I believe, in a previous sermon, I mentioned Bishop Fulton J. Sheen – the TV Roman Catholic evangelist of the 60’s – who said, "The hardest person to convince is a Christian because they have all the answers!" Well, I wonder how many sermons you have heard on the subject of the two great commandments…loving God with all that you are and loving your neighbor as yourself.

So, the question is, are we open to learning more from Jesus as to what the challenge of these commandments might be in our lives as individuals and as a parish-- or do we protect ourselves with our old responses to these commandments? This might seem like a strange thing to say. But, friends, churches, for the most part, have been avoiding the heart of Jesus’ teaching for centuries.

The rote answers most Christians give go something like this: "1. Yes, I know I should totally love God, and 2, Yes, Jesus wants us to care for our neighbors … and I know, from the parable of the Good Samaritan, my neighbor is anyone in need." Many of us even know that there should be some similarity between our love of God and our neighbor. The problem for many of us is simply that these commandments have insufficient traction in our lives. They float on a spiritual ether that feels comfortably familiar and does not rock our lives – as individuals or as a congregation.

I am reminded of the number of times people would ask Jesus how they could attain eternal life. In almost every case, Jesus turned the question around to the questioner. "What do you think," he would say. Jesus knows that we have the answer. The real question Jesus asks is, "Since you know the answer, what are you going to do about it?"

Let us unpack this teaching of the Two Great Commandments beyond the comfortable answers that we know but do not do much about. There are two types of questions and therefore two types of answers. The first I call "endless inquiry." It is like perpetual education. (Some of you with children know what I am talking about!) Study becomes a way of avoiding the real world. In endless inquiry, one’s answer is, "Thanks, but I have to keep searching for the answer." However, as we also know, there comes a day when one has to fish or cut bait. I see Jesus wearing a baseball cap with a Nike swoosh, saying "Stop searching for truth… just do it! Live what you know is right, and get on with it!"

The second type of inquiry I call the "philosophical question" which looks for a philosophical answer-- otherwise known as the rhetorical question. There is a difference between the question, "What is truth," and asking, "How do I get to Oakland?" But what do you do when the answer is, "To know the truth, you have to go to Oakland?" For Jesus the question, "How do I attain eternal life," or "What is the greatest commandment," were action questions that required action answers, not philosophical or even religious truisms. The problem with those of us who would be Christians, for almost two millennia now, is that too often we keep our efforts to follow Jesus on a non-challenging or "Church Talk" level, or worse yet we relegate the life-changing call of Christ to theological correctness. Jesus’ answers on how we should love God by loving our neighbors, and how we would find our real energy by being extravagantly generous in giving our life for the betterment of others, have been reduced to religious platitudes! The litmus test for being a Christian for too many centuries has been a matter of how many wonderful things you can claim about Jesus, and not if, and how, you are living a Jesus life. This has got to stop!

Because of the lack of congruity between church behavior, church theology and Jesus life and theology, I know dedicated Christians who will no longer identify themselves as "Christian." Embarrassed by what often passes as "Christian," these people prefer to say that they are followers of the "Jesus Way." Or "Jesus Path." I must confess that many of these people impress me. One shudders to think what kind of patriarchal, anti-female, anti-gay, exclusionary, and reactionary thought you will find promulgated in supposedly "Christian Bookstores," "Christian TV," and not a few "Christian" churches. But let us think on the positive side.

Here is a true story. Not that many years ago, the Presbyterian Church decided to form a new congregation in Sonoma. The church planter they sent in to the area did nothing for several years but work very hard, side by side, with community action groups who (1) were dedicated to improving life for individuals with various urgent needs and (2) who were striving to better the environment and the quality of life in Sonoma. From this group of social-action workers, and the people they were serving, this Presbyterian missioner eventually developed the core of his congregation, and, though it took a few years before it formally came into being, this church hit the deck running when they opened their store-front doors.

