SPEAKER_05: The first scripture reading is from 1 John 3 18.
SPEAKER_05: Let us listen to the word of God.
SPEAKER_05: Little children, let us love, not in word or in speech, but in truth and action.
SPEAKER_05: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_06: Let us listen to the word of God.
SPEAKER_06: O no one anything except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
SPEAKER_06: The commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet.
SPEAKER_06: And any other commandment are summed up in this word Love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_06: Love does no wrong to a neighbor.
SPEAKER_06: Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
SPEAKER_06: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Beautiful day for a neighbor.
SPEAKER_02: Would you be mine?
SPEAKER_02: Could you be mine?
SPEAKER_02: It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood.
SPEAKER_02: A neighborly day for a beauty.
SPEAKER_02: Would you be mine?
SPEAKER_01: Could you be mine?
SPEAKER_01: I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.
SPEAKER_01: I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
unknown: So let's make the most of this beautiful day.
SPEAKER_01: Since we're together, we might as well say, Would you be mine?
SPEAKER_01: Could you be mine?
SPEAKER_01: Won't you be my neighbor?
SPEAKER_01: Please won't you be my neighbor.
SPEAKER_04: So I want to thank you guys for wow.
SPEAKER_04: I'm stepping away from that.
SPEAKER_04: For allowing me to be here this morning.
SPEAKER_04: It's a pleasure and a privilege to come and to speak with you.
SPEAKER_04: Um it's it's you know you've made it in the world when Lady Gaga sings your theme song.
SPEAKER_04: And so I thought that was just a wonderful tribute to Fred Rogers.
SPEAKER_04: And so I'm excited to this morning to be able to talk a little bit about being a neighbor.
SPEAKER_04: So I'm not nearly as good at this as Fred Rogers is.
SPEAKER_04: I would love to be able to say some of the things that he did and do some of the things or say some of the things that he said and do some of the things that he did.
SPEAKER_04: Did you know that he started his ministry on television in 1962 and then it transformed into Mr.
SPEAKER_04: Rogers' neighborhood in 1968, and he did that for 33 years until 2001.
SPEAKER_04: In that time he had 912 episodes.
SPEAKER_04: That is an amazing ministry.
SPEAKER_04: 912 times he reached out to children to let them know that they were special, that somebody saw them, somebody cared about them, and that they were loved.
SPEAKER_04: And so it's just it's a privilege to be able to speak a little bit this morning about love.
SPEAKER_04: Because that is the central theme that Fred Rogers had.
SPEAKER_04: He was quoted in saying, one of the greatest gifts you can give anyone is the gift of your honest self.
SPEAKER_04: And he also believed that kids could spot a phony from a mile away.
SPEAKER_04: So if authenticity, if giving the gift of our honest selves is so important, what does it mean to be an authentic Christian?
SPEAKER_04: We're going to talk a little bit about that this morning.
SPEAKER_04: So in an interview, Fred Rogers said, Love is the root of everything.
SPEAKER_04: All learning, all parenting, all relationships, love or the lack of it.
SPEAKER_04: So the question before us this morning is what is our faith known for?
SPEAKER_04: Is it known for our love or our lack of it?
SPEAKER_04: If my faith is built on anything else, such as my religious beliefs and religious obedience, my knowledge, my degrees, my expertise, my political view, my social view, and I lack the central theme of love.
SPEAKER_04: My faith is self-serving and can be harmful to those around me.
SPEAKER_04: So we heard from the Apostle Paul when he said, You've heard the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and what uh uh and whatever other commandment there may be, it is summed up in this one commandment love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_04: Love does no harm to a neighbor.
SPEAKER_04: That is what makes it the fulfillment of the law.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 22, verses 34 through 40, has an encounter with a Sadducee, and the Sadducee comes to him and was trying to trick him and says, Teacher, which is the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_04: Jesus replied to them, says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
SPEAKER_04: This is the first and the greatest commandment, but the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_04: All the law and the prophets are fulfilled in these two commandments.
SPEAKER_04: This commandment that Christ gave us seems simple.
SPEAKER_04: First, love God.
SPEAKER_04: So if you get to understand who Jesus was and his heritage, this was a common thing.
