23rd Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 26B

23rd Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 26B October 31, 2021 Our readings for this Sunday for both Old Testament and the gospel are quite familiar. Both readings articulate and encapsulate what are the key teachings of both Judaism and Christianity: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.” Most of us have probably been able to recite these since our childhood Sunday school days. And yet, a colleague helped me see these old commandments with fresh eyes this week. She shared a reflection from Steve Garnaas-Holmes from his blog Unfolding Light. It is titled: “First Commandment.” God, you know how I put other things first: to be right, to be safe, to belong. I confess. I repent. I already belong to you, eternally, absolutely. I am safe in you. I need not earn your love, or prove my worthiness, or have others approve. I only need to let the love you give me become all of me: to love you with all of myself, every little thing I do an act of love, and to pass that love to others, always and no matter what, to never compromise my love with anything else. Oh, stand for justice, speak the truth, say the hard things, prohibit abuse, but only with love, not anything else, anything else.i This colleague then asked us to reflect upon the question: What are the commandments that we really live our life according to—like being right, being safe, belonging? How do those commandments that we really live our lives according to compare or contrast to the commandments to love God and love our neighbors? What are the ways that we try to earn God’s love rather than living into the love God already has for each one of us? I invite you to think about a specific time in your life this week when things just felt wrong or out of sorts. Reflect on what commandment you were following at that time. Was it a commandment to appear perfect? Was it a commandment to give up so much of yourself in service to others so that there was nothing left of you? Was it a commandment to look or be successful? Was it a commandment to be understood in a world that doesn’t understand you? Was it a commandment to try to have all the answers? Was it a commandment to be safe in an unsafe world? Was it a commandment to try to find your own fulfillment in new experiences or entertainment? Was it a commandment that you had to be “top dog”? Was it a commandment that above every thing else, peace must be kept? What was the commandment that you were following in that time when things were wrong this week, and where did that commandment come from? How did you go astray from loving God and loving your neighbor in that moment? What might you have done differently? What might that moment have looked like if you had been more attentive to the commandment to love God, love your neighbor, and love yourself? What might it have looked like if you had been able to let God’s love speak through you in that moment—either to yourself or to someone else? Today, as you hold out your hands to received communion, know that you are receiving the love of God, offered to you over and over and over again. Take that love into your body, heart, soul, mind, and strength, and let it empower you to share that love with all you encounter this week. i. https://unfoldinglight.net/2021/10/27/first-commandment/