Reformed Love
Our
gospel today, Matthew 22:34-46, is another one of these really familiar
readings, so familiar we often miss the point. Here we see Jesus at work offering
his new yoke, his “new way” of understanding the Torah. Jesus, the master
interpreter of Scripture brings together two texts: Deuteronomy 6:5 and
Leviticus 19:18, and not only makes them equally important, but the basis and
grounding for the whole of Torah (Law). What he does is really interesting. Priests
and Pharisees would have understood that loving the Lord their God was done
through obedience to the Law and through performance of the temple rites.
Loving our neighbour was then a second requirement – with the added questions around
who my neighbour might be. But by pulling together these two passages from the Torah,
Jesus not only makes them equally important, but makes loving our neighbour the
means by which God is loved. The requirements of the law are then understood as
the way people become people of compassion and mercy. The law is fulfilled when
God is loved through the loving of neighbours. This changed everything. And for
many it was too hard. The church has regularly drifted back to separating the
two commandments and developing a whole new list of requirements by which we
make ourselves worthy of God’s love – all of which is way too hard.
This Sunday is also
remembered by some as Reformation Day. Celebrated on the last
Sunday in October, Reformation Sunday commemorates the Protestant Reformation
as well as Martin Luther, who nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Castle Church
in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saints' Day. It is a religious holiday often
celebrated alongside All Hallows' Eve (Halloween), particularly by Lutheran
and some Reformed church communities. It is a civic holiday in some German states
as well as in Slovenia (since the Reformation contributed profoundly to that
nation's cultural development), and Chile.
As
Anglicans we do not often think of ourselves as part of the reformation
movement. And yet on October 16th we were invited to remember two
martyr reformers, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, who were burned at the
stake on 16 October 1555. (Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake the following
day). The reformation is a significant part of our story.
The
Reformation can be understood as being all about how we read todays Gospel. The
Roman Catholic Church of Luther’s time had separated out these two commandments
and developed a whole new system by which people could both earn God’s love and
forgiveness and in turn love God. Luther struggled under this burden. One day he read Paul’s letter to the Romans,
and he understood that justification was by faith alone. We cannot earn love. He
was reformed, and his consequent questioning of church practice and theology
sparked a religious and political revolution that changed history and helped
shape the church in England. Today we are invited to reflect on whether we have
allowed other things to divide these two commandments, and how we need
reformation ourselves?
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