Jesus told us to love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves. In our worship today, let us explore how to love God with every fibre of our being.
Invitation to Confession:
Jesus, sometimes we resent or despise or hate ourselves.
Lord, have mercy.Jesus, sometimes we fail to love others because we haven't learned how to love ourselves.
Christ, have mercy.Jesus, sometimes we're selfish and try to make life easy for ourselves.
Lord, have mercy.
Reading:
Mark 12:28-34
28. One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" 29. Jesus 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." 32. Then the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that "he is one, and besides him there is no other'; 33. and "to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,' and "to love one's neighbor as oneself,'--this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34. When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." After that no one dared to ask him any question.
Story:
This is a very brief re-telling of the story of Moses, in modern terms. Moses was someone who couldn't help loving God and his love for God showed in the way he devoted his life to his neighbours with scant regard for his own safety and comfort.
Mo's Love For God
When Mo was a young man, he saw an older man being beaten up. The older man was torn and ragged and looked as though he might have been an asylum seeker who had to beg to find enough money to live. He was being beaten up by a soldier, a member of the Peace-Keeping Force. Mo was furious at the plight of the weak old man, who he suspected was someone from his own country. Almost without thinking, Mo picked up a large stone, ran over and hit the soldier on the side of the head.
The soldier fell to the ground with a grunt and the old man, with a terrified look at Mo, ran off in the opposite direction. Mo was badly frightened. He listened to the soldier's chest but couldn't hear any breathing. He felt for a pulse in the soldier's neck, but there was nothing. Mo was horrified. He hadn't meant to kill the soldier, only to stop him hurting the old man.
Since it was the death penalty for murder, Mo took to his heels. He fled across the border and stayed there for many years, too afraid to return. But he couldn't stop thinking about the old man and the many others like him. He prayed to God to help those people and it was as though he heard God say, "You go."
Mo tried to forget that he'd asked God for help for the people. He tried to forget the people and concentrate on his new life, but he couldn't. In the end, he went back and made contact with the underground movement, offering to lead them all away from that place into a different country where they could be themselves without being beaten up or persecuted.
It was a terrible time for Mo. The people were so cowed that they were almost too frightened to go with him and as soon as the authorities got wind of what was going on, they made life ten times worse for the people. But eventually the people all gathered their few possessions and sneaked away, following Mo.
Even after they all got away it was difficult. They wandered around homeless for what seemed like years, searching for a country which would be glad to receive them. They were often hungry and tired and they often lost hope and took it out on Mo. They blamed him for taking them away, for at least they'd had a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs before he had interfered.
But despite all the hassles and dangers Mo carried on, and he grew stronger and stronger as the years went by. He grew to rely entirely on God and no matter what happened, he couldn't help loving God and doing what he thought God was suggesting to him. In the end, he found the right country just as God had promised, but by then Mo was a very old man. "That's your new country," he told all the people and he watched as the people moved across the border to settle in the new land. But Mo himself never made it. He was so old that his life was over. He died supremely happy because he had loved and followed God all his life, and God had been able to use him as one of the greatest leaders the people had ever known.
The longer version of his name was Moses.
Activity:
You need:
Pictures of unknown individuals, marked
alphabetically to distinguish them
A set of cards for each child, with a
number from 1 to 5 on each card
A large sheet of paper divided into squares,
with five columns and as many rows as you have pictures. Along the top write
the numbers 1-5, down the side write the letters a-z (or as many as you have
pictures)
Coloured marker pens (a different colour for each team)
Divide the children into two or three teams and tell them they're to be judges at a competition. All they have to do is to rate the people they see. Show each picture and wait for each child to hold up a card giving their rating. If you can, make sure they all hold up their cards at the same time, so that they aren't influenced by each other. Put all the ratings on the chart without comment, using a different colour for each team so that it's easy to see at a glance how every child has voted, but also how every team has voted. At the end, select the pictures which won the most votes and the pictures which won the least votes.
Ask the children why they voted as they did for the person who came out top - it may be to do with glamour and sophistication, but may also be to do with a nice smile or a kind look or a "motherly" shape. Talk about godly qualities (love, joy, peace etc. - Galatians 5:22) and whether it's possible to spot them in other people.
Then ask the children why they voted as they did for the person who came out bottom - it may be to do with looking boring or "nerdy", or it might be some quality of deceit or mistrust, something ungodly. Ask how they could begin to love their neighbours - by looking for the godly qualities within them and responding to those qualities. You might also need to have a discussion about "who is my neighbour?"
Start with a discussion of the differences between sensible care for yourself (e.g. saying "no" to strangers, keeping out of fights) and selfishness (e.g. refusing to help a friend in need in case you get hurt, refusing to share with other people). Try to elicit from the children that love for yourself is important if you are to love others, but that love for yourself is different to selfishness. If the children are old enough, you could ask them how they feel about their shape, their hair, their personality etc. You may find that some hate themselves rather than love themselves, so perhaps need to talk to them about being made in God's image and therefore being very lovable to God. Point out that if God is within us (through his Spirit) we must love ourselves if we are to have any chance of loving God. The children should write in their diaries about any time when they unselfishly did something for someone else, and what it felt like, or draw about this.
Intercession:
God of love, when the Church is too inward looking, help us to remember other people and their needs. May we always give to others as well as raising money for ourselves and may our response be a response of love for you.
God of love, teach us concern for all our neighbours, rich and poor, near and far. May we remember that we are all your children and that if we share fairly with each other, we'll all be better off.
God of love, help us to love you so completely that your spirit fills our being and overflows to those all around us. Help us to discern the difference between love for ourselves and selfishness, and to give ourselves unselfishly to your service.
God of love, we pray for those who are sick or suffering in any way. Help us to show our concern for them in action and to support those who care for the sick. We ask you to touch those who are sick or in any kind of pain and heal them.....
Blessing:
May you discover such love for God
that you can't help pouring it
into all your neighbours.
And the blessing of God almighty,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
be with you now,
be in your homes and in your families
and with all those whom you love
and for whom you pray,
now and always.
Amen.
