In our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures this morning we heard about the death of Moses. God took him to a high place and showed him the “Promised Land.”
The LORD said to him, "This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants'; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord's command. He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated.
The LORD said to him, "This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants'; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.” Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the Lord's command. He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day. Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated.
In the name of the God of all Creation,
The God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus,
And the power of God known in the Spirit.
Amen.
The God alive in each of us as God was alive in Jesus,
And the power of God known in the Spirit.
Amen.
The story that began in the book of Genesis, continued through the Book of Exodus, now ends in the Book of Deuteronomy. The epic saga of what it means to be faithful that began with Abram and Sarai in the Ur of the Chaldeans; that included the story of the generations that followed Abraham and Sarah and that took the Israelites to Egypt; and concluded with the tale of Moses, is now over. Moses was the one who was fished out of the Nile as an infant, grew up in the Pharaoh’s household, and then banished to the wilderness for killing one of Pharaoh’s guards. Moses was the one who was called by the God of the burning bush to lead the Israelites out of the oppression in Egypt. Moses was the one who led his people as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses was the one who brought the Ten Commandments … the Law … down from the mountaintop. Moses had died.
I find it interesting that we hear this story in the fifth Book of the Bible, the Book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy means “second law.” Some say the theme of the Book of Deuteronomy is Moses’ instructions to the Israelites about how to live in this new land. But throughout the book is a reinterpretation of the “Law” … a reinterpretation to be relevant to people living in a new era.
In the reading from Matthew’s gospel we heard an exchange between Jesus and a Pharisee … this Pharisee was also a lawyer. The lawyer asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the first of all?" In response Jesus quoted the Shema, and added, “This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5:
Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
To this day, faithful Jews recite the Shema in the morning and in the evening. As an aside, Caren and I were once traveling in the Northeast and pulled over at a rest stop just as dawn was breaking. A car of Orthodox Jews was in the parking lot and the men were “dovening” … praying in a rhythmic fashion facing the rising sun, with leather phylacteries strapped to their hands, with a leather box fastened to their foreheads. These phylacteries contained a small scroll with the words of what they were praying … the words of the Shema. This was in obedience to the command: “Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead.” And although only half of our marriage is Jewish, Caren and I have a mezuzah nailed to the door frame of our house. “Write them on the doorposts of your house and your gates.”
It seems to me that the Pharisaic lawyer wasn’t as much curious and he was clever. Yet I think the answer Jesus gave is really the answer to the question, “What does it mean to be faithful?” Obviously, Abraham and Sarah were faithful. Obviously, Moses was faithful. But what does it mean to be faithful in our lives today?
Not surprisingly, faithful people of many expressions all claim to know God’s will with remarkable certainty. The problem is they disagree, sometimes vehemently. One of the troubling currents in our time is the tendency of religious people to speak as if they know the mind of God; that their expression of the faith is the “right” one and therefore others must be “wrong.” A lot of what is being said in religious circles can suggest that some people claim to have God figured out, under control, in their pockets.
The text in Matthew tells us that the Pharisee asked Jesus this question to “test” him. The Pharisee was out to show that, at least on some level, Jesus was wrong and the Pharisee was right. Jesus, once again, turned the tables and asked the Pharisees a question. At the end of the reading the narrator says, “No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”
Jesus had summed up the Torah … The Law … by saying “Love God … love your neighbor.” Rabbi Hillel, a contemporary of Jesus was famous for a similar answer to a trick question. Asked if he could recite the entire Torah while standing on one leg, he said, “What is hateful to you, don’t do to others. That is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary. Go and learn.”
I have a hard time believing that God really cares about the various divisions of the world’s religious expression. However, God has shown us what it means to be truly faithful. If we are going to take seriously what Jesus took seriously then making the Shema a way of life seems to be a step in the right direction.
