October 29, 2023 – The 22nd Sunday After Pentecost

Mother Elizabeth Farr

What a day of joy and whimsy!

It is a gift to be playful in community, to be creative. 

This is always such a fun day. I’m so glad we made the decision at some point to have the Blessing of the Costumes be a part of our Sunday morning worship – and not a separate service or gathering later in the day. It is delightful, and it is good for us to delight together at the time of our principal gathering and worship.

Later in the service, we will bless our costumes. We will name the joy that they bring and offer that joy back to God to be celebrated and blessed. Before Father Cal offers that prayer of blessing, we have a little call and response that we will say. We’re going to practice it now. We’ve said it for a couple of years, and I think we’re getting pretty good at it – but more practice never hurts.

So your part is: Good Lord, deliver us!

And this is what we’ll say first: 

From ghoulies and ghosties, 

And long-legged beasties, 

And things that go bump in the night:

Good Lord, deliver us! 

I wonder about your memories of ghoulies and ghosties, and long-legged beasties, and things that go bump in the night. What consumed your young imagination at bedtime? What ghoulie or ghostie did your parents need to check for in the closest just one more time? What long-legged beastie did you need extra assurance was not lurking under your bed?

For younger me, there was a film that informed my imagination of things that go bump in the night. This film is a classic, and I’m sure when we watched it as a family, my parents had a different idea about the impression it would continue to hold on me. This film is not a horror film. In fact, I went and looked, and it’s considered “Drama” and “Sci-fi.” 

There are really heartwarming parts of this film. There are funny parts of this film. There’s even a young Drew Barrymore in this film. There’s connection and friendship, sacrifice even. So much of this film would preach. Love your neighbor – yes, even your extraterrestrial neighbor, but to seven or eight-year-old me, the thought of E.T. showing up in my backyard and living in my home was terrifying.

Sweet E.T. – who loved Elliot and just wanted to phone home – he was my ghoulie and ghostie, my long-legged beastie, and I was convinced that every bump in the night announced his arrival. Closet checks were particularly important. If you remember, E.T. was quite adept at hiding in the closet, making it seem as though he was one of the stuffed animals. “You can’t just look; you have to move things around. He knows how to blend in,” I would say. My parents were so happy we had watched the movie.

My sister still gives me grief to this day. She and I are four years apart, so I’m just older enough that at 8, I could manage to carry her four-year-old self to my bed. Even as she slumbered, her presence helped to dispel the E.T. ghoulies and ghosties. I would finally fall asleep, and she was always furious with me the next morning for having moved her. This practice continued for far longer than I’d like to admit. It started when we were 8 and 4, but E.T. continued to consume my imagination at bedtime approaching double digits.

From ghoulies and ghosties, 

And long-legged beasties, 

And things that go bump in the night:

Good Lord, deliver us!

I hinted at our Gospel lesson a few moments ago – Love you neighbor, even your extraterrestrial neighbor. At first glance or first hearing, this seems a not-so-scary Gospel reading. The Pharisees are testing Jesus again. God bless them. They are persistent – kind of like biblical gnats. 

They just won’t go away – and at this point we’re familiar with the interactions between the Pharisees and Jesus. We know that Jesus is up to the challenge and that he will respond to the Pharisees in a way that confounds and amazes.

This interaction is no different – even as the Pharisees choose a lawyer from among them to question Jesus. “Teacher,” the lawyer asks, “which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus’ answer is immediate. He quotes from Deuteronomy and Leviticus. 

He shares what the Pharisees know to be true, “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,” Jesus says, “And a second is like unto it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” There it is, the encapsulation of God’s commandments: Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself. This is God’s greatest call and desire for God’s beloved, for us: Love God. Love your neighbor. 

Again, seemingly a not-so-scary Gospel reading. 

Here in the Gospel of Matthew, the Pharisees have no response. Jesus in fact goes on to ask them a question. This same story – this same interaction – Which commandment in the law is the greatest? – is also shared in the Gospel of Mark and in the Gospel of Luke. This underscores the significance of Jesus’ response – Matthew, Mark, and Luke choose to tell this story. 

Mark’s telling is pretty close to Matthew’s, but in Luke’s telling, the lawyer questioning Jesus would like to know more. This is a story close to the heart of our community. Love God. Love your neighbor. And what does the lawyer in Luke want to know? 

He wants Jesus to define some terms. “And who is my neighbor?” the lawyer asks. Jesus responds with the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus defines neighbor as beyond any boundary that we might imagine or impose. There is no one who is not your neighbor. Love God. Love your neighbor.  

* Good Lord, deliver me from those commands.

This is hard, and yes, it can be scary. 

There is so much unknown and unpredictable when we choose to follow the way of Love.

And it is a choice. When Jesus shares God’s commands to love God and love your neighbor, Jesus is not speaking of love as an emotion. Emotions cannot be commanded – desired, perhaps: “I wish that you experienced feelings of warmth toward me,” but Jesus is not expressing a desire, “I sure hope you feel love toward God and toward your neighbor.” Jesus is commanding an action: Be loyal to God. Be devoted to your neighbor.   

Loyalty and devotion are a daily choice. They take discipline, practice, and effort. Love God. Love my neighbor. Love God. Love my neighbor. Over and over again. Trying. Failing. Trying again. We do not commit ourselves to active love like this and remain unchanged, and that’s scary. 

And it’s also our greatest hope: Transformation of ourselves and all of creation through the love of God and the love of neighbor.  

We are holding so many stories right now of pain and trauma and terror. Our love of violence, revenge, and hatred seem to overwhelm. There are too many children with too many real nightmares from Maine to Israel to Palestine to right here is our own community.

How do we respond?

What is the faithful way forward?

Where is our hope?

Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. . . [and]  ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Love of God. Love of neighbor. Active. Moving. Changing. Over and over again. Today. Tomorrow. Until all of creation is transformed by the Love that we follow. 

Good Lord, by your love, and by our devotion, practice, and action in your love, deliver us.

Year A, Proper 25  –   October 29, 2023  –  The 22nd Sunday After Pentecost   –  The Rev. Elizabeth Langford Farr