"Loving God"
By Dr. Mickey Anders
February 22, 2009
Text: Deuteronomy 6:1-9
One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand. You can now hear radio ads that are shorter than that. In fact, you probably already have.
Clear Channel Communications, the
largest radio company in
One reason radio is especially interested in these shorter ads is because studies have shown that 13 percent of listeners change the station as soon as a commercial break begins and another 20 percent switch channels after hearing one ad. Thus, if radio can shorten the time devoted to commercials, they should be able to hold listeners longer.
The five-second ads are being called “adlets” and the
two-second spots have
been dubbed “blinks.” Here,
for example,
is a two-second ad you might have heard on the radio recently: “The
Simpsons — ‘Doh!’ — tonight on Fox.”
And here is a five-second ad: “‘I’m hearing
people’s thoughts.’
(whisper: Heroes on NBC).”
The regional president of sales for Clear Channel conceded that
“With the
one-second ad, there’s a lot you can’t communicate,”
but he quickly went on to
say, “You really need one and a half to two seconds to get [a]
point across.”
Modern radio was not the first to try to distill a message. There is a famous rabbinical story about the man who approached Rabbi Shammai and said, "Your Torah, your wonderful Torah--I can learn it while I stand on one foot. Rabbi Shammai, you teach it to me while I stand on one foot." You see, he was just making fun of the Torah.
Now what do you suppose Shammai did? Do you think he had patience with a man who was making fun of the Torah? Who ever heard of learning the whole Torah while standing on one foot? The rabbis had spent all their lives in studying the Torah and even then they were not sure that they knew all of it.
Rabbi Shammai took a stick and shouted angrily, "Get out of here, you scoffer. Do you think I have time to waste on people who mock our holy Torah?"
The heathen ran away. He thought he would go to Rabbi Hillel and see what Hillel would do. All out of breath, he came to Hillel's home. Hillel thought the man had come for something very important. So Hillel said:
"What is the matter, my good man?" And the heathen answered:
"Teach me the Torah while I stand on one foot."
Of course Hillel, too, saw that the heathen was scoffing, but calmly and patiently he said, "You want to learn a great deal quickly, don't you? Very well, I shall teach you the Torah while you stand on one foot. This is our Holy Torah: 'What is hateful to you, do not do unto others.'"
The heathen forgot that he had come only to jeer, "Does it mean that the heathens and the Jews and all of us are brothers? Does it mean that we must be kind to one another like brothers?" asked the heathen, wonderingly.
"That's it, my son. That's the meaning of the whole Torah. All the rest is only an explanation of that. Go, go, my son. Go and study it," said Hillel kindly.
One of the latest achievements of modern technology is the engraving of the Holy Bible in full on the surface of a tiny crystal that you can wear in a pendant around your neck. W.N.G. - Graphilux-International uses nanotechnology to reproduce the whole Bible in various translations. You can read it with a X200 microscope.
Jesus did the same thing when someone asked him which was the greatest commandment. His response was an adlet - five seconds plus a blink - two seconds. He put together our passage from Deuteronomy and one from Leviticus to say, “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.” Five seconds flat. Adlet length.
And then he added, "Love your neighbor as yourself" - just a blink.
This reductionist theology seems attractive at first sight. Instead of carrying a huge 1200 page Bible, we can wear it in a necklace. Instead of worrying about learning the whole thing, we can just love God and love others. Simple. Easy.
But I think that is too easy.
In fact, easy is hard. Jesus once talked about how his disciples were to love him. In John 14:15 he said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." Whoa! Now that is not so easy. Many of us then get in a debate about which commandments Jesus meant. Some say he meant the Ten Commandments. Others of us believe he meant the Greatest Commandment.
The little letter of 1 John spells out the difficulty of loving God this way, "We love because he first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also (1 John 4:19-21).
In Matthew 25, Jesus makes this message even more specific. In a section called "The Judgment of the Nations," Jesus tells of the Son of Man sitting on his throne. All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate one from another as a shepherd separates sheep from goats.
The Son of Man says, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for 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, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
The righteous protest that they never saw him hungry, thirsty, naked, sick or in prison. And the Son of Man replies, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Suddenly that simple message of
loving God becomes far more difficult. A
minister riding the subway noticed that an old woman shuffled into the
subway
wearing only ragged clothes to protect her from the bitter
At the next stop, an energetic young man strode confidently onto the train. His warm, high-fashion clothes offered a stark contrast to the rider from the last stop. As he made his way to his seat, his eyes lingered just a moment on the old woman.
