Love: It Takes More Than Brussels Sprouts

Mark 12:28-34

If you’ve ever read through the Old Testament, then you know there are a whole lot of rules and commandments listed there. Sure, we know the Ten Commandments—don’t steal, don’t kill, keep the Sabbath, and so on—but really the Ten Commandments are just the tip of the iceberg. In all, there are 613 commandments in the Old Testament. There are 365 commandments that tell you what not to do, and another 248 commandments that tell you what to do. That’s an awful lot to remember!

So it wasn’t uncommon for people to ask their religious leaders to boil down those 613 commandments into something a little more manageable. For instance, shortly before the time that Jesus began his teaching, there was a Jewish rabbi named Hillel. One day a man went up to Hillel and asked if he could summarize all of God’s commandments for him while he stood on one foot. Hillel obliged the man. While balanced on one foot, he said, “Whatever you hate, don’t do that to other people. That is the whole law; everything else is just commentary.”

I think that we all like it when someone is able to help us cut through the confusion and get to the point. For instance, when I was in 11th grade, my English teacher assigned us Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. After flipping through just the first few pages, right away I could tell that being forced to read that book was a crime. With all those Russian names—and it seemed like the book was 4000 pages long—it was obvious that doing that assignment was going to be pure punishment. But fortunately, one of my classmates told me about something called Cliff’s Notes. Maybe you’re familiar with them. Because what Cliff’s Notes do is they take a 400-page book, and in just 40 pages, they tell you what the book is all about. The Cliff’s Notes give you a quick summary of what you’re trying to figure out.

In the same way, that’s what that scribe was asking Jesus for. He wanted a Cliff’s Notes version of those 613 commandments. In fact, his request was that he wanted those 613 commandments boiled down into one commandment. Well, Jesus did his best. But he wasn’t able to shrink the 613 laws down to one law. That wasn’t quite possible. But Jesus did give the man two commandments. Jesus said: “What God’s law is all about is this: Love God, and love your neighbor.”

But what does it mean to love God? If we really want to love someone, we need to make a sacrifice for them. In other words, just saying “hi” to our neighbor in the morning or being able to say that we’ve never robbed our neighbor’s house, while those are good things, that isn’t love. By doing those things, we’re simply doing what’s expected. No, loving someone means going beyond what’s required, and instead offering something of ourselves that is bigger and better than anyone would expect. And so, do we love God? Do we bring to God the biggest and the best we have to offer? Or do we bring to God something less?

When I was in middle school, I always liked it when we had food drives. I knew that was my chance to go through my mother’s food pantry and pull out all the cans of all the vegetables that I didn’t want to eat. The cans of Brussels sprouts were always the first ones into the donation bag. But looking back at that, was that a loving thing to do? Sure, I was bringing in canned goods to give to the hungry. But didn’t the hungry people already have enough problems without me forcing them to eat Brussels sprouts? Now, I know there are some of you here who actually like Brussels sprouts. There’s no accounting for some people! But I think you get my point. For those food drives, I didn’t give the biggest and the best. I gave what I didn’t want.

Some years ago, a woman called up the Butterball Turkey Company’s toll-free number. She said, “I was cleaning out my freezer, and I discovered that I’ve had a turkey in there for 23 years. Is it still OK to eat?” The Butterball representative replied, “Well, if the turkey has been frozen the whole time and has never been defrosted, then it should be safe. But if it’s been in the freezer that long, the quality of the meat probably won’t be too good.” The woman calling said, “That’s what I thought. I think I’ll give it to the church.”

Often when we come here to church, we don’t offer to God what’s the biggest and the best. No, we give what we don’t want. We give what’s leftover. We make sure that we have money for the movies and eating out and vacations and all sorts of things. And if there happens to be any money left over, maybe, just maybe, we’ll give God some of that.

But the truth is that God isn’t interested in our leftovers. No, if we love God, then that means we bring to God what’s first and what’s best. I remember one day when I was about 12 years old. I was over at my friend Tom’s house and his parents had just given him some money for cutting their lawn. As soon as he got the money, he went into his room and put part of it into a jar that was sitting next to his bed. I asked him what that jar was for. He told me that was where he kept his tithes.

Now, at that time, I had never heard what a tithe was, and so I had to ask him. He explained to me that every time he received some money, he set aside 1/10 of it, and then gave that money to his church the following Sunday. It was only later on that I learned that that idea of tithing, of giving 1/10, is based on what the Bible says is a good guideline for people to use. The idea is that the first and the best 10% of whatever we receive is to be given to God as a sign that our love for God comes first before anything else.

Where does God stand with us? Is the love we have the kind where we bring to God our leftover, dented cans of Brussels sprouts? Or is our love the kind where we bring to God the biggest and the best? Through your offerings, show God where it is that God stands in your life. Through your offerings, show God your love.

C. Edward Bowen

Crafton United Presbyterian Church

Pittsburgh, PA