2-2-2019

 Good Morning All,

               Matthew 22:39; “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

     We were together for a little community building and community improvement morning.  We were working at our little ballfield adding some fencing, fixing the bleachers, spiffing up the concession stand and the like.  We would spend a couple hours in the morning and then cook up brats and hot dogs from the stand and have fun.  It was great last time we did and looked to be great this time as a few of the ladies brought fresh salads and a community picnic was in store.  Everyone was laughing and joking and just having fun.  Well almost everyone.  One couple apparently was continuing a conversation that may have started at home.  It was a little “chippy” to say the least.

    I don’t know how many noticed; not many I hope.  I noticed because I happened up behind them while they were putting the fence on the posts.  They were pointing out how crooked the other one’s was and how they had missed the staple and dinged the wood and so on and so on.  The husband finally said something about having to redo all the wife’s nailing.  She threw down her hammer and stormed off telling him, “why, it’s straighter then yours!”

    It is kind of strange how, when we want to attack, we often compare.  It is almost as if that is the default thought of sinful man.  I am better than you are.  I have more money, I have a more prestigious job, I farm more land, I am taller, I am faster, I am in better shape, the list goes on and on; all in an attempt to make ourselves greater.  We even use false markers to identify weaknesses in the other person.  We use race, creed, hair color, school which they attended and just about anything else we can find.  We don’t even need to be greater; we just need to make the other person smaller, just so we look bigger.  

    This sinful nature is destructive on so many different levels; it is clear why the devil likes to use it.  We demean the other person and cause them to doubt their value.  We reduce our value by revealing a hateful and bitter part of us.  The relationship between two people who only attack each other is always toxic and lacking compassion and trust.  This is why Jesus tells us the second part of God’s law is to love your neighbor as yourself.

    The first is to love God above everything.  The second is to be the reaction and completion of the first.  Because we love God, we should love to do his will which is to care for the creation and all the creatures in it (that includes us.) This service of love, that is doing something that benefits your neighbor, thus brings about the totality of God’s law.  It finishes the circle of life; loving God by serving our neighbor.  This is the purpose we exist and this is where we will find contentment.

Father of mercy, bring us into your loving arms and strengthen us to love one another.  You have given us and shown us your perfect love.  Instill in us a desire to live in your wondrous kingdom.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret