The Talmud is a revered collection of Hebrew Bible commentary, much of which dates from the same time period as when Jesus is believed to say these very words nearly 2000 years ago. The two great rabbis, whose words figure prominently in the Talmud, are Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shamai. The story goes that one day a gentile was walking on a spiritual quest, desiring to learn the entirety of the Torah, the Jewish laws. However this proselyte had one condition for his conversion. So this potential Jewish convert comes across Rabbi Shamai who is also a builder working away at his latest construction. And this unnamed aspiring believer says to him, ‘Make me a proselyte on condition that you teach me the whole of the Torah while I stand on one foot.’ Well, Rabbi Shamai, who was well known for his strictness and complete lack of patience summarily hits this wanderer with his carpenter’s square at such a daunting and equally impious request—quite a way to win newcomers. So this seeker wanders a little further, limping slightly, and runs into Rabbi Hillel and asks the same request. Hillel, in contrast to his curmudgeonly colleague, was well known for his patience and consents to the request. And Rabbi Hillel recited the entirety of the Torah: ‘What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbor; that is the whole Torah, while the rest is commentary on it; go and learn it.’*
I can’t help but imagine that maybe Jesus used this as one of his own warm-ups when he was preaching-gigs in the synagogues or even the Temple! Perhaps a more familiar version of Hillel’s words come at the very end of the larger section in which our Gospel lesson lies in Matthew, about 10 or so verses later. ‘Therefore everything that you wish that people would do to you, so also do to them. For this is the Law and the Prophets’ (Matt. 7:12). You know, the Golden Rule!
They both connote the very same thing… be nice; care for your neighbor; love because you are loved; give because you have been given. But there is something profound is the simplicity in the Law according to Hillel; that all of God’s words and Law can be summarized with the simple admonition to care for your neighbor; everything else is commentary; and all while standing on one foot!
Look further at the words from the Epistle of St. James, where we are birthed by the Word. Transmitted down to our very bones and deep within our theological genes lies Jesus’ commandment to Love; so that our lives bear the results of seeds planted deep within us in our baptism. The goal of our acceptance of Jesus’ words is that our lives become recognizable and living gardens of Christ’s word that is already in us. And our faith doesn’t end only in salvation or in weekly attendance. James rightly believes that our faith in Jesus as the Messiah or the Christ must be represented and reflected in action. ‘Be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” St. James goes further to state that faith without works is a dead faith (Jas. 2:17).
Our actions, rooted in faith, and our faith rooted in actions are the only way that we will know the nearness of God’s kingdom. Even random acts of kindness provide powerful glimpses of Christ’s kingdom to others around us. You may have seen one amazing example of the power of random acts was in last week’s Tribune. Where one man, Mr. Larry Stewart of Kansas City, Missouri has anonymously given away about $1.3 million in the form of randomly dispensed $20 and $100 bills over the past 26 years. Closer still to us, is the taking of unprecedented and hopeful steps by our Episcopal church in the acceptance of the Millennium Development goals… small steps and big. We all have been received and saved by the Grace of God, and now we have to continue showing that love divine, to the world around us in glimpses, small act and large ones. .
Martin Luther, the German leader of the Protestant Reformation, despised the Epistle of St. James. In 1530s he described it as a ‘straw of an epistle’, you know, the leftovers from the harvest the portion that lacks any grains or kernels, lacking or any nutritional value; he didn’t even want to put it in his German Bible. He believed that it was all fluff and detritus and that it emphasized works over God’s grace.
But remember that Straw is also an insulator, it makes darkest and coldest barn warm in winter and straw was the very thing in which our little Lord Jesus lay on that night in Jerusalem! Straw or not, our faithful actions provide glimpses of the Living law of Jesus, the Torah of Love to a broken word. Thanks be to God for the bounty given to us, and thanks be to God that we can give back to the Creator and fuel the Light of Christ in our neighbor and stranger, alike. So, stand on your foot, recite the law of love; and go forth and keep on working for the kingdom of God.
Amen and Happy Thanksgiving.
* Harrington, Daniel J. Sacra Pagina Series, vol. 1: The Gospel of Matthew. Edited by Daniel Harrington, S.J. (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1991), pp. 100-106.
