May 25, 2008, Memorial Sunday

Lesson: Mark 12.31.a

Sermon Title: Loving the Neighbor

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INTRODUCTION:

I. This is Memorial Sunday, May 25, 2008.

A. Tomorrow is Memorial Day.

B. We honor the fallen dead of the Civil War and each War and Police Action since.

II. It is a day to also reflect on what it means to love our neighbor.

A. The question that was asked of Jesus was, “Which commandment is first of all.

1. He replied that the first and most important was to love God, totally.

2. The second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

B. There is no other commandment greater than these.

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MAIN BODY

I. Turner Classic Movies has as its “star of the month, Frank Sinatra.

A. Frank Sinatra: The Man and His Movies

1. This month TCM presents Frank Sinatra in over 40 films and rarely-seen music specials.

2. One of the short films that TCM ran showed Frank Sinatra attempting to teach a group of boys a lesson in religious tolerance.

a. One boy is being chased. He drops his books on the pavement and climbs up onto a high window ledge.

b. The rest are trying to get to him when Sinatra appears.

(1) What’s going on?

(2) We don’t like him.

(3) Why not.

(4) He is not the same religion.

c. He speaks about all people have the same blood flowing through them.

(1) The blood is the same, no matter who it comes from.

d. There are 100 different kinds of people.

e. 100 different ways of talking.

f. 100 different churches.

g. We’ll I have to get to work.

B. It’s time for Sinatra to go back to work.

1. What do you work?

2. I am a singer.

3. Ah, you’re kidding.

4. Come here, but be real quiet.

C. Sinatra sings The House I Love In, Words by Lewis Allan, Music by Earl Robinson

What is America to me
A name, a map, or a flag I see
A certain word, democracy
What is America to me

The house I live in
A plot of earth, a street
The grocer and the butcher
Or the people that I meet

The children in the playground
The faces that I see
All races and religions
That’s America to me

The place I work in
The worker by my side
The little town the city
Where my people lived and died

The howdy and the handshake
The air a feeling free
And the right to speak your mind out
That’s America to me

The things I see about me
The big things and the small
That little corner newsstand
Or the house a mile tall

The wedding and the churchyard
The laughter and the tears
And the dream That’s been a growing
For more than two hundred years

The town I live in
The street, the house, the room
The pavement of the city
Or the garden all in bloom

The church the school the clubhouse
The millions lights I see
But especially the people
- yes especially the people
That’s America to me

D. The song reminds me of Memorial Day.

1. The life that has been fought for.

2. The lives that are sacrificed to hold a nation together.

E. At the same time the film highlights the words of Jesus to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

1. You cannot have neighborhoods, without neighbors.

2. Even when we may be separated, isolated, and foreign to one another we are still neighbors.

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II. Who is my neighbor now?

A. Do we ask the same question as did the lawyer in Luke 10?

1. Who is my neighbor?

²⁵Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” ²⁷He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

²⁹But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

2. Jesus tells the story of the man going down to Jerusalem who was attacked, robbed, and beaten by thieves.

³⁰Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³²So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’

3. The final question Jesus asked the lawyer was:

³⁶Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”

4. The lawyer replied:

³⁷He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise,” (Luke 10:25-37, NRSVA).

III. We can learn a lot from the commandment to love our neighbor and the details of Luke 10.

A. You do not have to be the same religion to nurture another’s spiritual growth.

B. You do not have to be of the same ethnic origins to nurture another’s spiritual growth.

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IV. You have to nurture another’s spiritual growth.

A. To nurture is to do no harm.

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law, (Romans 13:10, NRSVA).

B. Langdon Gilkey reveals the harm that was done to the neighbor in a Japanese prison camp.

A Bent Towards Love[1]

In February 1943, Langdon Gilkey was a young American teacher at Yenching University near Peking, when word came that the Japanese military was rounding up all foreigners into a civilian internment camp in northern China. For the next two and a half years, two thousand people occupied a former foreign mission compound in the Shantung province.

