Rev. George Miller
March 10 ,2024
Mark 12:28-34
Next week will be a great day. It is our 1st ever “Show Us Your
Socks Sunday” in which everyone is invited to wear their most colorful,
beautiful, visually loud socks that they can find.
Why?
To bring awareness that March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness
Month. To show our support for people
living with Developmental Disabilities.
And to raise money for Ridge Area ARC, our
local non-profit that focuses on providing a full, complete life to our
community sisters and brothers who are living with Developmental Disabilities.
Why do we this this? Out of love and because they are our
neighbors.
Each and every one of them is fully unique
and individual. They are the folks who
grow vegetables in our Garden Of Hope.
They are the volunteers at the Shepherd’s Pantry, handing out quality of
life products.
They are the artists who exhibited their
photography at the Peter Pollard Museum.
More than that, they are funny, they are
Romeos, they are Valentine Day Queens, they are introverts, extroverts, horse
riders, employees, Mountain Dew Drinkers, and next week some of them will be
worshippers with us.
How awesome that as Emmanuel UCC we
understand the Gospel to be such that not only do we recognize our Veterans,
our Women, our Canadian, our Haitian, our Cuban, our Pilipino, our LGBTQ
neighbors,
not only do we recognize those that lost a
child, our Fathers, our Moms, but we also now recognize and lift up our neighbors
who live with Developmental Disabilities…
…because not too long such people were locked
away, kept away, not talked about, hidden, treated as less than.
And they are not less than- they are Children
Of God.
Love.
That is the theme of today’s scripture, and
Thank God, because love is what we need.
And not just mushy love; not just romantic
love, but the kind of love Jesus talks about- love for God and love for
neighbor.
Since we’ve been following Jesus this entire
season, we know that he is not ignorant.
Nor does Jesus have an unrealistic view of the world or of how things
work.
When Jesus says “Love your neighbor” he knows
exactly the kind of neighbors that are out there.
Remember the guys who took apart the roof to
lower down their friend for Jesus to heal?
If that was indeed the actual home of Jesus,
it means he knows that loving your neighbor could mean your house gets messy.
Jesus says “love your neighbor”, and he
walked over 3,000 miles in his ministry.
So he’s met a lot of neighbors.
Jesus says love your neighbor and he’s referring
to the ones who appear to be demon possessed and those sick in bed.
Jesus says love your neighbor and he’s
referring to those fishing in the sea, those mending nets on the shore, and
those who work the fields and orchards and vineyards.
Jesus says love your neighbor and he has met
a tormented man in the graveyard, a non-Jewish family, a woman who’s been bleeding
and a little girl who is as good as dead.
Jesus says love your neighbor and he has been
rejected by his own townsfolk, doubted by his own disciples, and taunted by religious
and political leaders.
Jesus is not ignorant or unaware of the
world. If anything, Jesus is fully aware
of the world and just who his neighbors are.
And regardless if the neighbor is grumpy old
Frank telling kids to stop playing in front of his house, or it’s a child in
crises,
Jesus says “love your neighbor as yourself.”
But what is love? And what does love look like?
This week I heard a wonderful story about
love. It came from the son and daughter
of Carole Klein.
They shared how Carole had a great eye for
art and design. She created the
packaging for the items Charlie sold. Carole could find a totally fine looking wreathe
at Marshall’s, take it home to add more to it.
Carole’s son shared that one year it was his
responsibility to pick out the family Christmas Tree. He thought it would be funny to go and
purposely get the saddest, sickliest, skinny tree he could find.
He was only 15 at the time, so he can be
forgiven for his humor.
But he took that Charlie Brown- tree home and
although Carole had her questions and she had her doubts, she went ahead and
decorated that tree.
Carole took something so sickly, so sad
looking and she filled it with lights and color and beauty and class and when
she was done she placed it in the living room.
And then she turned to her son and said “Now-
we are going to get the real tree.”
Carole knew all along that her son was
playing a prank; she knew it was meant to be a joke. But she turned that nothing into something,
and to this day THAT is the tree the family most remembers.
What Carole demonstrated that year to her son
was love. She could have chosen anger;
she could have chosen discipline; she could have expressed disappointment.
But instead Carole chose love, and her family
will have a memory they will never forget.
Love and neighbor.
Essentially the entire Gospel.
But what is Love? How can we show love to a neighbor especially
when our neighbors are not us and may show love in diverse ways.
Looking back over my life, I think of the
different people and different ways each showed love.
There was a friend’s mother from Sicily who
would show her love by feeding us whenever we came over, no matter how late it
was, even at 2 am in the morning.
And I learned that one way to receive and show
that love back was to graciously accept her food and ask for seconds.
How do you show love to someone from
Haiti? Eat their rice and on May 18 to
tell them Happy Haitian Flag Day.
How do you show love to someone from
Colombia? Accept their cup of Cafecito
and drink it without adding milk and sugar.
Germans show our love by being on time and
honoring tradition.
English and Jamaicans may show love through a
cup of tea.
If you see a Veteran, thank them for their
service.
If there is an elderly person, don’t quickly zoom
behind and before them.
If you meet a person of color, learn to pronounce
their name correctly to honor the mother, auntie, grandmother who lovingly
chose that name.
How do we show love? If you know an introvert, be quiet and treat
them to a night inside.
To show love to an extrovert, you’re going to
have to attend a party now and then or not be jealous when they go without you.
If you want to show love to a grandchild,
niece or nephew who is a true Legos, D & D or comic book fan, take them to
a store and let them go go go while you sit down, allowing them their time in fan
club heaven.
The list for ways to show love to our
neighbors goes on and on and on. It’s a
beautiful thing, and it’s often so easy to do and costs so little.
Jesus does such an amazing thing right here
in today’s reading. When he’s asked a
complicated question, he responds with the simplest and most life-giving of
answers.
Love.
Love God. Love your neighbor.
Because when we do, when we love God, when we
love those around us, heaven is one step closer, and the Gospel that much clearer.
Love.
Love God. Love neighbor.
That’s essentially the whole Gospel summed up
in 5 words.
Carole Klein embodied that love.
Next week we get to show that love to the
people of ARC as we wear our socks, welcome our sisters and brothers, and
praise the Lord together.
For that, let us say “Amen.”
No comments:
Post a Comment