SSJE

Br. Luke Ditewig

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Mark 12:28-34

What is most important? a scribe asked. Jesus answered consistent with the tradition: Love God and love neighbor. Jesus quotes both Deuteronomy, our first lesson, and Leviticus. Others had put these two together before. Jesus’ answer is not new. They weave together through scripture.

“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This central, frequent prayer of Judaism is the first one taught to children. It goes with binding on the forehead and placing on the doorpost. Remember this foremost. The prayer is called shema, from the first word “hear” or “listen.” Don’t miss the start. The call to listen is threads through scripture, as from prophets: “Listen to me, my people” (Isaiah 51). The psalmist cries, “Hear, O my people … oh, that you would listen to me” (Psalm 81). Similarly, The Rule of St. Benedict begins: “Listen.”

It is so easy and normalized to be caught up in noise around and within, preoccupied with plans and intentions, actions, and questions, caught up in the whirl of emotions, and caught stroking anxieties. God speaks through the Psalms: “Be still and know that I am God.”

“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.” Love the Lord your God, the one who seeks you, the one you know, who knows you, who first loves you.

Love your God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, with all you are. Like our ancestors, this command is important because we get distracted. Overfocus on a thing or person can make it like a god, an idol. While it may not be a statue, idols are problems because focused on them, we don’t hear or can’t see. When a family member or colleague or neighbor says “I can’t get your attention” or “Did you hear me?” that indicates a problem. If I don’t hear the people around me, how am I hearing God?

Listen. Let go of distractions and idols. Stay focused on God who loves you.

“You shall love neighbor as yourself” is from Leviticus 19 in a list about community and caring for the vulnerable. That list includes many specifics. Leave food in your fields for the poor and alien. Don’t defraud. Pay fair wages. Don’t be a stumbling block to the deaf and blind. Do not hate, take vengeance, or bear a grudge. Do not slander or cheat. Be honest and just. “The alien [or foreigner or immigrant] who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.”[i] The Torah, the gospels, and all scripture give many examples of how to love our neighbors.

Dale Bruner sums it up this way: “Love the God who loves you, and cherish the person who meets you.” [ii] While that is the greatest command, Bruner notes “… the greatest truth is God’s love of humans.”[iii] As in the First Letter of John: “In this is love, not the we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.”[iv]

Jesus lived in a time of great anxiety under an oppressive Roman regime. This passage takes place in Jerusalem. Jesus has turned over tables in the temple. Leaders want to arrest him. Jesus knows he is soon to be killed. The scribe asks and Jesus answers in that troubling context. Amid our own anxiety and division before the election, what is most important?

Listen to the One who loves you. Be still and know the Lord is God and holds all. That’s a daily invitation and even important at times of stress. What are your practices for self-care? Maintain or increase them this week. Instead of frequently refreshing your newsfeed, refresh yourself. Refresh by listening to love. Sleep well. Exercise. Eat healthy. Talk with friends and therapist and safe people. Take a walk and be with earth and sky. Gaze at beauty.

Reflect on the day or week asking: How have I received love? Hold onto these gifts of God. Give thanks. Trust for more to come. How have I given love?[v] How am I invited to love? Who is my neighbor?

In voting and all the comes this week, hold onto what is most important. Listen. “Love the God who loves you, and cherish the person who meets you.”[vi]

[i] Leviticus 19:33-34

[ii] Frederick Dale Bruner (2004) Matthew, A Commentary: Vol. 2 The Churchbook. Revised and expanded edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans. p417

[iii] Ibid

[iv] 1 John 4:10-11; v10 quoted in Ibid

[v] This is a part of the Examen, what Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, called a central form of prayer. These questions are from Dennis, Sheila and Matthew Linn. (1995) Sleeping With Bread: Holding What Gives You Life. Paulist Press. Their children’s book (2006) Making Heart-Bread is great for teaching kids to pray.

[vi] Bruner Ibid