Be Devoted to God and One Another
O God, you have
taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant
us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole
heart,
and united to one
another with pure affection. Amen
That’s it. Devotion to God. United to one another “with pure
affection.” One Another means, “all others”! No exceptions. No exclusions.
That’s what is being asked of us. We come from Love = God. We return to Love =
God. And Love is all around. That’s us being united to one another out of our
devotion to God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in
steadfast love, and relents from punishment. [i] We are the “one another” who are meant to be
united to one another in this abounding steadfast love of God. We are meant to
be the love that is all around.
After warning his disciples that there will be resistance to
being this love in Matthew chapter 10, Jesus goes on to address the resistance
in chapter 11. It begins with John. The baptizer. Who is in Herod’s jail. Herod
who, at the beginning of the story, slaughtered children and any adult who
tried to get in the way to eliminate the child born to Mary. The story begins
with violent resistance. John is having second thoughts about this man from
Nazareth he had recently baptized and announced as The One who with fire and a
winnowing fork will separate the wheat from the chaff. Why hasn’t the winnowing
begun? What’s with all this love? Where is the fire? Find out for me if he is
The One, he tells his disciples.
Jesus says, Tell John what you have seen and heard: the
blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised, and the poor have the good news of Jubilee, debt reduction,
brought to them. This is what love is. Believe the works themselves.
Then Jesus then tells anyone who will listen, John is the
greatest of all ever born of women. Do you doubt this because he ignores public
opinion polls? Do you doubt him because he doesn’t dress in Givenchy and velvet
robes like the rich, powerful and famous? But get this: the least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than he. See what he does there? The poor, the
lame, the unwashed and unclean are greater than John! And he’s the greatest.
Then he begins talking ‘bout my generation! To what can I
compare you? You’re like children playing, dancing, and singing, but you’re too
busy thinking you know it all to kick up your heels. You’re like children
wailing and keening like professional mourners as the Empire crushes us,
crushes our children, burns down the temple, and yet you do not mourn. Instead,
you complain. John is too harsh, too demanding, neither eating or drinking! Then
you complain that I eat and drink too much with the wrong kind of people, tax
cheats, prostitutes and all manner of sinners. You call me a glutton and a
drunkard! You look for hope, you seek salvation, and yet, you cannot recognize
it even if it were to walk up and bite you on the nose!
Then he quotes a venerable proverb: Wisdom is vindicated by
her deeds! The proof is in the pudding! Neither John nor I look at all like the
kind of folks you expect we ought to look like. We get that. But do you want fancy packaging,
or the real deal?
Notice that Matthew 11:20-24 is missing. No doubt the
editors of our lectionary thought that we could not handle listening to sweet
baby Jesus, no crib for a bed, lashing into an all-out tirade against those who
complain, crying, Woe to you! And, Woe to you! Get with the program here and
now, or “on that day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of
Sodom than for you!” Think you are so smart? No! You will be brought down to
Hades!
And then he prays. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because you have hidden these things from those who like to believe they
are wise and intelligent because they are rich and powerful, but you, O Lord, have
revealed the to infants, too the little ones: to the lame, the blind, the deaf,
the unwashed, and yes, to the poor and even the poorest of the poor; yes,
Father, for such is your gracious will. I have been entrusted by you my Father
who calls me his Beloved son, to live the good news of his gracious will; the
works themselves reveal his love for you and for all; and no one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to
whom the Son chooses to reveal him. I choose to reveal him to you, and you, and
you; for you are God’s Beloved. God is well pleased with you. Amen.
Finally, he offers a word to the weary from one who evidently
is weary himself. Come and find rest. But he offers not a hammock to rest in,
but a yoke. In Judaism, the yoke, an instrument common to the hardest working
animals, was a symbol of obedience to the commandments of the kingdom of God’s
mercy, love and forgiveness. The yoke of Jesus represents a willingness to
serve others with humility and mercy. His yoke is not easy, and his burden
light, not because there is little to do or the way is safely paved. It is “light”
because it is light for all those of us who live in darkness. “There is a cross
to be carried, and the world is full of wolves. The yoke of Jesus is easy and
his burden is light because it is the way of God, and it is profoundly
satisfying to the human soul.” [ii]
And it is true light! Light which darkness did not and cannot overcome!
Jesus knows he does not look like a safe bet to everyone.
Mercy, humility, forgiveness and love are hard to come by – and harder still to
emulate; to become the very core of our being. To join ourselves with Jesus
means to serve the world in the name of God his Father, our Father. It is a way
of being the love that is all around. Devotion to God means to be united to one
another with pure affection. With the pure love and light of the one who calls
us his family.
We come from Love. We return to Love. And Love is all
around. This is a way of being. A way of being with God because we know God is
with us. And God is in all that God has created. It means being devoted to God
and united with one another – all others – most especially the “little ones.”
Those in greatest need. Set aside all expectations and join in the works themselves.
You will do the things I do, he says. And greater things than these, he says.
And you will be profoundly satisfied, he says. Listen to the music of the kingdom
of God! Kick up your heels! For at the end of the day, and the end of days, when
you join his dance, you will hear the divine voice of blessing, “Well done,
good and faithful servant! Well done my dearly Beloved community of Love!”
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