SHEMA, ISRAEL!

 23^rd Sunday after Pentecost

Oct 31, 2021

Fr. Phil Eberhart

 

Deut 6:1-9 

Ps 119:1-16 

Heb 7:23-28 

Mark 12:28-34

 

 

Shema Israel, ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI Echad

HEAR, O ISRAEL, THE LORD OUR GOD, THE LORD IS ONE

 

These words form the central identity of the people of God, the Jewish people, and in our Gospel lesson, Jesus himself, brings them forward for us, to form our identity, as those grafted-in to the Olive tree of Israel.

 

They are written on every Jewish home, on the doorpost of the house – they are carried in the minds and hearts of God’s people – they are repeated at every gathering, as a part of every prayer time or teaching session. They are sung and chanted, and repeated a thousand times a day around the world!

 

But the “magic” isn’t in the words, it’s in what follows:

⁵ Love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

And Jesus adds, with all your mind. 

 

HEART – MIND – SOUL- STRENGTH

How many here remember our hand illustration?  We pray that collect in a little more than a month, during Advent now.

Turn your bulletin over and draw an outline of your hand:

Now hold it up in front of your face.

The five parts of getting the Word of God from the outside to the inside:

Little finger =  HEAR

Write this scripture down inside the little finger on your outline:   Deut 6:4    For Israel and for us it is the starting point.

 

Ring Finger: =  READ

 Now write Joshua 1:8

Moses gives Joshua the key to his continued success as a leader in Israel:

⁸ This book of the Torah should not depart from your mouth—you are to meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will make your ways prosperous and then you will be successful.

 

Our Psalm for this morning highlights this aspect of the hand:

Asking a question:  “How shall a young man keep his way pure?  By taking heed thereto, according to Thy Word.” (sorry, I memorized it in KJV.)

 

Middle Finger  =  MARK

What is the point of underlining in your Bible?  Does anyone here have one of “those” bibles?  I have a few of them. You know the ones – that are all marked up, underlines, written in, with your own personal notes and applications.

The best way to dig into the text is to notate it for yourself.

Have you ever noticed that you can remember where something is on the page, when you can’t remember the address?

Highlighting, underlining, colored pencils … whatever it takes, my friends, is what you need to do to get it to jump out at you.

 

First Finger = LEARN

Notice that our scripture in Deuteronomy gives us a prescription for how to learn:

⁶ These words, which I am commanding you today, are to be on your heart. ⁷ You are to teach them diligently to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up. ⁸ Bind them as a sign on your hand, they are to be as frontlets between your eyes, ⁹ and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

 

So how do we learn the Word?   By making it our focus!!

Again Moses reminded Joshua: Don’t let this Book of the Law depart out of your mouth! 

David reminds us over and over in Psalm 19 and 119 about the useful and beautiful treasures that are in The Word:

⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect,
    reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
    making wise the simple;
⁸ the precepts of the Lord are right,
    rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
    enlightening the eyes;
⁹ the fear of the Lord is pure,
    enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
    and righteous altogether.
¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold,
    even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey,
    and drippings of the honeycomb.

 

And in Ps 119 – pretty much the whole of it – every one of the 176 verses tells the same tale:  The glories of the Word of God.

Why do you think that this is the longest chapter in the Bible?

Maybe because of the relative weight of the subject matter!!

 

But the final piece of this is “the clincher!!” 

 

The THUMB = INWARDLY DIGEST !!

 

As useful as all the fingers of the hand are, they are really quite powerless without the grasping capability of the Thumb!!

Meditation is what Moses encouraged Joshua to do.

The word Haga (haw-gaw) means to murmer or growl, like a lion over its kill.

Meditation is likened to rumination – the chewing of the cud by a cow.  It is swallowed and goes into a first stomach but then is brought back up for more chewing and more digestion, until finally it clears and goes into the body, fully digested.

 

Friends, how do we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength??

I’m not sure that we can over emphasize how important this Word of God is to our life as a Christian!

Paul tells us that it is useful for Teaching, for Rebuking, for Correcting and for Training in Righteousness. 

Peter call these “great and precious promises, by which we become partakers in the divine nature!”

The writer of the Hebrew letter says these words are “sharper than a two-edged sword; discerning to the depth of joints and marrow, of the thoughts and intentions of our hearts!”

James, warns us not to look into “the perfect law of liberty” and then go away and forget what we look like!

 

It is the Sword of the Spirit… used by God to make us more like Jesus!

 

It is the Light to our path … showing us the way we are to walk in, day by day, moment by moment.

 

It is our source of life, in the hand of the Living Word, Jesus Christ.

 

More to be desired are they than gold, yea than much fine gold. Sweeter also than the honey, in the honeycomb.

Sing it with me:

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold;  sweeter also that the honey, in the honeycomb.

 

Let’s pray.

 

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, as we live among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Gracious God and most merciful Father, you have granted us the rich and precious jewel of your holy Word: Assist us with your Spirit, that the same Word may be written in our hearts to our everlasting comfort, to reform us, to renew us according to your own image, to build us up and edify us into the perfect dwelling place of your Christ, sanctifying and increasing in us all heavenly virtues; grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen.

 

Lord Jesus, Master Carpenter of Nazareth, on the Cross through wood and nails you wrought our full salvation: Wield well your tools in this, your workshop, that we who come to you rough-hewn may be fashioned into a truer beauty by your hand; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, world without end. Amen.