult to navigate these waters, you seem to lose either way. The message seems to be "We want to raise your self esteem, but not too much." The messages from churches, schools and families seemed to act as regulators of the relationship we had with ourselves and all too often they erred on the side of injury.
When we listen to the summary of the law as being to love one's neighbor as oneself, I wonder does that cause a conflict in you? It does in me. I have begun to believe that's one of its intentions.
Despite how often the Bible is wrongly used as a weapon of judgmentalism, it really is a book describing the abundance of love God has for us. It is a book of creation and an amazing love story of God who made us as we are and loves us even when we make mistakes or when no one else does. There are many stories of the ones being rejected by society as being the particular one sought out by God for a specific purpose, or for healing or a gentle word. One of the greatest forms of healing is to accept God's love and see ourselves as worthy despite the messages we get from others, to hold our heads high in delight as children of God, God who has gifted us abundantly and wants us to live into who God made us to be. It is so very important to love ourselves as made in the image of God, that is in the image of Love itself. Others may try to tell us what we are not, it is really up to ourselves to tell ourselves and them who we are and what God made us as to be. And we are loved by God and by God we can love ourselves. It is not too far from us, it is within reach, in our hearts and in our mouths. These words we need: I am a child of God, God loves me, I love myself. Take a moment and try the words on for size.
Part of the interconnectedness of this world God has created is that we cannot love ourselves without God and we cannot love another if we do not love ourselves. If we do not love ourselves and try to love others first, we will end up resenting them and causing them and ourselves spiritual injury if not physical injury as well.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is a wonderful story illustrating our neighbor and a relationship of risk and kindness. It's inspiring and uplifting.
But today, it's the summary of the law that gets the attention, because even though it's simplified here, it is anything but simple. God's gift to us is abundance and prosperity of love through a blessed commandment to love God, our neighbor and ourselves. It is not too far away and not too difficult, it is close by and within reach. As the psalmist wrote, "Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation." Amen.
© 2007 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ
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