WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.060 I'm going to ask you a question, and I apologise in advance if it sounds like a bit of a negative one 00:00:08.060 --> 00:00:12.759 on a day in which we're celebrating an amazing thing like baptism. 00:00:12.759 --> 00:00:14.679 But the question is this. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:22.379 Have you ever met anyone who's really, really turned you right off Christianity? 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:25.580 I have. 00:00:25.579 --> 00:00:33.299 Now before I go any further, let me just say that I consider it the most enormous privilege, 00:00:33.379 --> 00:00:38.159 and I know I speak on Clive's behalf as well, to do the job that we do as ministers because, 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:44.700 and I genuinely, genuinely mean this, that as a minister you are surrounded by the most amazing, 00:00:44.820 --> 00:00:51.700 amazing people who really do show the truth and the integrity and the love of Christian faith. 00:00:51.700 --> 00:00:55.660 And I want to say that first and last, okay? 00:00:57.500 --> 00:01:04.540 But if we're honest with ourselves, every now and then perhaps we meet somebody who perhaps we could describe as 00:01:04.540 --> 00:01:07.320 atheism's greatest advert. 00:01:07.319 --> 00:01:14.099 And it very often has to do with that good old-fashioned, well not so good old-fashioned, 00:01:14.099 --> 00:01:19.379 that old-fashioned human obsession with religious rules. 00:01:21.399 --> 00:01:26.459 When I was about seven years old, I can remember being on holiday with my mum and dad, 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:29.739 and we went to visit a cathedral. 00:01:29.739 --> 00:01:34.159 And I don't think I'd been in a cathedral before. 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:35.419 I was fascinated with it. 00:01:35.679 --> 00:01:40.140 It was a really hot summer's day, and I was wearing my new baseball cap. 00:01:40.280 --> 00:01:42.259 I was really chuffed with this baseball cap. 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:43.259 It went with me everywhere. 00:01:43.419 --> 00:01:44.179 I slept in it. 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:45.560 I loved my baseball cap. 00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:48.799 And so I was in this cathedral with my parents, 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:54.019 and suddenly I could hear footsteps, and I turned around and looked up, 00:01:54.019 --> 00:01:58.079 and there was a member of the cathedral staff looking down at me, 00:01:58.359 --> 00:02:00.539 not looking very happy at all. 00:02:01.399 --> 00:02:06.899 And as they said in that tone of voice that kind of communicated something along the lines of, 00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:09.740 you look like something that I've just stood in. 00:02:10.859 --> 00:02:13.199 They didn't say that, but they said, 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:18.060 young man, did anybody ever tell you you should take your hat off 00:02:18.060 --> 00:02:20.159 when you come into a place such as this? 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:23.000 I was mortified. 00:02:23.259 --> 00:02:24.599 Not just because it was my baseball cap. 00:02:24.699 --> 00:02:26.079 I just didn't like being told off. 00:02:27.780 --> 00:02:28.180 Rules. 00:02:29.579 --> 00:02:34.180 My mum will tell a story of when she was a little girl, 00:02:34.800 --> 00:02:38.599 and one Sunday morning was out playing in the garden, 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:41.479 and my nan was hanging out the washing. 00:02:42.060 --> 00:02:46.259 And the next-door neighbour leaned over the fence and said, 00:02:46.340 --> 00:02:48.460 you shouldn't be hanging out your washing. 00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:49.620 And my nan turned around and said, 00:02:49.620 --> 00:02:52.580 it's the Sabbath, it's the Lord's Day, it's the Sunday, 00:02:52.740 --> 00:02:56.259 you should not be hanging out your washing on a day such as this. 00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:02.800 After my nan had, shall we say, responded, 00:03:03.640 --> 00:03:07.400 and a few hours later, 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:09.439 I'm not quite sure what the reason was, 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:11.780 but my mum had reason to go next door 00:03:11.780 --> 00:03:15.379 and enter their next-door neighbour's home, 00:03:15.379 --> 00:03:20.500 and the said lady who had had the exchange over the fence a few hours earlier 00:03:20.500 --> 00:03:25.519 was in the kitchen and her washing was hanging up indoors. 00:03:28.019 --> 00:03:28.500 Rules. 00:03:28.500 --> 00:03:34.780 If there's one thing that I think turns us off, 00:03:36.280 --> 00:03:41.400 Christianity is this sense that it's about religious rules. 