1 00:00:00,925 --> 00:00:06,725 Beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ, may mercy 2 00:00:06,725 --> 00:00:10,125 peace and love be yours in ever greater measure. 3 00:00:11,125 --> 00:00:11,725 Amen. 4 00:00:15,025 --> 00:00:20,425 If I have understood the press releases, rightly our Chapel Services 5 00:00:20,425 --> 00:00:22,825 are now being publicly live-streamed. 6 00:00:24,425 --> 00:00:26,825 I certainly want to welcome in the name of the Lord 7 00:00:26,825 --> 00:00:30,325 anyone who's joining us this morning through such a connection. 8 00:00:32,025 --> 00:00:34,825 But I must confess your presence 9 00:00:34,825 --> 00:00:40,325 also raises a significant question of audience for those of us who 10 00:00:40,325 --> 00:00:41,625 fill this pulpit. 11 00:00:43,625 --> 00:00:49,225 I've been here at Concordia almost 20 years now and over those years. 12 00:00:50,125 --> 00:00:55,325 Over those years, the congregation gathered here has become slowly but 13 00:00:55,325 --> 00:00:56,825 steadily more diverse. 14 00:00:58,025 --> 00:01:04,225 From primarily American M.Div. students to a group of future pastors, 15 00:01:04,325 --> 00:01:09,325 deaconesses missionaries and professors who come to Concordia from 16 00:01:09,325 --> 00:01:13,725 literally around the world, not to mention their families. 17 00:01:13,925 --> 00:01:20,825 That is spouses and children, ranging from infant to adolescent and 18 00:01:20,825 --> 00:01:25,525 not to mention faculty colleagues, both junior and senior. 19 00:01:26,325 --> 00:01:30,325 And Seminary staff as diverse as the St. 20 00:01:30,325 --> 00:01:32,525 Louis metro area, can provide. 21 00:01:34,225 --> 00:01:34,825 Still 22 00:01:36,025 --> 00:01:39,425 that's a much more homogeneous group than cyberspace. 23 00:01:40,525 --> 00:01:43,425 And we preachers have enjoyed the luxury of preaching 24 00:01:43,425 --> 00:01:48,925 to people, we know fairly well. People who share a rather concrete and 25 00:01:48,925 --> 00:01:52,625 particular purpose for coming here to this Chapel. 26 00:01:53,825 --> 00:01:58,025 People whose life rhythms follow a pretty similar pattern. 27 00:02:00,125 --> 00:02:01,525 Who am I to imagine 28 00:02:01,525 --> 00:02:07,325 as my hearers in this uncharted territory, somewhere between the 29 00:02:07,325 --> 00:02:10,625 Lutheran Hour and the Meyer Minute? 30 00:02:13,525 --> 00:02:17,125 It was not however, the press release that first got me thinking about 31 00:02:17,125 --> 00:02:19,525 audience in connection with his message. 32 00:02:21,325 --> 00:02:22,825 It was the text. 33 00:02:24,625 --> 00:02:28,825 Even though I'm generally quite fond of the sorts of things that Jesus 34 00:02:28,825 --> 00:02:32,425 says this passage has never been a favorite. 35 00:02:34,425 --> 00:02:35,225 Why not? 36 00:02:36,725 --> 00:02:39,725 Because part of me has never been quite sure 37 00:02:39,725 --> 00:02:44,825 what the first half of our gospel is supposed to be saying to me. 38 00:02:46,525 --> 00:02:47,425 What part? 39 00:02:48,925 --> 00:02:50,425 Well, not the old Adam 40 00:02:50,625 --> 00:02:54,025 he hears the message of this text loud and clear. 41 00:02:54,825 --> 00:02:56,125 Love God. 42 00:02:57,125 --> 00:03:00,125 I can't love your neighbor. 43 00:03:00,925 --> 00:03:02,125 I don't want to. 44 00:03:04,325 --> 00:03:08,125 The old Adam knows of only one great commandment. 45 00:03:09,425 --> 00:03:12,025 Love yourself as your God. 46 00:03:13,225 --> 00:03:19,525 And there is no second like it, but this law of self is crushed by 47 00:03:19,525 --> 00:03:24,625 these words of Jesus and to the inescapable directness of Jesus test 48 00:03:24,625 --> 00:03:25,325 question. 49 00:03:25,725 --> 00:03:27,125 Do you love? 50 00:03:29,525 --> 00:03:35,525 I can only answer with bowed head, paraphrasing, slightly the words of 51 00:03:35,525 --> 00:03:38,425 Peter, you know, all things 52 00:03:38,425 --> 00:03:39,025 Lord. 53 00:03:40,225 --> 00:03:41,025 You know 54 00:03:42,125 --> 00:03:43,225 that I don't. 55 00:03:45,325 --> 00:03:49,725 No, it's the new man who can't figure out what to make of these words. 