This past Sunday we began our journey down the yellow brick road in the first message in our new “Wizard of Oz” themed worship series. We took a great first step looking at part of the most important prayer in Judaism: the Shema.
The Shema prayer is lifted first thing in the morning and just before going to bed at night. It is also believed by some to be the last prayer many utter before passing away. The word, “shema,” is actually the Hebrew verb meaning, “to hear.” So basically, the first instruction in this prayer is to listen to God, but that isn’t all. The Shema goes on to instruct about love and legacy in how we pass this on to future generations. Listen, love, legacy — the components of the Shema prayer. Though the entire Shema prayer is rather long at three paragraphs, the part we are studying comes from Deuteronomy 4.6-9: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 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.”
In Jesus’ earthly ministry, He was once asked about which commandment was first or greatest, depending on the translation you read. There are some 613 commandments and laws form the Torah to the Talmud, so this was an entrapment question posed to Christ. In that exchange, when asked about the most important of all the commandments, Jesus turned the conversation on its ear by bringing up the concept of listening to God, loving God, and leaving a legacy for God. This is captured in Mark’s Gospel, 12.29-31: “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: 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.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” In answering this question, Jesus argued for a forward looking view of living out faith as opposed to a rigid rear view.
The Biblical languages gives us some very powerful insight as to what Jesus meant when He focused on loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as self. Consider the important insight we garner when we love God with all our…
- Heart: The seat in the center of one’s inward life — the place of human depravity or the sphere of divine influence. How will you find life, by living for self or living for God?
- Soul: The living breathing creature within us. We believe that when we accept Christ as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to breath new life into us. CS Lewis one said that you do not have a soul, but you are a soul! Your soul, therefore, is the living God within you that connects your mortal life to the eternal God.
- Mind: Our intellect, the place where we analyze, figure-out and plan things; the place where knowledge and understanding are analyzed to bring about a conclusion or decision. Living in faith doesn’t mean we check our brain at the door; rather it means that we engage our mind while considering the mystery of God.
- Strength: Our outward response in word and deed that brings together what happens internally among our heart, soul and mind. Its root meaning is using a fire poker to rake, move quickly, and turn-over hot coals. Basically, it means to keep the flames burning hot, or reaching into a fiery situation and turn things around or make them right. A picture is forming here: God does not want us to love Him with just parts of our being, but rather, will ALL of our being — every single moment of every single day.
- Neighbor as Self: Jesus answered this in His parable of the Good Samaritan as He taught that one’s neighbor is anyone within our spheres of influence. These are the people we meet different levels in our own local community, larger region, and people abroad.
We are called to listen to God, love God, and live in such a way as to leave a legacy of God for others. This requires us living wholly for God and the people God places in our life. As we continue down the yellow brick road, we will explore how the journey that Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion took transformed their understanding of heart, soul, mind, and strength/courage. I hope you will make plans to be present with us each week in this journey, because it promises to help us all deepen our appreciation for what it means to listen to God, to love God and others, and to leave a legacy of love by wholly engaging our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
God bless, and I hope to see you Sunday!
Pastor Mark
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