As time went on, the supply of food began to dwindle. Bread was rationed to six slices a day; a bowl of stew for lunch, a cup of thin soup for dinner. Gilkey dropped from 170 pounds to just 125. However, in July of 1944, two hundred Red Cross parcels arrived, with a cover letter addressed to the two hundred Americans in camp. Gilkey described this treasure trove and want it meant:

Each parcel had four sections. Each section contained a pound of powdered milk, four packs of cigarettes, four tins of butter, three of Spam or one of chocolate, sugar, and odd cans of salmon, liver and a one-pound package of dried prunes or raisins. After a diet made up largely of bread, low on meats and oils, and lacking in sweets of all sorts - in fact, without real taste - fifty pounds of this sort of fat -laden and tasteful food ,vas manna from heaven .... as my friends and I found out if a hungry man disciplined himself and ate a little each day, his parcel could be stretched to supplement the daily diet for almost four months and keep its owner from being really hungry.[2]

And furthermore, given the fact that... "without exception Americans were most generous about giving their non-American friends food from their parcels, made the whole affair the source of a good deal of international good will..."[3]

Of course, after several months, these parcels had run out and food supplies were lower than ever. A sense of gloom gripped the camp. Then, unexpectedly, one January day, the front gates of the compound swung open, and in came a seemingly endless stream of Red Cross parcels, loaded on donkey carts. Clearly marked from the American Red Cross, there was however no cover letter designating their recipients. By count there were 1,550 parcels, with now 1,450 persons in camp, 200 of them Americans. "That means seven or eight parcels for each American," someone yelled, a pronouncement that was met with frowns and anger from the other nationals

Two days later, the Japanese authorities announced that parcels were to be distributed the next day, with each American receiving one and a half parcels, and everyone else one parcel, an ingenious stroke of diplomacy that seemed to satisfy everyone. But the next morning at 10 am, as everyone lined up to receive their bounty, they were confronted with a statement, tersely written, that due to protests from the American community, the parcels would not be distributed. Seven Americans had demanded of the Japanese commandant the proper documentation for such a distribution plan. Given the customary military inflexibility of the Japanese, the commandant referred the matter to Tokyo.

In the interim, all hell broke loose in camp. Hostility, jealousy and national pride boiled to the surface. Those who had been friends and neighbors for a year and a half did not speak to each other. Fights broke out. "A community where everyone had long forgotten whether a man was American or British, white, Negro, Jew, Parsee or Indian, had suddenly disintegrated into a brawling, bitterly divided collection of hostile national groups. Ironically, our wondrous Christmas gift had brought in its wake the exact opposite of peace on earth."[4]

At that moment, humiliated to be associated with being an American, Gilkey and some of his friends decided to poll the American camp about the situation. They spoke with a number of people believed to fairly representative of prevalent attitudes.

The first person Gilkey approached was blunt: "These parcels are mine because I'm an American, and I'm going to see I get every last one that's coming to me. I'm sorry for these other guys, sure - but this stuff is ours. Why don't their own governments take care of them? No lousy foreigner is going to get what belongs to me!"[5]

The second person argued from a legal perspective: "Don't misunderstand me. I'm not worried about the parcels - about how many I or the other Americans get. I couldn't care less. With me it's the legal principle that counts. This is American property – simple, isn't it? You can't question that! You see, this property can only be administered by Americans and not by the enemy. We've got to make sure in this hellhole, whatever price we have to pay in popularity, that the rights of American property are preserved and respected. Come to think of it, we've also got to be faithful executors to the American Red Cross donors who sent these here for our use. But mind you, I speak as a professional lawyer. For myself, I don't really care how many parcels I get."[6]

The third person, an American missionary with a Chinese wife and four children, argued from a moral point of view: "You understand, of course, that I am not at all interested personally in the parcels, even for my family. I only want to be sure that there be a moral quality to the use we make of these fine American goods. Now as you are well aware, Gilkey, there is no virtue whatever in being forced to share. We Americans should be given the parcels, all right. Then each of us should be left to exercise his own moral judgment in deciding what to do with them. We will share, but not on order from the enemy, for then it would not be moral...If the Japanese share it for us, no one is doing a good act, and so there‘s not morality in it anywhere.[7]

Several days later, the word of arbitration came from Tokyo. Each person in camp was to get one parcel. The additional one hundred parcels would be sent to another camp.

