Love the Lord your God with all your heart – and love your neighbor too, for goodness sakes – at least as much as you love yourself.  That’s a whole lotta love! Or at least it should be. Because, loving yourself does not make you a narcissist. Loving yourself at the expense of all others makes you a narcissist.

So God is expecting a whole lotta love from us. Can we make ourselves love like that? The short simple answer to that is, OF COURSE NOT. But God can. God can make us want to love with all our hearts. He created us to love. He built us to love. We are at our best when we love. Sometimes love results in a massively broken heart and enormous anguish. But that is never an excuse not to love.

So what keeps us from loving up to our potential? This command to love and the title Jesus gives it as the “greatest commandment of God’s law” is a beautiful rendition of the 10 commandments. The 10 commandments, as you well know, are full of YOU SHALL NOTS. Clearly, the two famous stone tablets Moses brought down from the mountain were all about what we’re NOT supposed to do. This summation of God’s entire law given by Jesus instead identifies what we ARE asked to do. LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, SOUL AND MIND AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR LIKE YOU DO YOURSELF. So, who’s my neighbor? Everybody’s your neighbor. You may have been living in our area for quite a few years now in the same house. If so, you may have watched your neighborhood undergo great change in terms of the ethnicity of many of your neighbors. Good for you if you are celebrating the increase in diversity, celebrating neighbors who probably have much more interesting life stories than many of the people in your same neighborhood 20 years ago.

Love everybody? No, we can’t teach ourselves to do that. Most of us have at least one neighbor on our own street we probably couldn’t learn to love on our best day. I guess what I’m saying is, we need a Savior. We need a Savior who understands our failings and our selfishness and our shyness and our inability to love unconditionally, or sometimes even conditionally. We need a Savior who forgives us our trespasses. And we need a Savior who unleashes our potential to love.  Because deep down we want to love –with ALL our hearts.

God made us complex and compassionate and social beings. We were not designed to be alone, not all the time. We were not crafted to be overprotective, or suspicious or fearful and distrustful. Those behaviors leave us miserable and disillusioned about why we are even here on the planet. We need a Savior who unleashes our potential to love, and from us Jesus needs some cooperation.

There’s a story about a spiritual guru who was meditating in his mountain cave. When he opened his eyes, standing before him was of all people the Catholic Abbott who was in charge of a very famous local Catholic monastery. The Guru asked him, WHAT IS IT YOU SEEK? The Abbott explained that things were not well at the monastery. Once the monastery was so well known that its rooms were filled with young men dedicating their lives to the Lord. But now the monastery wasn’t even half full. Rarely were there visitors anymore. The monks who did still live there went about their duties with little joy. The Abbott asked the elderly guru, IS IT BECAUSE OF SOME SIN OF OURS THAT THE MONASTERY SEEMS ALMOST CURSED? YES said the guru. IT IS BECAUSE OF A SIN. THE SIN OF IGNORANCE. The Abbott insisted on an explanation.

The guru explained, ONE OF YOUR MONKS IS THE MESSIAH IN DISGUISE AND YOU ARE IGNORANT OF THIS. The Guru then closed his eyes and went back to his meditation.

On the long walk back to the monastery the Abbott’s mind was a whirlwind. Is it possible? The Messiah has returned? The monastery would seem to be a likely place to lay the groundwork for his renewed earthly ministry. But how could he have failed to recognize him? Who could it be? Brother Cook? Brother Sacristan? Brother Treasurer? Not Brother Prior…he just had too many defects.

On the other hand, Jesus was in disguise. Maybe those defects were part of the disguise. Come to think of it, everyone in the monastery had defects. And one of them was the Messiah!

The Abbott reported the information to the brothers when he returned. At first they were mostly skeptical. But the Guru had exhibited great powers of wisdom and insight in the past. Doubtful he could be so mistaken this time about such an important announcement!  So what happened is that the brothers all began treating one another with special respect and consideration. Mistakes and failure were greeted with encouragement and only the most positive reinforcement. After all, it would be just like the Messiah to purposely appear weak and vulnerable.

In no time the monastery became vibrant with joy and contentment, and especially great spirituality again. Before long dozens of new applicants began applying for admission to the brotherhood and once again the inside of the chapel echoed with the holy and joyful chants of monks who were filled with the spirit of love and the contentment of a higher purpose and calling.

Love your neighbor? You can, when you see your neighbor in a different light. You may struggle to see God in every other person you know, but surely you can see good in every person. That irritating neighbor may not be the Messiah in disguise testing you, but God formed him in the womb, too, and for a reason.

Now, what about this command to love ourselves? How well do we accomplish that? When our sinfulness is the very thing that leaves us feeling unacceptable before God and running away in fear? Remember that you are running away from a God whose intention was never to beat us down but to lift us up, to redeem us from our lost and rambling existence. Because Jesus engineered a complete redemption on our behalf. He assures us – we are redeemable.

There is a great book now out of print by Ken Hemphill titled “MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL”  in which he points out that all of us have talking mirrors. But what most of us are hearing is a far cry from “fairest of them all”. We hear all kinds of judging voices from childhood to adulthood to seniorhood and many of these voices are telling us what is wrong with us. These voices would have us believe that living in isolation, living cautiously and fearfully and selfishly, living with suspicion and mistrust is a more excellent way.

I saw a magazine article this week with a list of 10 great things about getting old. One was described by a woman who said, “When I’m in my car I sing at the top of my lungs, even with the windows down. I don’t worry anymore what anyone thinks.”  Perfect! She doesn’t listen to the voices and neither should you. Only one voice is able to proclaim “I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.” Only one voice lovingly calls us home. Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling. Look for the good in everyone. The good was made by God, after all. Declare yourself lovable! And tune your ear to that one voice of Savior and His alone. AMEN