There is much in the world today that separates us one from another. Is ours the “right” way to worship? Is our faith the “correct” expression of God’s will? Can we know the mind of God? I think not. But we can still see and follow a faithful path. I believe that to be faithful is not to have a list of certainties, but to give our lives … all of our lives, our hearts, and souls and minds to follow God. And then to love our neighbor as ourselves. We might not always agree, but God help us if we forsake our modesty and civility, our sense of mystery and wonder, our doubts and our loves.
Recently Pope Francis met with Catholic bishops from around the world. Early in their time together they release a draft of a summary of their work and it included a welcome to gays and lesbians, as well as divorced persons. But the Pope and the conclave got some pushback from conservative Catholics, and the document was revised. One of the conservative Catholic pundits said, “The bishops were falling all over themselves trying to act like liberal Episcopalians.” I guess there are things on which we disagree.
It seems to me that Jesus left the lawyer wrestling with a mystery. And oddly enough, the scriptures seem to be telling us this is part of God’s gift to us. In the Book of the Prophet Isaiah God says, “My ways are not your ways, and my thought are not your thoughts.” God intentionally chooses to be mysterious, and for our sake. If God were fully and completely revealed … if we were to see God beyond all mystery … our freedom would disappear. We would be forced to believe, forced to be obedient. No, this mystery is part of God’s blessing.
I believe certitude is a spiritual danger. If we claim to know God’s ways without question, we limit God to the shape of our own minds. As St. Augustine put it 1700 years ago, “If you think you understand [God], [then] it isn’t God.” In fact the Christian faith has never been a package of certainties handed down straight from God. It has acknowledged the mystery of God, the inability of us humans fully to know the mind of God. Notions of infallible teaching or literalist certainty have been foreign to much of Christian understanding through the centuries.
Jesus never seemed to care very much whether his followers thought alike. But did they love? Did they love God with all of their hearts, and souls, and minds? Did they love each other as they loved themselves? The question before us now is “Can we love each other? Can we love with “all” our hearts, and souls and minds? Can we love our neighbors, near and far, as much as we love ourselves?” It is a question for our time, just as it was for those in the time of Jesus. It is not a question of origin, or affiliation, or community, or who is “in” and who is “out.”
It is not a question of who is “right” and who is “wrong.” Rather, it is a question of where are heart is set. It is about willingness to live in mystery. It is about faithful behavior. It is about “loving your neighbor as yourself.”
I began with the story of the death of Moses, obviously a man of deep faithfulness. The story is told in the Book of Deuteronomy … a book that also contains the Shema. The Shema may be a “reinterpretation” of the Law, but it has stood the test of time. It was obviously central to the faithfulness of Jesus. If we are to take seriously what Jesus took seriously then it will be central in our lives as well.
Amen.
I find it interesting that we hear this story in the fifth Book of the Bible, the Book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy means “second law.” Some say the theme of the Book of Deuteronomy is Moses’ instructions to the Israelites about how to live in this new land. But throughout the book is a reinterpretation of the “Law” … a reinterpretation to be relevant to people living in a new era.
In the reading from Matthew’s gospel we heard an exchange between Jesus and a Pharisee … this Pharisee was also a lawyer. The lawyer asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the first of all?" In response Jesus quoted the Shema, and added, “This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5:
Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
To this day, faithful Jews recite the Shema in the morning and in the evening. As an aside, Caren and I were once traveling in the Northeast and pulled over at a rest stop just as dawn was breaking. A car of Orthodox Jews was in the parking lot and the men were “dovening” … praying in a rhythmic fashion facing the rising sun, with leather phylacteries strapped to their hands, with a leather box fastened to their foreheads. These phylacteries contained a small scroll with the words of what they were praying … the words of the Shema. This was in obedience to the command: “Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead.” And although only half of our marriage is Jewish, Caren and I have a mezuzah nailed to the door frame of our house. “Write them on the doorposts of your house and your gates.”
It seems to me that the Pharisaic lawyer wasn’t as much curious and he was clever. Yet I think the answer Jesus gave is really the answer to the question, “What does it mean to be faithful?” Obviously, Abraham and Sarah were faithful. Obviously, Moses was faithful. But what does it mean to be faithful in our lives today?