Conversely, I started a new Episcopal church north of Santa Rosa two years later, I didn’t know about how this fellow minister started his mission in Sonoma. More especially, I paid no attention to Jesus’ teaching and life, and was totally unguided by the principles on which the first church was formed and performed its ministry – as described in the Book of Acts. Instead, I planted a new, Episcopal congregation the good, old fashioned way: I ran around trying to find people who would like to start a new Episcopal church. The question as to why we needed an additional Episcopal congregation simply was explained by geography and demographics. The town of Windsor, California, was growing so the area needed an Episcopal church. The real needs of the community never came in to play, and therefore meeting true need never was part of the church development plan. The assumption was that the need was for an Episcopal church.

We did develop a good core group, but growth was very slow. Carol and I had made a five year commitment to that mission. Within four years of our moving on, the mission folded for lack of community interest. During the same period of time, in an area of similar growth, the Presbyterian mission grew substantially.

Here is another short story. This one occurred just over a year ago in New York City. A formerly grand, Gothic Episcopal church in a now rapidly declining (and growing) poverty stricken section of the city found itself on hard times. The congregation was down to 30 or so people. The church was almost broke. Constant raids on the small financial reserves had reduced these funds to $20,000, with a current operating deficit well in excess of that amount. The Bishop sent in a new vicar with orders to turn the church around within two years, or it would be closed and the property sold.

The first action the new vicar took was to convince the little congregation that they needed to move from needy solitude to a confidant and positive ministry to the neighborhood. So, after making a brave commitment of faith, the church members gave the remaining $20,000 away to community action groups working in their area. The congregation began to feel good. By working with the people to whom they had given all their "safety money," they came to understand the urgent needs of people just outside their door. From this, the formerly-frightened 30 souls and their new vicar discerned God’s purpose for being. Jesus’ emphasis on the two great commandments became clear for them.

The message was challenging and encouraging. If they wanted to love and worship God, they had to be willing to offer their church life if they wanted to find it. They had to move into the joy of generosity and service to others. From parish poverty, they discovered they had what they needed. Stewardship improved on every level. The word got out in the community. This was a church that truly cared. If you wanted a fellowship that respected you by bringing out your best side, if you wanted to energize your life with a new calling, this was the place for you.

More and more people came, wanting a piece of the action. The more they gave of themselves and what little money they had, the faster they grew. Ministry and money grew proportionately. Bottom line: well within the Bishop’s two year deadline, there was a vibrant, sustainable congregation. And, according to the magazine article I read, that church still is growing from strength to strength. Praise God! The message is clear. The answer is close at hand. A congregation that actively loves God with all its soul and resources, by being lovingly active in helping its neighbors in need, prospers and multiplies.

You and I can not hear Jesus’ gospel today, without thereby learning intuitively of congregations who have found amazing life by giving their life to others as well as themselves, and not be moved to change. "A congregation that would save its life for itself will lose it, but a church that is willing to offer its life for my sake and the living of this gospel will find it." This is Jesus’ promise.

Every stewardship canvas needs to remember Jesus’ admonition that it is more blessed to give than to receive. This teaching does not just apply to the money each of us is willing to give to our church. It applies to the parish as well. The more we give of our resources – personal and financial – for the works of love of our neighbors, the more we will grow in the love of God.

Today, in his gospel, Jesus is asking us, and every congregation who hears today’s lectionary, "Why are you here?" Our answer can no longer be that we are here mostly for ourselves. Our growing deficit amply demonstrates that our spending of 97 percent of our funds on our own needs and on the maintenance of the diocese is to lose our lives in the very attempt to save them. Our breakthrough in The Spirit -- evidenced by church growth and increases in stewardship will happen – as Jesus promised – when the two great commandments become one driving force for us. Remember, it was to the Pharisee’s question, "Which commandment (singular) is the greatest," that Jesus answers them with two sides of one truth-- love of God and love of one’s neighbor. When what we as a Christian family give for our love of God in each other is matched by what we give for the love of God in our neighbor, untold riches will be ours. We will be rich in the Spirit, rich in membership, rich in stewardship, rich in the lives of all who need us. We do a good job taking care of each other, now we are called to care for the neighbor who has yet to come through our door.

So today, as a church as well as individually, we ask, "Teacher, which commandment is the greatest?" And Jesus answers us, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second-- Jesus does not say "the second", but "a second"-- a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself." To this I pray that, as St. Paul’s Church and as children of God, we all respond with a hearty "Yes"…in a great "Amen!"