1st Reading : Leviticus 19.1-2, 15-18
2nd Reading: 1 Thessalonians 2.1-8
Gospel : Matthew 22.34-end
Text: On these two commandments … (Matthew22.40)
Yesterday morning, as I was walking down New End Square, my eye was caught by a striking view of the Shard. With its head in the clouds and its base sharply outlined against a strip of pale blue sky, it commanded the city as the only tall building in sight. I don’t know to whose glory it was built, but it reminded me of a cathedral spire. With this morning’s sermon on my mind, I was thinking about the two great commandments – to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might, and to love your neighbour as yourself. Looking at the Shard, I thought: it must have taken a big heart to desire something like that, a soul inspired to conceive the design for it, and the might of vast resources to build it. Perhaps the Shard can remind us that we are commanded to love God with at least as much commitment of heart and soul and might as it took to desire, conceive and build that shimmering tower. And then, just as we are getting used to thinking big and tall, we have to turn around and love our neighbour as ourselves. What a challenge! Can you imagine the Shard loving its neighbours – from that great height it could hardly even see what was going on down there.
In the gospels Jesus discusses on at least three occasions which of the commandments is the greatest. It must have been a favourite topic of religious debate at the time, and the answer Jesus gives is solidly grounded in the Hebrew Scriptures. The upward-looking command, to ‘love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might’, comes from a summary of the law in the book of Deuteronomy (Deut 6.5), whilst the corresponding outward-looking command, to love your neighbour as yourself, comes from the passage in the book of Leviticus which we read this morning. In Jesus we see how both commands might be fulfilled. As for ourselves, it is only by his Spirit that we can begin to learn how to live by them.
As we come to the end of our month of dedication and stewardship, it is a good time to ask ourselves who our neighbours are. Do we love them as we love ourselves, or indeed as Paul loved the Thessalonians, who had become very dear to him? Later in our service this morning, we shall be thanking our gardeners and flower arrangers, and blessing the blankets knitted for Syrian refugee babies. These activities are an attractive expression of our love for one another and for our neighbours suffering from the civil war in Syria, and it is right to celebrate the loving concern of those who do these things. But if we survey the whole range of our giving and volunteering, I have to tell you that many of us seem to be waiting for someone else to put their hand up. As you will have seen on Sundays throughout this month, we value the work of our sidesmen and servers, our Sunday school teachers, our cleaners, church sitters, and coffee-makers, as well as to-day our gardeners and flower arrangers. These are not arduous tasks, they don’t even necessarily come round all that often, and it’s a great way to make friends. But we need more people to share these responsibilities, and so far only two new volunteers have come forward. If you have been meaning to put your hand up, and just haven’t got around to it, please speak to me or to one of the clergy or churchwardens after the service, and we’ll be delighted to help you find something really useful to do and enjoy doing.
And then there’s the money. We are enormously grateful to those who raise money for our music, and to those who are contributing generously to the restoration of our windows. We are quite successful in raising money to spend on ourselves. But did you know that this year we had to stop paying the diocese for our curate in training, as we have always done in the past? That’s a decision which in effect imposes a tax of £30,000 per annum on parishes which are for the most part much poorer than we are. Did you know that in recent years we have failed by a margin of between £2,000 and £5,000 to meet our target of giving away ten per cent of income? We need to employ a full-time youth worker to build on the foundations laid by Liz Brown. As a result of these financial pressures, the PCC has agreed that we need to increase our income by £15,000 in each of the next three years. Seeking to raise that sum, Peter Ginnings has sent letters or e-mails to 442 households – three times the number of members in the committed giving scheme. He has had replies from only half that number, and as of yesterday there were no new pledges or increased pledges for 2015, none at all. Even in response to his request for new tax declarations, only 7 people out of 60 have so far taken the trouble to return a simple form.
We cannot continue to live beyond our means. Unless the pledges of time and money come in very soon, our only option for the coming year could well be to reduce the range of our activities. I’m sure you don’t want us to cut back our office staff, our youth work, our charitable giving or our outreach into the community, but without a more positive response to our stewardship month appeal, these are the hard choices that will have to be faced in setting next year’s budget. From those of us who can afford it, we urgently need 20 or 30 new or increased pledges of £50-100 per month, that’s just £10 or £20 per week.
What more can I say? Shall we turn away sadly, like the rich young ruler who could not bring himself to be more generous, or shall we not rather find joy in responding to the challenge of the two great commandments – to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might; and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves?