Love Your Neighbor with Bread

Love Your Neighbor

How we function in this highly polarized and divided time is going to be extremely critical to our influence here in West Palm Beach. If we don’t get this right, we may as well close the doors and sale the property. So let me set the stage for you.

How many people today love dogs more than cats?

How many people love Gators more than Seminoles?

How many people love chocolate than vanilla?

How many people like beer more than wine?

Each comparison sets up an opportunity for us to create a division. It easily turns into an I and It kind of relationship.

The measure of True Spirituality

When the question was asked what is the greatest commandment, the people were asking for one commandment, Jesus gave them 2, but His two were inseparable. The people asking the question were known for the zeal of loving God, but not for their zeal of loving people.

Loving God AND Loving People (our neighbors). This is what we need to get right. You cannot love God without loving people and you cannot love people without loving God. The problem of course is our neighbors are really difficult people to love, because we really do have various perspectives about life. I was doing some quick research and discovered that in our county there are 227,427 White Democrats and 241,589 White Republicans. I also discovered that in our county there are 650,474 white voters, and 360,731 non-white voters. It is safe to say that right now Democrats and Republicans are in need of the church to show them how to love their neighbor.

Praise God that God did not just create white people, but also brown, dark colored skin people, as well as people with various shades of white. Those demographics tell me that there are 198,630 Democrats and 47,003 Republicans. So again I would say that right now White people and brown, dark colored skin, and various shades of white people need a church to show them how to love their neighbor.

In my District - District 7 - there are 47,357 White voters to 84,325 non-white voters. Of the white voters, 17,077 are Democrats, and 15,509 are Republicans while my non-white brothers and sisters 59,023 are Democrats and 4,841 are Republicans.

Now my point is not to bore you to death with statistics, but to just to help you see just how much our community needs a church to show them how to love their neighbor.

So if you have your Bibles I would like for you to turn to Matthew 16:5-12 so that we might see what it takes to be a church that our community needs.

Matthew 16:5–12 NIV

When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.” Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Being a church that teaches people how to love our neighbors is the kind of church I want to lead and I want to be a part of. I especially want this because of just how polarized and divided we have become. My heart tells me, that you want the same, but we may not appreciate what it is that we really want. We may put our hands to the plow with good intentions, but then we meet resistance from those who disagree with us. Imagine what happens when churches declare Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ people are welcome, people with emotional, physical, and intellectual limitations are welcome. Many churches, many pastors, many church leaders will come under fire both within and outside the church. Add to what happens when you actually meet the neighbors that you want to make feel welcomed, affirmed, and loved, and discover they are a bit more complicated than you expected and you ask yourself, “What was I thinking?” When the battle is raging, the energy is running low, it is tempting to look back, it is tempting to take our hands of the plow, and it is in those moments we begin to lose our saltiness. The light within us begins to flicker. And before we know it we have become that church that Jesus criticized because it had fallen out of love.

To avoid becoming that church, to avoid becoming that Christian we must pay attention to Jesus’ warning about the “yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

The yeast is a reference to teaching, philosophies, or world perspectives. When Jesus said, “Pharisees and Sadducees” He was specifically recognizing these two religious groups, but this statement would also be inclusive of other teachings, philosophies, and world perspectives that were prevalent during Jesus’ time. Consider Jesus saying to us today, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Democrats, Republicans, Capitalists, Communists, Socialist, you fill in the blank.”

Pharisees - were very zealous and very popular. They were the ones who would be saying, “Israel, if you will just call on God’s name, if you will ask for forgiveness, if you will seek God’s face, God will heal our land and will send us the Messiah.” They were the leaders of the conservative renewal movement. They believed that if Israel would return to the ways Moses had outlined, back to the basics, removing all the “yeast” that had infiltrated Israel’s culture, then God would be pleased and God would remove Rome. They believed removing the “yeast,” pleasing God could only happen by strict, legalistic, perfectionist observance of the Mosaic Law.