56 00:03:49,725 --> 00:03:51,125 And here's the problem. 57 00:03:52,525 --> 00:03:56,025 When I hear Jesus speak these words in response to the lawyer's 58 00:03:56,025 --> 00:03:56,725 question. 59 00:03:56,725 --> 00:04:01,425 I hear him pointing me somewhere else. 60 00:04:02,525 --> 00:04:04,125 Away from himself. 61 00:04:05,325 --> 00:04:09,325 He was asked for the place where we can find the greatness of the law. 62 00:04:09,325 --> 00:04:14,125 And for the new me, that means the greatness of the will of Jesus 63 00:04:14,125 --> 00:04:15,825 father and my father. 64 00:04:17,125 --> 00:04:20,825 Point me to its greatness, show me how it all hangs together. 65 00:04:20,825 --> 00:04:23,825 Where is its Alpha where it's Omega? 66 00:04:24,525 --> 00:04:26,425 What is the way the truth 67 00:04:26,425 --> 00:04:29,025 and the life of the will of the father? 68 00:04:30,825 --> 00:04:34,325 The new me doesn't ask this question to test or tempt 69 00:04:34,325 --> 00:04:38,125 my Jesus. The new me wants to hear in his answer 70 00:04:38,925 --> 00:04:43,025 how I might live and move and have my being in him. 71 00:04:45,025 --> 00:04:50,625 And I struggle to see him in the answer. 72 00:04:53,325 --> 00:04:55,225 To ask my question in another way. 73 00:04:56,425 --> 00:05:02,125 I am simply asking, how am I to relate this great and first 74 00:05:02,125 --> 00:05:04,025 commandment and its second 75 00:05:05,425 --> 00:05:07,125 to the new commandment. 76 00:05:08,025 --> 00:05:12,725 Love one another as I have loved you. 77 00:05:14,225 --> 00:05:15,125 In that response 78 00:05:15,125 --> 00:05:17,225 I have no problem finding Jesus. 79 00:05:17,225 --> 00:05:20,525 He's right there in the middle of it, surrounded by love on both 80 00:05:20,525 --> 00:05:21,125 sides. 81 00:05:22,225 --> 00:05:24,525 Why then in Our Gospel for today 82 00:05:25,225 --> 00:05:29,225 does he point me away from himself to something else? 83 00:05:32,525 --> 00:05:36,025 Because of course, he doesn't. 84 00:05:37,825 --> 00:05:41,925 Let the one who has ears to hear, listen. 85 00:05:44,625 --> 00:05:47,925 That's what Jesus always says when he gets to the tricky part, so I 86 00:05:47,925 --> 00:05:49,925 thought I could borrow that for a minute. 87 00:05:52,125 --> 00:05:58,025 Hear these words beyond the simple fact, so to speak, that Jesus's 88 00:05:58,025 --> 00:06:01,225 first and immediate response is to love God. 89 00:06:02,125 --> 00:06:06,225 The obviousness that this should come first may cause you to read or 90 00:06:06,225 --> 00:06:07,825 hear too fast 91 00:06:09,225 --> 00:06:14,225 and to miss the fullness of his response. And I know Jesus isn't 92 00:06:14,225 --> 00:06:15,925 making up something new here. 93 00:06:15,925 --> 00:06:22,525 He bases his reply on Deuteronomy 6 a passage his hearers know very 94 00:06:22,525 --> 00:06:23,025 well. 95 00:06:25,425 --> 00:06:27,425 But it sounds different. 96 00:06:27,525 --> 00:06:30,225 It sounds new when we hear him 97 00:06:30,225 --> 00:06:30,925 say it. 98 00:06:32,125 --> 00:06:36,025 Now had he said simply love God with your heart, your soul and your 99 00:06:36,025 --> 00:06:39,225 understanding, we would have responded 100 00:06:40,025 --> 00:06:41,825 that sounds like our whole being. 101 00:06:42,925 --> 00:06:44,425 And we would have been, right. 102 00:06:47,125 --> 00:06:52,025 But he says, love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your 103 00:06:52,025 --> 00:06:54,425 whole soul and your whole mind. 104 00:06:55,225 --> 00:06:56,925 It's much more than our whole being. 105 00:06:56,925 --> 00:07:05,225 It's our whole whole being no part of us that can love is excluded. 106 00:07:05,225 --> 00:07:10,225 No, smallest part of, even the smallest part of us that can love is 107 00:07:10,225 --> 00:07:11,325 excluded. 