Message given at Grace Church, Molokai Sunday, Oct 26 2008

Agatha Burgess is 87 years old and lives in the small mill town of Buffalo, South Carolina. She gets up every morning at five o'clock and begins cooking for the local Meals on Wheels as she has been doing for over twenty years. At 11:00 am volunteers come by her house and take the food she cooks to the elderly and needy: people who can't cook for themselves.

By noon, another group of people come to Agatha's house for lunch. She calls them "the boys" even though all of them are adults and some are women. Mill workers, judges, truck drivers, anyone who comes at noon gets to fill their plates and go back for seconds. Agatha runs an all you can eat kitchen. She serves about a hundred people a day. Her daily menu usually has 2 or 3 meat dishes, five vegetables, two hot breads, and at least two desserts. She has specialties like fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, meat loaf, country fried steak, corn, potatoes, greens, corn bread and biscuits and delicious cakes and pies. Amen! The sermon is over. Let's go eat lunch.

Anyway, for all this, Agnes charges the whopping sum of… $ 2.75. She knows that's too much for some of the folks who come by, so if they can't pay she doesn't charge anything.

A newspaper reporter asked her the obvious question, "Why do you do this 5 days a week every week?" Agatha's reply moves to the heart of today's gospel. She said, "I do this because I love it. I always wanted to be a person that lived by the side of the road, and could be called a friend." She said that she would continue to do this until she died because this is what she lived for, and these people coming everyday mean so much to her. Maybe we should call her in Buffalo and ask her if she wants to relocate to a place where there is no snow. We could sing her the Mr. Roger's song, "Won't you be my neighbor?"

Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:5, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself what it means to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind?

To the Hebrew people these three places in the body meant something.

Heart, soul, and mind are used interchangeably in the Bible. When writers referred to your heart, soul, or mind they were pointing to the core of who you are.

This is the place where decisions were made, where emotions were felt, where thinking was done, where secrets were hidden, where desires came from. You could decide with your heart, feel with your heart, think with it, hide things in it, and desire with it.

You could decide with you soul, feel with your soul, think with it, hide things in it, and desire with it.

And guess what you do with your mind? Decide, think, feel, hide, and desire.

All three of these parts referred to the same thing. In fact, they way that you acted was the thermometer that showed the world the condition of your heart, soul, and mind. You could say that how you lived your life showed your core temperature.

When the Bible tells us that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, it doesn't mean that there are three or four different aspects of our existence, all of which must love God. It means that we are to love God with all that we've got. It means total commitment. It means having your core focused on the Lord.

And it means that we've got to be willing to completely follow the Lord.

Deuteronomy 6 says: "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

When Jesus invited people, "Follow me." there was no pretense of being a part-time follower. You either showed your love by following Him to the next place or you didn't.

I was a student at UH Manoa in the mid-1960's. One day there was a guy with a bullhorn out on the open-air mall. That wasn't unusual, in fact it was pretty common. Bullhorns were popular. But this guy was shouting "Hey guys do you want to be rebellious, counter-cultural, unusual, distinct, extraordinary, and down right weird?" A crowd immediately gathered and he had our full attention. He then looked at us smiled and said "If that's what you want love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. The world just won't get it."

You know He was right. When we love the Lord with all we've got, we will definitely be counter culture, and people will think we're a little off. But I would rather be off from the world then at odds with God.

Then Jesus gave the 2nd greatest commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Then Jesus said something for His followers with ADD "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets." In other words, you don't have to be able to remember over 600 laws. You don't even have to memorize all 10 commandments. You only have to remember TWO, because all of the of the commandments and all the teachings of the prophets are based on these 2.

Let's think about it. If you love God with your entire core, and walk closely with Him, you wouldn't ever be tempted to take His Name in vain or make anything or anyone into an idol for yourself. If you truly loved God with all you've got and loved your neighbor as you love yourself, you wouldn't steal, or kill, or lie about them. You would honor your parents and you wouldn't cheat on your spouse. If we really focused on loving God and loving His children, we wouldn't need a whole lot more directions. That sounds a lot like Agatha Burgess, a person who lives by the side of the road and someone who genuinely loves people.

Jesus said it this way: when you feed the hungry, you feed me. When you house the homeless, you shelter me. When you visit the imprisoned, you visit me (Matthew 25:31-46).

