Scripture/Sermon of the Day

34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

I. There’s an 80 year old Fransiscan Priest, Richard Rohr, I admire who’s written a lot of books. He says that when we interact with each other, there’s something going on that’s even more important than the words we say, or our actions. Can you guess what that is? It’s our energy. In any situation, says Rohr, we are taking or giving energy.

II. And there are two kinds of energy, which he calls EROS, which is life energy, and THANATOS, which is negative energy. In Greek Mythology, Thanatos was the personification of death. He had a number of siblings: Old Age, Suffering, Doom, Deception, Blame, Strife and Retribution.

Probably most of us fluctuate between the two energies. You can tell the difference. When you’re with someone who has the eros/life energy, you feel energized, joyful, you laugh, your defenses are down, you trust this person and maybe even come away from the encounter feeling good.

III. Thanatos is the opposite energy. Talking to someone or a group with the death-energy you feel angry, cynical, you don’t trust anyone, you gossip, you say bad things about people.

There’s a story in the Gospels of Jesus walking in a crowd, the disciples around him, people in front of him, behind him. Can you imagine the electricity — the life energy — that buzzed around him? A woman who had a bleeding disorder for twelve years touched the hem of his robe and was healed instantly. Jesus didn’t see her, but he felt the life-energy move from him to her. It’s important that we see this because God's energy that heals and gives life — the energy that flowed through Jesus — is the same that flows, or doesn’t flow, through us.

IV. We just had a funeral service here for Phyllis Bloomquist and she’s someone who had this energy. From the time she was a child, people saw this life-energy in her. She loved animals and people. She wouldn’t say anything to hurt someone or be unkind — and she believed that God was with her all the time, so no matter what happened or how terrible life could be — it was all OK because she trusted God to work things out. When she was growing up and even as an adult, sometimes she was so filled with joy, she’d jump on top of a table and dance! Or she’d see a broomstick or something and grab it and dance with it and sing. Like Zorba the Greek. Sometimes Zorba got so filled with the life energy — he said the only thing you can do is DANCE!

V. After the service I had a conversation with one of the men there. He pulled me aside and said, “Let me tell you what the real problem is — it’s the economy. The dollar today just doesn’t buy what it used to. And whatever you might think about Donald Trump, when he was president, we were a lot better off. Gas was cheaper, groceries — everything. And we didn’t have a problem with so many foreigners crossing our borders. You know — that’s where our next terrorist attack is coming from. All those countries down there are releasing all the criminals from their prisons and sending them here. I’m not trying to bring you down or anything, but people got to open their eyes and see what’s happening.” It wasn’t really a conversation — it was more like he had a lot of pressure in him and he had to let all these words out before he exploded. He didn’t want me to respond to what he was saying.

Jesus was poor. And most of the people in the crowds he talked to were poor. And he never said the problem was the economy. And he mixed with a lot of shady characters — he even called some to be his disciples. But he never said the problem was crime or people who broke the law or even terrorists.

HE SAID OUR PROBLEM IS WE DON’T LOVE. So he said: REPENT! CHANGE THAT! FOLLOW MY ONE COMMAND: “Love one another as I have loved you," he said, "Foreigners included. Enemies included. Terrorists and criminals included. EVERYONE. YOU ARE GOD’S CHILDREN — ACT LIKE IT!!!!”