108 00:07:12,125 --> 00:07:13,525 Zeal for this 109 00:07:13,525 --> 00:07:15,225 love consumes us. 110 00:07:15,525 --> 00:07:16,825 Nothing is left. 111 00:07:18,225 --> 00:07:21,425 What would it look like to love 112 00:07:22,425 --> 00:07:23,525 like that? 113 00:07:25,925 --> 00:07:28,525 I think, you know, but there's more. 114 00:07:30,025 --> 00:07:32,525 How can there be a second commandment 115 00:07:32,525 --> 00:07:39,025 even like the first when the first has consumed our entire being in 116 00:07:39,025 --> 00:07:39,525 love? 117 00:07:40,825 --> 00:07:42,925 In what small corner of my heart 118 00:07:42,925 --> 00:07:45,025 can I find room for my neighbor? 119 00:07:45,425 --> 00:07:47,625 If I'm loving God like that? 120 00:07:48,325 --> 00:07:50,325 What room is left for a soul mate? 121 00:07:50,325 --> 00:07:55,325 What life can I offer to live for another if I'm loving God like that? 122 00:07:56,425 --> 00:07:59,225 How can I spare a thought for my neighbor? 123 00:07:59,825 --> 00:08:02,625 When my whole mind is loving 124 00:08:02,625 --> 00:08:04,825 God like that? 125 00:08:07,125 --> 00:08:10,325 And neither guilt nor shame drives these questions. 126 00:08:10,825 --> 00:08:13,425 I'm not here concerned with the laws demands. 127 00:08:13,425 --> 00:08:16,925 I've already confessed that me as sinner I'm 128 00:08:17,425 --> 00:08:19,425 just the sinful part of me. 129 00:08:19,825 --> 00:08:22,325 There is after all only one me. 130 00:08:23,825 --> 00:08:27,325 Stands condemned before the demand for 131 00:08:27,325 --> 00:08:29,025 holy perfect. 132 00:08:29,125 --> 00:08:30,525 Holy complete. 133 00:08:31,425 --> 00:08:34,325 Holy Holy Love. 134 00:08:36,025 --> 00:08:37,225 But what about me 135 00:08:37,225 --> 00:08:38,825 new creature in Christ 136 00:08:38,825 --> 00:08:39,425 Jesus? 137 00:08:39,425 --> 00:08:40,425 Where are these words 138 00:08:40,425 --> 00:08:41,325 leading me? 139 00:08:42,025 --> 00:08:44,025 What is my master teaching me? 140 00:08:46,325 --> 00:08:49,725 He teaches me that in my question. 141 00:08:50,825 --> 00:08:52,225 Lies my answer. 142 00:08:53,925 --> 00:08:57,525 Why should he one moment point us to the law, the expression of the 143 00:08:57,525 --> 00:09:01,525 will of God for man with a command to love God. 144 00:09:01,525 --> 00:09:05,725 And the command to love neighbor, and then turn right around and leave 145 00:09:05,725 --> 00:09:10,025 us with a new commandment to love as he loves. 146 00:09:12,125 --> 00:09:12,725 Why? 147 00:09:14,125 --> 00:09:17,425 Unless the two are not as different as I thought. 148 00:09:18,525 --> 00:09:19,125 Why? 149 00:09:20,025 --> 00:09:25,425 Unless the only way to understand one is by understanding the other. 150 00:09:27,225 --> 00:09:31,625 If Franzmann is right, that Jesus, my Lord is going to his cross 151 00:09:31,725 --> 00:09:37,725 because he is willing, the will of God and that will binds him to a 152 00:09:37,725 --> 00:09:40,425 life of consummate Ministry to man. 153 00:09:42,425 --> 00:09:46,825 Then pointing me to the law is not pointing me away from himself. 154 00:09:48,325 --> 00:09:50,725 Pointing me to the will of the Father 155 00:09:51,625 --> 00:09:54,625 is drawing me to himself. 156 00:09:55,625 --> 00:09:59,125 Here is the one who's very coming into our world 157 00:09:59,125 --> 00:10:01,925 was the Declaration behold 158 00:10:01,925 --> 00:10:05,225 I have come to do your will O God. 159 00:10:07,625 --> 00:10:12,325 And what do you think about what do you think about the Christ? 160 00:10:14,325 --> 00:10:17,825 Why would Jesus follow up a question about the law with a question 161 00:10:17,825 --> 00:10:19,125 about the Christ? 162 00:10:20,725 --> 00:10:24,525 Some have suggested that both questions have to do with how the 163 00:10:24,525 --> 00:10:26,925 scriptures are read and interpreted. 164 00:10:27,925 --> 00:10:32,225 And that's true, but it seems to me that there's also another 165 00:10:32,225 --> 00:10:34,625 connection here that I was missing before. 166 00:10:35,525 --> 00:10:41,625 What if Jesus's answer to the first question is already about the 167 00:10:41,625 --> 00:10:42,425 Christ. 