"True compassion arises from a sense

Last week I attended the fall meeting of the Westar Institute. It was one of the best meetings I've been to, in large part due to the exceptional quality of the papers presented. But there was one paper that was almost an exception to that. This paper was particularly long and detailed. While quite well-researched the conclusions the author reached seem to me to be really stretching it. The analysis gave a lot of minutae, but the way the author connected the dots in the end didn't seem warranted.

I got the feeling that I wasn't the only one who reacted this way because the afternoon he made his presentation to author began by distributing a four page summary of his work that succinctly gave us the big picture. Looking at this, it all made sense. That was quite a revelation. One of those "well why didn't you just say so?" moments.

Jesus' summary of the Torah is a similar big picture, bottom line, easy to understand, "why didn't you just say so" kind of lesson. And what a great picture it is! What a wonderful summary of scripture! There's no need to say anything more. (But since when has that ever stopped me.)

Jesus' words are a bringing together of two texts from the Torah:

Duet 6:4-5

Lev 19:18b

Love in both cases is not an emotion or a feeling, but a way of acting that is loyal, just and kind. This is also known to us as "The Golden Rule."

Hillel, a famous rabbi who was a contemporary of Jesus, gave a similar interpretation of the law:

Philo, a diaspora Jew living in Alexandria, Egypt in the first century CE, wrote;

To put this another way, Philo is talking about the quality of our relationship with God and the quality of our relationships with one another as the foundation for our common life as a covenant community.

These summaries of the Torah, God's Law or teaching, are fairly clear and straight-forward, yet they are not always so easy when we get to everyday daily living and the particular situations that emerge. Sometimes our fears and prejudices get in the way.

In the case of Jesus and his summary of Torah, the gospel writers put this in the context of controversy. Jesus is disagreeing with the scribes or the Pharisees about the requirements of the Law. Both sides draw from their common religious tradition to justify their respective positions.

We will always have controversy, folks. But we can navigate through our controversies if we focus on the big picture that Jesus, Hillel, Philo, Buddha, and so many others strove to remind us of. So with the great commandment in mind, let's dive into some controversy.

One of our controversies today is over Proposition Eight; a proposal to amend our State Constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. It is important to bear in mind the gravity of amending our Constitution, especially when the amendment would take away from a minority group rights that the majority would continue to enjoy. Regardless of how we decide to vote on this issue, let's at least agree to bring our best thinking to bear on it.

I am deeply troubled by the fact that the arguments put forth in support of Prop 8 are clear, outright fabrications and manipulations. The defeat of this proposition will have no impact on our public schools, on the tax exempt status of our religious communities, and will not require any religious institution to perform gay marriages. We can not do our best thinking on this, or on any subject, if we are being fed lies and having our fears stimulated. We need to rise above this.

In my twenty years of service as an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ I have had the privilege of officiating at numerous commitment ceremonies of same-sex couples. Only in the past few months have I had the pleasure of performing legal weddings for them. In each of these weddings the couples had been together for between fourteen and twenty-one years. They had all had previous commitment ceremonies and had filed numerous legal documents affirming and protecting their status as domestic partners. One couple had legally changed their last names. Some of them had children whose legal status and financial security needed to be legally protected as well. Whenever they changed jobs or moved to a new state, all this had to be redone. They all had jumped through countless hoops, spending time and money, just to guarantee rights that we all take for granted if we are married.

There is no doubt in my mind about the love, commitment, responsibility and basic goodness of these couples and of their marriages. There is also no doubt in my mind that encouraging the stability and longevity of these relationships is for the greater good of our society.

I can not think of anything more un-Christian than for a majority group to take away the rights of a minority group. Proposition 8 will do just that. Yet this isn't only about protecting people's rights in the abstract, it's about rewriting our constitution and the effect that will have on us as a people. This is really about us, all of us, and the type of people we are. Are we Californians the kind of people who would rewrite our constitution solely to deny a segment of our population the right to marry a partner of their own choosing? I hope not. Regardless of our differing views on gay marriage I do not believe that we are really the kind of people who want to enshrine discrimination and second-class status for a minority into our State Constitution.

If we are to follow the Golden Rule then we must ask ourselves if this is the way we would like our own marriage treated. If we are to keep in mind the great commandment to love each other just as we love our self we must wonder whether such discrimination can ever be justified Biblically. I do not think that it can.

I hope that come November 4 we will once again as a people reaffirm the freedom, equality, and respect for diversity that our nation was founded upon. I hope that our faith communities will remember their divine calling to transcend human fear and prejudice and follow the God of love and justice. I hope we will all do our best thinking on this and not allow ourselves to be manipulated. And regardless of what the outcome is, I hope we'll all remember the big picture: the greatest Law is Love.

And one of the scholars approached when he heard them arguing, and because he saw how skillfully Jesus answered them, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

Jesus answered, "The first is, ëHear, Israel, Yahweh your God is one God, and you are to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul [and all your mind] and with all your energy.' The second is this: ëYou are to love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

And the scholar said to him, "That's a fine answer, Teacher. You have correctly said that God is one and there is no other beside Yahweh. And 'to love God with all one's heart and with all one's mind and with all one's energy' and 'to love one's neighbor as oneself' is greater than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices put together."

And when Jesus saw that he answered him sensibly, he said to him, "You are not far from God's Kindom."