You have probably heard that being a Christian is a pretty radical thing to do. But when we look at the world, do we really see Christians doing anything REALLY radical? Most of the time, at least from my perspective, Christians are pretty un-radical people. And, you know, that is too bad. As followers of Christ, who was a major league radical, we all should be at least a bit radical.
In today’s gospel reading, we are presented with another of Jesus’ radical teachings. In many ways, this could be thought of as one of the MOST radical of Jesus’ teachings. Although this challenge may not sound like much, the challenge that Jesus presents could quite literally change the world.
The challenge, or maybe we might even call it a command, is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This command is just a reworking of the Golden Rule: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. This seems like pretty simple stuff, huh? We have heard this one since we were kids. But to hear it and to put it into practice are two totally different things.
Have you ever really contemplated how truly radical this rule is? Following the command of Jesus does not promise the life of peace and ease we have come to associate with being a Christian. Following Jesus’ command can do all kinds of things. Following the command that “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” can get us pushed to the edges of society; and in extreme cases, can even get us killed. And if we take this concept to its extremes, it could revolutionize the world or even tear our concept of society apart!
Good entrepreneurs don’t want us thinking about others. The people who sell things for a living want us to be protective and self-centered. They want us to have OUR stuff and want us to look upon the accumulation of this stuff as a virtue. They want us to consider ourselves better than others because we either have some special thing or were the First to have this special thing. They don’t want us to be thinking about all the others in the world who are doing without. By getting us to focus on ourselves, this is how to move product in the marketplace. And into this world of self-centeredness, Jesus drops his little commandment: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Seven little words. But the ramifications of these “seven little words” can be truly frightening.
What aspects of our lives would we have to change if we truly loved our neighbor as ourselves? I don’t even want to think about material possessions at this moment. What would we have to change about our behavior if we were to treat our spouse, our children, our brothers and sister, and yes, even our neighbors as ourselves? In our relationships with other people, what do we want? I am guessing we want patience. I am guessing we want understanding and tolerance. I am also guessing that we want to be loved, even when we fall short of the mark. So, if these are the things we want for ourselves, are these things we are willing to extend to those around us?
Just think of how our homelife, worklife, and neighborhood community would change if we just would all be nice to each other! Think of how nice the roadways would be if we all took our turn in construction zones and didn’t rush to get ahead of the crowd. (Oops! I think I just let out one of my pet peeves!) Or those we work with and live with. What would it be like if we were to show the love to these people that we would like to experience ourselves. Just think how nice it would be if we thanked people just like we would be like to be thanked. Really little things. But these little things can add up to make a large difference.
But what if we go beyond the little things. What if we were to reach out to our neighborhood? How could we love our next door neighbor as ourselves? One example of this would be my parents. My parents are getting up in years so the people who live next to them have been mowing their lawn and shoveling their sidewalk. Without being asked and without expecting anything in return, they just take care of the lawn and the sidewalks because they saw that my parents needed help.
In what ways could you tangibly show love to those in your neighborhood? I challenge you to think of a specific person and what you could do to show love to that person. Don’t just pick your best friend either! Pick someone who may need to experience a little love in their life. It is so easy to come up with a glowing, over-arching idea, but bringing it down to the nuts and bolts of behavior is much more difficult. So think about a person and think of how you can love that neighbor as yourself. Now, make a contract with God to go out and share Christ’s love with this person.
Did I say, Christ’s love? Nope, that wasn’t a slip. See, we are not alone in our effort to spread love through the world. As you probably could guess, I am going to tell you that God is there with us to help make this love a reality. And how do I know this? Well, because the first thing that Jesus tells us is that we are to love the Lord our God. We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind. Jesus tells us that this is the first and greatest of the commands. This love is no “dip your toe in the water” kind of love. This is an all-encompassing love for God.
And if we love the Lord with our whole heart, mind, and soul -- with our whole being – our lives cannot help but be filled with the love of God. And it is this love, the ever-abundant love of God, that just begs to be spread among others.
But there is still more to loving our neighbor as ourselves. This last step would be taking the word “neighbor” to its extreme. At its extreme, the whole world is our neighbor. It is at this point Jesus’ command to us can become quite dangerous. You may think that I am being dramatic but I only have to mention the names of Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Mother Theresa, drive home the point. These are people who took the mandate of Jesus to heart. These are people who wanted for the world the same things they wanted for themselves. These are people who radically followed the example of Christ. And it is in following the radical example of Christ that placed each of these people on the fringes of society.
It would be easy to chalk up the great accomplishments of these people to something extraordinary like DNA or alien abductions, but that would be wrong. King, Mandela, Mother Theresa, they were people, people just like you and me. The only thing that makes them different is their great faith in God and their desire to see the good things of life spread to all of God’s people. They had radical trust in the radical message of Christ. And they were each willing to not only have faith in Christ, but were willing to put that faith into action. This radical faith, this radical love in action, did not make the entire world happy. In at least one of their cases, this radical love ended in assassination.
The world will push against this radical message of love that Christ commands. But we are commanded none the less. We are commanded to love as we, ourselves, wish to be loved. We are commanded to reach out to others with the same compassion we would want. We, as followers of Christ, are to reach out to the world with the love that has been given to us.
Christ gave his life that we may have life. Christ gave forgiveness to us while we were still sinners, not because of anything we said or did, but out of desire to give us life; not a life filled with regrets, but a life filled with abundance. Christ gives us life and asks us to spread this life to the world.
How we do this could be as simple as choking back a snide comment to our boss or coworker or as elaborate as dedicating our life to eradicating disease and hunger. However we reach out to the world, Christ our Lord and savior has given us the commandment, we are to love our Lord and love our neighbor as ourselves. A radical proposition and a definite challenge, but one that we can at least work toward. Christ is with us and Christ leads us. And where Christ leads, we can bravely follow.
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