It may seem somewhat difficult to understand why the reading for today includes the commandment to love (Mk.12:28-34) with the need to pay taxes to Caesar (Mk 12:13-17) but in a fundamental way these two are interrelated. In the same breath we are introduced to the story that is laid out in Ruth with regards Naomi and her daughter in law. All of these stories revolve around one thing and that is the concept of love. A concept that we hold dear to the heart of the Christian story and one that is the utter centre of our God. We are asked in all of scripture for two things and that is to love God and our neighbours as ourselves. The central word in both of these commandments is the word love, not like, not befriend, not anything else but love. Love which is often interpreted in our modern frame of the world as mushy softness surrounded by pinks and roses, is not the love that we are examining or imputing onto God in these readings.
Perhaps, the easiest f these to really understand and to have our heartstrings pulled by is the story of Naomi and Ruth. The very concept of love that this entails can be easily understood within the outlines of the human condition, There is nothing in the story that cannot but inspire us to understand a concept of love that is willing to leave behind the country of birth. The inspiration of love for country is something that often transcends generations such that people will be unwilling to leave a country if there is a generational connection. In Ruth's case she is leaving a country of birth with a generational connection for something and somewhere that is totally foreign. This may not seem to traumatic in today's world where substituting one country for another appears to be something that is really very easy and non-traumatic. Yet, in cultures that are highly familial based this move can be exceptionally difficult for both parties involved. Yet, this is not a simple case of following a lover or beloved party but rather making the sacrifice for a third party unconnected by any bond other than love.
This is easy, is it not? Ruth's story is simple and can be applied to our lives but we do not see that amount of love in our lives today. What we get instead is a total rejection of the concept of love. So rather than have love blossoming we encourage others towards hate as we stop those who out of love would follow to new countries or new situations. We do not see the concept of love in the migration of fellow human beings across the world but rather a movement that will bring division and hatred and thus must be stopped. Ruth reaches out in love towards an unknown country as a result of interacting with one person from that country. She eventually finds happiness and a solid foothold in the country that becomes hers through love. Yet, we deny the possibility of that love by denying the possibility of migration as we protect our insubstantial borders that are produced by political negotiating. Yet, love often becomes a fundamental criterium of those that live for any length of time in a country. We just have to regard our own genealogical past to see that this is the case.
If we can have such love for a country that is unknown to us how much more can we love something that we are born to. We are commanded to love in an astonishing way. We often view the challenge of the taxes as one that either encompasses all things in God or doing what is right in terms of the legal situation where we live. There is of course the politics behind the episode being that the temple should not have had Caesar's money in the first place. But let us be a little topsy turvey as we have in the past few weeks. If we think about how we accommodate everything we want in life it often comes down to who is going to pay. We can complain about those who are our leaders and we can complain about how poor a job they are doing but we have to understand that if we truly love our neighbour then we should be willing to render to Caesar so that as much can be done to alleviate injustice and poverty as possible. Even if the current policies and those who we vote into power do not appear to have the same agenda. In the same breath we must also render to God as much love as we render to our fellow citizens. In praise of God, however we conceive of God, we engender the soul of love in the community which alleviates the poverty of loneliness and despair as we reach out in faith and love to those who are in need.
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