00:03:41.460 --> 00:03:48.280 If you want to find an example of somebody that will turn you off the whole thing, 00:03:48.340 --> 00:03:51.719 it will be probably somebody who has this obsession 00:03:51.719 --> 00:03:55.699 with telling you what those rules are, 00:03:56.780 --> 00:03:59.840 and with that slight air of moral authority 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:03.659 that they know those rules better than you do, 00:04:03.740 --> 00:04:05.500 and they like to point them out. 00:04:05.500 --> 00:04:12.639 One of the things I find so compelling about Christ 00:04:12.639 --> 00:04:17.180 and the way the story of Christ is told in the Gospels 00:04:17.180 --> 00:04:22.939 is the way in which the story is never sweetened. 00:04:24.160 --> 00:04:28.220 It actually takes all of the stuff that you would think 00:04:28.220 --> 00:04:33.420 that otherwise would put you off faith in God, 00:04:33.420 --> 00:04:37.379 and it takes those things and uses them for occasions 00:04:37.379 --> 00:04:39.140 to tell the story of Jesus, 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:41.300 and that's exactly what happens here, 00:04:41.819 --> 00:04:44.500 because what we have is a religious authority, 00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:48.300 a teacher of religious law. 00:04:49.900 --> 00:04:53.879 There were 613 Jewish laws, 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:57.439 and the teachers of the law would spend their time 00:04:57.439 --> 00:05:02.680 debating how you would work that law out alongside that law 00:05:02.680 --> 00:05:04.480 when they seemed to contradict one another, 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:07.079 and so they would spend their whole time 00:05:07.079 --> 00:05:11.160 debating the meaning of their religious law. 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:14.180 And so the picture that we have 00:05:14.180 --> 00:05:16.300 of this person that approaches Jesus 00:05:16.300 --> 00:05:18.439 is not a positive one. 00:05:19.980 --> 00:05:21.840 Now, that's no comment on the laws themselves. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:25.019 It is a comment on the person that approached Jesus, 00:05:25.120 --> 00:05:27.120 because we are told that he went there 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:31.579 specifically with the purpose of catching Jesus out. 00:05:33.019 --> 00:05:36.180 So think of the kind of person 00:05:36.180 --> 00:05:38.120 that I'm trying to paint a picture of right now, 00:05:38.180 --> 00:05:40.879 the kind of big off-put Christianity, 00:05:41.459 --> 00:05:41.680 okay? 00:05:42.019 --> 00:05:45.459 Somebody with their obsession with religiosity and rules 00:05:45.459 --> 00:05:49.280 and establishing the moral and spiritual high ground over you, 00:05:49.500 --> 00:05:51.180 that's the kind of person 00:05:51.180 --> 00:05:54.319 that is being presented in the Gospels here, 00:05:55.319 --> 00:05:58.540 and we are being told about Jesus through that person. 00:05:58.740 --> 00:06:00.000 Now, I find it compelling, 00:06:00.220 --> 00:06:02.720 because if I was going to write a story 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:04.500 and I wanted to argue the case for Jesus, 00:06:04.579 --> 00:06:06.519 I would not make my starting point 00:06:06.519 --> 00:06:10.079 those examples of bad religion. 00:06:11.240 --> 00:06:12.399 But that's what we have. 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:14.620 That's where the story is told and how it is told. 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:18.240 So we have this person who is obsessed 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:20.100 with religious rules and regulations, 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:21.780 and he comes towards Jesus, 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:22.220 and he says, 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:23.060 so come on, Jesus, 00:06:23.840 --> 00:06:30.759 which is the most important rule? 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:33.180 Give me just one. 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:35.860 That's the backdrop. 00:06:37.420 --> 00:06:40.939 And Jesus' answer is disarmingly simple. 00:06:40.939 --> 00:06:42.579 Love God. 00:06:43.860 --> 00:06:44.660 Love people. 00:06:46.219 --> 00:06:47.019 Summed up there. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:50.920 Now, we might ask the question, 00:06:52.939 --> 00:06:55.519 how can love be a rule? 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:59.100 I mean, if you command somebody to love, 00:07:00.300 --> 00:07:01.779 how can that be? 00:07:02.659 --> 00:07:04.939 Because it's not love something spontaneous. 00:07:05.159 --> 00:07:06.159 Isn't it a feeling? 00:07:06.300 --> 00:07:07.040 Isn't it an emotion? 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:08.459 Well, it can be. 00:07:08.459 --> 00:07:12.439 But the kind of love that I think Jesus is talking about 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:14.659 when he talks about the commandment to love God 00:07:14.659 --> 00:07:15.439 and to love people 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:18.299 is something far bigger and deeper than that. 00:07:19.239 --> 00:07:21.599 It's about an engagement of the will. 00:07:22.539 --> 00:07:24.699 It's about loving when our feelings 00:07:24.699 --> 00:07:26.500 may be taking us in the other direction. 