Lesson:
Mark 12.31.b
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The
Chief's Wife[1]
"NEXT,"
the conference emcee announced, "we have the chief of the Minnesota State
Patrol, Roger Ledding, who is here with his lovely wife, Beverly."
The
chief took his place at the lectern. "I'm a little nervous," he
began, "getting up before this distinguished audience and speaking today.
But not nearly as nervous as I will be tonight when I must go home with my
wife, Audrey, and explain Beverly to her!"
INTRODUCTION:
I. The emcee didn’t pay by the rules.
A. The rule is that you have your
complete information.
B. You check it out with the guest
speaker.
II. I did not know that there was an RSP
(Rock, Scissor, Paper) World Society.
A. There is A Player’s Responsibility
Code
B. Peruse the Official Rules of RPS Play.
C. There are professional contests where
thousands of dollars may be won.
III. Christianity also has rules.
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MAIN
BODY
I. The fundamental or foundational rule
is that Jesus Christ is the foundation.
A. These are the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians
3:11:
For no
one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that
foundation is Jesus Christ, (1 Corinthians 3:11, NRSVA).
B. Jesus spoke of the same foundation in
the story of thehouses and the flood.
46“Why do
you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? 47I will
show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on
them. 48That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and
laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that
house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49But
the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the
ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it
fell, and great was the ruin of that house,” (Luke 6:46-49, NRSVA).
C. Jesus rules are simple and easily
understood.
31When he
had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has
been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will
also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little
children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I
said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34I
give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved
you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know
that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,” (John 13:31-35,
NRSVA).
II. This is what Jesus sought to help his
questioner in Mark 12 understand.
A. You shall love the Lord you God with
all your heart, mind, souls, and spirit.
B. You shall love your neighbor as you
love yourself.
C. There is nothing greater than these.
D. Or as the same incident is reported in
Matthew 22.40 Jesus said:
“On
these two commandment hang all the law and the prophets.”
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III. Everything that God has ever done with
and for humankind has been to promote and illustrate love.
A. As it has been said, love is
undefinable.
B. We attempt to define love or
religious, life ethics by using the Ten Commandments.
C. Take the Ten Commandments in Exodus
20:1-17 (NRSVA).,
1. Reword them to declare a person’s
love for God and for the neighbor.
1Then God
spoke all these words: 2I am the LORD your God, who brought you out
of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
3you
shall have no other gods before me.
Because
I love you, I will love and serve you only.
4You shall
not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in
heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I
the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of
parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6but
showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and
keep my commandments.
Because
I love you I will acknowledge you only as my God and no other.
7You
shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will
not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Because
I love you I will respect and honor your name.
8Remember
the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do
all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your
God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or
female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For
in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them,
but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and
consecrated it.
Because
I love you I will take the time and make the effort to worship you on the day
you have set apart for me.
12Honor
your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the
LORD your God is giving you.
Because
I love my neighbor I respect and support my parents, for they are my parents.
13You
shall not murder.
Because I
love my neighbor I will cherish and encouage all life.
14You
shall not commit adultery.
Because
I love my neighbor I will seek to maintain sexual purity in my life in thought
and in deed.
15You
shall not steal.
Because
I love my neighbor I will acquire only what is mine or receive what is not mine
only with permission.
16You
shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Because
I love my neighbor I will seek to speak the truth with love.
17You
shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s
wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to
your neighbor.
Because
I love my neighbor I will be content with what I have and acquire only that for
which I am responsible.
2. Can you see how the Ten Commandments
hang or are dependent on the two great Commandments.
D. Love is not definable, it is
describable.
E. Are these principles reflected in 1
Corinthians 13?
4Love is
patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or
rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it
does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears
all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love
never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues,
they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 1 Corinthians
13:4-8, NRSVA).
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IV. This is why the words of Jesus are more
important and are to be followed.
A. They help us to create loving moments
even for our enemies.[2]
David
Niven, in The Oxford Book of Military Anecdotes, relates this true story from World
War II about a British officer driving through Germany in the first days after
the German surrender. Try to place yourself in this story as the British
officer explains in his own words what happened next:
I passed
a farm wagon headed for the village. I glanced casually at the two men sitting
up behind the horse. Both wore typical farmer headgear, and sacks were thrown
over their shoulders, protecting them from a light drizzle. We were just past
them when something made me slam on the brakes and back up. I was right! The
man who was not driving was wearing field boots. I slipped out from behind the
wheel, pulled my revolver from its holster and told the corporal to cover me
with his Tommy gun.
