As we explore the new normal we find ourselves in during the COVID-19 pandemic the Mount Olivet community has been sharing devotionals to keep our community connected. Here’s my offering for Wednesday, October 28, 2020,

“Which commandment is the first of all?”
Read Mark 12:28-34

All of us have had saints in our lives, those who have passed onto life eternal in Christ, who guided us in living out these two commandments. For me, two of those people are Carol Frank and Lori Shipley. These two women helped to see and experience the grace of God but they also helped me to learn to respond to that grace and share it with others.

The saints aid us in moving from what John Wesley referred to as justifying grace, when we accept the love and mercy extended to us by Christ, onto sanctifying grace, our own growing and maturing in faith, seeking to live just as Christ did. This is not a static, one, and done movement according to Wesley. Instead, this is an ongoing movement as we encounter the love of God through Jesus Christ.

So often though, we think that to move from justification to sanctification or holiness requires us to live out the greatest commandments – love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… You shall love your neighbor as yourself - before we do anything else. I’m not suggesting that we should not live those commandments out, after all, Jesus tells us point-blank that we should, but because I know that I continually fall short of the glory of God I know it can be a difficult journey. After all, so many gods are competing for our attention that we, at times, do not live into the prayer proclaimed by Christ. And loving our neighbor sounds easy enough but loving our neighbor includes:

“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien.”

“You shall not render an unjust judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great: with justice you shall judge your neighbor.”

“You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not profit by the blood of your neighbor.”

“You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself.”

"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Loving our neighbor in the way Jesus told the scribe to, tells us today, is a tall task. While I hold Mrs. Frank and Lori in saintly esteem, I know there were times when they too fell short of the greatest of all the commandments. The first step though, to becoming a saint is not holiness, it is not loving “the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” or loving your neighbor. The first step in the sanctification John Wesley wrote and preached about is trusting that through the incarnation,

God donning human flesh and dwelling among us in Christ, God became our neighbor and loved us as himself to the fullest the law demanded. When the greatest of the commandments seems to be more than we can bear, we have Jesus who guides us by showing us first how to love one another. Repeatedly we see in Christ’s ministry how to love our neighbors.

With a woman at a well.

With a hungry crowd of people.

With his closest friends, around a table, sharing bread and wine together.

On the cross.

The saints of the past and us today have flaws. They, we, fell short of what Christ describes as the greatest of the things we are supposed to do. But in Christ loving us as himself, the saints and each of us are made righteous. What once was thought to separate us from the love of God is no more and Christ invites us to join him and the saints around His table. Clothed in the righteousness of Christ through our Baptism into His life, death, and resurrection, and not our own self-righteousness, we are declared holy.

The greatest commandments, loving “the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” and loving your neighbor is a little less daunting knowing that before we ever attempt to fulfill it, Christ first loved us. Christ fulfilled it for us.