Mark 12:28-34

One of the scribes came near and heard the Sadducees disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

The Scribe Stood to Tempt Jesus - James Tissot

In my Human Resources work I was involved with the hiring process. And I noticed that new employees after a while fell into one of two categories: either they would thrive from the first day and be productive for a significant period of time. Or they just never seemed to quite get in the flow of the company’s work process or get familiar with its products enough to have a successful outing as an employee. Their tenure ended much sooner that the first group and sometimes abruptly.

I began to wonder. With all things being equal as far as experience, training and skill set, what made the difference between those two types of employees. I believe there are a couple qualities that the successful employees had that the short term folks lacked.

One is curiosity. Were they curious? When confronted with a new task could they formulate questions about it, about what was needed and how it fit into the bigger picture? And would they keep asking questions of themselves and others? And the other quality was tenacity. Would they hang in there? Would they keep trying new things? Would they collaborate with others to figure out a way to get the task done? Would they see it through to the end? I found that an employee who could blend curiosity with tenacity was set up for success. They felt challenged and fulfilled in their work and the employer benefited from what they did.

I think the scribe in our gospel today has those qualities. It seems that there may have been several scribes present who heard the discussion between Jesus and the Sadducees. From the previous passages we know they were discussing a hypothetical about marriage with the Sadducees wielding questions like weapons. The scribe heard Jesus tell the Sadducees that their understanding of scripture and the power of God was all wrong.

Scribes were not secretaries and not just charged with writing things down. They were scholars of the Bible and Jewish tradition. Every village had at least one scribe. They devoted themselves to the study of the law and how it applied to daily life. Some of the scribes were also Pharisees. They were local Jewish leaders. Scribes had knowledge of the law and could draft legal documents – things like contracts for marriage, divorce, loans or the sale of land.

It’s not hard to imagine that the other scribes retreated into their comfort zone. They were not curious about what Jesus meant. And they were not driven to pursue anything beyond their already accomplished skill set that might disturb their status quo.

This scribe, listening to Jesus’ answers and realizing that Jesus answered the questions posed to him very well, asks: “Which commandment is the first of all?” What a perfect question and display of curiosity. Love is foundational for a life grounded in God.

We all know Jesus’ answer by heart. “Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.” For the scribe, Jesus’ answer made simple what was once complex and made easy what once was heavy. One scholar has counted the commands in Torah: there are 365 prohibitions – things not to do – and 248 positive commands – things to do. Altogether that’s 613. Jesus compresses this into just 2. Simply 2. Simple does not mean easy, though. Life is a process of raising up priorities, the first one being devotion to God and to what God loves.

Only a God who is Complete Love would make loving completely the supreme command. God asks of us every bit we have – our emotions, our intellect, our mental and physical energy. Only by giving everything we have will we have a chance to shape our lives into their best possible forms. Then we are “not far from the Kingdom of God.” When we give God a mere fraction of ourselves, God becomes for us a mere fraction of what God might be for us. And even though knowledge of God’s love brings us closer to the Kingdom, entering the Kingdom requires more. Loving God requires loving others every chance we get. It is love made real that reveals the Kingdom.

The love that Jesus us talking about is agape love. Our Greek friends identified for us several types of love. But it is agape love that is the highest form of love there is. It is love lived. It is servant love, self-sacrificial love. It is caring concerned love given with no thought or expectation of it being returned to us. It is love given in unlikely times and places to the least loveable, the least known - without thought or consideration of whether we think they deserve love. And the only way to know agape love is to experience it.

In the pre-dawn hours one Saturday in an October before the pandemic, a group calling themselves Abraham’s builders gathered in a Smart & Final parking lot in San Diego. They were from churches and mosques and had gathered to travel into Mexico to build a house in a deeply impoverished neighborhood. As the sky went from darkness to the deep blue of dawn, they held hands and prayed to be agents of agape love.

For many people in the group this was their first build, the first time they had joined a Corazon community. Corazon matches families needing housing with materials to build the house and volunteers. Some bring building skills - professional carpenters and engineers – and some who bring enthusiasm and heart to serve. I was in the second group. In the parking lot, I met Dave, who was a skilled carpenter and had been on more builds than he could count over the last 10 years. “These are great,” he told me, “you’ll love it and you’ll be back.”

The lots were small so we created the walls and roof of the house somewhere nearby and assembled them on the site. A prep team, he told me, would already have poured the foundation. We’re there to put it all together - install windows and a door and hand over the keys to the new homeowners.

Our caravan of 15 cars arrived and we were directed “down there.” The road to the site of the new house was really more like a very wide path – only about 10 feet wide to start and winding downwards about 50 yards, gradually narrowing to a width of about 2 feet. This road was rough -- dirt, gravel and rocks – big ones – with crevices – deep ones. On the right side were some scruffy bushes. There was a definite tilt to the left and a drop off that would mean serious injury to anyone who stumbled over the side.

At the site there were huge piles of lumber, buckets of paint and supplies on a 12’ x 12’ cement slab floor and the Molina family -- 3 beaming people who, after 9 years of waiting and working on building homes for other families, would have their own home by sunset that day.

We carried all the building materials up to the top of the road, built sections of walls, carried them back and nailed them in place. Then we built the sections of the roof – a typical pitched roof in two sections. When it was done it was time to put the shingles on. There were a dozen people on the roof all hammering away – Muslim and Christian students working side by side, Mexican and American women touching up paint, carpenters hanging the front door – the first time this family would have a safe home with a door that would close and lock. It was long…

There’s not a single thing the Molina family could ever do for anyone on that build that day. And nothing is expected. But there was that sweet glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven that we each got with a hug and smile from 8-year-old Sofia Molina. My new friend Dave was right. I did go back 2 more times before the pandemic. Because this was love for God and love for neighbor made real. God’s love taking root in the soul of each of us on that build that day.

When we practice love of neighbor by participating with God in mending a broken world, we know that the Kingdom is very near. A mended world is God’s dream. It is a world where all are fed and housed, with access to clean water, health care and education, where none are excluded, and young and old are cherished as God’s family endeavors to sustain the precious resources of this fragile earth. It isn’t easy being an agape saturated servant of God. It requires curiosity and tenacity from us. Like a scribe willing to question the past and be drawn to the simple commandments to love. Like 40 people willing to build a home for strangers. Like all of us willing always to love fully and unreservedly what God loves. Amen.