SPEAKER_04: This wasn't a new revelation that Jesus, the great teacher, was speaking something new into existence.
SPEAKER_04: Do you know what he was doing?
SPEAKER_04: He was quoting the Shema.
SPEAKER_04: This is a prayer that every Jewish person would have prayed every day.
SPEAKER_04: Shema O Israel, Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Kad.
SPEAKER_04: Hear Israel, the Lord is God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_04: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
SPEAKER_04: This was a central theme in Jewish faith.
SPEAKER_04: And so when this Pharisee was trying to trick Jesus and to trap him into saying something he ought, Jesus responds with, This is what it means to love God with all your heart, all your strength.
SPEAKER_04: But how do we do that?
SPEAKER_04: And the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_04: Now, this again was not a radically new idea.
SPEAKER_04: This was of Levitical law.
SPEAKER_04: Leviticus 19, 18, you shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your sons or uh of your, I'm sorry, the sons of the people that owe you, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_04: I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: What I find is in both translations and both versions of this understanding, love is not a noun.
SPEAKER_04: When Jesus and when God was speaking to the uh the people of Israel, he was speaking to them in an active voice.
SPEAKER_04: When he says, love your God, uh when scripture says, love God, and when Jesus says love your neighbor, he's not saying have a good emotional feeling towards them.
SPEAKER_04: He's saying do something.
SPEAKER_04: Love requires action.
SPEAKER_04: It requires us doing something, not just thinking about it and feeling it.
SPEAKER_04: 1 Corinthians 13, 1 through 3.
SPEAKER_04: This is a probably a very well-known passage of scripture.
SPEAKER_04: It says, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I do not have love.
SPEAKER_04: I am only a resounding gong and a clanging cymbal.
SPEAKER_04: If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and understand all knowledge, and if I have the faith that can move mountains, but I do not have love, I am nothing.
SPEAKER_04: If I give all my possessions to the poor, and I give my body to hardship, that I may boast, but I do not have love, I gain nothing.
SPEAKER_04: So as an officer within the Salvation Army, it's been an interesting journey.
SPEAKER_04: Um I was raised and born within the Salvation Army as my church of home, uh church of origin.
SPEAKER_04: My parents were pastors, officers within the Salvation Army.
SPEAKER_04: In fact, we go back six generations within the Salvation Army, it's just who we are.
SPEAKER_04: And so to me, the idea that you do something was from my childhood.
SPEAKER_04: That's just natural.
SPEAKER_04: It's what it's part of who I am.
SPEAKER_04: But what I've had to learn as I've grown is not just the doing, it's the why we do.
SPEAKER_04: It's the love element of the doing.
SPEAKER_04: Fred Rogers once summed up his theology in saying, love your neighbor and love yourself.
SPEAKER_04: I often struggle with the second part of Jesus' commandment.
SPEAKER_04: I get to love God.
SPEAKER_04: That's easy.
SPEAKER_04: I can I can do that.
SPEAKER_04: Love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_04: That can be more of a challenge because I often find it hard to love myself.
SPEAKER_04: You see, how many of us today have an altered understanding of how to love others because we cannot properly love ourselves.
SPEAKER_04: We struggle to forgive ourselves for our shortcomings and our failures.
SPEAKER_04: We tend to hyperfocus on our inadequacies, and we do not see ourselves as the beautiful children that God loves dearly.
SPEAKER_04: So our first step in loving others as ourselves has to be having authentic and true love for ourselves.
SPEAKER_04: If we're giving our bodies over to hardship and harm and we're giving to the poor and we're doing all these things, but we don't even love ourselves.
SPEAKER_04: The work that we're doing values not.
SPEAKER_04: First, learn how to love who you are in your shortcomings, in your failures, in your inadequacies.
SPEAKER_04: Forgive yourself.
SPEAKER_04: And then start to share that love beyond.
SPEAKER_04: So we understand the importance of loving ourselves and others, but if we do not put that love into action, it is useless and a farce.
SPEAKER_04: 1 John 3.18 says, Dear children, let us not love with words or with speeches, but in action and in truth.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus gave us a teaching very similar to this, and he expands a lot on this.
SPEAKER_04: And so I'm not gonna go a lot a long time into this.