Gilkey's reflections on them, giving a fresh understanding to the age-old moral dilemma:

…a man’s (person’s) moral health or unhealth depends primarily on the fundamental character, direction, and loyalty of his (or her) self as a whole; of the “bent,” so to speak, of this deepest level of his (or her) being where his (this) spiritual unity is achieved. But sadly enough, it seemed just as plain that this fundamental bent of the total self in all of us was inward, toward our own welfare. And so immersed as we were in it that we hardly seemed able to see this in ourselves, much less extricate ourselves from this dilemma…In all of us, moreover, some power within seemed to drive us to promote our own interests against those of our neighbors…We were caught willingly and yet unwillingly in a self-love from which we could not seem to achieve our own release, for what was wrong was our will itself. Whenever we willed something, it was our own distorted will that did the willing, so that we could not will the good. Though quite free to will whatever we wanted to do in a given situation, we were not free to will to love others, because the will did not really want to.[8]

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C. To do no harm is revealed in Matthew 25.

³⁵for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ³⁶I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me,’ (Matthew 25:35-36, NRSVA).

Few people today will remember Operation Vittles.”

But from June 1948 until September 1949 tons of supplies were flown into Templehof Airport in West Berlin to keep people fed, clothed, and cared for.

Templehof is closing.

There is a monument there to the allied effort.

It is worth remembering.

D. That is the law of love.

E. It even applies to one’s enemies.

⁴⁴But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. ⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (Matthew 5:44-46, NRSVA).

1. You are commanded to love your enemies; you are not commanded to like them.

2. You overcome evil not with evil but with good.

¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. ¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. ¹⁸If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ¹⁹Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰No, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” ²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good, (Romans 12:14-21, NRSVA).

V. Memorial Day reminds us that it is sometimes necessary for governments to take action to protect their citizens from powers greater then one’s self.

A. There is no question about the two world wars that we fought.

B. You have to ask yourself if we could have handled Iraq differently.

1. What about Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and other nations that we have demonized and sought to contain?

2. I have no answer to that question.

3. Given the circumstances our national leadership acted.

4. Perhaps it was not in the best interest to have done that.

C. Could it have made a difference if we saw the nations of the world as our neighbors and attempted to apply the second of the great commandments?

D. It is obvious that we still have lessons to learn.

E. If we cannot learn them as a country, we can learn them as members of the Christian Community.

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CONCLUSION:

I. A man deeply burdened by a failing marriage came to a minister to pastoral counseling.

A. Love had exited from his marriage and he was considering divorce.

B. He looked for be minister for any small sign of’ hope that the marriage might still be saved.

1. The minister gave his advice in simple terms.

“Sir, the Bible says that husbands must love their wives. Therefore, it is your Christian duty to go home and start loving your wife.”

2. The man was incredulous.

“How can I do that? That is precisely the problem. That’s why I came to you in the first place. The fact is I don’t love my wife anymore. That’s why I want out. Can’t you give me better advice?”

3. The pastor took a different tack.

“Why don’t you try a trial separation. Try moving next door for a few weeks and see if that helps.”

4. The man, growing impatient, shot back,

“What good will that do? How can living next door help?”

a. The pastor replied,

“Doesn’t God command us to love our neighbors? Maybe if you lived as a next-door-neighbor for a while, you would learn to love her again.

b. The man groaned,

“Sir, you don’t understand what I’m saying. It’s not that a romantic fire has gone out and I need a little space to ignite it again. The fact is I can’t stand the woman. I can’t bear the thought of even living in the same neighborhood with her.”

5. The Minister sighed,

“Ah, now I understand. What you are saying is that your estrangement is so deep you are feeling hostile towards her.”

6. The man replied:

“Bingo, Reverend, now your catching on.”

7. The Minister observed:

“May I interpret your remarks to mean that you feel a deep rooted enmity toward your wife?”

8. The man allowed the inference.

9. The minister then said:

“Then, let me remind you that God commands us to love our enemies.”

10. Exasperated the man walked away sorrowfully, shaking his head.

“How can one argue with a minister like that?”

II. How can one argue with a God like that?

A. “You shall love your neighbor as your self.”

B. There isn’t any more.

Amen.

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^[1]Dirk Ficca, Executive Director, Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, Witherspoon Society Annual Luncheon, 215th General Assembly, Denver, Colorado. A Bent Towards Love.” Witherspoon Network News, Summer 2003, Volume XXIII, No. 3. Pages 4-5. (Retrieved from: http://www.witherspoonsociety.org/03-may/dirk_ficca.htm