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

Our daughter and brand-new grandson have been visiting most of this past week while our son-in-law is working out of town.  And, visits from this daughter always include the 4-year-old granddog as well – Bodie, the large lanky lab mix who is most devoted to his “mom.”  

As our daughter packed to leave yesterday, Bodie grew quite anxious.  This new creature in his life is already a weird thing; he’s suspicious about what might happen next.  So, on one of Laura’s trips out with bags in hand, Bodie shot through the door, down the walk and straight to the waiting truck, finding his place in the back between the child car seat and the pile of baby paraphernalia.  If he could have spoken, he would have said, “Hear I sit; you are not leaving me here.”

I couldn’t help but think of Ruth’s words of fearless commitment to her mother-in-law Naomi: 

“Do not press me to leave you 
or to turn back from following you!

Where you go, I will go.” 

If only we could be so doggedly excited and fearlessly committed to God and our neighbor.  What if we charged forth with such single-mindedness in our desire to love and serve the Lord?

There are important traditions in our Jewish heritage that should remain as essential to our daily ritual as they have been to the Jews since ancient times.  One of those essential rituals is the reciting of the Shema’ each morning and each evening.  “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 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.”

Much like our creeds, the Shema declares and affirms the very foundation of our faith.  We find the Shema first in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Jewish Torah.  

In our lesson from Mark’s Gospel, the scribes and Sadducees in Jesus’ audience were well familiar with the Shema – the essence of their faith.  Of course, they are seeking to confound Jesus’ teaching and force him to incriminate himself.  They have not yet come to accept that the words of the Shema are exactly the foundational message that Jesus is seeking to plant in the heart of all God’s children; the words of the Shema are the reason Jesus has come.  If only they would believe and live diligently and intentionally into these words that they recite each morning and night.

Jesus in being tested by the religious leaders to recite the most important commandment; Jesus speaks the Shema – the primary tenet of their faith:  “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 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.”

It is in abiding by this first and greatest commandment that we abide by the second: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

This is our rule of life, but it is not a paint-by-numbers rule of life.  Abiding by the greatest commandment requires that we seek communion with God’s will.

To love God with all our heart, we embrace God as our greatest friend; God is by our side at all times; our every thought, action, and word are guided by our awareness of God’s constant presence.  God’s love is visible to others through us when we strive to love God with all our heart.

To love God with all our soul requires engaging with God daily through meditation, contemplative prayer that draws our souls closer and closer to God.  To love God with all our soul is to hold space for God in our daily lives, to hold space for the quiet where God can speak to us rather than remaining in the background through the din of our constant chatter.  Loving God with all our soul requires time set aside to listen to God’s voice.

To love God with all our minds is to love the scripture, to be committed to the study of scripture – God’s word that contains all that is necessary for our salvation.  We cannot fully love God with all our mind if our knowledge of the Bible is limited, if we have not taken time to fall in love with the scripture, to be eager for ongoing study, and to allow God to speak to us through our daily meditation on his word.  God’s word is new and fresh every day; we never finish studying the scripture, loving God with all our mind.

To love God with all our strength means that we honor this earthly human body created in God’s image, this vessel of God’s love.  We care for ourselves; actively working to keep our bodies physically and mentally sound so that we have strength for the journey of sharing God’s love.  And, like all the other guides toward loving God, knowing how to keep ourselves healthy and doing it are separate challenges.  

But nothing good is impossible for God; and nothing good is possible without God.

‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 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.’  Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength means being fearlessly excited and doggedly committed to God’s call to love and serve our neighbor.  “Lord, where you go,  I will go.”