Mark 12: 28-34
October 24, 1999
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
Love for Something
When I was growing up in Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston, I used to love baseball. My father loved baseball too so he would take us to Fenway Park with $1 Special tickets and we would sit and watch our beloved Red Sox play. In those days, I didn’t know how bad they were. It was for the love of the game.
I used to love playing baseball when I was a kid. One time I even hit a home run over the left field fence, our version of the Green Monster. Running the bases and imagining the cheers from the crowds. It was a lot of fun. We used to play baseball so much that we forgot all sense of time and schedules. Because we loved baseball, we would practice hitting and fielding and catching. I got this hand me down first baseman glove and started playing first base. We practiced and played because we loved the game.
Whenever we have this love for something, we give it our all.
If you would like to nurture a loving relationship with a friend, you have to give it your all. To have a significant friend in your life, you have to spend regular time with that person. It’s not only when you have some spare time; rather, it’s giving your prime time. I know a young man according to his mother missed a great opportunity to develop a loving relationship but blew it because he wasn’t willing to give regular time to their relationship. He said, “She expects me to call her sometime.” When we love someone, we need to spend regular time with that person for that relationship to grow and mature.
We can see our love for something in the causes we care about too. When we are concern about a cause, we give it our all. We would work hard and diligently and forget about all sense of time. Eating becomes unimportant when we are focused on something we care about.
In high school, I wanted to help people in need. I was asked to tutor an autistic Chinese boy. All I really had to offer Hang Lee was time. You see his father seemed to have given up on him. But his mother was still trying to try everything she knew how to help him. I was only hoping that I might offer him companionship and socialization. This wasn’t easy. And I wondered if I was really able to help Hang Lee with his disability.
To make a difference in someone’s life, I know that I had to regularly spend time with Hang Lee and trust God that through my efforts, he is able to realized his potential. Being committed to people we care for will require us to give our best, our time, and all that we are.
Loving God with Heart, Soul, and Mind
In the passage for this morning, we see one of the scribes, asking Jesus “Which commandment delivered to Moses by God is the first of all?” Jesus declares that the most important commandment is neither something we must do or must avoid, but a more basic law of having an attitude. The command that we love God does not require us to do anything, and yet, if taken seriously, it affects everything we do. Jesus said,
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. The second is this, You shall
love your neighbor as yourself. There’s no other commandment greater than
these. (Mark 12:30-31)
When we love God over anything else, we give God our all.
In Hebrew culture the heart was thought of as the center of thinking and willing as well as of feeling, and therefore as the source of moral and immoral behavior. To love God with all one’s heart meant to let God direct one’s thinking, dreaming, desiring, and willing.
The Hebrew word for soul means the vital principle in a living thing, it’s “life.” To love God with all one’s soul means to love God more than one’s own life. This means to put God before self is required of all.
The third phrase, “with all your mind,” was included by Mark to help Greek readers see that to love God means with our intellect too. We are not asked to sacrifice our intelligence to believe, but rather the love for God requires that we be honest thinkers, using our heads as well as we can, yet humbly, always recognizing the limits of human reason.
And finally, “with all your strength” refers to dedicating our bodily power of our hands, feet, eyes, ears, and mouth to glorify God. Strength here also means our economic ability. When we love God with all our strength, we dedicate our possessions and money to glorify God.
Giving to God
When we love God with all our heart, all our soul, all of mind, and all our strength, we want to spend all our time with God. Just like I didn’t want to come home from playing baseball, we want to spend all our time at church. Just like when you want to nurture a loving relationship with a friend, you want to spend regular time with God. Just like when you are committed to a cause of helping people, you want to give all your abilities and talents to God’s cause in the world.
This is the time in our church year when we invite you to give and support the ministry and mission of the church. How do we begin to learn how to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength?
For me, it takes practice. Loving God with all that you are begins now and it will last throughout your whole lifetime. You are never finished with learning how to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. I know that God is still working in me to give more of myself than I am ready to give now with the faith that someday, I will be able to give my whole life to God.
Giving money to the church is one way that we can begin to love God with all of our strength. I started by collecting dimes, nickels, and pennies in those little boxes we get for the church’s special offerings. I would try to fill them up as much as I could.
In Sunday School, we were given special offering envelopes and during junior church, we would place our envelopes filled with coins still in the offering plates. I’m sure the counters had a fun time.
Then when I got older and became a church member, the first thing I received was a box of envelopes to give my weekly gifts. Every envelope had the name of the church printed on it and the Sunday date on which to bring it to church. I remember there were times when I fell behind and needed to catch up with my giving. Some years, I never caught up and gave as much as I could. But the important learning I had was that I gave. I made a pledge and I tried to fulfill it.
The reason why I give is first and foremost is that I love God. When I love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, there’s no other choice for me but to love God by my giving to God’s plan.
The second reason I give is that I want to grow in my faith in self-discipline and responsibility. Even for a minister to give faithfully means that I trust God to provide for everything that I need when I first give to God. In Exodus 23:19, it says “The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.” When I write my monthly checks to pay bills, the very first check I write is to the church.
And the third reason that I give is to help those with material and spiritual needs. When my little gift is combined with the gifts from others, it makes a big gift that can begin to make a difference in the world. What I can’t do alone, we can do together. Remember the second greatest commandment is to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Pledge Envelopes
During Jesus’ time, pious Jews wore what are called phylacteries on their left arms and on their heads. Phylacteries were leather boxes containing slips of paper inscribed with scriptural passages. The greatest of the commandments that Jesus declared were kept in these leather boxes as a regular reminder of keeping the love of God and neighbor primary in one’s life. They were worn close to their hearts or on top of their heads so that they would remember to love God and neighbor.
Pledge offering envelopes are like phylacteries for us today. When we use weekly envelopes, we are reminded of our love for God that we want to give to God all of our strength including a portion of our resources.
I hope that you would pray about your pledge commitment this week. There are these little “This Is My Prayer” booklets that I hope every family will take one home today and begin to pray everyday about how God is working in their lives. We don’t give out of obligations or habit or guilt. We give because we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We give regularly and generously because we love God.
Just like I love to watch and play baseball, I must love God and give to support God’s mission in the world as much as baseball.
Just like I am committed to a deep loving and faithful relationship with Joy, I must love God and develop a loving relationship with him as well.
Just like I am concern about the injustices and evil in the world that cause destruction and degradation of others, I must love God with the same degree of compassion and energy.
Just like I know that Jesus Christ gave his life so that we may have everlasting life, I must love God as much and give back what has always been God’s anyway.
It is my prayer that every one of you will take a pledge card this week and make a pledge. Even if you said “I’m pledging 25 cents a week or 50 cents a week or $1 a week.” Did you know that if you gave 25 cents a week, that is only $13 a year! Fifty cents a week comes up to only $26 a year!
$13 is about two times to MacDonalds. $26 is about the cost of a music CD. I want every one to take a box of envelopes and to begin to give regularly because you love God. When we practice to give regularly, we grow in self-discipline and responsibility. We begin to help others in need.
Here are some old envelopes from this year. There are only nine more Sundays left in 1999. I want each of you to take a little stack of envelopes today and try to give a quarter or a half a dollar every week until the end of the year.
It is for the love of the game that we play baseball. It is for the love of God that we give.
Let us pray.
Dear God, we give because we love you. Continue to help us to grow closer to your love and challenge us to love you. Bless us this week and keep us safe from all evil. In Christ, we pray. Amen.