The Anglican Church of All Saints

Click here to read the sermon for The Fourth Sunday before Advent – Mark 12. 28-34

Country Dance Club – important notice

Due to illness, the start of the Country Dance Club has been postponed until Friday 8th November. For further information please contact Anne Murphy WhatsApp 627136948

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6th November – Wednesday

10am Said Eucharist – Celebrant & Preacher Mtr Fiona Jack

10:45-12:30 Friendship Cafe in the church grounds

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10th November – Remembrance Day

10:45am (please note the earlier time) Sung Eucharist – Celebrant & Preacher Mtr Fiona Jack

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

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14th November – Concert in church

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Tuesday 3rd December –  Christmas Quiz

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Sunday 22nd December

Please note: the Christmas Lunch is now sold out.

If you would like your name on the waiting list, please contact Jane Stewart as below

Sunday 3rd November 2024 – Mark 12. 28-34

We’ve seen in our recent reading from Mark’s gospel that the Scribes get something of a bad press. From the start of this gospel until the very end, the scribes are described as a group of people who were intimately involved in the conspiracy to kill Jesus. So we might hear this story about an extraordinary conversation between Jesus and the scribe and maybe miss this point. Instead of the usual adversarial encounters with Jesus, this one is quite positive with Jesus saying of the scribe ´you are not far from the kingdom of God.’

This scribe has recognised that in the course of a number of hostile disputes with the religious authorities that Jesus has given some good answers. He is an exception to the rest of the scribes because he is able to acknowledge and repeat the truth in what Jesus says.
When asked which is the greatest commandment, Jesus first of all recites the Shema which we heard in our first reading from Deuteronomy – a summary of who God is and to whom God is (i.e. Israel) – and then a command to love God with all one’s being – God and no other. And then having established God as Israel’s God and the command to love this God alone, Jesus appends a corresponding command from Leviticus “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”.

You may have in the past heard the old adage ‘the Old Testament God is a God of wrath and the New Testament God is a God of love’. I would answer that this is pernicious nonsense which has led to anti-Semitism and that this passage underscores how wrong that impression is. The conversation with the scribe takes place within a conversation about the Hebrew bible. Jesus was a Jew through and through and steeped in the Hebrew scriptures. Disdain towards the faith of Israel runs deep in Christianity and we should be wary of falling into this trap. This conversation happens within the central tenets of Judaism, not at its expense.

What our gospel writer is doing is emphasising the importance of single-hearted devotion to what God intends for humanity. The Great Commandment ,as it has been called ,contains 3 elements: belief in one God, whole-hearted devotion to that God and love of neighbour. What does this mean for us in our context today, we might ask? We do not live surrounded by temples and images of polytheism as people did when these commandments were written. Yet we might wonder if we have allowed good things which are not the ultimate to become the ultimate and defining forces of our lives – nation, occupation, family, political cause, theological system? It’s so easy to let these dominate our concerns on a day-to-day basis.

Perhaps this exchange between Jesus and the scribe exemplifies in some way the living out of the Great Commandment? Even though it takes place in the middle of a long- running dispute between Jesus and representatives of the parties and leaders of the religious establishment, Jesus and this scribe are able to transcend the party strife and cross the dividing line of hostility to confess a common faith. They are able, perhaps, to treat each other as neighbours because they have agreed on the belief that there is no commandment greater than love of God and neighbour. Both have stepped out of the ‘us’ and ‘them’ camp – how difficult this is to do! We see our own Church of England being torn apart by different factions and schism– let alone the huge gulf between people of different denominations, or dare I say it, other faiths! The scribe recognises Jesus as the great Teacher; Jesus recognises the scribe as a pilgrim moving towards the kingdom. Their mutual affirmation is an island in a sea of hostility. Their lived out common devotion to God puts an abrupt stop to the debate.

There’s another point to consider here. When Christians today read this passage, they sometimes think that Christianity differs from other religions in its moral superiority. I suspect this is a hangover from colonialism. However, summaries of the Law that emphasise the duty to love God and neighbour are not unique to Jesus. Devotion to the supremacy of one God over all creatures has been admirably expressed in Islam. Judaism has struggled consistently with what it means to be a people set apart from other nations by God. Compassion for all living beings has been radically formulated in Buddhism. Our Christian faith is not in a moral system that is absent from or surpasses that of all other religions. Truth to tell, other religions may teach Christians how to live out their own moral insights with greater consistency. What lies at the heart of our faith and makes it different is the unique manifestation of God in Jesus, a manifestation that the scribe in this story recognises. But Christ’s manifestation of sacrificial love does not negate the value in the teachings of other faiths. What remains then? Well in this gospel, it’s the passion of Jesus. Not an overthrowing of Israel’s faith, but an unanticipated fulfilment of it. Love of God, and love of neighbour take their deepest expression in shed blood, blood that is life itself.

The scribe approached Jesus with a genuine heart and openness, despite the background of tension between Jesus and the religious leaders. Some questions to reflect on: how do we find common ground with people with whom we disagree? Can we, like the scribe, be open to learning from people with a different perspective from ours? How do we live out the teaching of the Great Commandment with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength?

Mtr Fiona Jack – Chaplain

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