love of enemies

Why does Jesus not quote the whole scripture?

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Mark 12:28-34

28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; 33 and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

 The first commandment that Jesus quotes is the Shema of the Jewish tradition from Deuteronomy 6:4. The second commandment (underlined) is from Leviticus 19:18, but Jesus does not say the entire scripture.

Why?

 Here is the entire verse - "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."

 Why does Jesus not cite the first half of this verse? 

 What does it mean for us to understand the "golden rule" without the "take no vengeance" part? 

 It seems that we all know that we should love one another. But the fact of the matter is that one person's act of love is another's act of hate. (Also see the language of some people who discuss the future of this country) 

 Have we overlooked to basics of what love looks like? At the very basic level love is without vengeance and grudges. 

The Idea behind Rethink Conspiracy

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Kyle Roberson is the founder of RethinkConspiracy.org and the director of online discipleship at White's Chapel UMC in Southlake, Texas. Every week, Kyle publishes an online newspaper which you can subscribe and read by clicking the red bar on the box to the right. Below, Kyle writes about what it means to Rethink Conspiracy. 
_____________________
conspire: verb, to act or work together toward the same result or goal.
Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code, once said, "Everyone loves a conspiracy." I happen to agree with Brown on this observation regarding conspiracy, but I would submit a follow-up question, "Does everyone know what a conspiracy is?"  A conspiracy, by my definition is a living, breathing organism made up of many members operating outside of public attention for a purpose. The three most predominant qualities of a conspiracy are that it is close, quiet, and quick.  
CLOSE
The root of the word conspiracy is conspire, whose root is the latin conspirare, literally to breathe together (con: with, spirare: to breathe [as in respiratory or respirate]). To breathe together, to be in that close of proximity with another, brings to mind an organism made up of members in unity with one another so closely they breathe in and out together. Breath, very life itself, shared amongst members to keep the organism (community, organization, etc.) alive.
QUIET
A conspiracy acts in secrecy, outside the attention of the public, its' plans secret from the general population until it is ready to act out. Secrets can be a valuable resource. When things are done in secret by an organization or community, often no one member can claim sole responsibility.
QUICK
This secrecy, coupled with the tight-knit nature means a conspiracy can act quickly and efficiently with very little attention placed upon itself while individual members can continue to function without disruption to their own daily life, schedule, or responsibilities.
Conspiracies, however, traditionally have been associated with the purpose of disruption or disobedience, sometimes violent in nature. What if we organized a conspiracy around the purpose of taking care of our neighbors by working secretly to better our local, national, and global communities? Could we redeem "conspiracy" to become some highly mobilized and effective group of people acting for good out of love of neighbor? Could we embrace the secret nature of conspiracy as a therapeutic means of putting aside our pride and need for fame to explore humility? Could we do more than individual random acts of kindness? Could we combine our collective power to do more good together than we could on our own?
Whatever your reason: Altruism, conviction, faith, desire to "pay it forward", would you join this conspiracy? 

Poop

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Disclaimer - this post is about poop.  If you are uncomfortable with the topic or if you have just eaten you have been warned.

Recently there was a Podcast from "Freakanomics Radio" entitled "The Power of Poop".

This bit of radio gold, expresses the "rediscovery" of what is being called at this point 'fecal matter transplant' (or less technically 'transpoosion').  It is the idea of taking bacterium from a healthy person's bowels and transplanting that bacterium into the bowels of a sick person.  It is the hope that the healthy bacterium will bring a balance to the sick person's bowels.  This transplant is still on the fringe of the medical/science community but is growing in support.

I have no idea if it "works" but it is having a wide range of success according to the podcast.

This got me thinking about God and how God works.

The Christian narrative is one that shouts are loudly as I know of, of a God who sees the beauty in all people and all things and all situations.  God is that source of life which is able to see and enemy and rather than push the enemy away or kill the enemy, God prays for the enemy and loves the enemy.

In fact, in the Gospel of John and in the writings of Paul, the word "flesh" is used to describe that which is opposed to God (see John 1:10-13 or Romans 7:5 or 1 Corinthians 3:2-3).  And yet, God uses that which is opposed to God, human "flesh", to reveal Godself and reconcile the world.  To say it another way, God came in the form of flesh, a enemy of God, in order to bring peace and reconciliation.

Can you do that?  Can you incorporate your enemy into yourself so that you can bring reconciliation?

I have yet to meet anyone who could do that sans the Holy Spirit of God in Christ.

God creates a world in which even that which is opposed to God becomes the source of healing and reconciliation.

Which brings us back to poop.

The world is set up so that even that which we recoil at and deem as "waste" can in fact bring healing.

*As a side note, when I shared this idea of fecal matter transplants with a church member, she pondered "if we would be more willing to accept other people's poop rather than being so full of our own poop, we could all be healed?"