SPEAKER_04: So just so you know, I was um raised, my first church that I was a part of that where I learned to preach was a Jamaican church.
SPEAKER_04: So I can preach for a whole long time.
SPEAKER_04: And in the Jamaican church, we would start about 10 o'clock in the morning, and we would do praise and worship till about noon, so about two hours of praise and worship.
SPEAKER_04: And at that point, the pastor would get up to start to preach.
SPEAKER_04: People are still coming in at noon.
SPEAKER_04: We've been going for two hours, and people are still coming in.
SPEAKER_04: So you gotta give them what you know what they came for, and so you would preach for a good two, two and a half hours.
SPEAKER_04: So I promise that I won't do that today.
SPEAKER_04: I've I've I've had to learn how to temper myself and read my audience.
SPEAKER_04: But Jesus gives us a story in the Gospel of Luke in chapter 10, verses 25 through 37.
SPEAKER_04: This is the parable of the Good Samaritan.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm gonna read through it, but then I want to talk briefly about this story.
SPEAKER_04: It says on one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_04: What is written in the law?
SPEAKER_04: Jesus replied to him, and how do you read it?
SPEAKER_04: He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.
SPEAKER_04: And love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_04: You see that this expert in the law knew the Shema.
SPEAKER_04: Yes, this was common teaching.
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't miraculously new.
SPEAKER_04: So Jesus says, You have answered correctly.
SPEAKER_04: You know this.
SPEAKER_04: Do this, and you will live.
SPEAKER_04: But the expert in the law wanted to justify himself, and so he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?
SPEAKER_04: So Jesus replied, telling a story of a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and along the road he was attacked and robbed.
SPEAKER_04: They stripped him of his clothes, they beat him and went away, leaving him for dead.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus says, A priest happened to be going down that same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
SPEAKER_04: So too, a Levite, when he came to that place, saw him and passed on the other side.
SPEAKER_04: But a Samaritan as he was traveling came to where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
SPEAKER_04: He went to him and he bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and then put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, took care of him.
SPEAKER_04: And the next day he paid two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and says, Look after him, and when he re when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra cost.
SPEAKER_04: So Jesus looks to the expert in the law and asks, which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell amongst the robbers?
SPEAKER_04: The expert said, the one who had mercy on him.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus said, Go and do likewise.
SPEAKER_04: So you've you've heard this story.
SPEAKER_04: You've probably heard a hundred sermons on this story, so I'm not gonna go into a whole lot and dissect every portion of the story.
SPEAKER_04: But I'm hoping that maybe you hear something a little bit different and a little bit new.
SPEAKER_04: That's the wonderful thing about a living word of God, a living scripture.
SPEAKER_04: So when I was growing, I was always taught, well, it was the priest and the Levite were the bad guys in the story.
SPEAKER_04: But I don't think that they were the bad guys.
SPEAKER_04: I think more often than not, they were me.
SPEAKER_04: For whatever reason, I don't think that they lacked love for the man that they saw.
SPEAKER_04: I don't think that they lacked empathy or compassion.
SPEAKER_04: But they didn't put that love, that empathy, and that compassion that they had into action.
SPEAKER_04: You see, when they when they were walking and they saw this man and they thought he was possibly dead, they let their religious views get in the way of their compassion, their mercy, and their love.
SPEAKER_04: Because if they touched a dead body, they would be ritualistically unclean.
SPEAKER_04: And so therefore, they passed by on the other side of the road to obey their religious beliefs.
SPEAKER_04: They weren't bad men, they were good men that loved their religion more than they loved their neighbor.
SPEAKER_04: Now the Samaritan, he didn't have to worry about being ritually unclean.
SPEAKER_04: The Jews already considered him unclean by birth.
SPEAKER_04: He already wasn't good enough.
SPEAKER_04: So when he saw the man and he showed mercy, he had the same love and compassion as the other two probably did.
SPEAKER_04: But he did something with it.
SPEAKER_04: How often do we have love and compassion?
SPEAKER_04: We see something in our world that we don't agree with.
SPEAKER_04: We know the wrongs that people are doing.
SPEAKER_04: Or we see the person on the side of the road.