For some inexplicable reason, God identifies closely with us. I think sometimes we have a hard time believing that. Some of us just can't believe that God would want to be so close with someone so, so ... imperfect… or worthless… broken… or hopeless.

Each of us had times that we have felt like Peter in the High Priest's courtyard, caught by the piercing eyes of Jesus right in the middle of denying Him.

Or we can identify with David, caught red handed in our sin with nowhere to hide.

Or like Noah, hung-over and shamed by our reckless behavior.

And we can relate to Elijah running scared and feeling all alone.

How could God really allow someone like me to come into His presence?

But here is where the gift of grace comes in. 1 John 4:9 says, " We love because He first loved us." Write it down. We love because He first loved us.

Jesus tells us that the first and greatest commandment is to love God with everything we've got, because God loves us first like that.

God calls us to love each other because He already feels like that about every one of us.

Even on your worst day God loves you. In the middle of your deepest sin, God sent His Son to set you free. Even when you are weary, He offers you a place of rest. Just as you are, He invites you into His everlasting arms where He will hold you forever.

These two commands are actually an invitation with a promise attached. In Psalm 1 we just said "Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper…" If we love God first, if we delight and meditate on God's word day and night, we'll be like green thriving trees planted by streams of living water. Then we'll have the strength to love our neighbors as ourselves. And that's not as easy as it sounds! We can't do it on our own. It's hard to love those we don't really like. And it's even harder to love those that we think don't like us. But God can do it through us. He'll give us new life. He'll reign in us in power. That is still a valid promise. His invitation is to experience this life, for all eternity, beginning right now.

I want to offer you another way to answer that invitation. Bishop Carol Gallagher, the first Native American female bishop (she's Cherokee) was our chaplain at our convention this weekend. She told of her first trip to New Zealand when she was invited to a Haka (the Maori war cry) contest. Those of you who have seen UH warrior football games have seen a Haka, usually performed before the game. She was very impressed with the energy and the force they put into their Haka. Still, she had traveled a long way from New Jersey to New Zealand, so she wasn't sure she was hearing correctly… at one point she thought she heard "Bridge over troubled waters" and later "I did it my way." It couldn't be, she was too embarrassed to ask. So she waited and a few days later she checked with a young woman who was there. In answer she just smiled and said, "Oh yes. That's very Maori." What's that mean? And she was answered, "We steal what we like and we make it ours."

Just like me! I often take what I like, tweak it and make it mine. If you listen to KMKK you may have heard my favorite song right now. It's not Christian, but I sing it back and forth with my God at all times and in all places [I'm Yours (Jason Mraz)] and I want to share it with you, as I love God and love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength:

I'm Yours (by Jason Mraz) - Christian Lyrics
(to hear the original song check out his YouTube video as it's playing sing along with these lyrics! click here or paste this site into your browser http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkHTsc9PU2A&feature=related

Well you done done me and You bet I felt it
I let You in my heart and You're so hot that I melted
I'd fallen through the cracks and now I'm trying to get back
Cause my cool done run out I'd be giving it my bestest
Nothing's going to change me but divine intervention
I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some

But I won't hesitate no more, Jesus it cannot wait, I'm Yours

Well You opened up my mind so now I see
That You gave Your life up to make me free
You came into my heart and I found love, love, love, love
I listen to Your music as we all dance and sing
You made us one big family
And we're moving to Your beat that makes us
loved love loved loved loved

So I won't hesitate no more, Jesus, it cannot wait I'm sure
There's no need to complicate, our time is short
You are my fate, I'm Yours…

Scooch on close and be near… and speak into my ear

I been spending way to long checking my face in the mirror
And bending over backwards just to try to see it clearer
Cause my sin fogged up the glass time to live as new and not the past
I guess what I'm be saying is there ain't no better reason
To rid myself of vanity and just go on with Jesus
It's what I aim to do His grace is my virtue

But I won't hesitate no more, Jesus it cannot wait I'm Yours
Well You opened up my mind so now I see
That Your Word is true and strong in me
You poured into my heart and all I am is Yours
Please Lord, please Lord, please Lord, please free me from hate
My path is clear, Jesus I'm Yours!

Do you need a place to lean? A place to find comfort and stability? Lay your burdens down at the feet of the One who first loved you and give Him your whole self, body, mind and spirit. Are you ready to have your life bubble over like can of soda shaken up on a hot day?

Why wait? Join with me and make yourself His… today.

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