24 PENTECOST, PROPER 25

SERMON PREACHED AT CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NORWAY, MAINE

THE REV. ANNE G. STANLEY

29 OCTOBER 2008

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“The real possibility that our actions are depleting the earth’s genetic resources, changing the climate and the composition of the atmosphere and upsetting the chemical balance of our lakes and waterways proves that if we all do as we please in the short run, we will all lose in the long run….We have an opportunity to break the negative trends of the past. For this to happen we need new concepts and new values based on a global ethic. We must mobilize political will and human ingenuity. We need closer multilateral cooperation based on the recognition that nations are increasingly interdependent…It is politically, economically and morally unacceptable (and I would add, spiritually unacceptable) that there is a net transfer of resources from poor countries to rich ones.”

Tough words written in 1990 by the Director of the World Health Organization.

“What’s the most important law of all?” the lawyer asked Jesus. Another quiz for Jesus from his critics. “The greatest law? Love God,” said Jesus, “and love your neighbor.”  A double commandment, each part equal to the other, each part inseparable from the other. Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

If we love God, then loving our neighbor will follow naturally. And if we love our neighbor, we are loving God at the same time, even if we don’t realize it.

In biblical times, neighbors were those within one’s group; one was attached to one’s group. Nowadays our vision has expanded beyond our group to include neighbors around the world. Our neighbors include our planet and its animals and plants and all that God has made. Our neighbors include the universe and beyond.

More and more now we are realizing that all parts of creation need all other parts and are interdependent, neighbor to neighbor. And we are, thank God, coming to realize that if we do as we please in the short run, we will all lose in the long run.

In the beginning, there was one rule in the Hebrew Scriptures—“Do not eat the apple!” Then God gave three rules to Noah. The three expanded to ten commandments, given to Moses. Eventually there were 613 laws in the scriptures, 248 yeses and 365 nos. 613 rules of life. Until along came that lawyer who pinned Jesus down. “What’s the greatest law of them all?” he wanted to know. And Jesus picked out two, which were really one big law: love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

Actually, rabbis before Jesus had picked those commandments. We love it when everything is brand new with Jesus. But this time Jesus wasn’t first. The rabbis knew their scripture and they picked those two most important laws. And so did Jesus, who also knew his scriptures. Those commandments were embedded with the 613. What WAS new with Jesus was that “neighbors” for him included not merely those we like and feel comfortable with, but our enemies, too. Love extends to include our enemies, unpleasant people and nasty bits of our natural world alike. People and things that might just have a role to play in God’s scheme of things.

Unity, attachment to, concern for and care of, awareness of, commitment to---love.  It’s all there in the commandment to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. An ethic of love. A global ethic of love. How we treat each other and our world.

Your diocesan convention has just finished. We met in Bangor, Carlyn Watts, Peter Bickford, Barbi Tinder and I, along with lay reps and clergy and diocesan staff and guests, together with our new bishop, Stephen Lane, for the better part of three days. We had work to do, connections to make with people from all over the diocese. As I reflected on it all last night I came to realize that even though we had no named theme of this year’s convention, the overarching essence was our one-ness, our feeling of connection, one with another, each of us with the wider world, with the rest of the Anglican Communion and with our environment.

This convention was rather quiet, with a resolute sense of purpose, infused, I felt, with the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it was quiet in part because all of us missed the presence of Vicki Weiderker, our Canon for Deployment, who is always there, and many of you know her. Vicki wasn’t there because her daughter, Alyysa, had just died at age 28 of a sudden heart attack. This news settled on us heavily.

But there was a solid joy, too, as we began our life together with Bishop Steve, who is a strong leader with a light touch. And we with worked with a sense of calm purpose.

All of what we did had everything to do with loving God and loving our neighbors. We established the first Sunday of Lent as Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday, a day to acknowledge and act on our commitment to reaching out to struggling places in our world, a day of commitment to the Millennium Goals. We passed legislation concerning just pay for clergy and lay employees. And we passed a resolution which aims to repair the damage enacted by the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in 2006, legislation which discouraged dioceses from welcoming gay and lesbian clergy as bishops as a way of ensuring Episcopal Church’s place in the councils of the wider Anglican Communion. That resolution was gravely flawed. Indeed, it violated the canons of the Episcopal Church. And its provision to encourage conversations and dialogue amongst Anglicans of differing views has not been fulfilled worldwide. Our diocesan convention, by opposing that resolution and urging the next General Convention to do likewise, has now stood firm in extending a welcome to people of God, to neighbors, while still encouraging dialogue and working towards reconciliation.

Love God, love your neighbor.

At convention, we had time to hear from a number of speakers about the ministries they are involved with---environmental stewardship, Episcopal Relief and Development, the United Thank Offering, ideas about saving and conserving our planet’s precious resources.  And we heard from Cindy Oberhaus, who came from Kansas to speak to us about the Birthing Center, La Maison de Naissance, in Haiti and the work, which Christ Church supports, of providing a safe, clean place for mothers to give birth and for children to receive health care. One in 29 mothers in Haiti dies in childbirth. In the 6 mile area of served by MN, that horrible statistic has been reduced by two-thirds!  You should have heard the applause!

Bishop Steve preached about our oneness, too. He talked about last summer’s Lambeth Conference and the diversity of bishops and spouses who attended, the variety of languages and cultures. He spoke movingly about how, despite those differences, friendships were forged and commitments created---all for love.

We enact our love of God and our neighbors through what we do, in our lives, in our churches, through diocesan convention plans passed in resolutions, through our voting in elections. And through what we say. Bishop Steve told us of how hard it is to live as Christians in some parts of the world. Like northern India, where it is illegal to evangelize. In our baptismal covenant we promise to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. Telling about the Good News of Jesus Christ is illegal there. Can you imagine?

We are able to do that here. And we do it. I hear it and I see evidence of it often around Christ Church. Last week we heard the telling of it by two of our colleagues, Bob Dann and Harry Harper. This week we’ll hear from Peter Bickford and Beulah Ayer.

Next Sunday our bishop, Stephen Lane, will speak to us. For two Sundays after that, there’ll be more stories. And after that, who knows?

Love God, love our neighbors. On these two commandments hang all of scripture. As someone has said, the rest of scripture, the rest of our lives, is commentary.