December 10, Tuesday of Week Two of Advent

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 'Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?' He said to him, '"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.' (Matthew 22: 34-40)



There's no Good Samaritan parable in Matthew. Jesus and the Pharisees just move along to another rhetorical argument.  What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is he?

Matthew's Jesus and Pharisees aren't as interested in identifying how people live into Jesus' two greatest commandments. The question they seem to avoid is: How does the compassionate, vulnerable, uncertain love triangle between God, me, and my neighbors work?  Matthew understands Jesus Christ's Gospel with a primary focus on The Messiah's relationship with Jews and existing Judaic laws. Luke is more interested in connecting the Messiah with existing Jewish traditions even as Christ's Gospel liberates Gentiles and promotes the Early Church's apostolic expansion. If all the Law and the Prophets are hung (literally "crucified" or leading to death") on such love; why do we often place more value and trust in doctrine instead of forgiveness? Why are prophetic expectations more important than striving to make ourselves and those around us more holy and better connected to God?

Weird, isn't it... Christian Communities still wrestle with bedrock questions of faith. How should we best live into Jesus' two greatest commandments? Who is the primary audience for our Christian discipleship? What does it look and feel like when our lives flow outward from a deep and abiding love for God and neighbors alike? The essence of each and every question that we more fully live into provides a chance to ... well take a stand (or sit down) for what we believe is true about love.

There are some any ways to actually fall in love with love (God) while loving the people around us. Some such efforts such as those of Simon Griffiths have worldwide implications. He's working on wiping out poverty, in a bodily sort of way. Mr. Griffiths is someone who "Gives A Crap." He and his business partners have created a company that distributes designer toilet paper and distributes profits to provide toilets to communities in developing countries where the absence of toilets directly leads to the deaths villagers. You should definitely watch his humorous, non-religious, but very loving TedTalk.

Maybe that feels too big? If so what is somewhat smaller but you're willing to hang your life out for it? What self-giving way of being yourself would shut-up the Pharisees in your life while bringing about a transformational and Christ-like way of loving God, your neighbor, and yourself. One of Advent's primary purposes is to prepare ourselves for embracing God's birth into the world. How will we welcome Jesus? Who are the shepherd and magi we should invite to be with us at the manger? Will we welcome someone like a smelly shepherd boy without any money to come alongside of us as we worship God? Will we take our worship outside of our walls to an inn where poor people are sheltering themselves from the cold. What social media tools might we use as Simon Griffiths does that would create a compassionate relationship with people who just don't need toilet paper but may also need to know that God's Commandments are true and embodied by us. Are there rituals we should set aside or pick up that will encourage us to worship and wonder with more people. Setting aside the rhetoric for something "real," helpful, and blessed might just get the Gospel out in ways we can't imagine and would indeed change the world as Jesus the Christ's godliness and humanness does.

Blessings Along The Way, Jim+

Their first year of trading has been successful and the distribution of profits to Water Aid from the business has meant that for each toilet roll sold someone in need in a developing country has been provided with access to a toilet for one week, Griffiths says. - See more at: http://www.australiaunlimited.com/society/wiping-out-poverty#sthash.Qdh9JrZK.dpuf

Their first year of trading has been successful and the distribution of profits to Water Aid from the business has meant that for each toilet roll sold someone in need in a developing country has been provided with access to a toilet for one week, Griffiths says. - See more at: http://www.australiaunlimited.com/society/wiping-out-poverty#sthash.Qdh9JrZK.dpuf

Their first year of trading has been successful and the distribution of profits to Water Aid from the business has meant that for each toilet roll sold someone in need in a developing country has been provided with access to a toilet for one week, Griffiths says. - See more at: http://www.australiaunlimited.com/society/wiping-out-poverty#sthash.Qdh9JrZK.dpuf

Their first year of trading has been successful and the distribution of profits to Water Aid from the business has meant that for each toilet roll sold someone in need in a developing country has been provided with access to a toilet for one week, Griffiths says. - See more at: http://www.australiaunlimited.com/society/wiping-out-poverty#sthash.Qdh9JrZK.dpuf

Their first year of trading has been successful and the distribution of profits to Water Aid from the business has meant that for each toilet roll sold someone in need in a developing country has been provided with access to a toilet for one week, Griffiths says. - See more at: http://www.australiaunlimited.com/society/wiping-out-poverty#sthash.Qdh9JrZK.dpuf