00:07:28.039 --> 00:07:30.639 It's about love that goes far beyond emotion. 00:07:31.159 --> 00:07:35.159 It's about love that actually pushes us into action. 00:07:35.160 --> 00:07:38.900 Because when we have that kind of love, 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:42.300 it takes care of all the other things. 00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:45.120 You don't need any other rules 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:47.680 when you have that kind of love going on inside. 00:07:49.140 --> 00:07:53.060 Because that kind of love equals action. 00:07:53.060 --> 00:07:58.759 When on the 6th of April 1996, 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:01.319 I stood in a church and married Tamara, 00:08:02.259 --> 00:08:05.280 the vicar did not say to me, 00:08:05.899 --> 00:08:09.800 Russell, do you promise that every week 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:14.399 you will put out the recycling without complaining? 00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:19.439 Do you promise that every day faithfully 00:08:19.439 --> 00:08:23.239 you will load and unload and reload that dishwasher 00:08:23.239 --> 00:08:26.279 and smile? 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:32.919 Do you promise that every time your wife-to-be 00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:39.019 has made a visit to the hairdresser, 00:08:39.639 --> 00:08:43.599 you will meaningfully recognize, acknowledge 00:08:43.599 --> 00:08:46.219 and affirm such visit has taken place? 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:51.419 And he promised that you will always, without fail, 00:08:51.959 --> 00:08:55.839 restore the toilet seat to its rightful downward position. 00:08:57.620 --> 00:08:58.599 Could it have? 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:00.899 But he didn't. 00:09:00.899 --> 00:09:05.139 He simply said, will you love this person? 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:11.259 And we all know, if we're honest with ourselves, 00:09:11.360 --> 00:09:13.519 that love, whoever we are, 00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:16.860 and whether we're talking about married love, 00:09:17.120 --> 00:09:18.980 whether we're talking about family love, 00:09:19.319 --> 00:09:21.559 whether we're talking about love in the neighbourhood, 00:09:21.779 --> 00:09:23.500 in the workplace, at the school gates, 00:09:23.620 --> 00:09:24.679 whatever it might be, 00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:28.939 that once we get beyond emotion and feeling, 00:09:28.940 --> 00:09:33.560 love is something that can be a challenge 00:09:33.560 --> 00:09:38.120 because it's not just a feeling, an emotion. 00:09:38.840 --> 00:09:40.600 Love is an engagement with a will 00:09:40.600 --> 00:09:42.180 that translates into action. 00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:47.940 So when Jesus says, love God, love people, 00:09:48.880 --> 00:09:50.260 he's not talking about an emotion. 00:09:50.500 --> 00:09:52.720 He's talking about something that, 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:54.279 if that exists within us, 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:55.879 everything else will be taking place, 00:09:56.060 --> 00:09:57.600 will just fall into place. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:00.560 But notice, 00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:03.759 he says, love God first. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:07.360 Now that's a challenge. 00:10:08.379 --> 00:10:10.379 It's a challenge because my guess is, 00:10:10.420 --> 00:10:14.379 is probably most, if not all people in the world, 00:10:14.379 --> 00:10:17.779 whatever their background and whatever their beliefs may be, 00:10:18.220 --> 00:10:20.220 would accept, at least in principle, 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:22.580 that there is something to be said 00:10:22.580 --> 00:10:25.179 with loving your neighbour as you love yourself. 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:28.500 You don't need a PhD in moral philosophy 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:30.700 to get your head around that one. 00:10:32.120 --> 00:10:33.720 Let's not make light of it, though, 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:34.980 living out that reality, 00:10:35.220 --> 00:10:37.840 loving others as you love yourself. 00:10:38.360 --> 00:10:40.000 As I once heard somebody describe it, 00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:42.960 it's like wrapping your own skin 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.139 around every other human being. 