How many of you are familiar with the term, “elevator speech” or “elevator pitch”? An elevator pitch is “a brief speech that outlines an idea for a product, service, or project, which could conceivably be delivered in the short time period of an elevator ride”. In other words, anywhere from 20 seconds to an absolute maximum of one minute.
In today’s gospel reading,
Jesus more or less gets asked to give his elevator speech, to identify which of
the 613 commandments in the Torah he considered to be most important. Before hearing his answer, let’s marvel for a
bit at the way the gospel of Mark puts the story together. Mark 11 begins with the triumphal entry to
Jerusalem, i.e., Palm Sunday, then Jesus upsets the moneychangers’ tables and then
he and the disciples retreat from the city for a bit. By now, Jesus had clearly caught the
attention of powerful enemies, so on his return to the city he was met by a
delegation of chief priests, scribes and elders who challenged his authority to
say and do what he had been saying and doing.
As we ease into the 12th chapter of Mark, Jesus tells a
parable which first of all captivates the chief priests, scribes and elders then
upsets them as they realize that the pointed end of the parable is directed at
them. They left, but following them was
a lineup of Jesus’ other opponents.
First the Pharisees ask him about taxes, the “render unto Caesar”
dialogue… then the Sadducees ask him tricky questions about divorce and
inheritance… and then (Mark 12: 28) one
of the scribes came near. “[He] heard them disputing with one another,
and seeing that he answered them well he asked Jesus ‘Which commandment is the
first of all?’” Or, “gimme your elevator pitch, Jesus. Show me, specifically, how the core of your
mission is connected to our most important sacred texts”.
Jesus, when asked this, is
three years into his ministry, he’s in Jerusalem where his opponents are
literally lining up to get him, and, as we know from two thousand years away, he
is less than one week away from his crucifixion. The question of the great commandment, as
recounted by Mark, comes not at the start of Jesus’ travelling ministry, nor on
some random Thursday in September amidst idle banter about this and that. No, this question and answer are in Holy
Week, and as such are among the most important words that would be carried by
Jesus’ followers to the cross and the empty tomb and then to their house-church
meetings as they struggled to find adequate ways to keep his ministry
alive. In our days of judgmentalism and division,
they are STILL the key words.
And to the scribe’s question,
(Mark 12: 29-31) “29Jesus answered, ‘The first is, ‘Hear, O
Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The
second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other
commandment greater than these.’” Takes
about 20 seconds to say, memorable content, good elevator speech.
The two scriptures linked
here played very different roles in Jewish religious life. The first of the
two, regarding love of God, comes from the 6th chapter of
Deuteronomy (6:4-5) and was a core part of Jewish devotional practice. “Shema Yisrael (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל) (“Hear, O Israel”) are the first words of the Shema, a section
of the Torah that is the centerpiece
of the morning and evening prayer services, encapsulating the monotheistic
essence of Judaism.” (Chabad.org) The second commandment, to love one’s
neighbour as oneself, comes from the 19th chapter of Leviticus
(19:18), a collection of notes about the fair and ethical treatment of others.
The first part of Jesus’ answer, then, was central and read daily, while the
second part was what we might call “part of the larger collection”; yet Jesus
puts them together as if they were one single sentence, one’s love of God
naturally flowing over into tangible expressions of love for others.
Given
this opportunity, Jesus could have chosen any commandment he wanted, or, given
the fact that he bent the rules a bit to quote two scriptures rather than just
one, he really could have chosen anything from the Psalms or Prophets. Imagine
if he’d chosen something pointed against other religions or something reeking
of nationalism… but he didn’t. With the freedom to choose anything, Jesus
chooses love, and then doubles down with even more love. The first commandment
spoke of devotional love expressed for the one, holy, foundational God; the
second commandment is a call to expand one’s core concern beyond the interests
of self and family and relatives. Jesus
describes a love that goes deep into the heart of God, and a love that reaches
out to the right-now needs of others. Love, multifaceted love.
By
using the words of the Shema to describe the love one is to have for God, Jesus
brings his listeners back to a prayer practice which shapes every day. And the call to love one’s neighbour as an
extension of self-love, to place the needs of the common good on par with or
even above one’s own desires, colours the decisions we make numerous times each
day and the big structural decisions about how power is held and expressed in
society.
Jesus’
answer, his elevator speech, begins with a foundational acknowledgement of our
connection with God. We love God,
completely, even as we experience God’s absolute love for us over and over
again, breath by breath, sunrise by sunrise.
And in the commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves, we are called
to stretch our understanding of just how connected we are to one another. Think of the various Indigenous
understandings of “all my relations,” the sacred interconnection of all life,
and you will find yourself on the right track here.
And
to take it one step further, Contemplative Theologian Cynthia Bourgeault – who has strong connections here in
BC - has memorably stated, “One of the most familiar of Jesus’ teachings is
‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ But we almost always hear that wrong [as if he
had said]: ‘Love your neighbor as much as [you love] yourself….’ If you listen
closely to Jesus however, there is no ‘as much as’ in his admonition. It’s just
‘Love your neighbor as yourself’—as a continuation of your very own being. It’s
a complete seeing, that your neighbor is you”. (this is so contrary to the
divisive narrative of 2024, I’m going to say it again: “there is no ‘as much
as’ in his admonition. It’s just ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’—as a
continuation of your very own being.”) That notion from Cynthia, which I first
encountered about five years ago, has moved the very core of my beliefs and my
approach to life, as I come to understand that every barrier I erect between me
and my neighbour is a human construct that is contrary to the heart of God. That which allows me to label or demean “them”,
that which releases me from supporting vulnerable ones under attack because
it’s “not my problem”, comes from some source other than God. I grow to love and be reconciled to my
neighbour as I come to believe our essential oneness, and as I express that
love, I express my love for God.
On
this Reign of Christ Sunday, we think not only of daily living but of God’s big
agenda, the new realm spoken of by Christ Jesus governed by justice-embedded
love. To me, the two-fold great
commandment carries us from the life we called to live right now, to these new
ways Jesus spoke of when he preached about the Kingdom or Kin-dom of God. Our love of God and love of neighbour give
practical grounding for the way we live our lives AND they accustom us to the
greater transformative intentions of the Divine. As I said when introducing myself to you back
on September 8th, when we consider the question, “who is my
neighbour?” my experiences over the past forty years of interacting with people
from a wide range of occupations, religions, sexual orientations and gender
expressions cause me to ask “well, who isn’t?” If we truly embrace that notion put forward by
Cynthia Bourgeault, of myself and my neighbour being continuations of each
other, the shaping of life changes completely.
In
the work we do together, as Church here in Oliver and Osoyoos and across the
Okanagan and Similkameen valleys, may Christ’s two-fold commandment to love God
with all we have and love neighbour as self, have the presence, wisdom and
urgency it had when first uttered in Jerusalem.
Amen.
References cited:
Bourgeault,
Cynthia. The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New
Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 31-32. Accessed via the 17 January 2019 daily email
of centerforactionandcontemplation.com
Chabad.org https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/705353/jewish/The-Shema.htm
Kenton, Will. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/elevatorpitch.asp#:
© Rev Greg Wooley,
Osoyoos-Oliver United Church Pastoral Charge, 2024.
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