These Are the First Thing

This sermon was preached at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on November 5, 2006

Ruth 1:1-18
Psalm 146
Hebrews 9:11-14
Mark 12:28-34

May the words of my mouth and the words of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

How many of us have ever heard someone say, “The first thing you need to know is…” In seminary, it happened pretty often. During the course of a semester, many professors would say that their classes—their disciplines—are the most important. The first couple of times I heard this, it was confusing, after a while, it was amusing. My Old Testament professor said that the New Testament was for people who didn’t get it the first time. The battles between the Bible and Theology departments played like the chicken and the egg. “Theology is faith seeking understanding!” “Well, without scripture, there is no faith to understand!” The Preaching professors remind us that the Word of God is the word written, incarnate, and living—so the living, the proclamation of the Word had better be worthy of its place. My Mission and Evangelism professor said his discipline was the most important. In a recent Austin Seminary publication, this professor says, “Teaching about the non-western church is sometimes a hard sell, but I am convinced it is the most important task in theological education today.”[1] The Stewardship professor was in line with the Mission professor, to a degree. He said people give when they know the church is doing mission, but believe me, mission was a function of stewardship, not the other way around.

You can hardly blame these professors. After working at a community college and at the University of Arkansas, it is the way of the professor to believe that what they study is the center of academe. Professors have dedicated themselves to years of study and research and writing and if they thought for a moment their specialty was unimportant, their lives would fall like a house of cards. Sure, maybe some take it a step too far. I can think of some professors who thought their work was the center of known and unknown universe. Some see themselves as gatekeepers to the University or a professional field. But a certain level of honor for the specialty is not only to be expected, it can be healthy.

Well, we have established that in seminary, everything is the first thing of all things to be learned. And surviving—thriving after being asked questions designed to trap him; Jesus is asked one more question. What commandment is the first of all?

Jesus gives his answer in three parts.

The first part: Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

This is a prayer known as the Shema. This prayer is said by Jews in the morning prayers and in the evening prayers. It is one of the first things a Jew thinks on in the morning and one of the last things in the evening. Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Found in Deuteronomy 6:4, this is one of the primary affirmations of the Nation of Israel. It is the benchmark of the faith.

The Lord is our God. The first part affirms not just that the Lord is God. But the Lord is our God. This is not an issue of ownership. The Lord is not our God like a possession. The Lord is not our God like this is my cup and this is my water.[2] The Lord is our God as we are the church. We are the church only when we are in relationship with one another. The Lord is our God because the Lord chooses to be in relationship with us.

The Lord is One. In the time when the Shema was recorded, the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Moabites, and so on had a pantheon of Gods to choose from. There were gods of rain, gods of harvest, gods of fertility; gods of everything imaginable. So with a plethora of gods, the devout would be able to pray a particular prayer to an appropriate God. Not Israel. For Israel there was only one God, the Lord. Idolatry in the Old Testament was not so much about worshipping gods that do not exist as it was about worshipping useless gods.

The second part of the prayer is: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This statement follows the Shema in Deuteronomy. It’s a little different in the Old Testament, but for a reason. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” So why does the New Testament include the phrase “all your mind”? Simply because in the Hebrew, this addition is unnecessary; in the Old Testament the heart and mind were taken together because the Hebrew concept of heart included both the emotional and the intellectual centers.[3] Without exception, both versions of this prayer demand that we love the Lord our God with our entire beings. By this command, the Lord demands not that we give all that we have, but that we give all that we are.

The last part is from Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This is such an important concept that this command is the reason the parable of the Good Samaritan exists in Luke’s gospel. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We must be conscious that we are to love ourselves and love our neighbors not because of who we are or what we have done. We are to love one another as the children of the Lord our God. We are to love as God sees us, not as we see ourselves.

While in a Nazi prison, the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was writing an outline for a book. Two sentences in the outline stand out. The first, “The church is the church only when it exists for others.” The second is, “The church must tell persons of every calling (and life situation) what it means to live in Christ, to exist for others.”[4] Living day to day, not knowing whether he would live or die at the hands of the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer translates the command of loving our neighbors into the work of the church.

Then Jesus tells this scribe—and all who have ears—there is no other commandment greater than these. In English grammar, there is a concept known as subject/verb agreement. If a subject is singular, the verb is singular. With verbs of being, the noun in the predicate needs to agree with subject. Here the subject is singular and the predicate noun is plural—but bad grammar makes good theology. We have several things—but together they are one thing, the first thing. Considered separately, these statements are important. But separately they are not perfect. When one or another of these statements is overemphasized, its value is reduced. Piety without love of neighbor hides the gift of God like a light is hidden under a bushel. Good works without giving thanks to the One who makes these works possible, the One who calls us to do these works, is building a good home on a poor foundation.

Each statement twists together with the others like three cords are braided together to form a rope. The strands are strong separately, but together they form a cable that is stronger than the sum of the individual parts. Together they form the first commandment.

The question remains, why did Jesus combine these three statements, from two different pieces of the Old Testament? It returns us to the relational element of the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4. The Lord is our God and we whether in this sanctuary or this city or this world—we are our neighbors. It returns us to Deuteronomy 6:5, we must love the Lord our God as he loves us—fully, completely, and without reservation. And it returns us to Leviticus; we must love one another as we love ourselves as children of God.

I love good church signs. You know the ones, things like “Sign Broken, Message Inside” or “Prayer Conditioned.” I haven’t been very good about changing the sign over the last year. I wish I was witty enough to come up with new and fresh sayings more often. Sure, we’ve used the sign to promote the Thanksgiving service last year and the Easter Service earlier this year. At Easter we even posted the traditional Pascal greeting, “He is risen, He is risen indeed.” We’ve used it to promote Vacation Bible School too. As for witty sayings, the sign has said, “First Pedestrian Church—Walk the Walk” and “Serving the Lord for over 150 years.” I thought these were pretty good, nothing over the top, but fresh and witty. Well, about six weeks ago, I was trying to decide what to put on the sign, so I put up a paraphrase of today’s gospel passage, “You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.” It’s a solid message and I thought it was the kind of thing that everyone should read before going into the courthouse. I believe when we take this seriously, we become better and treat one another better.

The writers of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, thought the same thing. They thought this is the sort of thing people need to be reminded of early and often. This is why this event appears in each of the first three gospels.

When asked to consider how we are to respond to this reading, it is straight forward. The doxology in our Call to Confession, Psalm 146 reminds us of the Shema. We are called to give glory to the God who calls us into relationship, the Lord our God. The call to love God is reinforced in the reading from Hebrews where we are reminded that the sacrificial love of God is greater than the sacrifices made by priests. And we are to love our neighbor as Ruth loved Naomi—with devotion, grace, and peace.[5]

We continue to talk about stewardship; it’s that time of the year. We talk about tithes and we talk about offerings. We talk about time and talent and treasure. But this passage teaches us something more important about stewardship. God has offered us everything, and that is what the Lord our God expects in return from us, everything. These are the first thing. Hear, O Church of Jesus Christ, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is what God expects of us…everything.

[1] Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, "for the record, the faculty of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary." Austin, TX, 2006, page 11.
[2] I keep a PC(USA) coffee cup with water on the pulpit
[3] Homiletics Magazine, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment .asp?installment_id=2994, accessed October 30, 2006.
[4] Foote, Jr, Ted V. and Thronburg, P. Alex, Being Disciples of Jesus in a Dot.Com World, A theological Survival Guide for Youth, Adults, and Other Confused Christians. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 2003, page 117.
[5] Bruggeman, Walter, et. Al., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV—Year B. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, page 566ff.