You will notice that these doors are essentially useless without the two hinges, one on the top and the other on the bottom of the door.  Without the two hinges, this door just doesn’t work; it isn’t very useful; it doesn’t do what it is supposed to do.  For these doors to operate correctly, they need two hinges. One hinge won’t suffice.

If you go home to your house, I ask you to examine every cupboard door throughout your whole house or apartment.  Every cupboard door has at least two hinges; one on the top and one on the bottom.  If you examine every doorway door in your house, you will also notice that all the big doors in your house have at least two hinges.  If your house is not new, all the doors leading outside of your house will also have two hinges.  The codes have changes for newer homes, and three hinges are now found on the outside doors.  The point is; every door in your house or apartment has two hinges.  That’s just the way it is. You need two hinges for doors to work. 

Here in my hands I have two sets of hinges.  One pair is a smaller set of hinges that is used for any normal sized door.  The second pair is absolutely enormous; they are large decorative black hinges.  But large or small, the function is the same:  these are needed to make the door work.  The doors don’t work without these two hinges. 

So one day, one of these Pharisees came to Jesus and asked him a question in order to trap him, “Jesus, of all the 613 rules and regulations of the Old Testament, which one is the most important?”  Jesus answered, Deuteronomy 6:4, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul.”  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second (he had only asked for one but Jesus gave him two.) one is like it.” And Jesus reached back into the book of Leviticus, chapter 18, about the lepers, and there in Leviticus 18, he chose an obscure line, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments HINGE all the Law and the Prophets.”  On these two commandments, HINGE the whole Bible. 

Jesus said:  “Do these and you shall live.  Do these two commandments and you shall finally find life.”  He didn’t say:  memorize these two commandments. He didn’t say:  recite these two commands for confirmation. He didn’t say: think about these two commandments every day.  He said:  “Do these and you shall finally find life and what it means to truly live.”  

So what does this first upper hinge, which is so essential, represent?   You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul.  What does it mean to love God that way, with everything you have and are?  I think I understand.  Let me explain. 

When I was young, I was wildly infatuated with a girl by the name of Adelma Garber; but then a year later, it really happened!!!  True love!!!  Do you remember her name from past stories?  Of course, Lorna. Lorna Finkelbaum.  How I loved Lorna.  I thought of her every morning, noon and night.  I wanted to be with her every morning, noon and night.  I talked with her every morning, noon and night.  My life revolved around my awareness of her.  I spent a good deal of time at her locker at school every day.  I was conscious and subconscious of her all the time.  I gave her my all. 

And so it is with God.  To love God with all your heart, mind and soul is to think of God…morning, noon and night, to want to be with God, morning, noon and night, to talk with God, morning, noon and night.  I spend time every day with God at my prayer locker.  My whole life revolves around my awareness of God who is the center of my existence.  I know what it means to love God with everything I have and am; and that’s not primarily a matter of being churchly and being Bibley.  It’s to love God deeply. Yes, we know what it means to love another deeply.

The bottom hinge represents the love of neighbor.  The top hinge is to love God with all our heart mind and soul and the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. 

Intuitively, I think we substitute the word, “family” for neighbor.  We are to love God with all our heart, mind and soul and our family as ourselves.  Our Mom and Dad, brother and sister, Grandma and Grandpa, we are to be filled with love for our family.  Intuitively, I think many of us interpret “neighbor” as family.  But even the Pharisee loved their children and parents. 

Or we think that to love our neighbor is to love our friends, our friends at church, our friends at school, our friends at camp.

Or we think that to love our neighbor is to love the people next door, the people in the house or condominium or apartment next to us who drive the same kind of cars and wear the same kind of clothes as we do ourselves. We are to love them as we love ourselves.  So intuitively, we think we think we know what the word, “neighbor,” means.

But in Luke’s version of this story for today, the Pharisee then asked the question:  “Well, Jesus, who is my neighbor?”  He wanted a definition of neighbor and so do you and I. Who do you mean by “neighbor,” Jesus?  Jesus said, “There once was a man walking down the Jericho Road and he was beaten up (sharply smash one’s fist into the palm of one’s hand several times) by life and left there to die.  Who is our neighbor?  They are the people who are beaten up (repeat image of fist into palm) by life, who get smashed up by life:  in the gospel of Luke, the poor, the maimed, the blind and the lame, the lepers.  And who gets beaten up and smashed up in your world and mine today?  The poor.  Drug infested families.  Starving people. Hungry people.  Those in jail, prisons, sick, homeless.  Who is my neighbor is not my family, friends or the people next store but those who are being beaten up by life. 

You young people wrote unusually beautiful papers for confirmation this year, all entitled “my relationship to Jesus Christ.” We, on the church council, were deeply moved to hear your stories.  I enjoyed all the papers, but yours, Megan, touched me in a special way when you told how you get up at 4:30 AM on a regular basis, come here to church early in the morning before school with your mom to prepare breakfast for the men at our homeless shelter.  You know what the meaning of the bottom hinge is:  what good is all the confirmation learning without the two hinges, to love God and your neighbor…such as the homeless men you make breakfast for. 

A door needs two hinges to work properly. Pharisee approached Jesus and asked:  “Jesus, of all the 613 commandments in the Old Testament, which one is the most important?”  Jesus answered:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments hinge all the Law and the Prophets.  Do these and you shall live.”

Rev. Edward Markquart