Leviticus 19:18, 33-34

This Sunday, I will begin a series of sermons joined together under the heading, “Christian Faith and Empire”. This series will carry us through the brief Ordinary season that runs from Christmas to Lent. My hope is that it will give us guidance about how to live as responsible Christians in the midst of a powerful geo-political entity called The United States of America.

Our first reading is the basis for the second part of Jesus’ “Great Commandment”. It is Leviticus 19:18, 33-34. This is part of a section of Leviticus (chapters 17-26) known as “The Holiness Code”. It was a set of very strict rules that the Israelites were to follow as they entered Canaan, the Promised Land. Some of those rules are very weird, and are not meant to apply to us today. But the bedrock of them still holds for us Christians.

Verse 18 applies to one’s own people. Verses 33-4 apply to the “alien”, or foreigner. How do these differ? How are they the same?

If you were to re-write the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” what would you say? Try it, then set it aside. Come back to it later and see if it sounds right.

In Jesus, who gave himself life and all for us, we see the perfect application of “love your neighbor as yourself”. When we fall short of this commandment, how can we find solace, hope, and strength from his gift to us?