Once Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were determined that he be killed. They challenged him three times in the hope that he would implicate himself. Last week the Pharisees pressed him about paying taxes to Caesar.

The second challenge was by the Sadducees, but it is not included in our lectionary. In it, that group of wealthy landowners who were related to the priestly class, asked him about the resurrection. Since they believed only in the Torah, they did not believe there would be resurrection of the dead. A man was to live on through his children and his land. As a result, there developed what is called a levirate marriage. If a man died with no offspring (male) his brother was to marry the widow in order to produce children for him. Otherwise, his life would be incomplete. The Sadducees posed a hypothetical question of seven brothers who married the same woman asking whose wife she would be at the resurrection. Jesus replied that they “…knew nothing of the scriptures or the power of God.” He asserted that there would be no marrying in the resurrection, and that God is God of the living, not the dead.

I include this second challenge for it is, once again, an example of a religious group being so certain of their own ideas that they cannot even have faith in the ultimate power of God. This has been an issue fro the Christian Church and for our Anglican branch of the same. It is also amusing because for those who are Biblical literalists, this must pose a problem. First, the brothers most certainly had wives of their own, so, at the least they were committing multiple bigamy! I suspect that would not fly in any Christian denomination in this country in 2008.

The third challenge, our Gospel for today, is issued once again by the Pharisees. This is the most serious of all, for Jesus is asked which commandment is the greatest. By now the anxiety among the disciples and the other followers must have built to mythic proportions. It was inevitable that enough evidence would be accumulated to kill him. Whatever answer Jesus gave he was bound to alienate one group or another. However, his response from the Shema and Leviticus could not be challenged. He asserted: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Again, Jesus gives no neat list of things to do, but instead presents a challenge.

In times of high anxiety all of us want a simple “to do” list that will guarantee calm and normalcy. Unfortunately, that list does not exist, and the solution to our fears is profoundly gray. Yet, we are commanded to love – not just those like us, but even our enemies. This is both a great blessing and an incredible challenge. First, Jesus is not talking about emotions, but about the will to care for the other. The two commandments are interdependent, for how can we love God whom we cannot see unless we learn to love those who live near and around us. Further, if we don’t know god’s love, we have precious little to give to others. Love as an act of will involves choosing to seek the good for the other even in the face of anger, revulsion, fear or pain. It means that, though the perpetrator must suffer the consequences of his or her behavior, and, the more horrific the behavior, the greater the consequences. We need to weigh our response in terms of what is the good, for that person and for the community. Loving our neighbors requires us to look squarely at who and what they are, to wash away any denial or arrogance, and to see them as children of God. this is no small task as we as individuals and as a community know.

In the face of all of this, we know one thing to be true: God is with and within us. That is the promise that has been iterated since creation. That was the reality for Jesus as hung upon the cross. God was with him, suffering with him in a ghastly event that seemed hopeless. It seemed that evil had conquered, yet, that evil was transformed into the greatest triumph of all time. “My ways are not your ways, says the Lord” becomes a working reality when we understand that God’s Kingdom will not conform to human expectations.

We live again in anxious times as we deal with two wars, economic uncertainty, global warming and an adjusted position in the world. We are called to adopt a position of love, thanksgiving, hope and trust. We have been given an abundance of gifts, not the least of which are the ability to give and receive love and to think, to reason and to act. God’s purposes are not ours to determine; we are simply to trust that they will be known to us in God’s time. We are loved beyond our imagining, and that ultimately is our meaning.

Johann Arnold has said: “…unless we live for love we will not be able to meet death confidently when it comes. I say this because I am certain that when our last breath is drawn and our soul meets God, we will not be asked how much we have accomplished. We will be asked whether we have loved enough. To quote John of the Cross, ‘In the evening of life you shall be judged on love.” (Johann Christoph Arnold, Synthesis, 10/27/02)

AMEN