Pentecost 24B, 2024
Mark 12:28-34

ON NOT GIVING UP ON LIFE...

Many years ago, probably around 25 if my memory is correct,
a storyteller friend of mine gave me this spent brass bullet casing.
(Show)

It’s not an ordinary spent bullet casing.
But one now carved and decorated, sold to tourists.

This spent casing, an instrument of killing, came from Sarajevo.

Now with this image before us, let me tell you a story from Sarajevo.
A reporter was covering the then conflict when
        he saw a small girl shot by a sniper.

He rushed to a man who had picked up the child,
and helped them both into his car.

Racing to the hospital, the man holding the bleeding child said:
Hurry, my friend, my child is still alive.

A moment or two later: Hurry, my friend, my child is still breathing.

A moment later: Hurry my friend, my child is still warm.

Finally: Hurry. O God, my child is getting cold.

When they got to the hospital, the little girl was pronounced dead.

As the two men were washing the blood off their hands,
the man turned to the reporter and said:
        This is a terrible task for me.  I must go and tell her father
        that his child is dead.  He will be heartbroken.

The reporter was amazed.  He looked at the grieving man and said: I thought she was your child.
The man looked back and said: No, but aren’t they all our children?

What we believe about life makes a huge difference to us!

oo0oo

In today's story by Mark, when a scribe asks Jesus which was the most important commandment,
Mark says Jesus replied with some words very close to what the tradition
says Moses said right after reciting the 10 commandments:
        Love G-o-d...

And to reinforce that message, Mark seems to have Jesus going on to summarise the other commandments
by paraphrasing some other words from Leviticus:
        Love your neighbour as you love yourself...

Let’s see if we can unpack all this a bit.

oo0oo

1. Both these sayings are not unique to Jesus, if he indeed did say them.
For ‘followers of Jesus’, what is important, is Jesus is the one
        who did not simply teach the double commandment,
        but actually embodied it.

2. Who is our ‘neighbour’?
I am sure we all remember that our tradition says Jesus once had a conversation
about this very question, and in response,
        shared what we now call the parable of the so-called ‘Good Samaritan’.

Reflecting on that story,  New Testament scholar Robert Funk raised the stakes a bit. 
 From ‘who is my neighbour?’ to ‘whom will I allow to be my neighbour?’
        And that puts a whole new light on the Samaritan story!

3. Neighbour as ‘yourself’?
I am assured that in 1st century Jewish thought, ‘as yourself’, meant ‘as though he or she were yourself’, 
or as if you were in the same situation as your neighbour.

Australian Biblical scholar Greg Jenks, writes:
“It provides a way for Christians in Israel and Palestine to reflect on their experiences of dispossession and occupation, and to draw strength from the biblical and theological traditions which they share with their Jewish neighbours and, to a different extent, with their Muslim compatriots.” (GJenks. FaithFutures web site 2006).

So, back to Mark’s story.
If those two so-called commands - Love God, love neighbour - are the greatest of all,
why didn't Mark’s Jesus quote them, for instance, to the rich young man when he asked his
‘what must I do to inherit eternal life’ question?

oo0oo

Over the years I have preached on this story from Mark several times.
During one of those occasion I used this short quote from a note by another Australian biblical scholar, Bill Loader:
“Jesus always focuses our attention on God and on others”..

Reading that comment again, brought back memories of my student days
at Theological College in Melbourne, when I was studying philosophical theology
        and fascinated by the ‘god-centred’ naturalistic thought
        of American empirical theologian, Henry Nelson Wieman.

So I went back to the quote and read on a bit more:
“This is not just modesty, which he expects us to disregard. It is truth, and we disregard it at our own peril. As soon as we shift our focus away from God and others, even if it is towards ‘Jesus’ we make that other, even if we label it ‘Jesus’, an idol...

Our story by Mark this morning has two people, usually portrayed
as being on opposite sides of an argument, stopping
and genuinely listening to one another.

One of those is a bloke called Jesus. The other is an unnamed scribe.
In their meeting, these two, according to the storyteller Mark,
find central common ground.

Common ground. Because it’s all a matter of perspective.
“Some things are more important than others or may override others. (And) that also applies among commands attributed to God,” suggests Bill Loader again.

Both Jesus and the unnamed scribe are making a profound theological move.
Speaking from their cultural and religious perspective, G-o-d
is the G-o-d of love and compassion and, by implication,
that belief or understanding will determine what loving G-o-d
and keeping G-o-d’s commandments, means.

So paraphrasing what we reckon we heard last week in our exploration of Psalm 34:
what we believe (about G-o-d and) life makes a huge difference to us.

• How do we care for each other interpersonally
in ways which do not suffocate or create dependency?

• How is the well-being of the neighbour pursued
in the complex issues of asylum seeker and low cost public housing?

• How are local communities developed positively around respect and care for each other,
rather than around a fear of a so-called ‘terrorist’ enemy?

These questions and myriad others require creative human endeavour.

oo0oo

Just before he retired one of my overseas colleagues wrote in his sermon on that day:
“Jesus’ love was a forgiving love, full of mercy and compassion. It was a justice seeking love transcending class, status, wealth. And I think that kind of love calls us to do two things even amidst our fears and anger. First, a Jesus-kind-of-love calls us to resist giving up on ourselves and our world... And the second thing that a Jesus-kind-of-love leads to amidst fear and anger is the ability to hold on to hope... even in situations of anxiety and rage...” (Jerry Stinson).

Not giving up on ourselves and our world, and holding on to hope,
is vitally important in our day.

Because what we believe about life makes a huge difference to us.