November 5, 2006: MORE THAN YOU ASKED FOR
Hebrews 9:11-14, Mark 12:28-34, Psalm 146
Eileen Parfrey - Springwater Presbyterian

I've never quite gotten on board with the book of Hebrews. It keeps showing up in the lectionary, but most of the time it leaves me cold. Maybe because it's so scholarly. Today's passage about animal sacrifice gives me a "Well, duh!" It never crosses the mind of most Americans-even Jewish Americans-that killing an animal makes us right with God. PETA aside, killing animals to make God happy seems barbaric and pagan. OK, so we breed huge birds to slaughter once a year as a sign of thanks, but I don't know anyone who thinks God understands our annual turkey gorge-fest as an act of worship.

Given this, how is a preacher to make relevant to 21st century Americans this talk about Jesus and goat blood? I read from The Message because it shifts the focus from technicalities of sacrifice to sacrifice as "living all out for God." Now I can understand why Jesus took the scribe's praise of his own interpretation of the greatest commandment, why he said that the scribe was close to the kingdom of God. When we love God by loving others, when we give everything we've got to the practical, concrete expression of our faith-that's "sacrifice" worth practicing.

But let's unpack sacrifice. Americans as a whole haven't had to think in terms of personal sacrifice since World War 2, when the Greatest Generation embraced gas rationing and used public transportation in order to send resources to support a greater good. It was a time when Americans dug out the grass in their yards to plant Victory Gardens, when they put off buying new clothes and appliances because the materials to make them were needed elsewhere. We've heard the stories, and we have a pretty good idea what personal sacrifice means when the whole culture is doing it. But our current consumer culture uses credit card debt to avoid postponing purchases, and global trade agreements to throw off our balance of trade in the name of discount goods for us. We're not tuned in to "sacrifice" if it means denying ourselves anything.

So it is that we've gotten confused about religious sacrifice. We think sacrifice had to do with pay-off for sin or avoiding punishment. Old Testament animal sacrifice was not about an animal's death in trade for human error, as if it was payment of a fine. Lying to your mother about stealing cookies costs one dead pigeon. Lying to your boss about your hours costs you a dead calf. It's called "sacrifice" because humans give up something for God's sake. Sacrifice continues as a practice today, but it's not so much a religious practice as it is cultural. Parents sacrifice sleep to get the kids to the ice rink at 4 AM to practice with the team. Hopeful speed skaters forgo scholarships at other colleges in order to attend one near the Olympic practice arena. People give up social popularity for an exclusive relationship that might lead to marriage-an intimate relationship with one person only. You might have known some Renaissance person who possesses every talent-music, art, math, athletics-but who appears to throw everything else away to just focus on and develop one talent. These are sacrifices, but I'm willing to bet none of those making the so-called sacrifice begrudges the cost.

When Jesus tells the inquisitive scribe that the greatest commandment is to "love the Lord with all your strength," he means to love God with all your wealth, property, and talents. Strength-the things that are important to you, the things you rely on for facing challenges, buffering you from harm, putting food on the table, staying warm and dry, looking good to the neighbors. The things that make you distinctive, who you are. In the Presbyterian Church, it's easier to argue about sexual practice than it is to say how much we give to the church. It is more comfortable to pontificate about physical love than it is to hum a few bars of, "If loving God is important to you, supporting the kingdom of God with your time, money, and best efforts will be a natural expression of your discipleship." Have you ever heard that song in a Presbyterian church? And no one wants to actually go out on a limb and admit that giving is the single most important way to grow in faith.

What you get out of knowing God is about what you put in. If our relationship with God is "no big deal" that's what it will continue to be. No big deal. I talked with one of my colleagues about the future of the mainline church. She admitted that she continues to be in the church, but with this condition: "If it's not about transformation, I'm not interested." If our relationship with God is as concrete as it is spiritual, then personal and corporate and cultural transformation will be a natural consequence.

"Love God with everything you've got" is what Jesus means by the greatest commandment. Sticking with God, sticking with the faith community. Even when we're embarrassed about our failures. Even when we don't necessarily approve of what others are doing. "Love God with all your strength" means telling others about our faith and the transformation we've experienced. It means sticking with people in our faith community, because we trust that God will give them transformation, growth, energy, life because that is what we've received. That's what Jesus was all about. Making it possible for us to "live all out" for God, to love God with everything we've got.

We do not give because we have not been transformed. This is not for lack of God trying to transform us. We have misunderstood. We thought transformation was about "change," and we were afraid. We thought it was about "salvation" and we could put it off until we died. We thought we needed to earn it, grab it, accomplish it before God would find us worthy enough to give it. We wanted to avoid the inconvenience of commitment, of focusing our whole self on one thing. We spread ourselves too thin, clung to judgments, compared ourselves to others, resented their blessings, wished for something else. We were afraid we wouldn't be loved if the truth about us was known.

The truth is known. God knows. God knows. And because God loves us, because the Lord is one, we can love God with everything we've got. Even our strength.