A Call to Love - Everybody!.

Ruth 1: 1-18

Psalm 146
Hebrews 9: 11-14
Mark 12: 28-34



Where would the movie world be without love stories - Gone With The Wind, Pretty Woman, Ghost, My Girl, The Parent Trap, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Longtime Companion, Shadowlands, The Notebook, Titanic, and of course, long before the silver screen Will Shakespeare’s story of the star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliette? None of the ones I have mentioned are simple love stories where boy meets girl, girl and boy get engaged and married, have 2.5 kids and everyone lives happily ever after - in fact some aren’t even about boy meeting girl.

One of the greatest love stories ever told is found in the book of Ruth, but it is not the love between Ruth and Boaz I am speaking of, it is the love that Ruth had for her mother-in-law Naomi. Set in an era when family and clan were of utmost importance, the dedication of the foreigner Ruth to her Israelite mother-in-law is one of love overcoming boundaries and defying the odds. It provides a back-drop to the instructions on love that Jesus gave to his followers many generations later.

It is difficult for us to imagine the kinds of lives Naomi would have faced returning to Israel in a time of famine; returning home with no husband, no sons and a foreigner for a daughter-in-law. At many times in the history of Israel foreigners were distrusted or misunderstood, while at other times, they were downright hated. Ruth’s uncommon and unwavering dedication to her mother in law, when there was nothing in it for her, won over the people of Israel. After all, who could dislike someone who was so dedicated and selfless? How could people not notice? How could people help but be impressed?

There are some people who like to argue, often just for the sake of arguing. This os not just a product of the modern age; Jesus encountered some of these folks. In such an encounter the trick is to turn the philosophical encounter into one with an opportunity for serious learning. What is the greatest commandment? If someone were to ask me that question I would probably think of the so called “10 Commandments” which are common sense guidelines governing the life of Israel from their time in the wilderness. Is the prohibition against murder more important that coveting? Coveting sometimes leads to murder; coveting sometimes leads to adultery. Not honouring father and mother sometimes leads to a number of other sins, but that assumed the parents so truly have the child’s best interests at heart!

The commandments chosen by Jesus reflect other, equally important parts of the tradition. The verses quoted would have been well known to Jesus questioners and there really was nothing they could say.
It is easy to love when things are going well. It is easy to praise God in the midst of far weather, good health and prosperity. It is easy to love your neighbour when you are getting along with your neighbours and they or their animals are not causing you grief.

I once knew of a family conflict which involved some sort of bovine belonging to one family causing damage on the lawn of another fammily who responded by shooting said bovine, dead. Ever since that day, these two families have been at odds.
Jesus told the story we usually call “The Good Samaritan” to challenge any speculation that there might be someone who need not be classed as a neighbour and therefore outside of the command to love that person. “If someone does this or that to you, you don’t have to love them.” “If someone has blue skin, or seven toes on one foot, or has done such and such, you don’t have to love them.” Jesus did not give such an “out”.

The real test of love, I think, is when that love is hard; the real test of love comes when love is costly, and difficult and messy.
I wonder what would happen in our families, in our communities and in our country if we took these commands seriously! Does it mean that I have to give bags of money to everyone who comes to my door with a “sob story”? Does it mean that you can’t fire the employee who is no longer needed, or who is stealing from you? Does it mean that you have to turn a blind eye to the possible criminal activity going on around the corner because it’s not really hurting you? Does it mean that you have to stay in a marriage that has become unworkable and is putting you and your children mental and physical health in danger?

You might say that is easy to love “all people”, in theory, if those people remain little more than theories, but if their lives intersect yours on a regular basis then the harder it becomes to love them.
I think we need to remember that these commandments come as a set - a set of two. If we are trying to love neighbour ans self, without first loving God, them we will surely fail. Sometimes we need to state the obvious! All of our faith stories start with God. The biblical story starts with creation. The part of scripture that Jesus was quoting about loving God begins with God. The people of Israel were called to believe that they would be nothing without God. “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” or “Listen up! Our God is the one God. It was God who called them from freedom to bondage. It was their God who led them through the wilderness. It was their God who led them to the land of milk and honey.

When it comes to disputes between nations it is all too easy to believe that “God is on our side” and therefore not on “their side”. Jesus challenged this kind of belief in his people with stories such as the Good Samaritan, as I have already mentioned, and by his associations with people which called into question the accepted divisions of his day.
As our theological understanding grows and develops we see more and more clearly how human divisions between groups and nations are not created by God but by human inability to get along; our inability to love as we are called to love.

The key, I think, is to first see the others as people who are loved by God and created by God and for whom God wills all of the good God wills for us.
I believe that God’s heart breaks when nations go to war against one another and when people kill in the name of national interests, even when one nation is fighting the true tyranny of another. I believe that war is never God’s will. Yet in the course of history nations have found that war is a last resort to resolve conflict. Sometimes it is the only thing a nation can do to resolve the problem of a rogue nation who cannot be stopped in any other way.

At this time of year, as Canadian Christians it is imperative that we stand in that uneasy place of honouring our veterans, remembering those who died in the cause of a greater peace while at the same time working as hard as we can to eradicate those things which cause war in the first place.
If we in our international policies regard other nations and their people as less than we are and as a resource for our own comfort and profit, then are we really worshipping the one true God who created us all and called us to love our neighbour?

We have all lived long enough to see old enemies become friends - and unfortunately, we have seen good friends become enemies. The world’s alliances are very different than they were in 1918 or 1945 or at the end of the various conflicts that have caused much destruction and loss of life
We need to put as much effort into the things that make for true and lasting peace as we put into the wars we remember in this time. If we do that each and every day we may just achieve the peace our veterans fought and died for. If we do that we may just be following the Prince of Peace who called us to love God, and love neighbour as self.

Amen.