Love God

Mark 12:28-34

April 16, 2023 • Mount Pleasant UMC

This is a weird time for the church. And I’m not talking about Mount Pleasant Church in particular, though we’re part of it to be sure. But for the church around the world, it is a strange time as many people are re-evaluating what it is that they believe. Church attendance in our nation is the lowest it’s ever been, and COVID restrictions and closures simply sped up the decline. It’s a time when the church—big C church—is asking questions like, “What are we doing? And why are we doing it?” And, I believe, an even more important question: “If we weren’t here any longer, if our church closed, would anyone notice?”

Without a doubt, the last three years have been very hard. You know that, because it’s been hard in your life, too. For the last three years, our Leadership Council has been focused on getting us through the pandemic, and I for one am very thankful for the leadership we have had that has steered the ship and enabled us to come through a lot stronger than we otherwise might have been. There are some organizations, businesses and even churches that did not make it through this particular storm. We had some big challenges, and thanks to those who served over the last three years, Mount Pleasant is still here, and I believe we’re stronger than ever. But now that we’re pretty much through the pandemic—even the government is officially declaring an end to it soon—it’s time for a new direction. Pastor Craig Groeschel, who speaks and writes a lot on leadership, has been saying for the last year that what got us “here” will not get us “there.” I think he’s right. And so over the first few months of this year our Leadership Council has been diligently working hard to discern where God is calling us next and what we need to be about. We’ve also been asking the “why” question, and out of that work, we have developed a vision statement that we’re going to unpack together over the next three weeks. And my hope, my prayer is that these words become so embedded into your heart and soul that when someone asks you what Mount Pleasant Church is about, these are the words that will come tumbling out. But before we get directly to that, we need a bit more background, specifically having to do with the word “it.”

Years ago, I had a pastor friend in another denomination who was always telling me about the latest program, the latest Bible study, the latest ministry idea he had, and every time whatever was new was “it.” He would say things like, “This is it. This is the one that’s going to turn things around for us.” And while every ministry made an impact, I don’t know if he’d ever have said the church he was serving at the time got “it” through any of those programs. And part of the problem is that “it” is so undefinable. You can point to a group or a ministry or a church and say sometimes, “They have it.” But when you’re asked what “it” is, what makes a difference in their ministry, it’s hard to nail down. Is it the music? The lights and the worship space? The free meals for those in need? The cool pastor? (I really was hoping for an “amen” there, but anyway…) Is “it” the leadership, the building, the location, or the programs? Let me tell you a secret: “it” is not found in any of those things. “It” is a gift from God, and it shows up in many different ways in many different places. You can’t purchase “it” and you can’t copy “it.” Craig Groeschel puts it this way: “It happens when we allow God to grow certain vital characteristics in us and in the ministries we lead” (Lead Like It Matters, pg. 31). And one of those characteristics (in fact, the first one) is vision.

Let me make a distinction at this point, because you’ve heard me talk for as long as I’ve been your pastor about our mission, which is really the mission of the whole church, given to us by Jesus himself. We describe that mission this way: “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” That mission, friends, does not change. It has not changed for almost 2,000 years. Jesus gave it to his disciples on the mountain in Galilee after his resurrection (cf. Matthew 28:19-20). This was the last command given to us by our Lord, and we keep pursuing it until he returns. “Vision” is related, but different. Vision is what we do to accomplish the mission. Vision is a way of summing up the practical ways we will live out and seek to fulfill the mission. That’s one of the things the Leadership Council has been working on these last few months, and rest assured they have taken this very, very seriously. We’ve had long conversations, and even spent a weekend together on a retreat prayerfully seeking God on this. What we have landed on are six words that I will spend a whole lot more words describing for you over the next three weeks, but the idea of any vision statement is that it’s memorable, portable and motivational (Groeschel 45), short enough to put on a t-shirt (which we have this morning) and yet strong enough to drive everything we do. So here are these six words that you’re going to hear endlessly from now on: Love God, Love People, Love Life. That’s it. We can remember that, right? Love God, Love People, Love Life. And this morning, I want to walk us through the first one. What will it look like when we love God fully, without hesitation? And to answer that question we’re going to go back to a conversation Jesus had with one of the teachers of the law during his last week in Jerusalem.

