One-time Prime Minister William Gladstone, in announcing the death of Princess Alice to the House of Commons, told this touching story: “The little daughter of the Princess was seriously ill with diphtheria. The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter and endanger her life by breathing the child’s breath. Once when the child was struggling to breathe, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took the little one into her arms to keep her from choking to death. Rasping and struggling for her life, the child said, ‘Momma, kiss me!’ Without thinking of herself the mother tenderly kissed her daughter. She got diphtheria and some days thereafter she went to be forever with the Lord.”
Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger. Real love doesn’t count the cost. The Bible says (SS 8:7, NLT), ‘Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it’ (Source unknown).
Folks, if our lives are not about LOVE … we’ve missed it! We have some serious genetic failure going on! Listen to what Jesus says is the most important directive that has ever come from God … that on which all other Godly direction is built:
“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 ‘Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?’ 37 Jesus replied, ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:34-40 (NLT)
Did you guys do your homework when you came in today (p.880, UMH – The Nicene Creed)? Here again we have what the Early Church called the ‘marks’ of the Church—what is to be at the center of our spiritual cells, as followers of Christ. These four marks (i.e. One, Holy, catholic, Apostolic) are at the center of the Church’s general DNA—good for all churches everywhere… But, then there’s also specific DNA for each individual congregation, for their geographical context and for their specific time in history. That’s what I want to get to today…
Let’s begin with the today’s sermon title and a definition. What about the sermon title? Well, author Howard A. Snyder says in his book Decoding the Church, “When churches operate with their full DNA, they become, in effect, stem cells of the kingdom of God.” O.K., but then let’s ask this question: What is a ‘stem cell’ (basic definition)?
Stem Cell: “…a cell that is taken … at an early stage of development and is capable of developing into cells of any type.” (Please know that I’m speaking today strictly about our spiritual genetic code … and how this description fits into that discussion.) So, here’s what I’m getting at: We need to be pliable! We need to develop into spiritual cells in the Body of Christ that can be duplicated into what God can use to build his Kingdom! What kind of cells are we going to be … in the Body of Christ?
The truth is there’re churches that develop DNA not helpful to God’s Kingdom… And, there’s churches that develop DNA that is helpful in building God’s Kingdom; that’s the kind of church God is calling us to be … and LOVE is at the center of the type of cell that needs to be duplicated around here!
It hit me awhile back, as I was reading a book called ‘Simple Church’ a few years ago, that what God was calling us to right here in Southwest Wisconsin was to be churches who would ‘Love God, Love People, and Serve God by Serving Others.’ This was the vision God gave me to share with you; this was also (I realized at the time) a plan for making disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world (UM Mission)…
Our ‘spiritual genetic code’—specifically—needs to be mapped out in this way:
WE NEED TO BE A PEOPLE WHO … LOVE GOD! Verses 37-38 remind us of Jesus’ words: “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.’”
So, how are we supposed to love God (Deuteronomy 6:5)? With all your heart… With all your soul… With all your mind… What does that sound like to you? WITH ALL OF YOUR SELF! With that in mind, how much do you love God … and does your life show it? To my way of thinking, there’s not a one of us who can’t grow in this area of our lives—to learn to love God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds…
I was able to attend the Global Leadership Summit a few days ago, put on by Willow Creek Community Church, N. Barrington, Illinois (simulcast to Dodgeville). And, I must say, when it comes to ‘loving God,’ I was shamed as I got to hear a particular speaker! I saw this kind of love in a section of the Summit entitled “Tough Callings.” It was during that time that we were introduced to one who has lived a tough calling most of her life—Mother Maggie Gobran. She is known as the ‘Mother Teresa of Egypt.’
Mama Maggie Gobran (Founder and CEO, Stephens Children Ministry, Nobel Peace Prize Nominee) … led a comfortable life in Cairo. A Coptic Christian from a prominent Egyptian family, she taught computer science and lectured at Cairo University. But following a conviction from God, she started a ministry to serve the poor in her city. A Nobel Peace Prize nominee this year, Mama Maggie has spent 20 years serving the poorest of the poor—the children…
Folks, here is a woman who doesn’t give ‘loving God’ lip service; she lives it! She has given up all of the comforts of this life, to live out her love for God … as God has directed her to for years! She sums up what she has learned in the calling God has placed her in … in this way:
- We don’t choose where we are born, but we do choose whether to be sinners or saints!
- Am I one who has been forgiven much, yet loves so little? When are we going to die to self-interest?
- When one has nothing, God becomes everything…
Then she shares these steps of God’s tough call on her life:
“Silence your body to listen to your words, silence your tongue to listen to your thoughts, silence your thoughts to hear your heart beating, silence your heart to hear your spirit, silence your spirit to hear God’s Spirit—leave many to be with One!” – Mama Maggie Gobran
Folks, again, real love forgets self! How many of us have sacrificed ourselves on the altar of self-interest? How many of us have reached a place in our lives where we’re willing to put God first in every area of our lives? Folks, that’s loving God … with all of our hearts, our souls, and our minds! … Loving God is at the core of our DNA here at the Dodgeville/Grace UMC… Along with that…
WE NEED TO BE A PEOPLE … WHO LOVE PEOPLE (GOD’S WAY)! Verse 39 completes Jesus’ thoughts here: “A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” The specific way God’s word tells us to love others is in this way: as we love ourselves… And, we’re really pretty good at that, aren’t we?
Jesus here had just got done silencing (literally ‘muzzling’) the Sadducees (and the Pharisees were excited about that)! What Jesus does in short order, however, is to put the Pharisees in their place, too! Both the Sadducees and the Pharisees … loved themselves very well; they had no problem doing that. So, Jesus knew exactly who he was talking to…
In these couple of statements about which commandments (Law) are the most important, he let the Pharisees know that there was ‘a new spiritual sheriff’ in town! The contrast in this short story is between the Law (Pharisaic Legalism) and the ethic of love for God and one’s neighbor. By putting these two things together, Jesus showed that one is fulfilled by the other; the two cannot be separated…
- It is in loving the neighbor whom we have seen … that we express our love for God whom we have not seen (1 John 4:20).
- Like two hinges on a door, these two things belong together as the New Law … or new commandment.
- The order is significant: first, opening one’s life to God, followed by opening one’s life to neighbor.
- To love is to open up your life completely to that of another—first to God, then with God’s love in you (a product of that relationship) … to your neighbor.
This, folks, is the righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 5:20)! Just as we learn to love God … which is a totally selfless love … we also need to learn to love others in the same way! It’s a process. And, maybe the most important thing to know at this point is there’s no way we can love others the way we need to without the love of God in us—loving through us; we can’t even do that by ourselves, without God’s grace (but, we have it for the asking)…
Our scripture for today ends with this (v. 40):“The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”In other words, there is nothing more important that Jesus ever said than his reminder of these two most important commandments…
- God wants us to be stem cells for his kingdom…
- God wants us to develop into those kinds of cells (in his Body) that put these commandments first and foremost in our lives—to love Him and to love others…
- God wants us to then reproduce … into a Body of his that will love just like that!
Folks … love begets love! Loving God with all of ourselves … and loving others, just as we love ourselves: That’s being a stem cell for the Kingdom! That’s living out of our full spiritual DNA… If we’re to be who God is calling us to be as his Body in the future, we have to … KNOW THE CODE!