The Two are 1
A reading for Wednesday, October 14, 2015: Luke 10:25-27.
What if the law was not just about us, our need to be righteous, and our need for eternal life? What if it were just as much about our neighbor?
Sometimes it almost seems like the greatest commandment, as our lesson today, is two separated statements. The first is about us, while the second is about the neighbor. In our compartmentalized world view, the two are different. There is self, my experience... and then there is the other, my neighbor. In that worldview, it's a slippery slope to loving my neighbor being also about what's in my own best interest. I love others as a means to save myself? What if there is another (no pun intended) way to look at it?
What if the two were the same, myself and my neighbor? What if what's best for me is also best for the other? Can I imagine a world view in which obeying the law is not just about eternal life for me but also eternal life for my neighbor? In our world today, we seem to be rediscovering that we are connected to one another in such a profound way, that separating what's best for me is almost impossible from what's best for my neighbor.
Mother Theresa said, "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." There is no us and them, me and then my neighbor. I can't save myself even by loving God and loving my neighbor. It's still God's grace for us all!
Maybe that's what Jesus was pointing us to, the greatest commandment is this:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
What if the law was not just about us, our need to be righteous, and our need for eternal life? What if it were just as much about our neighbor?
Sometimes it almost seems like the greatest commandment, as our lesson today, is two separated statements. The first is about us, while the second is about the neighbor. In our compartmentalized world view, the two are different. There is self, my experience... and then there is the other, my neighbor. In that worldview, it's a slippery slope to loving my neighbor being also about what's in my own best interest. I love others as a means to save myself? What if there is another (no pun intended) way to look at it?
What if the two were the same, myself and my neighbor? What if what's best for me is also best for the other? Can I imagine a world view in which obeying the law is not just about eternal life for me but also eternal life for my neighbor? In our world today, we seem to be rediscovering that we are connected to one another in such a profound way, that separating what's best for me is almost impossible from what's best for my neighbor.
Mother Theresa said, "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." There is no us and them, me and then my neighbor. I can't save myself even by loving God and loving my neighbor. It's still God's grace for us all!
Maybe that's what Jesus was pointing us to, the greatest commandment is this:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
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