So, as you may remember from our walk through Holy Week during Lent, Jesus spends a good part of the first half of the week arguing with—or debating with—various Jewish leaders. Everyone seems to have a question or a challenge for Jesus. This one comes from a “teacher of the law,” according to Mark. First century Judaism had a lot of different groups—Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians. Those were religious political parties, but the title “teachers of the law” (or they’re sometimes called “scribes” or “lawyers”) was an actual job title. They studied and interpreted the Scriptures, and there was a lot for them to study. In that time, the official count of “laws you have to follow because they come from God” was 613. Six hundred thirteen separate commandments you were expected to know and live by (cf. Card, Mark: The Gospel of Passion, pg. 152). No wonder this teacher of the law comes to Jesus and asks for his summary. If I were expected to live by and teach about 613 commandments all the time, I’d want to know how other teachers summed it all up, too! So this teacher asks Jesus, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” (12:28).

613 commandments. You’d think it would take Jesus a moment to pick one. But, at least the way Mark tells it, he answers right away, though not at first with a commandment. Before the commands, there is a creed. Before the doing, there is a “why.” Jesus responds with the central affirmation of Judaism, the prayer that every good Jew prays every day, to this very day. It’s called the Shema, which is the first word in Hebrew: “Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (12:29). By beginning with that, by making that the context of his choice for “most important commandment,” Jesus is claiming that what follows is in fact the fulfillment of all of the law. Everything God has set out to do from the very beginning is summed up in what he is about to share (cf. Wright, Mark for Everyone, pg. 171). And that’s a pretty big claim!

But that’s because Jesus has a pretty big commandment for us. Actually, when asked for the “most important” commandment, he seems to give two. This morning, we’re only going to focus on the first one; we’ll look at the second one (and why Jesus chooses these two) next week. So here’s the first “most important” commandment: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (12:30). This is not something new with Jesus. Rather, he is quoting from the book of Deuteronomy—sort of. In the original passage, which is where the Shema comes from, Moses instructs the people of Israel this way: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Okay, you’re paying attention—what’s missing? Yes, Moses doesn’t tell them to love God with their mind. Now, I have no idea why Moses left out mind or why Jesus inserted it, and I resisted going down a rabbit trail to try to figure it out, because for the sake of our vision, we want to follow the way Jesus put it. I believe each part of Jesus’ description of the way we love God is important, so let’s spend some time this morning looking at each of the four elements of the way we love God and how those actions will help us pursue our mission.

First, we’re to love God with our heart. The word is cardia, from which of course we get the word “cardiology.” Interestingly, in Roman cities, the main street was called the “cardo,” because it ran through the heart of the city. The “heart” is the center of our being, “the command center of the body, where decisions are made and plans are hatched” (Garland, NIV Application Commentary: Mark, pg. 483). It controls our “feelings, emotions, desires and passions” and it is the place, Biblically speaking, where “religious commitment takes root” (Garland 484). We demonstrate the difference between our heart and what we do when we say things like, “I did it, but my heart wasn’t in it.” We can talk about God, we can even show up at church without a lot of commitment, but Jesus calls us to do those things from the center of who we are. He wants our heart to be in it. Now, sometimes we have to do the things and wait for the heart to follow. Early in his life, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, felt like he should stop preaching because he was, we would say today, burned out. He asked a friend what to do, and that friend said he should keep going. “Preach faith till you have it,” the friend said, “and then, because you have it, you will preach faith.” Sometimes we have to let the heart catch up to our actions, but to fully love God, we have to do so with the heart.

