Mildred was a fine lady. She was 64 years old when the doctors discovered that she had terminal cancer. She was in and out of the hospital several times receiving her treatments, and each time she seemed to be a little weaker than the time before.

Mildred was married to one of the roughest roughnecks in Oklahoma. He was a big, burly man, and one look at him told you that in his younger days, he was the kind of fellow who didn’t step aside for any man. However, around Mildred, he had become quiet and almost gentle. Every time she was hospitalized, Bill practically camped out at the hospital. He would arrive early and stay late.

It was obvious that 42 years of marriage had created a bond, a closeness between the two. Mildred summed it up one day when she said, "Although we were not blessed with children, we were blessed with each other."

Mildred was the religious one in the family. She had grown up going to church and when she wasn’t too weak or too nauseated from her treatments, she still made Bill take her to church. Bill had never been much of a church-goer, but he was willing to take Midred when she felt up to attending. On one occasion, she said, "The only thing good to come out of my illness is that I’m finally getting Bill to church."

On my visits to see Mildred in the hospital, I began to talk with Bill about making a commitment to Christ and the church. At first, I thought I was wasting my time. Bill’s response to my inquiries was often anger. He couldn’t understand why Mildred, who had lived such a good life, was having to suffer. But, little by little, his attitude began to change. One day he looked at me and said, "Robert, there seems to be a lot of rules to follow and a lot of beliefs to comprehend. Can you make it simple? Can you give me a thumbnail sketch that will explain religion in a nutshell?"

I thought for a moment. How can you explain the beliefs and the doctrines of our faith concisely? Other than just making a long series of statements, how can anyone possibly deal with the complex and essential doctrines of religion in brief? I could recite one of the creeds, like The Apostles’ Creed, and say this is what we believe. As a matter of fact, the early creeds came into existence because people were trying to give a short statement of what was important in religion.

However, I thought the creeds might be a little too much for Bill to digest and understand. So, I said, "Bill, you have asked a very good question. It is a question that people have asked for centuries. In fact, it was a question that was put to Jesus. So, the best response I could give to you is tell you what Jesus said. He said:

... Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength ... and love your neighbor as you love yourself."

Bill must have understood it because a few weeks later, he walked down the aisle of the church, and confessed his faith and was baptized into the faith.

We live in a world that has become complicated in many ways. Times have changed and people have changed. But, the response that Jesus gave to the question, "What is the greatest commandment?" is still clear and uncomplicated. For Jesus, religion in a nutshell was loving God with an undivided heart and loving your neighbor as you loved yourself.

As we look at this idea of "religion in a nutshell," I want to examine some ideas and how they apply to our lives.

I. Religion in a nutshell affirms that there is a God. When Jesus was asked, "Which is the greatest commandment?" he quoted from a familiar Hebrew text (Deuteronomy 6:4-5):

Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one. You shall love the Lord thy God with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind, and with all of your strength.

This is the basic creed of the Jewish people. It is the first scripture that every Jewish child commits to memory. It is the first sentence with which a service of worship begins in a Jewish synagogue. It is the phrase which the devout Jew wore on a leather bracelet when he went to prayers. When Jesus quoted this phrase as the greatest commandment, the Jews were nodding their heads in agreement. They knew these words meant that we must give our total love to God.

When you are trying to form a clear and concise definition of religion, this is where you start - with loving God. I wouldn’t know where else to begin. Belief in and love of God are the basic ingredients, the foundations in any definition of religion.

Several years ago, an architect was given an enormous and almost impossible task. He was to design and build the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan. Because Japan is a country that frequently experiences tremors and earthquakes, the financial backers wanted a building that would be able to stand up when the quakes came.

No construction job like this had ever been accomplished. The architect was careful and deliberate in drawing his plans. When the core samples were taken where the hotel was to be built, he discovered that eight feet below the surface of the ground lay a sixty-foot bed of soft undisturbed mud. The more he thought about this mud, the more the idea seemed to grow that he could float the foundation of the hotel on this quiet bed of mud.

His theory that the mud would absorb the shocks of the earthquakes was revolutionary. It had never been tried before. After four years of hard work and a lot of jeers and ridicule from skeptical architects and engineers, the building was completed.

Shortly after the Imperial Hotel opened its doors in Tokyo, the worst earthquake Japan had experienced in 52 years rocked the country. Buildings and houses with strong foundations tumbled and fell into a pile of rubble. But the Imperial Hotel stood firm and strong because the foundation rolled with the shocks of the earthquake.