The minister thought for a while about the contrast of these two passengers. He thought about their very different life-styles. He wondered where each was going.
Three stops later, as the train slowed, the young man glided by the old woman to the other door and disappeared into the tunnel. On the woman's lap lay his brown leather gloves.
The minister observed, "I don't know if he was a believer in Christ or not. But I do know this: He saw her need and responded with compassion - while I just sat there. It never occurred to me to give her my gloves. That young man showed compassion in a way I'll never forget." I think he was the one who truly loved God.
Remember that line from 1 John, "The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also."
When we understand Jesus and Deuteronomy this way, we realize that reductionist theology really does work. This kind of love is all we need to fulfill the commandments.
Walter Burghardt tells about an exhilarating evening he spent at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater where a singer named Barbara Cook performed. He says that it was a wonderful performance, but nothing moved him as profoundly as two lines from a song composed in part by a long-term AIDS victim. Those two lines that stuck out so were these:
"Love is all we have for now,
What we don't have is time."
Burghardt reminds us that it is true not only for the AIDS patients; it is true for all of us. "Love is all we have for now. What we don't have is time."
I will end with a story shared by a pastor named David A. Tietz:
"Pastor Smith was well loved by his congregation. St. Martin Lutheran Church was a well-heeled suburban congregation in one of the older, well-established communities near a major metropolitan area. St. Martin prided itself in their beautiful new worship center, perfectly manicured landscaping, and their friendliness to all who attended. They spared no expense when it came to taking care of their church.
"Pastor Smith arrived on the scene happy to serve such a prosperous and affluent congregation - a far cry from his previous church where they were always struggling to meet the budget.
"He preached good sermons where he reminded the people over and over how good God has been to them and how much God loved them.
"And the people in turn loved their new pastor and raised his salary every year, and said they hoped he would stay a long, long time. . .
"As the years passed, Pastor Smith began to preach more about how they should also love God and show that love in the way they responded to injustice and to their persecuted brothers and sisters. He challenged them to get their hands dirty in mission work, to feed the homeless, to go on mission trips, to build a Habitat House.
"And the people, of course, still loved their pastor, but some began to wonder if 'perhaps he was under a lot of stress and maybe needs a nice vacation to help him relax. He seems awfully serious-minded these days.'"
"But Pastor Smith only preached harder to his people about their obligation to help the poor and the suffering. He told them they must all work harder to change those systems which caused oppression. "That is how love works," he said.
"And the people still came to church and communion-at least some of the time. And of course they still loved their pastor, at least they appreciated the sermons he used to preach.
"But they whispered among themselves. "The world's problems are just too big and too many to do much about. We have plenty to worry about in taking care of our lovely new building and fellowshipping with one another. Pastor Smith should go back to preaching about how God loves us. That's what we're used to hearing."
"And then one day it happened. The pastor finished the Prayer of Consecration over the bread and wine. But instead of giving Communion to the people, he took the chalice from the altar and solemnly walked to the head of the chancel steps.
"And there, amid the gasps from the people, Pastor Smith slowly poured the wine on to the carpet.
"The people were indignant. 'He has defiled the Sacraments. We cannot have a pastor who does such disrespectful things. The Church cannot tolerate such blasphemous acts. The Bishop will hear about this.'"
"But in a calm voice, Pastor Smith asked the people to sit down and please listen for just a minute. Then he asked them, 'Why are you so indignant and upset? This is, after all, only a symbolic spilling of the Blood of Christ. I have been telling you for five years about places where Jesus is really suffering with the people - in cities, among the rural poor, in countries all over the world.
"'Where was your moral indignation then? I hope you will not take the wine stain out of the carpet. Let it remain there to remind all of us of the real blood spilled every day in a hundred ways and in a thousand places.'
"The people conceded that perhaps Pastor Smith had a point. But he didn't have to make it that way! In fact, they said, "You know, he's been here a long time; perhaps it was time for him to move on."
"And soon there was a new pastor in town. And every Sunday the new pastor told them about how richly God has blessed them and how much God dearly loves them.
"And the people loved their new pastor and raised his salary every year, and said they hoped he would stay a long, long time. . ." (David A. Tietz, PRCL, February 1, 2002)