A SERMON FOR OCTOBER 31, 2021
BY THE REV'D HEATHER LIDDELL

You are not far from the Kingdom of God

Let us Pray: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy spirit, amen.

"You are not far from the kingdom of God."

I don't love being wrong. Do you? I've been thinking this week - a lot - about what it means that this Scribe who had spent his life studying Scripture came over and asked Jesus - the new kid on the block - a robust - a juicy - theological question. 

"Which commandment is the first of all?

Now, this was a topic of some debate - a hot button topic - what is the greatest commandment. What is the most important thing - the ritualistic practices of their religion or the essence of it. 

"Which commandment is the first of all?"

And Jesus - well, He brings together a quote from Deuteronomy (6:4-5) and a quote from Leviticus (19:18), and he makes of the two together a new thing. 

It is not that one is the most important and the other is a close second. 

It is that the first cannot exist without the second. 

The first cannot exist in the abstract. 

It cannot be separated from the material realities of our lives. 

We cannot love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and souls, and minds, and strength without loving our neighbours. 

The first commandment Jesus mentions is the Hear O Israel, a prayer that his audience would have said at least daily. 

"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one you 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."

So to put this whole exchange in context, Jesus had just endured three rounds of questioning in the temple. 

Firstly, the chief priest's - those in charge of the temple - approached him and asked a series of testing questions.

Then, it is the Pharisee's and the Herodian's turn and they, in turn, question Jesus trying to trip him up and show his politics - is he loyal to Rome? Is he a Zealot? Is he a revolutionary? Is he trying to make a claim on Herod's puppet throne?

Then the Sadducees have a go - this sect explicitly does not believe in the resurrection and yet question Jesus about the resurrection. 

It's bare-knuckle boxing without a single punch being thrown… just words as blows. 

Then, finally, we reach today's reading, and the young Scribe steps up to the ring with his own question. What's the first commandment? And Jesus - the Son of God who is God - answers him before offering us an incredible - knock it out of the park - pun: 

"You are not far from the kingdom of God."

Now, does Jesus mean that this Scribe almost gets it? That his theology is almost there - or is Jesus telling him that he is standing not far from the kingdom of God - not far from Jesus himself?

It is times like these that I sure do wish we could hear Christ's tone!

We don't know for sure which of those possible meanings Jesus meant but what we do know is that when Jesus said: 

"You are not far from the kingdom of God." 

After that - no one dared to ask him any more questions.

We cannot love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and souls, and minds, and strength without loving our neighbours. 

Yesterday I had the great honour of Emceeing A Common Word Alberta's annual Christian-Islamic dialogue event. The food was, as always, incredible, and the conversations were as always invigorating. This year we had a panel of students - young people who shared about their own understandings of faith and why it was important to them. It was humbling and beautiful and profoundly human to discuss what matters most to everyone there - their faith. 

Now, I started out this sermon by asking how you feel about being wrong. I don't love being wrong. I suspect you don't love being wrong, and I think our readings today would corroborate that the Chief Priests and the Pharisees and Herodians and Sudccess and Scribes didn't love being wrong either. 

Yet, when faced with the living God - all of their learning and traditions and cleverness fell short. 

I have to admit that I have a soft spot for this Scribe who seems to have less of an agenda than the other questioners. He seems genuinely to be asking what Jesus thinks. 

And as we questioned each other yesterday about who we understood ourselves to be - about who we understand God to be - about what we understand to be the most important thing - the first commandment - I couldn't help but think back to this passage and to the questions of this Scribe because as Jesus said, We cannot love the Lord our God with all our heart, and souls, and minds, and strength without loving our neighbours. 

The Chief Priests wanted to win when they questioned Jesus

The Pharisees and the Herodians wanted to win when they questioned Jesus

The Sadducee wanted to win when he questioned Jesus

But, it is less clear if the Scribe wanted to win or if he just wanted to know.

Let's be a community that just wants to know. 

Let's be a community that doesn't have the answers but dares to ask the questions.

Let's be a community that is willing to be wrong.

Let's be a community that loves the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength.

Let's be a community that loves our neighbours as ourselves

Amen.