Sunday, October 29, 2023

Theme:

We are a community of believers set apart by God to be witnesses to God as seen in Jesus the Christ. This witness is built upon the foundation of love – love for God and love for neighbor. What we think, we become. This is how we become Christians.

Reflections:

Jesus, in response to the Pharisees, distilled the over 600 Jewish laws down to these two commandments: love your Lord and love your neighbor. Jesus drew upon the Hebrew scriptures (which were the scriptures he read and studied) and this commandment comes from the Holiness Codes found in Leviticus. The Hebrew people were called to be “Holy” which means to “be set apart” for a specific reason. The Hebrews were set apart to be God’s witnesses to the world. They were blessed to be a blessing to the world. To be a witness means we tell the truth about what we know, and they knew the love of God through God’s blessings and faithfulness to them.

Leviticus provides guidance on how we are to witness to God: be just in your dealing with people, do not favor the rich over the poor, do not gossip, intervene for the less fortunate, do not hold hatred in your heart, do not seek revenge or hold grudges, and love your neighbor. This is how we are to be Holy. Jesus made it even more succinct– love your Lord and neighbor. If you love, all the other things take care of themselves because you cannot love when you hold grudges, hate or seek revenge.

As followers of Christ, we are grafted into this Holiness Code and called to live as witnesses to Christ. The bottom line is that because God loves us, we must love others. As God loves all people, we must love all people. It is just that simple. So How are we doing?

Questions/Thoughts:

1. How has God loved you?
2. What does it mean to love God? To love neighbor?
3. Why is it so hard for us to love all people?
4. Buddha said, “what we think, we become”. How much does the love of neighbor enter into your thinkingto embrace the Jesus way of life?