People's Prayers: Prayers of the People: Them Are Us and Us Are Them ~ 22nd Sunday after Pentecost RCL Yr A

For Sunday, October 25, 2026, Readings: Deuteronomy 34:1-12, Psalm 90:1-6,

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Matthew 22:34-46

Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. [Deuteronomy 34:10]

Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to another...May the graciousness of the Lord our God be upon us; prosper the work of our hands... [Psalm 90:1, 17a]

We had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition...We have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts.

[1 Thessalonians 2:2b,4b]

...a lawyer asked [Jesus] a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment...is the greatest?" He said..."You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." [Matthew 22:35b-39]

We truly are all together in "this" life on this planet although you would think, especially given some of the hard-charging rhetoric, murderous attacks and murderous reprisals, here and around the world, that we can just stop interacting with others, just take care of us, and ignore them. Of course, one of the largest questions in this life is epochs, eons, and ages old: What is a universally satisfactory definition of who is us and who is them? This week in Matthew’s Gospel, we hear of a lawyer asking Jesus which commandment is the greatest? In Luke’s parable of the Good Samaritan, another lawyer asked Jesus, who is my neighbor? [Luke 10:25-37] We of the human variety are determined to answer this question correctly, which really means: to suit our own needs and wants, and keep within the rules we, or those we choose to follow, have set even when they can change on a whim. We build symbolic and genuine walls, fences, and tall gates that are all designed to keep out the uninvited, the unacceptable, the dangerous – in other words, those people, that kind, the others, THEM. But here’s a shocker, we each are the other, the “them” to someone else. We create and receive suspicion and fear when we step away from what we think is our own special sheltered space in order to enter another’s. Of course, we must protect ourselves and others from those who are truly dangerous and who would do anyone true harm. But all too often we categorize someone as dangerous because of gender, color, race, language, sexual orientation, make-up, hair styles, clothing, body art and piercings or lack of, accent, another neighborhood, region, or country, etc. It's much easier to have a big chart of absolutes – that group BAD, this group GOOD – and that way we don't have to think, engage, learn more about, slip into liking, and are able to avoid knowing that skin, organs, blood, and bones are the same in all of God's people.
      It's difficult, uncomfortable, even distressing at times, to sift through our own prejudices, judgments, dislikes, even hatred of an unknown person or group. It takes time away from the easier activities of going through life without having to think for myself simply because I know my group and we will avoid those outside of it because whoeever we have chosen to lead us will tell us how to think and what to do. It also involves looking into oneself – how do I really feel about me? Do I have trouble loving my self? Is it truly self-satisfying to dismiss or diminish another – or just an ego boost of a very false sense of superiority or, more likely, a genuine internal sense of inferiority?
      Jesus, answering this lawyer who is a Pharisee, in Matthew’s Gospel, gets directly to the point that all the Commandments of God can be cleanly distilled into just two: 1. Love God completely, 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. This concept is no surprise to the Pharisaic lawyer. Earlier in Deuteronomy, Dt 6:4-5 specifically, is the opening to the Shema (sheh-mah), which in Judaism is a part of morning and evening prayer: Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might. Earlier still, in Leviticus 19:18b, is …“you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It is Jesus, however, who combines the two as the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it… and surprises them with what we now refer to as the “Summary of the Law,” when he says to those who would trap him: On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Think about it, if you truly love God and love your neighbor as your self, you will honor, and you won’t covet, steal, or break any of the other commandments.
     Yet the obvious questions remain as we search for loopholes and escape from the hard work: Who is my neighbor? Answer: Any/Every human you meet. OK, I have to “love” my neighbor, but do I also have to like my neighbor? Answer: Not in a best friend sort of way, but an attempt to get to know her, him, them, might surprise you, or might not, yet we are still called to love, especially when it’s the hardest to do. Loving another is often difficult because it isn’t based on reciprocation. Putting a face on a label challenges one’s pre-conceived notions and what one has been told to believe by parents, teachers, religious and political leaders, by neighborhoods, states, and countries. Loving your neighbor is more about acceptance and tolerance of differences as well as discovering similarities. Our instant judgements are not easy to overcome. Loving our neighbor is to be the same as how we love our self. That’s often the hardest piece to understand as all too often we do love our neighbors in the same way that we love our selves. It’s far too easy to see, yet not recognize, something in another that we dislike in ourselves. That takes some serious personal soul-searching and be able to prayerfully understand, and a find a way to like and then love our selves as Jesus does. And yes, there are those who are truly terrible and so our love must transcend likeability, and when that is particularly difficult, ask ourselves, so, really, what would Jesus do? Well, what Jesus would do might be above my merely human abilities to accomplish. Maybe in the case of the very trying, most offensive, and/or dangerous of people, we, with contrite hearts, pray for Jesus to love those who we acknowledge that we simply cannot even like.
    Jesus was saying to the lawyer in this week's reading, and in the Good Samaritan parable, just following the human-made-subject-to-change-rules isn't enough. We must be intentional in our efforts. And yes, we will fail, often, but we must keep trying. If we keep repeating to ourselves, as a mantra perhaps, Help me, Jesus, to Love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my might, and to love my neighbor as [and] my self, we will consciously and intentionally work to live and act within these two commandments. In that way, we will discover not only a stronger faith in God but also that as one of God’s Own Created: Them really are Us and Us really are them! Let’s all keep working on this, together.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Gracious Lord, our God, quicken our desire to actively live our faith by consciously loving and serving You with our whole hearts, souls, and minds with intention. Guide us to dare to follow Your command to love all humankind as if they are our selves, as we are loved by You.

Lord of Loving-Kindness

Response: Prosper the work of our hearts and hands

~ Gracious Lord, our God, guide those of us who have a choice for our political leaders, to responsibly choose as stewards of all humanity and of this entire planet, those who will lead, legislate, and personally act with sincerity and integrity. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

Lord of Loving-Kindness