I
gestured to the men to put their hands over their heads and told them in
fumbling German to produce their papers. "I speak English," said the
one with the field boots. "This man has papers--I have none."
"Who
are you?" I asked. He told me his name and rank--general. "We are not
armed," he added, as I hesitated. I motioned them to lower their hands.
"Where are you coming from, sir?"
He
looked down at me. I had never seen such utter weariness, such blank despair on
a human face before. He passed a hand over the stubble of his chin.
"BERLIN," he said quietly.
"Where
are you going, sir?"
He
looked ahead down the road toward the village and closed his eyes.
"Home," he said, almost to himself. "It's not far
now...only...one more kilometer." I didn't say anything. He opened his
eyes again, and we stared at each other. We were quite still for a long time.
Then I said, "Go ahead, sir," and added ridiculously, "Please,
cover up your boots." Almost as though in pain, he closed his eyes and
raised his head. Then, with sobbing intakes of breath, he covered his face with
both hands, and they drove on...to home.
In the
midst of the rubble and anguish of a world war, where toughness, ruthlessness
and stoicism were advantages simply for the sake of survival, that incident
seems almost out of place, as if transported from a softer era. Yet it suggests
that behind even the harshest exterior, there is the capacity within each of us
to give our hearts away in love to others.
B. It creates relationships with our
families.[3]
Two
brothers worked together on the family farm. One was married and had a large
family. The other was single. At the day's end, the brothers shared everything
equally, produce and profit.
Then one
day the single brother said to himself, "It's not right that we should
share equally the produce and the profit. I'm alone, and my needs are
simple." So each night he took a sack of grain from his bin and crept
across the field between their houses, dumping it into his brother's bin.
Meanwhile,
the married brother said to himself, "It's not right that we should share
the produce and the profit equally. After all, I'm married, and I have my wife
and children to look after me in years to come. My brother has no one, and no
one to take care of his future." So each night he took a sack of grain and
dumped it into his single brother's bin.
Both men
were puzzled for years because their supply of grain never dwindled. Then one
dark night the two brothers bumped into each other. Slowly it dawned on them
what was happening. They dropped their sacks and embraced one another.
C. It transforms us as it transformed a
traveler.[4]
A monk
found a very precious gemstone. He put it in his knapsack and carried it with
him. One day he met a traveler in need who asked the monk to share some of his
provisions with him. The monk opened his knapsack to share his food, when his
fingers found the gem. So he lifted out the stone and gave it to the traveler.
Overjoyed
by his good fortune in the valuable stone, the traveler went on his way. A few
days later, however, the traveler caught up with the monk. He begged him again:
"Please, give me something more precious than this stone," he said.
"Please give me that which prompted you to give the stone to me."
D. Love is fundamental and foundational to
all of life.
1. It is what we do.
2. It is who we are as a community.
Hal
Brady, Dallas, Texas[5]
tells about a woman who joined a particular church.
A woman
joined a particular church after two years of faithfully attending worship,
singing in the choir and being heavily involved in the women's fellowship.
When
asked by the pastor what made her decide to transfer her longtime membership in
one of the town's neighboring churches to her new church, she replied simply:
"Your people loved me into it."
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CONCLUSION:
I. What is there left to do?
George
Michael Leader wrote in Healing Poems[6]
(Leader Publishing, 2001), 121.
The
world is in need of unselfish souls
Who would share their last morsel of bread,
Who would give of their love and give of their wealth,
And like seeds, their compassion they’d spread.
The world is in need of unselfish souls
Who would share of their God-given treasure,
With those who are weak and those who are tired,
And do so in generous measure.
The world is in need of those generous souls
Who will give of their lives and their time,
To provide in this land a strong helping hand,
And help others to handle the climb.
A. This is love.
B. It is the greatest.
C. Isn’t it the greatest?
D. Be the greatest!
Amen!
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[1]Pastor Tim [posts@cybersaltlists.org]
[2]David Walls, Learning to Love; When Love Isn't Easy (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1992), 145-46.
[3]Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul (Deerfield Beach, Calif.: Heath Communications, 1995), 37.
[4]--As told by Donald T. Shelbv. Santa Monica, California, 2 August 1992.
[5]Hal Brady, Dallas, Texas, 17 January 1993.
[6]George Michael Leader Healing Poems (Leader Publishing, 2001), 121.