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28 October 2009 Issue
1. CVA Outreach
3. Commentary on the Lectionary: Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
4. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman
1. CVA Outreach
The CVA’s 26-minute video Honoring God’s Creation is now available dubbed in Chinese! You can see it at http://www.56.com/u69/v_NDY3Njc3NDY.html. To order the video in English, or to purchase other CVA materials, go to www.christianveg.org/materials.htm .
2. Activist Feedback
Jessica, who leafleted with Stephanie, Kiska, Yvonne, and Alicia at the Women of Faith Conference in Portland, Oregon on October 9th, writes:
The five of us distributed 1,899 booklets. We were originally planning to leaflet before the event started and after it ended that night, but a bomb scare prevented everyone from going inside the venue. We had about 2 hrs to leaflet approx 10,000 women as they waited to find out what was going on. (The event was ultimately cancelled). One woman repeatedly harassed Alicia and Kiska. ("What church do you go to?" she kept asking them, with an annoyed tone). A woman with a sustainable catering company said she was happy to see us leafleting, but wanted CVA to consider condensing the booklet to one page (an 8 1/2"x 11" 2-sided sheet of paper), to save resources and money. It was Alicia's first time leafleting - she was nervous at first but in the end was very excited to leaflet again.
Thank you! ~Jessica
3. Commentary on the Lectionary: Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
Nov. 1, Mark 12:28b-34
In this passage, a scribe asked Jesus which commandment is the first. Jesus said it was to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and Jesus added, “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The scribe agreed and said that to love God and to love one’s neighbor as oneself “is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” Jesus then said to the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
I see loving God and loving one’s neighbor (a creation of God) as oneself are two sides of the same coin. Further, the second commandment that Jesus identified is a variation of the Golden Rule (see Matthew 7:12) which, I have argued, should apply to animals as well as humans.
Interestingly, Jesus noted that the scribe was not far from the kingdom of God. The scribe recognized that loving God and loving our neighbors were of primary importance, but the scribe evidently still believed that burnt offerings and sacrifices had value. However, such sacrifices involved killing God’s creatures, which would not be showing love toward his animal neighbors. Therefore, the scribe did not fully understand that the kingdom of God is a world without violence or victimization.
Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.
4. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary Hoffman
Lovingkindness: A Heart That Is One with God http://www.all-creatures.org/sermons97/s28oct90.html .
Your question and comments are welcome
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