SPEAKER_04: And for whatever reason, whether it be our political reasons, whether it be our religious reasons, whether it be our financial concerns, our time, our energy, whatever it be, that we put that above our love.
SPEAKER_04: Every day.
SPEAKER_04: Sometimes I ask myself, what was I thinking?
SPEAKER_04: I'm not that guy.
SPEAKER_04: I'm not the good Samaritan that that stops and not only takes care of the guy and puts him on my donkey and then takes him to an inn and pays extra and says, I'll even come back and reimburse you.
SPEAKER_04: I don't have that in me, God.
SPEAKER_04: I often find myself the priest or the Levite.
SPEAKER_04: God, you chose the wrong person.
SPEAKER_04: So Christ tells us to go and and to do likewise.
SPEAKER_04: But we often fail.
SPEAKER_04: But that's when that first step love yourself comes back into play.
SPEAKER_04: Forgive yourself.
SPEAKER_04: You're not gonna get it right every time.
SPEAKER_04: So we have to love ourselves, forgive ourselves, and try again the next day.
SPEAKER_04: Galatians chapter 6, verse 2 says, carry each other's burdens.
SPEAKER_04: And in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
SPEAKER_04: So what is an authentic faith?
SPEAKER_04: It is a faith that is alive and active.
SPEAKER_04: It is a faith that is alive and active, a faith that is evident, it is tested, and it is true.
SPEAKER_04: It is a faith that sees values in others and ourselves.
SPEAKER_04: It is a faith that actively seeks to improve the life of those around us.
SPEAKER_04: James chapter 2, verses 14 through 26 says, What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?
SPEAKER_04: Can such a faith save them?
SPEAKER_04: Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, if one of you says to them, Go in peace and keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?
SPEAKER_04: In the same way, faith by itself, if not, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
SPEAKER_04: But someone will say, You have faith, I have deeds.
SPEAKER_04: Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.
SPEAKER_04: You believe that there is one God, good, even the demons believe that and shudder.
SPEAKER_04: Do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?
SPEAKER_04: Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on an altar?
SPEAKER_04: You see that his faith and his actions worked together.
SPEAKER_04: And his faith was made complete by what he did.
SPEAKER_04: And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_04: And he was called God's friend.
SPEAKER_04: You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do, not only by their faith.
SPEAKER_04: In the same way, was not Rahab, the prostitute, considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and went and sent them off in different directions.
SPEAKER_04: As the body without the spirit is dead, the body without faith without deeds is dead.
SPEAKER_04: Fred Rogers had an authentic faith.
SPEAKER_04: For 33 years, multiple generations of children would hear the story that Fred Rogers was telling.
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't because he was the smartest, most educated, most influential.
SPEAKER_04: It was because when he looked at the camera, he saw a child sitting on the other side in their living room.
SPEAKER_04: And he loved them.
SPEAKER_04: That love transitioned through the lens and reached into the life of that child.
SPEAKER_04: That is what it means to love your neighbor.
SPEAKER_04: That is what it means to serve your community.
SPEAKER_04: That is what is required to carry the mantle of Christian.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus gave us a commandment.
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't a suggestion.
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't a self-help.
SPEAKER_04: It was an expectation.
SPEAKER_04: How do I inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_04: Love God.
SPEAKER_04: Actively love God.
SPEAKER_04: And actively love your neighbor.
SPEAKER_04: If you do those two things, all of the other minutia, all of the other requirements, all the other things that we debate about and that we think are so important, are taken care of.
SPEAKER_04: They're summed up, they're wrapped up, they're fulfilled in those two simple commandments.
SPEAKER_04: Love God and love each other.
SPEAKER_04: May God bless you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you found this podcast inspirational and would like to support the First Love Ministry programs at First Presbyterian Church, please send any contributions to First Presbyterian Church at 870 West College, Jacksonville, Illinois.
SPEAKER_00: Our zip code is 62650.
SPEAKER_00: Our phone is 217-245-4189.
SPEAKER_00: You can contact our secretary there.com slash first F I R S T T R E S J.
SPEAKER_00: We have a file that meets from 7 to 8 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: every Thursday night.
SPEAKER_00: And you welcome all who are willing to sustain.
SPEAKER_00: We look forward to hearing from you.