29th October 2023
Reflection (readings below)
To what extent should we take the stories of Deuteronomy – or of Genesis and Exodus – as unchanging, eternally truths, or binding declarations, whereby God gives to one group of people the sole and absolute right to occupy a certain piece of land to the exclusion of all others?
Certainly a large part of the narrative of the Old Testament is about God’s people seeking and finding and inhabiting a land to which God leads them. But that is not the whole story. Their occupation of the land is ringed by caveats and covenants, where by their ability to remain and to flourish on the land, depends upon their willingness to live their lives according to the ways of God.
The larger part of Old Testament narrative is about the unfolding and developing relationship between God and the people, about repentance and beginning again, about learning what it is to be God’s people – what values and truths, what relationships and actions, are key. The finale of that teaching (for us as Christians) comes with the life and death, ministry and resurrection of Jesus Christ who is the unique living Word of God.
But for everyone reading the scriptures with a desire to understand, there is the importance of distinguishing between story and truth. With a parable we easily understand that the story is the vehicle for conveying the truth. The same is so when we explain a truth by way of an example. The example is just that – something done in a similar way; a what-if; a let’s-suppose. It is not the definitive, never changing, only circumstance, of that truth. Through the example of the story, we see the overarching truth. Prayer and reflection, discussion and meditation, help us discern the truth that is of God. Indeed, all our thinking, our speaking, our actions, need to be rooted in, to come from, God.
So it is that we come to the heart of today’s gospel. Jesus, when asked what is the greatest commandment, replies “‘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 neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
If we love God with all our heart and soul and mind, then we shall be in a good place to read and understand the truth in the scriptures. And if we love God with all our heart and soul and mind, then equally we will find ourselves loving our neighbours as ourselves. If we love our neighbours, we shall want what is good for them, but not just for them as individuals, but for them all – as families, as communities, as peoples, as nations. And when we fail to love, then we create tensions and dis-ease, fear and envy, mistrust and hatred, that affects us all.
The following quote comes from the Guardian’s editorial, 24th October.
“Israelis and Palestinians have been locked into a spiral where each side seeks to avenge a wrong. Even when one side thinks they have got their revenge, the other does not think the score has been evened. The result is never-ending destruction. This has disastrously determined the recent history of bloodshed in the region. But both sides need to see themselves as they see each other so their violence can become part of history rather than part of the present”.
Loving our neighbour is to see them and ourselves through their eyes.
This is something we can practice everyday, and at every distance, from the neighbours who live next door, the neighbours who live at the other end of town, to the neighbours who live on the other side of the world. By loving our neighbours we are building peace and establishing God’s kingdom – God’s rule or way of living – here on earth just as it happens in heaven.
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain—that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees—as far as Zoar. The Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” Then Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord’s command. He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigour had not abated. The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.
Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land, and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.
Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17
1 Lord, you have been our refuge *
from one generation to another.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or the land and the earth were born, *
from age to age you are God.
3 You turn us back to the dust and say, *
“Go back, O child of earth.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past *
and like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep us away like a dream; *
we fade away suddenly like the grass.
6 In the morning it is green and flourishes; *
in the evening it is dried up and withered.
13 Return, O Lord; how long will you tarry? *
be gracious to your servants.
14 Satisfy us by your loving-kindness in the morning; *
so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.
15 Make us glad by the measure of the days that you afflicted us *
and the years in which we suffered adversity.
16 Show your servants your works *
and your splendour to their children.
17 May the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us; *
prosper the work of our hands;
prosper our handiwork.
1 Thessalonians 2:1-8
You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts. As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.
Matthew 22:34-46
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus 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 neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?
If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
The Green Tau 