XXX.O.T. EX 22:20-26; Thess 1:5-10; Mt 22:34-40

 In today’ Gospel Jesus gives us the message, to be truly religious is to love God and to love the man whom God created in his own image. The first reading from Exodus explains the second greatest commandment, namely, loving one’s neighbors, especially the underprivileged. The chosen people of Israel should remember that once they were aliens in the land of Egypt.  Just as God protected them and treated them kindly, so they are to protect others and treat them with kindness.  Thus, they should become a humane society rooted in the basic religious concept of loving God living in their neighbor.  

Arthur F. Sueltz told about a man he knew who bought a lovely house in the suburbs. On the day he moved in, the man's new neighbor came running across the yard in an obviously belligerent state. "Did you buy this house?" asked the neighbor. "Yes I did," was the reply. The neighbor continued, "Well, I want to tell you something. You bought a lawsuit. You see that fence of yours? It's at least seven feet over on my side of the line, and if it takes every dollar I've got, I intend to sue you and get that fence moved." The new homeowner said, "Well, neighbor, I'm sorry to hear this. I bought this house in good faith, but I believe you're telling the truth about this situation and I'll tell you what I'm going to do. First thing tomorrow morning, Ill have that fence moved back those seven feet." The neighbor was dumbfounded. "What did you say?" The new owner repeated, "I'm going to have that fence moved back seven feet." "No, you're not," was the response. "You leave it right where it is, and anything you need is yours for the asking."

We don't know what had happened between that angry man and his previous neighbor. All the man seemed to be asking for was to be treated with a little dignity and respect. That is what most people crave. Someone who does not accord dignity and respect to others does not know the Gospel.

There is no obedience to God which does not have to prove itself in the concrete situation of meeting one's neighbor. "Jesus does not separate love for God from love for man, since the latter flows from the former, and since without the latter the former is impossible." They both are like two sides of the same coin. But the first is always the first. Loving God has to be manifested in our life.

Pastor Jimmy D. Brown tells about the first girl who ever caught his eye. They were in second grade together. Up until this point he confesses that he just wanted to throw rocks at girls. But this girl was different. He didn’t want to throw rocks at her. Her name was Sherri and she was as cute as anything young Jimmy had ever seen. She had short little pigtails and wore the sweetest little dress with a great big teddy bear on it. She also had the prettiest smile, especially with that middle tooth missing. And she could jump out of a swing farther than any of them. In short, Sherri was great, in his estimation.

          He remembers one day this lovely child passed him a note during class and it read, “Do you love me?” Uh-oh, things are getting serious. He says he didn’t even know what love was, but he learned early that girls like to hear you say that you love them, so he checked, “Yes” on the note and passed it back.

At recess that day Sherri came up to him with a big smile on her face and said, “Say it.” By this time he had no idea what she was talking about.

“Say what?” he replied.

“Say that you love me,” she said. It kind of embarrassed him, but he went ahead and said, “I love you.”

          The next day Sherri came up to him and said, “Do you really love me?”

          “Yes,” he replied.

          “Do you mean it?” she asked seriously. “A lot of the boys tell me they love me, but some of them don’t mean it.”

          Even at the tender age of 7, says Brown, he knew the right answer to this question. “Of course I mean it.”

          He says that satisfied her for that day, but on the following day she came up to him again and said, “If you love me and you mean it, then why don’t you show it?”

          “Good grief,” he was thinking. “I let her have my special GI Joe eraser, I stopped pulling her pigtails, I even made Tommy and Billy stop calling her names. What more did she want?”

          “You’re supposed to hold my hand,” she said with a stern look on her face. “And play with me at recess. And sit next to me during free time . . . you’re supposed to show it.”

          “Almost twenty‑five years have passed since that day,” says Pastor Jimmy Brown. “It always makes me laugh when I think back to that second grade class. It also always amazes me how God can use the ordinary events of life, even that of a 7-year-old boy, to teach us about Him. For instance, God asks the same questions that the little girl asked me. ‘Do you love me?’ Quickly we check off the appropriate box, ‘Yes. Of course I love you, God.’

“‘Then, say it.’ He responds. ‘Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.’ (Psalms 107:2)

“‘I love you, Lord,’ we say with a smile, particularly on Sunday mornings or during our daily prayers.

“‘Do you mean it?’ He asks. ‘Because a lot of people say that they love me, but some of them don’t mean it.’ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.’ (Mark 7:6)

          “‘Of course, I mean it,’ we quickly answer.

          “‘Then show it.’ God concludes. ‘If you love me, keep my commandments’ (John 14:15). 

Concludes Jimmy Brown, “do you love God . . . Do you really love Him? If you do . . . SAY IT, MEAN IT, SHOW IT. Say it with your words, mean it in your heart and show it with your actions. After all, that’s what He did for you when He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross.”

         The component of biblical love is not affection or a fussy feeling, but a commitment, a choice, a decision we make to place Him above all else.

Of course the most important way we show our love for God is by how we live our life. When we leave this place of worship, our friends and our family will know whether we’ve truly been in the presence of God by how we live.

Let’s pray that we may whole heartedly love God: love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and all being. And love our neighbor as ourselves.