Monday, September 28, 2009

Old Jim

Old Jim was an outspoken elder in the church. One Sunday after church he said, “Preacher, if I hear one more sermon on love I’m going to scream.”

The problem Jim had to face is that at the core of the Gospel, that Jesus taught is LOVE according to Mark 12:28-34

28One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; 33and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God..”[NRSV]

From John’s Gospel we find Jesus saying,

“15:13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”[NRSV]

Then Jesus himself did just that for all of us on the cross!

So if old Jim needs to scream out loud – I guess he will just have to because the message of Jesus that, “God loves you,” is so simple and so powerful and that’s all that really matters.

2 comments:

  1. And we need love much more than the many things we think we need

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  2. Hi Pastor. Enjoyed this post. Hope you are having a great week.

    ReplyDelete