Sermon Sampler: October 23, 2005

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” Jesus taught the crowds that day. With all your heart, yes. With all your soul, of course. But when was the last time you loved the Lord your God with all your mind?

Has it ever happened? Is there any time in your life you can point to when every last one of your neurons was firing with the love of God? When 100% of your brainpower was focused on God? When your whole nervous system was ajangle with the intensity of your love for the God who created you? Have you ever loved the Lord your God with all your mind, even once?

There’s an unfortunate tendency among Christians today to exalt experiences of heart and soul, seeking them out and reveling in them as true spirituality, while at the same time denigrating the mind as some sort of poor cousin to these two when it comes to matters of faith. Real experience of God, we’re told, comes in those moments when our brains get out of the way and we’re open to the things of God that are far beyond understanding. Think too hard, the message goes, and you might just miss the whole point of life. It’s an ugly anti-intellectualism that runs deep in many Christian circles.

But this idea surely doesn’t come from Jesus!

Read more of this sermon (or any other one) at my Sermon Archive...