The following homily was shared at our Sunday Evening Eucharist service 7/13/25.

Old Testament Reading:

Moses said to the people:
"If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God,
and keep his commandments and statutes
that are written in this book of the law,
when you return to the LORD, your God,
with all your heart and all your soul.
"For this command that I enjoin on you today
is not too mysterious and remote for you.
It is not up in the sky, that you should say,
'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'
Nor is it across the sea, that you should say,
'Who will cross the sea to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'
No, it is something very near to you,
already in your mouths and in your hearts;
you have only to carry it out." (Deuteronomy 30:10-14)

Gospel Reading:

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
"Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law?
How do you read it?"
He said in reply,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself."
He replied to him, "You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live."
But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,
"And who is my neighbor?"
Jesus replied,
"A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
'Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.'
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"
He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy."
Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:25-37)

There is a phrase in the ACF internal vision statement which has always caught my attention. Now, I know we all have the entire vision statement memorized, but for those of us out of the loop, there is a sentence near the end that reads: “We believe, in the spirit Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that the Sermon on the Mount ought to be received in simple obedience.”

It’s that last phrase, “simple obedience”, which stands out to me. Is it really simple? Can we actually read scripture, with all its rules and lists and seeming contradictions and respond by simply obeying? Can we live in a world that is constantly fighting for our attention, constantly pulling us in a hundred different directions and telling us that success or recognition or gratification are the goals in life, and instead live a life that is straightforwardly directed towards God? Obviously, given who I am and where we are, you know that my answer to these rhetorical questions is going to be yes. The question instead is not “can I simply obey scripture”, but “how do I live in simple obedience”? And the answer to that question is, often frustratingly, that you simply do.

It is such a common temptation to over-complicate things. We crave backups and contingencies, we draw party lines around every disagreement, and we do all sorts of intellectual gymnastics every time we begin to realize we are wrong about something, so that we can maybe find one little detail we weren’t wrong about to latch onto. We make our own plans, which inevitably fail, and respond to those failures by making more of our own plans. We search far and wide for the solution to our problems, many of which we are the cause of. But God’s word is near to us, in our mouths and in our hearts, and we need only to carry it out.

Jesus tells us to love God with every part of who we are, and to love the people we meet as we love ourselves. He tells us that we should readily serve the people we come across without considering who they are or whether it would inconvenience us. We know what we are told to do, we have been given the Word of God as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. So lean not on your own understanding and harden not your hearts, and instead simply obey what God has commanded.

I know this may sound unsatisfactory. I for one really want a specific, detailed list of instructions telling me how to follow God in every specific set of circumstances. But I was not saved by a strategy. I haven’t found joy and a purpose in plans and rules. But faith, hope and love, simply and absolutely, are things that will give you life.

Simple Obedience: Caleb Adcox

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