Tag: Matthew 22

Starting over

I was amazed how quickly my six year old son could wear out a pair of jeans. The knees would go first.

The fabric begins by looking a little worn. Then a small tear would appear in the middle of the knee area. That small tear would soon be a full fledged rip. Sometimes I would patch the rip. Then the other knee would go. Sometimes the hem at the back of the leg would also fray. Depending on how long the pants were. The constant wear of walking, fraying the fabric. Even the back pockets would sometime tear – not sure how this was happening, but it would.

At some point I would look at the jeans and decide there was no point continuing to patch them. They would be tossed in the rag pile and I’d have to go buy a new pair of pants.

This has been happening to our society. We have been experience this wear and tear on the social fabric for years. We’ve acknowledged the problems and patched them where we could. The handling of the Covid crisis was a major and violent rip in the social fabric. This was possible because the threads holding up our society were already shockingly week.

It is time to go back to the beginning to start over. We need to stop trying to figure out how to save this pair of pants and rethink the whole thing. Go back to the beginning. Go back to the Creator, the Word, the Spirit. We need to establish what is most important and begin to elevate that. We need to throw our weight behind our values.

Here is a good place to start. When asked to say which is the greatest commandment, Jesus responded.

Matthew 22: 37-40 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

One of two commandments

I was looking for something to listen to and I cranked up the YouTube to see if I could find a speaker or video about this topic. I began to type – Love… lots of love songs pop up. Love your… yourself lots of self-love. Love your n… oddly enough love nature came next. Love your neighb… finally love your neighbour.

That took a lot of letters.

It says something about our society though.

Jesus said, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Note we don’t need to be instructed in how to love ourselves. Contrary to public opinion we do that a lot. Are we always loving ourselves in a productive and useful way, that is another story. But we are naturally absorbed in our own world and point of view. That is inevitable and we all do it. No we are told to love our neighbours as ourselves.

Are we told to love them when they agree with us or do the things we want them to do? No.

Are we told to love them when they are nice and worthy of our love and respect? No.

Love is work. People are messy. Loving people can be hard to do. But don’t pat yourself on the back and think, well I’ve done my best, I’ve tried, they are just unlovable. No. Jesus didn’t say ‘do this if you can, if it works out for you.’ It is one of two commandments he gives.

Love God with your whole self is the first, love your neighbor as yourself is the second.

As I listen to friends who are struggling with hurt and misunderstanding and anger even in their own families, I wonder: Are we getting this wrong? Do we know how to do this?

As I searched this morning I found this video on YouTube. It’s long, but listen to it. There is nothing I could say that he doesn’t say better. It is old – like 150 years old. Maybe Solomon was right – maybe there is really nothing new under the sun.

Matthew 22: 37-40 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”