Sadducees - These were the chief priests. They were wealthy and powerful, representing the aristocracy of Judaism. They were based in Jerusalem thus were responsible for training and deploying of all the priests and teachers of the law. They represented mainline Judaism, specifically adherence to the Torah or the first five books of the Bible. They did not believe in the resurrection. They were more inclined to believe in scientific cause and effect than fate. Therefore, they often clashed with the Pharisees who very much believed that the events were because people did or did not please God.

Herodians - They were actually a Jewish political party that believed people could have everything that God desired for them to have if they aligned themselves with Rome.

Zealots - Believed that the only way to please God and get what you want was through the sword. They believed it was God’s will for them to engage in terrorist kinds of activities against the Roman soldiers and representatives of Rome. They would have also been openly engaged in conflict with the Herodians because of their alignment with Rome.

Ironically, all of these groups would merge together on the day when Pilate would ask who do you want me to release Jesus Barabbas or Jesus of Nazareth. This is what Jesus is referring to when He says, “Beware of the yeast...”

That pinnacle question of Pilate is the question that each of us must answer. For the question that is actually being formulated is this - Do you believe Jesus of Nazareth, the one who claims to be the Bread of Life is absolutely enough?

Jesus Barabbas or just Barabbas was very popular and admired because he was hated by Rome. He was a nationalist, revolutionary. He was not afraid to stand up to Rome or anyone who was considered an enemy of Israel.

Jesus of Nazareth on the other hand was non-violent, passive, teaching to love your neighbor and to love your enemy. He welcomed both Nicodemus and the Roman Centurion. He ate with the High Priest and the prostitute.

Jesus of Nazareth seemed like a utopian dreamer, while Jesus Barabbas was a realist and pragmatist.

Pilate asked the people - Which Jesus is enough for you? And the crowd answer, “We want the realist. We want the pragmatist. We want the one who will not be bullied, who will not turn the other cheek.”

Our community needs a church that is filled with people who believe Jesus of Nazareth is enough.

Our community needs a church that is filled with people who remember that when Jesus feed the 5,000 and the 4,000 with bread there was left-overs.

Our community needs a church that is filled with people who remember that when the storms of life come crashing around and leading you to believe that you are aren’t prepared, you don’t have enough “bread” you remember that Jesus is with you and He is enough.

Our community needs a church that is filled with people who believe that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, buried, and resurrected not just for white people, but for all people.

Our community needs a church that is filled with people who believe that Jesus of Nazareth calls us to be a champion for the marginalized, the disenfranchised, and disillusioned.

Our community needs a church this is filled with people who believe that Jesus of Nazareth demands us to be vocal, to protest, to take a stand, when others are being ignored, ridiculed, demonized, or dehumanized.

Our community needs a church that is filled with people who are learning the hard work of loving and forgiving those who have oppressed and betrayed us.

Our community needs a church that is filled with people who everyday of the week and twice on Monday choose the yeast of Jesus over the yeast of the world in all situations.

Our community needs a church that is filled with people who believe no matter what is happening outside of these walls, no matter how much despair and darkness is in the world, we believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the source of never-ending hope, that Jesus is the Bread of Life.

Our community needs a church that is filled with people who believe it is time to love our neighbors the way Jesus demonstrated love.

Are you ready and willing to be the church that our community needs?

Then this is what I want you to do. This week I want you to Bake an item or purchase a gift card from Panera Bread and then give it to your neighbor without your neighbor knowing the gift came from you. Write a note and say something like, “Just wanted you to know that you have a neighbor that is praying you have a wonderful day. Signed Jesus The Bread of Life.”

If you are willing to participate in this action I want you to put the word “Bread” on your connection card or in the chat box. This just encourages us as we see that we are not alone in our effort to love our neighbor. The second step I want you to do is as you are leaving I want you to pick up some “Love Your Neighbor” resources - T-Shirt, Car decal, hand-sanitizer, and masks. If you are watching online and are not able to come by the church, for example you are watching in Tampa, Delaware, Pittsburgh, or even India and you would like these items just send me an email with your mailing address and we will mail them to you.

These items were paid for out of the Pastor Discretionary Funds so they are free to you. But if you would like to help replenish those funds you can write a check, make an online donation, or just leave cash in the offering buckets. Just write “Love Your Neighbor” and we will know what to do from there.