Semper Reformanda

Psalm 148, Matthew 22:34-40

October 26, 2008

Rochelle A. Stackhouse

The Pharisees came to Jesus with a question they thought would surely trump him. Of all the 600 or so commandments in the Torah, the books of the law, what we know as the first five books of the Bible, which one is the greatest? Jesus responded with the foundational statement of Judaism, the Shema, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Clearly Jesus chose this collection of words carefully. Heart, soul, mind, all three, no one more important than the other; we are to love God with each of these parts of our lives, in balance. For the Hebrew people, the heart was actually equally the seat of the will more than emotion. To love God will all our hearts means to direct our choices, our decision making all to be in line with our love of God. The “soul” in Hebrew anthropology is a concept which covers the whole being of a human, but does have particular connection to emotion. When we suffer, the word “soul” is used to describe that place where we feel pain, and when we experience the height of joy, it is our souls that know that joy. The word means the full expression of emotion which includes our bodies and not just that disembodied thing we usually refer to as “feelings.” We are called to love God with the kind of abandon and joy and deep physical feeling that the Psalmist expressed in that Psalm we read today and in many others we might have read.

And we are also called to love God with our minds. What does it mean to love God with all our minds? It is so interesting to me that the long tradition of the church is that at baptism we mark the body of the baptized with a cross in a very particular place. We do not mark the heart, or the hands or the tongue, though we could think of reasons to mark those places. No, we mark the forehead, behind which is our brain. We did not baptize Isaiah today just to have warm feelings about God, but rather to commit him to use his brain in whatever way he can to love and serve God, as did Jesus.

Today is the day we remember one of the most ground shaking movements in the history of the Western world: the Protestant Reformation. One of Martin Luther’s central objections to the Roman Catholic Church of his time was that it kept the majority of church goers in ignorance, thus seeking blind obedience. Luther insisted on the Bible being translated into the language of the people so they could read it themselves; he advocated groups gathering to read and study the Bible together and worship enacted in the language of the people so they could themselves use both emotion and mind in connecting with God.

How sad it is that in so many places, Christianity, and religion in general, is dismissed as promoting stupidity still today. We read this in the books by those who call themselves “the New Atheists,” and, sadly, we see evidence of the truth of that assertion, especially in many of the discussions of religion and science in our schools and the halls of government, and even in the presidential campaign. People say that you cannot look at scientific evidence and believe in the theory of Evolution or the physics of the creation of the universe and still be a faithful Christian. In some vocal Christian circles, ignorance and dismissal of science is considered a badge of honor while those of us who proclaim that we do love God and also are open to what science can teach us about everything from the origin of life to the biology of sexual orientation are dismissed as heretics or deluded fools.

But I believe that Jesus really meant that we should love God with our minds, and not just to view them as empty vessels to be filled up by religious authorities so that we can parrot a party line. Our minds were created by God with the capacity to work; they are not just containers.

Of course, if we work our minds, we will not always come to the same conclusions on any subject as the person sitting next to us, any more than scientists or medical researchers or professors all agree on any subject. Which is how, I think, God means us to continue to discover truth, as we talk openly together about what we learn, about new discoveries, about what we think, and how we can struggle together to learn and understand more about everything! That requires, however, minds that stay open to the possibility of still finding wisdom. It requires a church that is also open in the same way. The title of this sermon, “Semper Reformanda,” “always reforming” in Latin, calls the church not just to celebrate an event that happened 4-500 years ago, but continues happening now. John Robinson of the Pilgrims said it this way in 1620, “God has yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.” God is still speaking is how we say it today.

But there is one check on our minds, on how we use what we discover with them, and that is where that second commandment comes in. Jesus quickly did not stop at one command, but added another which he said is “like” the first. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” That is our ethical check on what our minds can create. Jesus said that all the law and the words of the prophets hang on these two commandments, and I imagine a mobile like one that might be over Isaiah’s crib where these two are at the top and the others hang down, dependent on them to keep floating in balance and harmony. When either the work of religion or the work of science threatens neighbors whom we are called to love as much as we love ourselves, then we need to stop and use our minds, hearts and souls in love of God and neighbor. The place of religion in the world of science, I believe, is to foster wonder and love for the One who created such an amazing universe to begin with and to offer a way to evaluate new discoveries in light of how they impact all humanity and the earth itself which, the Psalmist reminds us, also serves God. Should we always do something just because we can? That is a basic ethical question we teach our children, and the measuring stick we use is often if what we do will hurt someone. That stick works on higher levels as well. We know we are loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind when we find ourselves loving our neighbors and all creation.

Last January the President of the UCC, John Thomas, put out a Pastoral Letter on Religion and Science in which he wrote the following: “We believe in God, not in some cosmic force or impersonal designer. We trust in a loving Creator who is personal and relational, who seeks our companionship, who comes as Christ incarnate in the thick of things, and whose life-giving power permeates the whole cosmos as the creative Spirit, calling us to lives of gratitude in communities of justice.” That’s as good a summary as any. Remember your baptisms. All you smart people, remember the cross having been traced near your brain. Love God, then, with all your will, with all your emotions, with all your amazing mind, and as you do, love your neighbor as you love yourself. Amen.