Father Gary’s Sermon

Inspired from Matthew 22:34-46

Proclaimed on October 23, 2005

As the captain of one of the great ocean liners engaged in transatlantic traffic, this man understood the meaning of hard work. Beginning as a cabin boy many years earlier, he had worked himself up to his present exalted position by slow stages. Now he was one of the most respected men on the high seas. His second-in-command, who had served under him for many years, watched and emulated his every move. But one thing about his superior puzzled him. Every morning his chief went to his cabin, opened the drawer of his desk, took from it a slip of paper, read it over and over with great concentration, returned it to the desk, and locked the drawer. Finally, after all those years on the seas, the great captain retired. Now his second-in-command took charge. The first thing he did was to go the old captain’s desk. With great reverence he sat down in the old chair, he unlocked the drawer in the desk, and slowly pulled it out. Now he would discover the old captain’s secret, the very secret which brought him such success, now it was within his reach. Reaching into the drawer he pulled out the single sheet of paper that his old captain had read so carefully each day. On it he found one single sentence. It read, “Left side is port; right side is starboard.”

This, I believe, is what we call getting back to the basics. It is not an unusual concept. Indeed, in the world of sports, it is something of a common theme. How often have we heard of a very successful football team winning several games in a row with lots of razzle-dazzle? Then suddenly they run head long into another team that stops them dead in their tracks. The following week, after suffering a loss, we find them back on the winning side again. In an interview with the sportscaster the coach is asked how he got his team turned around. Without missing a beat the answer is almost always, “Well, we just had to get back to the basics.” In essence, they had to stop the showboating and return to those proven skills, that while not very fancy, indeed, they are often very simple, they are those things which always work. While I will claim no special expertise in boating, I believe that for the old captain of that ship there was nothing more basic than knowing “Left side is port; right side is starboard.”

This concept, I believe, is that which Jesus teaches in our Gospel reading this morning. In this episode we find Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem during the last week of his life on earth. All of his enemies from the various religious factions had been trying to corner him. They were trying to trap him with various religious arguments in order to bring an end to his ministry. Already the Sadducees, the aristocratic priests in charge of the temple, had tried a head on confrontation with Jesus and met their final defeat. Now it was the Pharisees’ turn. They were much more sophisticated than the Sadducees for they had the best of theological educations. As the leaders of the Synagogue-movement, which would control Judaism after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, these leaders were very intense and radical in their study of the Scriptures. They did everything they could to completely understand and keep God’s Law. They counted a total of 613 laws in the Scriptures, and then wrote volumes of detailed commentaries, on how to keep every one of these laws. Anyone who tried to live by these codes soon discovered that this entire legal minutia was absolutely impossible to keep. Any who attempted to maintain such a rigorous life also discovered there was no time for anything else. They were legalistic rigorists whom Jesus called “hypocrites,” a word meaning “people who are hung up on unimportant details!”

One of these Pharisees asked Jesus to tell him which of the 613 laws was the most important. In answering this question, Jesus not only shared what he thought were the most important two laws in the Covenant, but Jesus was also very much like the old captain on the ship referring to the slip of paper in the drawer, Jesus was getting back to the basics. And what are the basics; “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” In this statement, Jesus was saying to the Pharisee, “As a group you have razzle-dazzled us with your knowledge of the Scriptures, as well as with your wonderful play on words, but in so doing you have left many lost and dying, for ultimately all this razzle and dazzle is not what God and life are really about. For this you must get back to the basics.” And with a thrust as simple as: “Left side is port; right side is starboard.” Jesus made it all understandable again, by showing that there is nothing more basic in the Scriptures then loving the Lord God wholeheartedly by caring for our neighbors as we care for ourselves. For Jesus the bare basics of God’s Law were not a bunch of picky do’s and don’ts! The bare basics were something far more profound. Getting back to the basics was a matter of love. And what is this love?

The great Jewish theologian, Martin Buber, I believe, once taught the answer. He learned it from a rabbi who learned about love from two simple people in a simple little village. One of them said to the other, “Do you really love me?” And the other one said, “Of course, I love you very much.” Then the first one asked, “Do you know what is hurting me at this moment?” The second one said, “How can I know where you are hurting?” And the first one responded, “If you don’t know where I hurt, how can you say you love me?”

Simply put, loving another means knowing where that one hurts. To Jesus loving God was not about a bunch of picky do’s and don’ts, loving God is knowing where God hurts! And what Jesus revealed is that God hurts, God hurts deeply because of our pain. And in the midst this pain God does not respond like an oversized teddy bear. Nor is God like a snarling, bloodthirsty beast going for the kill. God’s response is more like the father who once overheard his children at play. Said one child to the other, “You better be good or Dad won’t love you.” To this the father called out, “That really isn’t true.” To which the little boy immediately asked, “But you wouldn’t love us if we are bad, would you?” Then the father explained, “Yes, I will love you whether you are good or bad. But there will be a difference in my love. When you are good I will love you with a love that makes me glad; and when you are not good, when you hurt other people, then I will love you with a love that hurts me.”

This indeed, is getting back to the basics. In reflecting God Jesus revealed where God hurts, as well as how God responds to that hurt. To some, like the sick, the lame, as well as the penitent, he revealed how God loves with a love that is glad by healing and forgiving them. To others, like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, he revealed how God loves with a love that hurts, by confronting their errors and showing how they had forgotten the basics. It was in this last week of his life that Jesus profoundly revealed the basics of God’s love. For in his crucifixion we are able to see God’s love as a love that hurts deeply. In his resurrection we are able to see God’s love as a love that is also full of gladness and joy. And now, as came time for the old sea captain to retire, so our Lord has moved on to higher existence. Now the Ship of Salvation has been turned over to us, and like the old sea captain’s second-in-charge we are to strive to emulate all that our Lord did. In so doing it our turn to go to the desk unlock and pull out the drawer and meditate on simply paper before us, that which takes us back to the basics: “We shall love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our minds, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves.” It’s as easy as “Left side is port; right side is starboard.”