Religion in a nutshell begins with a foundation that will help absorb some of the shocks of life. The only permanent, enduring foundations in this world are those which are laid according to the plans of the God of eternity. Belief in and love of God are the basic ingredients of any religion. Belief in and love of God form the foundation which enables you to absorb life’s most dreadful shocks.

A pastor was called out to a county nursing home to see a woman who wanted to talk to a preacher. She talked with him about her life and she told about having no relatives left. When she became ill, she had no money for care, so she was placed in the county nursing home, She looked at the pastor and said, "It won’t be long before you will be called to preach my funeral. When you have the service will you ask someone to sing ‘I’m A Child Of The King’?"

When we lay the foundation for our lives in the love of God with all of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, then we have started with the basic ingredients and we will have no doubt that we are "A Child Of The King."

II. Religion in a nutshell affirms that we are to love our neighbor. After Jesus quoted the scripture as the greatest commandment, he said:

The second most important commandment is this: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." There is no other commandment greater than these two.

This is also a quote from the Old Testament. It comes from Leviticus 19:18 and in its original context it had to do with other Jews. After all, it was permissible to hate Gentiles. But, Jesus took the old law and widened its meaning to include all people - Jew and Gentile alike.

This broader meaning was a revolutionary idea for Jesus to advocate. He was saying that our love for God must issue in love for our neighbor. And, he was saying that our neighbor is anyone who needs us. A neighbor is anyone who has a need to which you or I have the capacity to respond. We are called to act as a neighbor to every person ... to those who are hurt ... to those who are unlovely ... to those who are outcasts. We are to love people beause they are God’s children. After all, how can we love God unless we are willing to love and respond to his people? In other words, we must not allow ourselves to become so hardened that we cannot respond to someone who is in need.

When I was at Drew University in New Jersey, I became friends with a Catholic priest named Sean O’Kelly. Sean was redheaded and always seemed to have a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes. He spoke with a heavy Irish brogue because he had only been in America for a few years.

While he was in school, he was also pastoring a Catholic church in the heart of Newark, New Jersey. If you want to talk about urban blight and poverty and hunger, all you have to do is to take a trip up and down the streets of Newark.

On one occasion, Sean heard that a family in his parish was hungry. Because of a bureaucratic foul-up, a mother with five small children had no food and no hope of getting any until the end of the month.

Although the family was not Catholic, Sean O’Kelly went to the grocery store and bought a supply of groceries. There were three full sacks, and he went to the apartment building where the family lived. After carrying the groceries up four flights of stairs and walking down a long hall, he came to the apartment. He rang the doorbell, and a little boy about seven years old answered the door. He looked at Father O’Kelly’s clerical collar and the sacks of groceries, and then screamed at his mother: "Mama, Mama, come quick. Jesus brought us some food!"

In telling about that incident, Sean said, "I will never forget that child’s comment. At that moment, I realized that I was the Christ for a hungry child."

If we are to be the neighbors that God calls us to be, then we need to understand that you and I are expected to help those we have the capacity to help. The opportunities for service are almost endless in every neighborhood - even yours. There are a dozen ways or more for you to help people if you are willing to be the neighbor God calls you to be! Religion in a nutshell means that you really are expected to be "Jesus" to your neighbors when they are in need.

The last thing I want to say is: III. Religion in a nutshell, compels us to be his followers. We have been looking at the commandments. They are a powerhouse of strength and direction of our lives. But, they mean nothing unless we are willing to follow God with our lives.

To those who asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, he said, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." We are not far from God’s Kingdom, but we must be willing to follow him.

Count Nikolaus Von Zinzendorf had been a very religious fellow in his youth. But, somewhere along the way he had strayed from the faith. He began living in the fast lane, and his faith began to lose its meaning and influence in life.

One day, one of his friends asked him to attend an art show. Together, they walked the corridors of the art gallery until they came to a large painting at the end of the hall.

It was a painting of Jesus hanging on the Cross and the Count studied it very closely. He followed every brush stroke. He looked at the nail prints in the hands and feet. He traced the blood as it trickled down the Master’s face from the crown of thorns. He stared at the spear-pierced side. He studied the crucified Christ for a long, long time. Finally, he noticed an inscription at the bottom of the painting. It simply said:

All this I did for thee.

What hast thou done for me?

This was a turning point in the life of the Count. He returned to the faith and became a follower of Christ. And this is what God compels us to do - to be his followers.

So, this is religion in a nutshell.

1. Religion affirms that we are to love God.

2. Religion affirms that we are expected to be a neighbor to anyone in need.

3. Religion compels us to be Jesus’ followers.

This is short; this is concise; this is crystal clear. What will you do about it?