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:49.340 Loving others is not to be just 00:10:49.340 --> 00:10:50.639 given the nod and say, 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:51.580 yeah, I'll go along with that. 00:10:51.639 --> 00:10:52.440 It's a challenge. 00:10:53.299 --> 00:10:54.639 But as challenging as it is, 00:10:54.700 --> 00:10:55.779 my guess is everyone, 00:10:55.940 --> 00:10:56.960 everyone on the planet, 00:10:57.159 --> 00:10:58.360 would accept in principle 00:10:58.360 --> 00:10:59.779 that that makes a lot of sense. 00:11:01.860 --> 00:11:03.899 But it's not the first thing that Jesus says. 00:11:05.419 --> 00:11:07.019 The first thing that Jesus says 00:11:07.019 --> 00:11:09.039 is not love your neighbour as yourself. 00:11:10.360 --> 00:11:11.279 It's love God. 00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:18.679 Now, Jesus did not then get into the whole discussion, 00:11:19.299 --> 00:11:20.679 and I'm not going to get into it either, 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:21.279 as to, well, 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:25.980 can you love others without believing in God? 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:26.899 Well, of course you can. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:27.980 It's in our human nature. 00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:28.860 We're made that way. 00:11:28.899 --> 00:11:31.399 I believe we're made that way by God, 00:11:31.580 --> 00:11:35.220 that we have in us this instinct to love others, 00:11:35.340 --> 00:11:38.200 and that there are millions of people in the world 00:11:38.200 --> 00:11:39.500 who say they do not believe in God, 00:11:39.500 --> 00:11:42.500 but we'll love others, of course, of course. 00:11:42.620 --> 00:11:45.059 So let's not get into that philosophical debate 00:11:45.059 --> 00:11:46.860 about can you be good without God? 00:11:46.980 --> 00:11:47.480 Of course. 00:11:47.720 --> 00:11:48.659 It's in our nature. 00:11:49.620 --> 00:11:50.759 But, but, 00:11:51.340 --> 00:11:53.360 the reason why Jesus never even got into it 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:54.779 was he just assumed truth, 00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:56.059 because that is truth. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:57.240 God is there. 00:11:57.779 --> 00:11:59.500 We can't prove, we can't disprove. 00:12:00.100 --> 00:12:01.179 It's just that God is there. 00:12:01.879 --> 00:12:04.179 And so with that truth before him, 00:12:04.179 --> 00:12:04.799 Jesus said, 00:12:04.979 --> 00:12:08.000 the most important thing is love God first. 00:12:09.359 --> 00:12:10.759 And the second is like it, 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:11.979 love others like yourself. 00:12:12.179 --> 00:12:13.599 Now, why does he put it in that order? 00:12:13.699 --> 00:12:15.139 I believe he does it for this reason. 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:17.599 Love is challenging. 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:19.019 Love is hard work. 00:12:21.579 --> 00:12:23.639 Love is not to be underestimated. 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:27.360 But it makes all the difference 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:30.679 when we know that God loves us infinitely. 00:12:32.199 --> 00:12:33.860 The command to love God 00:12:33.860 --> 00:12:36.600 is an invitation to that relationship. 00:12:37.399 --> 00:12:39.759 To know that for all our humanity, 00:12:39.939 --> 00:12:40.720 for all our mess, 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:43.179 and for all our obsession with rules and regulations, 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:44.480 God loves us, 00:12:44.679 --> 00:12:47.220 and loves us beyond we can possibly imagine. 00:12:47.220 --> 00:12:51.420 It is only when we really take that on board 00:12:51.420 --> 00:12:53.300 and accept that God loves us 00:12:53.300 --> 00:12:55.040 and loves us inexhaustibly 00:12:55.040 --> 00:12:58.360 that we're set free to love others. 00:12:59.680 --> 00:13:00.160 Truly. 00:13:02.500 --> 00:13:04.000 And so these words of Jesus, 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:07.040 this invitation to follow him, 00:13:07.680 --> 00:13:10.660 that which is celebrated in baptism, 00:13:12.180 --> 00:13:14.980 is that invitation not to a set of rules. 00:13:14.980 --> 00:13:19.279 It is the invitation to know the love of God 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:21.820 and to live by the love of God. 00:13:21.879 --> 00:13:23.740 And when you know and live by the love of God, 00:13:24.019 --> 00:13:27.720 then the light shines onto every other type of relationship. 00:13:28.340 --> 00:13:30.120 As C.S. Lewis said, 00:13:31.460 --> 00:13:33.560 I believe in Christianity 00:13:33.560 --> 00:13:36.480 as I believe that the sunshine has risen, 00:13:37.740 --> 00:13:40.379 not only because I see it, 00:13:40.379 --> 00:13:43.200 but because by it 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:46.159 I see everything else.