Not surprisingly, faithful people of many expressions all claim to know God’s will with remarkable certainty. The problem is they disagree, sometimes vehemently. One of the troubling currents in our time is the tendency of religious people to speak as if they know the mind of God; that their expression of the faith is the “right” one and therefore others must be “wrong.” A lot of what is being said in religious circles can suggest that some people claim to have God figured out, under control, in their pockets.
The text in Matthew tells us that the Pharisee asked Jesus this question to “test” him. The Pharisee was out to show that, at least on some level, Jesus was wrong and the Pharisee was right. Jesus, once again, turned the tables and asked the Pharisees a question. At the end of the reading the narrator says, “No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”
Jesus had summed up the Torah … The Law … by saying “Love God … love your neighbor.” Rabbi Hillel, a contemporary of Jesus was famous for a similar answer to a trick question. Asked if he could recite the entire Torah while standing on one leg, he said, “What is hateful to you, don’t do to others. That is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary. Go and learn.”
I have a hard time believing that God really cares about the various divisions of the world’s religious expression. However, God has shown us what it means to be truly faithful. If we are going to take seriously what Jesus took seriously then making the Shema a way of life seems to be a step in the right direction.
There is much in the world today that separates us one from another. Is ours the “right” way to worship? Is our faith the “correct” expression of God’s will? Can we know the mind of God? I think not. But we can still see and follow a faithful path. I believe that to be faithful is not to have a list of certainties, but to give our lives … all of our lives, our hearts, and souls and minds to follow God. And then to love our neighbor as ourselves. We might not always agree, but God help us if we forsake our modesty and civility, our sense of mystery and wonder, our doubts and our loves.
Recently Pope Francis met with Catholic bishops from around the world. Early in their time together they release a draft of a summary of their work and it included a welcome to gays and lesbians, as well as divorced persons. But the Pope and the conclave got some pushback from conservative Catholics, and the document was revised. One of the conservative Catholic pundits said, “The bishops were falling all over themselves trying to act like liberal Episcopalians.” I guess there are things on which we disagree.
It seems to me that Jesus left the lawyer wrestling with a mystery. And oddly enough, the scriptures seem to be telling us this is part of God’s gift to us. In the Book of the Prophet Isaiah God says, “My ways are not your ways, and my thought are not your thoughts.” God intentionally chooses to be mysterious, and for our sake. If God were fully and completely revealed … if we were to see God beyond all mystery … our freedom would disappear. We would be forced to believe, forced to be obedient. No, this mystery is part of God’s blessing.
I believe certitude is a spiritual danger. If we claim to know God’s ways without question, we limit God to the shape of our own minds. As St. Augustine put it 1700 years ago, “If you think you understand [God], [then] it isn’t God.” In fact the Christian faith has never been a package of certainties handed down straight from God. It has acknowledged the mystery of God, the inability of us humans fully to know the mind of God. Notions of infallible teaching or literalist certainty have been foreign to much of Christian understanding through the centuries.
Jesus never seemed to care very much whether his followers thought alike. But did they love? Did they love God with all of their hearts, and souls, and minds? Did they love each other as they loved themselves? The question before us now is “Can we love each other? Can we love with “all” our hearts, and souls and minds? Can we love our neighbors, near and far, as much as we love ourselves?” It is a question for our time, just as it was for those in the time of Jesus. It is not a question of origin, or affiliation, or community, or who is “in” and who is “out.”
It is not a question of who is “right” and who is “wrong.” Rather, it is a question of where are heart is set. It is about willingness to live in mystery. It is about faithful behavior. It is about “loving your neighbor as yourself.”
I began with the story of the death of Moses, obviously a man of deep faithfulness. The story is told in the Book of Deuteronomy … a book that also contains the Shema. The Shema may be a “reinterpretation” of the Law, but it has stood the test of time. It was obviously central to the faithfulness of Jesus. If we are to take seriously what Jesus took seriously then it will be central in our lives as well.
Amen.