168 00:10:42,925 --> 00:10:48,725 What if Jesus's answer was meant to draw them to him to get them to 169 00:10:48,725 --> 00:10:53,325 stop, analyzing the word of God, for a moment and look up 170 00:10:54,125 --> 00:10:57,725 and see it incarnate before their eyes. 171 00:10:59,425 --> 00:11:04,825 Listen, again, to Jesus's words, but instead of thinking of them as law 172 00:11:05,625 --> 00:11:11,925 or ethics or points of theological insight, and power, think of them 173 00:11:11,925 --> 00:11:13,925 as sketching out a picture. 174 00:11:15,725 --> 00:11:17,225 You shall love the Lord 175 00:11:17,225 --> 00:11:21,225 your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your 176 00:11:21,225 --> 00:11:22,325 whole mind. 177 00:11:24,425 --> 00:11:27,725 What would that kind of love look like? 178 00:11:29,725 --> 00:11:31,725 Can you even imagine it? 179 00:11:33,625 --> 00:11:36,425 But you should be able to do it without any trouble at all. 180 00:11:36,725 --> 00:11:38,825 All you have to do is look at Jesus. 181 00:11:39,625 --> 00:11:42,825 When did his heart ever course with anything else? 182 00:11:42,925 --> 00:11:45,225 What part of his soul could possibly 183 00:11:45,225 --> 00:11:48,925 could you possibly claim that he ever held back? 184 00:11:50,225 --> 00:11:55,825 When did anything but love for his Father ever enter his mind? 185 00:11:57,125 --> 00:12:00,125 No wonder his Father was well pleased. 186 00:12:02,725 --> 00:12:03,525 And yet. 187 00:12:06,225 --> 00:12:07,125 And yet. 188 00:12:09,825 --> 00:12:14,925 How did he love his Father, if not by loving us? 189 00:12:16,125 --> 00:12:19,925 The gospels contain numerous references to the Father's love for his 190 00:12:19,925 --> 00:12:25,325 Son, but I could find only one place where Jesus speaks of his love 191 00:12:25,325 --> 00:12:26,325 for his Father. 192 00:12:27,625 --> 00:12:31,625 He is in the upper room with his disciples and he tells them I will no 193 00:12:31,625 --> 00:12:33,425 longer talk much with you. 194 00:12:34,425 --> 00:12:36,725 For the ruler of this world is coming. 195 00:12:37,325 --> 00:12:39,125 He has no claim on me. 196 00:12:39,425 --> 00:12:43,825 But I do as the Father has commanded me so that the world may know 197 00:12:44,825 --> 00:12:48,725 that I love the Father. Rise 198 00:12:49,825 --> 00:12:51,225 let us go from here. 199 00:12:53,725 --> 00:13:01,325 His obedience to his Father, his love for his Father and his love for 200 00:13:01,325 --> 00:13:01,825 us 201 00:13:02,325 --> 00:13:07,825 will all have their full and powerful demonstration as he goes forth 202 00:13:07,825 --> 00:13:13,225 to betrayal and arrest to torture and death on the cross to 203 00:13:13,225 --> 00:13:16,825 resurrection and return to the Father. 204 00:13:18,125 --> 00:13:25,025 He loves his Father with his whole heart whole soul and whole mind. 205 00:13:26,225 --> 00:13:28,625 By holy loving us. 206 00:13:30,025 --> 00:13:32,725 And he loves us by loving the Father. 207 00:13:33,325 --> 00:13:35,225 What the Father desires for us 208 00:13:35,225 --> 00:13:36,825 Jesus shows us. 209 00:13:37,025 --> 00:13:39,925 This is what love looks like he teaches us. 210 00:13:40,425 --> 00:13:42,625 It looks like obedience. 211 00:13:43,225 --> 00:13:49,125 It looks like hearing and doing. It looks like trust. 212 00:13:50,325 --> 00:13:53,525 It looks like me with my Father. 213 00:13:56,025 --> 00:13:59,325 What is the image that these words of our Lord portray? 214 00:14:01,025 --> 00:14:03,725 It is the Incarnation. 215 00:14:05,125 --> 00:14:09,425 Love with your entire being loved as you love life itself. 216 00:14:09,425 --> 00:14:12,325 Love as I love. 217 00:14:13,825 --> 00:14:17,925 Jesus is no more pointing as away from himself here in Matthew than he 218 00:14:17,925 --> 00:14:20,025 is, in the upper room in John. 219 00:14:21,125 --> 00:14:25,525 He is rather drawing us into his embrace enfolding us in the only 220 00:14:25,525 --> 00:14:26,325 perfect love 221 00:14:26,325 --> 00:14:28,225 there is to see in our world. 222 00:14:29,125 --> 00:14:31,325 Uniting us through, love for us 223 00:14:32,425 --> 00:14:33,725 and for Father. 224 00:14:34,925 --> 00:14:43,325 With the father himself and filling us with himself to love as he 225 00:14:43,325 --> 00:14:44,025 loves. 226 00:14:45,225 --> 00:14:52,325 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.