October 31, 2021
Penelope Bridges
Love God, Love Neighbor
Let’s think about Naomi for a moment. She and her husband and their two sons were emigrants from Israel to Israel’s enemy Moab, driven from their homeland by famine. She was widowed, but fortunately her sons were adults and had wives, so she wasn’t initially left to starve. But then she lost both her sons, and there were no grandchildren to comfort her. What to do, in her grief and despair? All the loss and death she had hoped to escape by emigrating had followed her to Moab. Naomi was alone in a foreign land, the land of her people’s enemies. Well, not quite alone. She had her two Moabite daughters in law. So now there were three widows, all potentially destitute. And the only option left to Naomi was to take the long and dangerous trek back to Bethlehem.
Orpah was persuaded to return to her family of origin, but not Ruth. Why? Maybe she couldn’t face the shame of going home childless and bereft. Maybe she had adopted the Jewish faith and would be rejected by her family. Maybe there was no family left. For whatever reason, Ruth chose to go to Bethlehem with her mother in law. She chose to leave the familiar and go out into the unknown, with no assurance that she would find security or even a welcome among the enemies of her people at the other end of the journey. She chose to go with her mother in law whom she loved: she wasn’t going to abandon Naomi to an uncertain fate. Where Naomi was once driven to emigrate by hunger, Ruth chose to emigrate for love.
We won’t hear the rest of Ruth’s story next week, because we will celebrate All Saints Sunday. But just so you’re not left hanging, Ruth and Naomi return safely to Bethlehem; Naomi encourages Ruth to flirt with her relative Boaz; Boaz takes her for his wife, and their son becomes the grandfather of King David. Ruth the foreigner is one of the four women named by St. Matthew in Jesus’ family tree, along with Tamar (who seduced her father-in-law), Rahab (who ran a brothel), and Bathsheba (who committed adultery with David). Not exactly your usual royal family tree.
Ruth’s courageous decision, driven by love, provides us an illustration for the love of neighbor that the scribe in our Gospel proclaims. Ruth will face all the uncertainty and danger that Naomi faces, for love of her; and, because we know the end of the story, we know that Ruth will ultimately be able to provide a home and a grandchild for Naomi in her old age. To love your neighbor as yourself means to be willing to give up your own security for the other. To love God with all your heart and understanding and strength means to be willing to follow where God calls, no matter how frightening or strange it might seem.
Our Gospel passage starts in the middle of an argument. Jesus is in the Temple precincts, and his parables have increasingly infuriated the authorities. One group after another tries to trap him into saying something blasphemous or subversive. But they are having no luck. Then this scribe, who seems supportive of Jesus, asks him this question: “Which commandment is the greatest of all?” And Jesus gives an answer that is textbook for Jewish law, and one that we know he embodies.
“And after that nobody dared to ask him any questions.” Now, that last sentence sounds like good news on the face of it, but we know that the enemies of Jesus have already decided to find a way to destroy him. The fact that they stop asking questions, they stop having conversation with him, suggests that they have given up on getting him to incriminate himself; the only option left to them is violence. And so the stage is set for the betrayal and passion of Jesus. And what is their rationale for this crime? Because, in his teaching and ministry, he has exposed the hypocrisy and hollowness of the religious authorities and called them back to the fundamental mandate to love. And love is not what the people in power want to be about.
Love is not a feeling but an action verb. It’s no good saying we love if we don’t act in loving ways. What are some actions that demonstrate our love for God and neighbor? We can honor God’s creation by taking care of this fragile earth, our island home, reducing waste, being satisfied with less, using renewable energy sources. We can show our love for God by the trust we put in God’s care for us; and by the way we care for God’s creatures, the life forms that share this planet, including our fellow human beings.
And loving our neighbors? We know who our neighbors are: they are every single human being whose life intersects with ours. How shall we love our neighbors at St. Paul’s? By serving those in need; by caring for one another; by honoring the personhood and dignity of every human being, even those we profoundly disagree with; by giving those who come through our doors a safe space, a community of friends, a place to become fully whom God has made them to be. Our mission statement sums it up: we love Christ, we serve others, we welcome all. And we do this with open and generous hearts, giving thanks for the blessings of beautiful liturgy, warm friendships, and opportunities to share our joys and sorrows.
As I’ve been writing thank-you notes for your 2022 pledges, I have repeatedly stated my hope that we will change lives next year. I think about Naomi and Ruth, the radical changes their lives went through as they migrated, loved, and lost, changes known only too well by millions of migrants in our world. I think about the involuntary changes our lives have gone through since the beginning of 2020. Some changes come upon us unexpectedly and some are unwelcome; not all change brings a happy ending and new life as the story of Naomi and Ruth did.
But we have agency to change our own lives and those of our neighbors, working together to bring us all a little closer to the Kingdom of God. We can be a transformative presence in Bankers Hill and across San Diego, loving, serving, and welcoming. We can open our doors to those who think the church is closed to them. We can offer children the opportunity to develop their brains through choral singing. We can provide showers and beds for our unsheltered friends when they want and need them. We can make a difference in the lives of people who are incarcerated and people who live alone – I wrote about that in my letter this week. There are many, many ways in which we can love God and our neighbor, if we unite to provide the support and resources we need.
Today of course is the day before All Saints or, to use older language, the Eve of All Hallows. Halloween – a time when we love to be scared. Years ago, when there was a lot on the news about pirates off the coast of Somalia, a thoughtful 8-year-old asked me why we dress up as pirates for fun, when they are such bad people. I tried to explain to him that one way human beings deal with things we are afraid of is by making them ridiculous, by laughing at them, because it diminishes them, it shrinks the bogeyman and pushes him back under the bed.
On All Hallows Eve we laugh at death to chase away our fear of death; because death is the great unknown. Tomorrow, All Saints Day, we will celebrate those who have passed through the veil, and who have shown us something about what it means to love God and neighbor, and we will claim a continuing connection with them that not even death can sever. Jesus calls us to love, to love God with all our heart and mind and strength; and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The love that we experience in God is stronger than death; and so we come full circle, back to Ruth, the outsider, the bereft, who promised to be with her beloved always, even in death. That is the promise God makes to us through Jesus; that’s the good news that we proclaim as the followers of Jesus: that we will never be abandoned by the Lord who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and who keeps faith forever.
