Posts

Showing posts from October, 2014

Community

O God of love, who sent your Son to reconcile us to you, break our hearts so completely that the whole world falls in and is shown your love through us. Amen. A young disbelieving man goes to his local rabbi and asks him to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. The rabbi chases him away, so the young man finds Rabbi Hillel and asks him to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. Rabbi Hillel stands on one foot, says, "Love your neighbor as yourself. That is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary. Go and learn it." The story we heard this morning from Matthew is similar. Neither give complete answers. The young man still has to study the commentary. While the commentary, the rest of scripture is important, we are going to delve into what Jesus says this morning. Jesus answers the testing lawyer by falling back on two very orthodox and yet radical statements of the Torah. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all yo