Sunday, November 4, 2018 ~ Pentecost 24

Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

 Sermon: “’Christian’ Ethics”

Gospel Lesson: Mark 12:28-34

© 2018, Dr. Tamilio

Ethics.  Moral Philosophy.  Knowing right from wrong.  How we are supposed to live our lives.  Many thinkers throughout history have offered answers as to the question what does it take to live a moral life.  Immanuel Kant, the 18^th century German ethicist, argued that we are to act in such a way that we would want everyone to act the same way — in other words, we would want the principles that inform our actions to become universal rules for everyone to follow.  People like the British philosophers Jeremey Bentham and John Stuart Mill are known for Utilitarianism, the belief that we should seek the greatest good for the greatest number of people.  Many of us are guided by a combination of these theories.  And of course, there are others that have been offered by philosophers of every historical epoch and culture.

In addition to the great philosophers, there is another way to calibrate one’s moral compass: by following the teachings of Jesus Christ.

In the opening to his book, Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction, J. Philip Wogaman writes, “The product of more than a thousand years of development, the Bible presents us with an extraordinary mixture of materials with which to think ethically.”[1]  For us, this includes the Hebrew Bible (commonly called the Old Testament), but most importantly Christian ethics is based on the teaching of Jesus as outlined in the New Testament, particularly the Gospels.

What is that ethic?  There are many facets to it: feeding the hungry, visiting the sick and imprisoned, seeking justice for the marginalized, not resorting to violence, loving one’s enemies, having courage in the face of adversity — the list goes on and on.  At the root of it all, though, are two normative claims, a pair of principles that are to guide everything we do as Christians.  When asked what is the greatest commandment out of all 613 in the Torah, Jesus said,

“The most important one…is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”

This is Jesus’ elevator speech.  (Do you know what I mean by that?)  Could you, in the time it takes to ride on an elevator with a stranger, sum up your faith?  The great thinker Hillel — the founder of Rabbinic Judaism who lived a generation before Jesus; some people believe that he was Jesus’ teacher due to some of the similarities in what they said — Hillel was once asked if he could sum up the Torah while standing on one foot.  Again, this is an elevator speech: can you sum up the first five books of the Bible (the Law, the most important part of the Old Testament to Jews), can you sum that up in the amount of time that you can balance yourself on one foot?  Hillel said, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.  That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.”  Sounds like the Golden Rule.  (Footnote: every religion and philosophical system has a version of the Golden Rule — Immanuel Kant, whom we just discussed, is a perfect example.)

In today’s Gospel Lesson, Jesus says something a bit different.  His elevator speech is that all of Scripture (all the writings of the Law and the Prophets) can be summed up by loving God wholeheartedly and loving one’s neighbor as you love yourself.  Everything we do and say as Christians must adhere to these two principles.

On one hand, that makes things a bit easier, no?  Less rules to remember.  On the other hand, it is quite arduous.  We are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.  That isn’t as easy as it seems.

Let’s look at the second command first.  Let’s face it, we do not always love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  Often times, we don’t even like our neighbors, let alone love them!  Of course, Jesus isn’t just referring to those people who live in close proximity to us.  As he makes clear elsewhere (particularly in the story of the Good Samaritan), our neighbor is our enemy as well as our friends.  Two days ago, a very interesting picture appeared on our Facebook page.  Two men are standing next to each other: one white and one black.  They are holding a sign that says, “Love your neighbor who doesn’t look like you, think like you, love like you, speak like you, pray like you, vote like you…no exceptions.”  This is what it means to truly love your neighbor.  It’s easy to love the similar.  The different, especially the radically different, now that’s another story.

But there is another part to this, which I think I have mentioned before.  When Jesus says that we should love our neighbor as we love ourselves, he is assuming that we love ourselves.  Many of us don’t.  As one of my professors in seminary used to say, “If you treated other people the way you treat yourself, you’d be in jail.”

Let’s look at the first command.  Do we always love God with every fiber of our being?  It is easy to say we do, but I think we reject God more than we would like to admit.  That is the very nature of sin, is it not?  Sometimes we reject God when all we see is evil around us — and sometimes we reject God because we are seduced by power, prestige, or wealth.  Sometimes we reject God, because we are so filled with guilt about the bad we have done and the good we have left undone, we think that the chasm between God and us — between the sacred and profane — is just too vast.  C.S. Lewis once said, “On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him.”[2]  I think Lewis was on to something.

But we are loved by God.  We are loved with a love beyond compare.  This was achieved by what Christ did for us.  Through Jesus, the chasm I just spoke about has been bridged.  There’s a story about a medieval monk who announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on “The Love of God.”[3]  As the shadows fell, and the light ceased to come in through the cathedral windows, the congregation gathered.  In the darkness of the altar, the monk lit a candle and carried it to the crucifix.  First, he illumined the crown of thorns, next, the two wounded hands, then the mark of the spear wound.  In the hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the chancel.  There was nothing else to say.

Our ethic begins there.  Jesus died for our salvation.  We are to live for him.  We are to live for one another.  Amen.

[1] J. Philip Wogaman, Christian Ethics: A Historical Introduction (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1993), 2.

[2] Taken from sermonillustrations.com.

[3] Ibid.