The story is told of a convert to fundamentalism, whose pastor after services encouraged him to seek "a word from the Lord" by letting his Bible flop open and then reading the first verse that appeared as a magic communication just for him from God. He excitedly went home and flipped open his Bible, whereupon he read, "Judas went out and hanged himself." A bit confused, he tried it a second time. That verse was, "Go and do likewise." Now distressed, he tried for a third word only to read, "What you must do, do quickly."
How we use sacred Scripture can lead us to life and freedom or to the oppression that accompanies superficial study. Unthinking engagement of the Bible leads us from the sublime to the ridiculous, pointing towards legalistic fundamentalism. It is useful to remember that lectio divina and other study options are ancient; literalism crept in with the Continental Reformation which hung its hat on Scripture, each denomination defining itself by a laundry list of doctrines tied to bible verses badly parsed and often completely out of context. We Anglicans were spared that.
Years ago a young lady who was a member of Saint Matthew's stopped attending Mass and neither returned my phone calls nor responded to notes I sent by mail. A few months later, she appeared suddenly at my office door. As it turns out. another member had angered her and, instead of letting me know, she had stormed out, started attending a fundamentalist church, and had returned only to question me and tell me why we were wrong about everything. She had not come to talk, let alone to learn, but only to attack. Her new church had formed her, not into a Christian, but a Pharisee.
In today's gospel reading [Matthew 22:34-46], Jesus, who has already signed his death warrant by entering Jerusalem while acting out a messianic claim, is still being beleaguered by Pharisees. His detractors still want to make him look the fool. This time they ask him to rank the Commandments of the Law, showing which might be greatest. That would be a gargantuan task, sorting our 248 positive commandments and 365 negative ones, 613 together. Instead, Jesus sums up the Law by quoting Deuteronomy and Leviticus, about loving God and neighbour. But pay close attention! In quoting the former, recited every day by faithful Jews in the sh'ma, Jesus says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind." Jesus changed the final word from 'might' to 'mind,' telling the rigid and legalistic Pharisees to start reading Scripture in an intelligent fashion. And intelligent engagement of the Bible is a hallmark of Episcopalians, I am pleased to say.
In speaking of love for God and others in this way, Jesus is also reminding the Pharisees and us not to get bogged down in rigid interpretations and legalism but get to the bottom line of Christian life. Jesus communicates that his way of torqued-up Torah, not playing games with proof-texting books, consists of the way of life we must lead. What does that look like? Let me answer that question, and close, with quotes from three early observers of how actual Christians behave. It's not about doctrine.
Julian the Apostate. Roman Emperor from 361 to 363), said, "The godless Galileans feed not only their poor, but ours!" Tertullian (160-225) wrote that Christians "support the poor, pay for burials, take in orphans, care for the elderly and home-bound, serve the shipwrecked and victims of epidemic, and they send money to the banished." Even earlier, the philosopher Aristides (125) reported that Christians "bring in strangers like they were brothers and sisters; provide for the needs of imprisoned and oppressed people; and for the poor and needy they will fast 2 or 3 days to give food."
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