Union Church

November 1, 2009 Mark 12:28-34

Has anyone NOT heard about the H1N1 vaccination panic?

Authorities have gone from trying to convince Canadians for the past two weeks to get the shot, to trying to control the stampede this week of panicked demand for the shot.
The sound bytes are breathtakingly self-referencing and self-absorbed.

It has gone from “why I or my children won’t be forced to take the shot” to “why I, and my children should now be first in line to get the shot.”

I don’t know about you, but I am embarrassed by some of these publicized responses of my fellow Canadians.

We are a community wise northern climate country.
We know we can’t get through the winter on our own.

When did we lose sight of the common good?

This panic highlights how our society has lost contact with our Christian tradition which is reflected in the Great Love Commandment.

The point of the Great Love Commandment, “to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, to love your neighbour as yourself,” is to get the flu shot regardless of your age and situation so as to reduce the risk of contracting and spreading it to others.

It has little to do with your possibility of serious illness and death.

It has everything to do with limiting these possibilities for others.

Grandparents, you will not die from this flu bug, but get the shot because your grandchildren or any others of the younger generation do face some sort of risk.

It is not about us.

It is about loving our neighbour as our-self.

This is the love ethic not the modern self absorption or personal piety of the past.

So how did our society get so far off track?

In our post modern era, in the religious/spiritual sphere, we confuse dabbling with devotion.

This is what I mean:
Dabbling is a part-time, part-serious, part-distracted approach to something that requires much more of us than we are prepared to admit.

Dabbling sees things as optional instead of necessary.

I can no longer count on my fingers and toes, the number of people at social events who have told me recently that they are into this spirituality, or that religiosity or this eastern practise.
But when I ask them about the group that they practise with, the answer is usually “Oh, I don’t belong to one.”
So when I then ask, “Who is your spiritual guide or trainer that you hook up with?”
The answer is, “Well no one.”

What we don’t seem to get any more is we cannot be really into something without being devoted.

Let’s be clear here, this response is not just outside the church.

Devotion means, with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul and with all our strength.

Today is All Saints Day.

As Protestants, saints are faithful folk who allow the light of God’s presence to shine through them to others.
They radiate warmth, or commitment, or compassion that embraces wider and wider circles of concern.
They are people devoted to God’s Dream, God’s New Day week-in and week-out: Year-in and year-out.
They practise an ethic of love of self and love of neighbour.
I have met a few of these precious souls here at this church.

The church in every age is called to be a community of devotion to God and to practise the ethics of love.

We come to church to find strength, inspiration and practical participation.

We come to learn to radiate.

We come to become saints.

In times of change and confusion A Great Love Commandment church does what needs to be done and gives what needs to be given.

Application for Today:

We are a church of the Great Love Commandment when we
do what needs to be done,
give what needs to be given and
are radiant in the midst of it all.