Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost - October 26

You Shall Love the Lord Your God
Matthew 22:34-46

We know it as the “Summary of the Law.” Jesus’ Summary of the Law. We heard it in the Gospel appointed for today. “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 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." There are slight variations in wording, but Jesus offers the Summary of the Law in all three synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke.

For folks who attend a Rite 1 service or grew up with the old Prayer Book, the Summary of the Law is very familiar. It is said every Sunday near the beginning of the service, right after the Collect for Purity. “Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith.” And, of course, he saith it in Elizabethan English. “Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind…”

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith. But the people to whom Jesus spoke would have immediately recognized that the words Jesus said were not his own. Actually, Jesus quoteth the Hebrew Scriptures. He quotes two passages from what we call the Old Testament. Passages that would have been well-known to the religious leaders to whom he was speaking.

The first would have been extremely well-known. It is from Deuteronomy. And it is known as “The Shema.” To this day, this passage is very important within Judaism. It is one of two passages I can stumble through in Hebrew. Shema, Ysrael, Adonai eloheynu Adonai echad. Hear, Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Deuteronomy 6:4. Deuteronomy continues: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

The Shema is both prayer and creed within Judaism. And it lies at the heart of Jews’ faith and their self-understanding as God’s people. The command is taken literally to “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” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).

I have read that it is the first prayer a Jewish child is taught. I wonder if it is not somewhat analogous to the Lord’s Prayer for us. If children are taught nothing else, they are taught the Lord’s Prayer so that it becomes almost second nature. We say it in virtually every corporate worship service. I think the same is true for the Shema. It has certainly had a central place in the handful of Shabbat services I have attended. We use the Lord’s Prayer in our private prayers. The Shema is used in the private daily prayers of a Jew. If I start the Lord’s prayer, all of you will reflexively join in. I suspect the same would happen among Jews when hearing the opening of the Shema.

That is the tradition that Jesus draws upon when he answers the question about the greatest commandment. Hear Israel. The Lord our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.

The second part of Jesus’ Summary of the Law about loving your neighbor as yourself comes from Leviticus. It is not as significant as the Shemah from Deuteronomy, but it also would also have been familiar to his listeners.

I like it that Jesus’ summary of the law connects us to this important and expansive tradition. When Jesus chooses those words to summarize the law he connects us to words and creed that have been recited from centuries before Jesus’ birth up to the present day.

In the past, I think my personal and preaching focus with the summary of the law has usually been on the second part about loving your neighbor as yourself. So simple and yet so difficult. Simple to understand but difficult to do.

But today I want to explore the bit about loving God a little bit more. What does it really mean to love God? It certainly sounds like something we should do. But how? You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart and soul and mind and strength. Depending upon the Gospel and the translation we get some collection of those four things. Love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.

Those four things—heart, soul, mind, strength—are meant to describe the totality of human existence. No part of us is exempt from loving God. We are called to love God with all that we are. And yet the command is also directed at each of us as a unique individual. Jesus (and Deuteronomy) don’t give a specific set of instructions for loving God that everyone has to follow. One size does not fit all. Each of brings our unique personality and individual gifts and passions to the love of God.

We are to love God with the totality and the uniqueness of each of us.

As elsewhere in much of Scripture the love that is meant here is not a feeling. It is a way of acting, an expression through deeds. Do the things we do express our ultimately loyalty to God? Loyalty isn’t the only possible word to use, but I think it’s a good one. Do our deeds express our loyalty, our dedication to God?

Do the actions of our heart, the actions of our soul, the actions of our mind, the actions of our strength or bodies… Do these express our ultimately loyalty to God?

The actions of our hearts. What things do you care about? What people do you care for? Do you care about the earth? About a special place? Some particular activity? Does the way you act with respect to the people and things you care about express an ultimate loyalty to God?

The actions of our souls. One way I think about this is to consider the places where we find meaning or the things we ascribe meaning to. The things we worship. Do our prayers and worship express our ultimately loyalty to God? Or do we worship other idols?

The actions of our minds. The things we pursue intellectually. I read a sermon on this passage this week by a man who was raised in a very conservative evangelical setting. He was literally taught not to question or think about God or Scripture. Later in life he discovered what a spiritually enriching process it can be to bring your mind and intellect to the study of God and God’s Word. And how it can be a profound act of loyalty, not disloyalty. Do we dedicate any of the actions of our minds to the study of God? And in our intellectual exploration of other ideas, do those endeavors express a loyalty to God?

And the actions of our strength or might. To me, this means all of our physical bodies. The places our feet take us. The things we touch. The words we say. All of them. Your feet brought you here this morning. That’s good. But what about everything else that your body will do today? Will those actions express your ultimate loyalty to God?

Love the Lord your God with the totality and the uniqueness of who you are. Let the actions of your heart and soul and mind and body express your ultimate love and loyalty to God.