Proper 25 A + Aloha + 10.29.23

 

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Deuteronomy 34:1–12; Ps. 90:1–6, 13–17; 1 Thess. 2:1–8; St Matthew 22:34–46)

 

It was right there in the “California” Section of last Sunday’s LA Times. “Humans lack free will, says Stanford scientist (LA Times B1, 10/22/23).” The article went on to detail how we have less agency than we think within human society. We reward folks who are set up to succeed and we punish those who are in a pipeline towards destruction. Only the truly exceptional make it out either way from those predetermined avenues.
Where then, is the hope for the Christian? Because surely, we believe that what we do and say and believe matters. CS Lewis had a concept of us as eternal beings, and he felt that if we were to truly recognize each other for what we are in the eternal sense, we would either bow down in awe or shrink back in horror. As he says in The Weight of Glory, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” (quote from Goodreads.com)

So how do we go about being everlasting splendors?
Today’s passage from Matthew speaks to this.

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 neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Of course, Jesus was not the only one to say something like this. Revered Rabbi Hillel once said: “Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor; that is all the Torah, the rest is commentary. Go study.”[1] Jesus was in sync with some of the best Jewish thinkers of all time in this regard, because similar interpretations abound. The whole Torah is to love one’s neighbor. To be an everlasting splendor, we must be a good neighbor to all around us. What this boils down to is very similar to a description I read of the Hawaiian concept of aloha this week: “a radical act of love with no conditions attached”[2]

How do we share this love? Later in Matthew 25, Jesus is clear. The one who shows love will treat a neighbor as if they are Jesus, love incarnate, by bringing them water or food, visiting them when sick or in prison. We are to treat each other as if we are important, because we are. And in so doing, we show each other the love that honors Jesus. That is a way of living out the scriptures. That is the avenue towards eternal splendor.

However, we do not do this alone. More and more over the years when I see someone who truly does good works complimented, I hear them say, I do not do it alone. Every one of us who is a helper in the world is also a receiver of support. We can’t do it alone, at least not for long. Without mutual support in community none of the good works can get done. Here at church, we get a lot of requests for assistance. We honor them as best we can, but we don’t have a big budget for such requests. As such, we largely rely on your donations to be able to help those in need that come to us. But we can usually help a little bit, and on some rare occasions we help a lot, especially when those in need are members of our community going through a rough time. This is our way of showing aloha. Those who receive won’t necessarily pay that money back anytime soon, but we spread love in the community without expecting something in return. In this way, I am set up for success by this community. In another community I might seem like a moral failure for not helping more, but in this community, I have the support, as do others who do good things. This all being said, we still make a choice about what we will do to make the world a better place with either lots of support or little support. I want to commend those that make a choice every day to make the world a better place.

Sometimes supportive community is encouragement in a gentle way, and sometimes it is a challenge to which we must rise. Pastor Alene recounted to me the story of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand this week, one of the founders of Voice of the Martyrs ministry to the persecuted church. He was in Romania when the communists came from Russia to court the church. Clergy members kept standing up in a community forum to praise communism. But Wurmbrand knew that this form of communism was essentially atheist and would oppress the church. He says his wife Sabina told him,

“Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face.” [He] said to her, “If I do so, you lose your husband.” She replied, “I don’t wish to have a coward as a husband.”[3]

And true to their concerns, Wurmbrand experienced “months of solitary confinement and years of periodic torture” as it says in his book as a result of his choice to speak up. But his spouse supported him in doing the right thing, and he was grateful to her despite all he suffered, because he felt he was a light of hope for the persecuted church around the world.
We often support each other in gentler ways. But it is helpful to remember in this world, in which so much seems to be focused on individual valor, that no one does it alone. The perpetrator of an evil act may act alone but may also be wounded by many seemingly small injuries before lashing out. The person who does good is following an impulse in their own heart to do good, but is also able to do so with the support of others.

Remember, even Moses didn’t make it to the promised land. He was part of a team. Even he who saw God, who received the covenant of the law on behalf of Israel, did not see the promised land. He died and passed on the torch to the next generation. It wasn’t all dependent on him to get there. But they got there. And we will, too. We must work together for good with God’s help. Working for the good of our neighbor, spreading aloha unselfishly so that all who are wounded may be healed. So that the world can finally be free of immortal horrors and celebrate the eternal splendor together in peace and harmony. Let us walk together towards the promised land, towards the saints in light. We are all splendid beings making it to the promised land together. Amen.

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[1] Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a. For online access to this rabbinic text, see https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.31a.6?lang=bi

 

[2] Jenny Jarvie, “Some Hawaiians rethinking a welcoming word,” LA Times 10/22/23 A1 and A13.

[3] Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ, (Bartlesville: Living Sacrifice Book Company, 1998), 15.