We love God with all our heart through worship. Today we’ve made an industry out of worship, and we usually talk about worship as if it’s only the songs we sing on Sunday morning. Worship is really a whole-life act; we offer all that we do up to God as an act of worship, as a way of honoring him. Just so, worship is more than music even here on Sunday morning. It’s giving the center of who we are to God. So we worship when we read the Scripture. We worship when we care for each other. We worship when we give our offerings. We even worship when we share announcements—those are ways you can invest more of your life into the kingdom of God. Announcements are not an “interruption” to worship; they are worship. We even worship when we listen to and apply the sermon. And we worship when we show up for each other. The Bible knows nothing of solitary faith; faith is always lived out in community, in being together, in fellowship and support and encouragement. Yes, you may be able to sit on a beach and sing a worship song, but true worship is gathered. Worship that shapes the heart and enables us to love God is found in community. Love the Lord your God with all your heart.

And with all your soul. The word there is psuche, from which we get our word “psyche.” “Soul” deals with strength of will, the energy we have for living life. “Soul” determines conduct, so to love God with our soul means we allow him to determine the way we live, who we are. I think of Paul in the New Testament who, before he met Jesus, had devoted all his energy toward destroying the Christian faith, but after he met Jesus, he turned that same energy toward spreading the faith he once tried to destroy. “One thing I do,” he wrote, “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Loving God with all our soul means focusing all our energies on becoming like him, becoming like Jesus.

I actually love the way Paul says it: “forgetting what is behind.” So many times today we get stuck on the past. Now, I’m not saying there aren’t things in the past we don’t have to deal with; we do, and sometimes we need a good counselor or a support group like Celebrate Recovery to help us through that. But if we forever live back there, we’ll never move forward to become who Jesus wants us to become. I remember as a teenager attending a friend’s church on Sunday evening and their usual format, before the sermon, was to have testimony time. People would stand up to speak and every testimony that night was about what had happened many, many years before. I wanted to ask, “What is Jesus doing in your life today?” Scholars sometimes note that Paul never talks much about his conversion, or his life before he met Jesus. I think that verse we read a moment ago is the key to why. Paul wasn’t interested in who he was before he met Jesus. He was “forgetting what is behind” and “pressing on toward the goal.” It’s not that his past was unimportant, but dwelling there was not going to make him more like his Lord. When we love God with our soul, we are seeking to become more like Jesus in every way (cf. Garland 484). Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

And with all your mind. Another word lesson: the original word here means “deep thought” or “imagination.” The “mind” in Biblical thought is the place where we develop our opinions and our judgments (Garland 484). Love for God doesn’t just mean having an emotional response to a well-presented message or video. Christian faith is not just an “experience-based” faith. There are good reasons why we believe what we believe. The early Christians were often challenged by the Roman philosophers and thinkers, and they met them idea for idea and usually came out on top. As one author describes it, “They not only outlived and outdid their enemies…they also outthought them” (Garland 485). And that was possible because, to use the title of a book from several years ago, they didn’t “check their brains at the door.” They studied, read, wrote and loved God with the mind he had given them.

It’s one of Pastor Rick’s favorite Scriptures, Paul writing to the church at Rome: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). Love God with your mind. One of the reasons Christians today are often shut out of discussion on public matters is because we’ve failed to integrate our faith in the world around us. We’ve kept them separate, and we’ve acted like faith is private. Friends, Christian faith may be personal but it has never been private. Our faith should affect the world around us and there are a lot of things we can’t affect if we don’t study, learn, love God with our minds. We have to equip our young people to think like Christians because if we don’t help them know who they are in Christ, the world will tell them who they are, how they should think, and who they should be. Thank God for Ginger and for Jess and all their volunteers who are doing just that with our kids from the youngest until they get to college. I am who I am today in large part because of faithful volunteers who did that for me at Rossville Church, who helped us think through how to live as a Christian. You don’t have to have a seminary degree to be able to love God with your mind; anyone can and should. The great theologian Karl Barth once said Christians should approach life with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Today, he would probably say the news sites or even social media. The point is, we can’t isolate ourselves. We have to love God with our minds and that means being able to make a reasoned defense for what we believe and for God’s way of life. Not only, then, will we be transformed but so will society when we love God with all our mind.

And with all your strength. One final word lesson this morning: the word Jesus uses literally means “to hold,” and has the sense of our ability, our power or strength. So loving God with our strength is sort of like this: using our ability to “hold” onto or to do what is most important. Or, put a shorter way, it’s what we do with what we have. And “have” can imply two things. One is our possessions, and the other is our abilities. How do we love God with our strength? First, we give of what we have for the sake of God’s kingdom. Just a few verses beyond Jesus’ teaching here, he will go and sit down opposite the Temple, probably somewhere on the Mount of Olives. It will be a location close enough he can watch as people put their offerings in the collection box. And he will watch as many rich people come and make grand offerings, large offerings, and then he will watch as a widow comes and puts in two tiny copper coins, the smallest coin in the land. And it’s the widow Jesus points out to his disciples, not because she gave a big amount but because she gave “all she had to live on” (12:44). Giving of what we have for the sake of God’s kingdom is not about giving big; it’s about giving out of love for God.

But the other way we love God with our strength is by giving of our abilities, by serving others and the world with our skills and talents, or even just our willingness to do whatever is needed. We saw that lived out in so many ways this weekend, even all week, as people came in throughout the week to help decorate and do whatever was needed so Grace Gala could happen. I can’t even tell you what a beautiful thing it is when people come together and serve in different roles, widely varying roles from being a buddy to staffing the bathrooms to running a coat check to standing on the red carpet and cheering—all loving God with their strength. The same thing happens when we have groups that go on mission trips, whether that’s to Sullivan in recent days or to Mayfield, Kentucky like we did last November. Now, I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m not the most handy guy. God did not equip me with a lot of technical knowledge. (I walked into Menard’s this past week and Rhonda Eyler was concerned that I was there to use power tools. She knows.) So when I go on a trip to Mayfield, or wherever, I’m there to do whatever I can do, and I’ve found can do a lot as long as I’m shown how to do it first. In several mission trips I’ve been on, I’ve done pretty much everything from pouring foundations to sub-flooring, to demolishing and rebuilding walls, to roofing and a lot of other things I’m sure I’ve forgotten. My hope in all of that is not to glorify myself, because the only skill I really have is offering what little strength I have to love God by giving of my abilities.

You can do that, too. Everyone can. Many years ago, I visited a dear saint named Pauline. At the time, she was 98 or 99 years old, and rarely left her home. She told me how she hated that she couldn’t do things in the church like she used to, and she began to talk about how useless she was. I interrupted her and asked her if she was able to pray. She said yes, she could, so I asked her to pray for us and the church because we really needed it. “I can do that,” Pauline said, and I believe she did every day of her remaining life. She loved God with her strength, just as she had done all of her life.

Some of you know the name Idi Amin, one of the most savage tyrants of the twentieth century. Amin claimed to be “the lord of all the beasts of the earth and fishes of the sea,” and he was responsible for the torture and execution of hundreds of thousands of people in Uganda. Many of them were members of the Anglican Church which was presided over by Bishop Festo Kivengere. One day, someone asked Bishop Kivengere what he would do if he were handed a loaded gun in the presence of Idi Amin. Because of his faith and his love for God, Bishop Kivengere said this: “I would hand the gun to the President and say, ‘I think this is your weapon. It is not mine. My weapon is love’” (qtd. in Kernaghan, Mark [IVPNTC], pg. 235). What a powerful example of loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Bishop Kivengere knew and lived out what it means to love God with all that we are. When we do that, we will be taking the first step toward fulfilling our mission: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

You’ve of course noticed that we’re calling this series, “Because Jesus.” That’s also what’s on front of our shirts. We wanted that to be out front because everything we do and say is centered on him. That’s what makes us different from any other group or organization in the community. We are not just another organization doing kind things in the city and county or the world. We are not just nice people. We are followers of Jesus and everything we do is because of him. Why does Mount Pleasant exist? Because Jesus. Why do we love God, love people and love life? Because Jesus. It’s all about him and it all goes back to him. Let there be no doubt: that is who we are. We are here because of Jesus, so let’s live like it. Let’s pray.