November 4 2012 Sermon  Love God with all your Heart

Ruth 1:1-18 

Ruth is the beloved great-grandmother of King David.  But Ruth is a foreigner.  She crosses over the border from Moab to become one with the house of Boaz and Israel.  In a world suspicious of immigrants, legal or otherwise, this is a story about forced migration.

Naomi and Elimelech do not cross into Gentile country because they are religious radicals.  They head to Moab because there is no bread in the “house of Bread” – Bethlehem.  Throughout Hebrew Scripture there is a strong bias against anything good coming out of Moab.

It was a place for the people of God to avoid.  Moabites were a category of people to avoid.  And yet, chapter 1 of Ruth begins in Moab where not only has a Hebrew family found bread, but their sons have also found wives and a home.

Chapter 1 of Ruth speaks with narrative power to people often constricted by some sort of social, ethnic, racial, or religious boundary.  It begins a story of how God can work across and despite the most entrenched positions and established boundaries to bring new life and new hope.  Salvation.

- Psalm 146

The bible is full of surprises as these statements show:

Love your enemies (Matt 5:44), The last will be first (Mark 10:31). Happy are those that mourn (Matthew 5:4) Blessed are your poor (Luke 6:20)

Psalm 146 is one of the Alleluia Psalms, exhorting us to praise God – a common thread throughout the book.  But here the psalmist not only gives the imperative to the listeners, “”Praise the Lord!”  but echoes the words internally. “Praise the Lord, O my soul!”  How can we command others what we ourselves are not willing to do?

We are called to praise God through music, that sublime language of sound and texture and pitch and rhythm that can lift us boldly to the mountaintops with its majesty, hold us sympathetically in its warmth, and bring us to tears through its passions.

Hebrews 9:11-14

Some people often ask why we do so many rituals at church. However look at a ball game. We wear goofy costumes. We sing “Take me out to the ball game” . We eat hotdogs, popcorn and peanuts. We sing about buying “peanuts and crackerjacks.

Rituals  are simply what Humans do.  They make us feel close to one another and to God.  They take away our guilt. They comfort us in times of stress. They remind people of what they believe, and teach them values of itself; and “we don’t care if we ever go back..”

Today is Holy Communion. We follow a ritual every first Sunday. Sometimes we don’t think anything about it. But lets talk a little about what it symbolizes. Lets talk about the cup that represents the  Blood of Christ.

Blood has always been a symbol of life and death. The ancient Israelites believed that a creature’s life-force was in its blood, and therefore blood was holy to God. The blood of someone murdered cried out to God. It was forbidden to drink blood, instead it was offered back to God.

When we sing about the fountains filled with blood and about being washed in the blood of the Lamb, it is best not to actually try to picture such things. That would sound like a horror movie. Yet we have hymns like “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus.  Seems pretty grisly, but in the ancient world, Blood was viewed as the divine source of life.

When we talk about Jesus as “the perfect sacrifice for our sins” it does not mean that someone had to be killed in order to appease an angry God’s thirst for vengeance.  Its something far deeper – a blood ritual that reminds us of where life comes from and where it goes.

Jesus’ action of offering his own blood – that divine, life-giving substance- somehow made possible a new relationship between human beings and God. Our faith is not just in rituals. Our faith is in a God who has acted once and for all on our behalf.

So the author invites us to imagine Jesus as the cosmic priest, performing a glorious ritual outside of time.  The Cross is an altar; Crude but beautiful.  Although we see Jesus bound, naked, and bloody; when we look through this author’s eyes, Jesus wears the robe of a priest; and he ascends the steps to the altar of his own free will.

The blood falling from his wrists, side, and torn back is no longer a reminder of pain and injustice, but the Life-giving substance that Jesus offers back to God – his own essence and life-force-and by doing so he purifies the world.

Mark 12:28-34

So often we see Jesus caught in a theological debate with questions. First, the chief priests the scribes, and the elders question Jesus authority (Mark 11:27-33). In response Jesus speaks in parables (12:1-12).  Next the Pharisees and some Herodians try to trap Jesus with a question concerning human allegiance (12:13-15). Jesus counters with a question and a command (12:15b-17). Finally some Sadducees whose hermeneutical bias is no mystery to Mark, put forth a hypothetical situation concerning the resurrection (12:18-27).  Jesus uses the flawed exegesis to expose their ignorance of the scriptures and of God’s power.

If we mean to re-present Christ in our ministry, that ministry must be one of disciplined study and learned engagement with Scripture that leads to a theologically informed wrestling with the world in which we live.

The Scribe in the text pulls Jesus into such a theological debate. “Which commandment is the first of all?”  Jesus answered, “The first is : 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.” The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.

The most important of all Jewish prayers, "Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad" (Hear, O Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is One)-are the first words of the Jewish prayer known as the Shema Israel). It is a declaration of faith and a pledge of allegiance to God. Twice daily, recitation of the Shema Israel is a mitzvah for the Jewish people -- it is said upon rising in the morning and going to sleep at night. It is said when praising God and when beseeching Him. The Shema Israel is the first prayer taught to Jewish children and it is the last words Jew says before death. It is a prayer of praise to God and it is a prayer of beseechment, as well. The Shema is recited in preparation for the reading of the Torah on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays and at the end of the holiest day, Yom Kippur. Judaism teaches that the name of God is not read aloud in the Shema; it is replaced with Adonai ("my Lord"):

 

This One that we confess to be the Son of God confesses the oneness of God must cause careful interfaith listeners to draw near and reconsider the suspect monotheism of Christianity.  That the One who has come to fulfill the law and the prophets not only voices this command but incarnates in heart and soul, in mind and strength, such undivided love must judge our every inclination to division in his name.

 

The text in Deuteronomy states  : to love God with heart and soul and might.

Jesus adds that we also are to love God with our MINDS.

 

At the conclusion of the debate: the scribe said “You are right Teacher”

Jesus said: You are not far from the kingdom of God.

IN Ruth see God reaching far across normal measures to bring about Salvation.

In Psalms we are commissioned to Praise the Lord.

In Hebrews today we see the importance of Rituals in a new light.

In Marks Gospel we come into the presence of God hearing that which is the most important command of all.  Love God with all that we have. Love God with our heart and soul and might and mind. Love our neighbor as our self. This is the essence of Gods message to us a human beings.

Prayer:

God, we get distracted so easily.  The chatter of television, the changing fashions, the bills at the end of the month, the tyranny of our calendars  and to-do lists of religious rules.  You give us only two commandments, and it seems more than we can do to live up to them. WE have not love you, and we have not loved our neighbor. Forgive us, Jesus. Amen.

Hymn of Decision UMH 378 Amazing Grace

Pastoral Prayer

Father God, we as a church gather together in the spirit of Ruth and Naomi. Where you go we will go.  Where you dwell , we will dwell. You Lord, are our God. Your people will be our people. WE are bound as one body in love of you, God. We are in love with our neighbor as our self. Let us share this message of unity with all that we  meet. Let love flow through us from this day forth we pray in Christ name.

Now hear us Father as we pray as Jesus taught by saying….Our Father who art in heaven….