That LIFE MATTERS
Deuteronomy 6:10-19
January 19, 2014
Let’s start out with an exercise this morning. I want to dig into your memory and see how
quick your recall is. I want you to join me with me in speaking the phrase I am reciting as
soon as you recognize it. It could be a song, a verse or a saying that is not from church. For
example, if I started by saying, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound…” you might know the
next words are “that saved a wretch like me.” So you would join me in saying it out loud as
soon as you know it:
“Then sings my soul….”
“Nothing finer…. than a 49er…
“ How bout dem Cowboys…”
“ I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United states of America, and to the Republic
for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
My guess today is that that last one was the quickest one for the majority of us to pick up.
And that is because for most all of us in this room, you said it every morning 180 days a
year from ages 5-18. Although there has been some controversy surrounding the recitation
of the pledge in some places and in some eras because of different issues, I would say that
the majority of us grew up in classrooms reciting this every morning. It was drummed into
our heads over and over again and it comes to mind quicker than almost any other saying
or verse.
Francis Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. Francis Bellamy was a Baptist
minister who saw a lack of patriotism in the era following the end of the Civil War and so
he wrote it in an effort to join people in a common cause and engender solidarity around a
unified America. Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance and also gave specific instructions
for a salute to go with the pledge so that people would show proper reverence and respect
for their country. The pledge and the salute became instantly popular and ubiquitous.
Now then, if we played with this same “complete-the-phrase-game” with almost any Jewish
person over the last 3500 years, one phrase would be as quick and easy as the Pledge of
Allegiance. In fact, this really is the Jewish Pledge of Allegiance, “Shema Yisarael, Adonai
Eloyihenu, Adonai Echad.” This is the beginning of the Shema. It means, “Hear, O Israel. The
Lord our God, the Lord is One.” It goes on to say, “You shall love the Lord with all of your
heart, with all of your soul and with all of your might.” Let me read the passage to you in its
entirety:
Deuteronomy 6: 1-6
If you are new with us at SFC or if you haven’t been here in a while, we are in a seven-week
series in the book of Deuteronomy. There are two purposes for us in this series; one is to
find God’s love in the book of law. Many people have a hard time reconciling the God of the
Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. Some people find these two versions of
God to be incongruent, almost like God was a mad, uptight deity in the Old Testament and
then he mellowed out in the New Testament. My hope is for you to see a unified version of
God in the Old and New Testament. To do that, I want you to see that God’s law paves the
way to life. God’s law was given out of love, so that we may live well. The phrase I
introduced to you two weeks ago and that you heard again today in verse 3 is to follow
God’s law, “So that it may go well with you.” This phrase is used time in again in the Book of
Deuteronomy in conjunction with the idea of obedience. Obey God… “So that it may go well
with you.” This is almost a colloquial way of saying, “So that your life will thrive.” My
reminder for you in this series is that God’s law is given to us like a loving Father showing
the best way for his children to live. These laws are not barriers on the road of life, barriers
to slow you down or limit your fun, but rather guardrails to keep you from crashing. God
designed this life, and he wants you to have it to the fullest. He is not a capricious God
demanding obedience so that you prove your love to him. Rather he is a loving God, who
designed this world and wants to protect you and guide you to a fulfilling and abundant life.
The first point of this series is to show you how God’s law leads to life, that the God of the
Old and New Testament is not a bipolar and petty deity but rather a unified deity who loves
you deeply. The second point of this series is to cast a vision for the discipleship path at
SFC. Jesus gave the vision for the church: to make disciples, to make people look more and
more like Jesus. Our job at SFC is to contextualize this vision and paint a clear path for
discipleship. At SFC, our path for discipleship is simple; we think you should do three
things well- practice Life in God, Life with Others and Life for Others. Life in God is
intentional Christ-centered worship. Life with others is practicing your faith with other
believers in community. Life for others is serving inside and outside of the church in the
name of Jesus.
We are spending two weeks on each of these life goals. We are on the second week of Life
in God. Last week we talked about Life in God and especially sanctification. I encourage you
to listen to the message or watch it on our website if you missed last week, because it pairs
well with this week. I tell you that because sermons should not be taken as a stand-alone
message when I preach through a series. I try to plan them to be interconnected and
complementary. Last week I talked to you about discipleship and sanctification and this
week I want to talk to you about the freedom of worship.
The Shema is about worship or life in God. Worshipping God can be confusing. The
question I really want you to consider today is simple. How do I worship God, specifically?
This is a loaded question. Is worship what I do for one hour on Sunday morning or is it
deeper than that? Why is worship so hard? Some of you have tried spiritual disciplines
before. You have tried to sit down and read your Bible and it becomes hard to do and after
a couple of weeks you give up. Some of you have tried having a quiet time of prayer and
your mind wanders and you start to think about groceries and what you have to get done at
work for the day. Some of you have tried journaling and have found yourself getting
distracted and doodling instead.
Today I want to explain the Shema to you and in the process open up a whole new way for
you to worship. I want you to have Life in God and you might be surprised how you will
find it. I went to a conference this week and John Ortberg talked about spirituality and
worship. What he said was groundbreaking for me and a real gift from the Holy Spirit.
Much of my sermon and thinking today is indebted to what John Ortberg said. I will not be
using any of his direct quotes but I want to give credit to him for shaping my thinking.
Coincidentally, John Ortberg was borrowing heavily from Dallas Willard, so I guess credit
should really be going to him. And I guess if you get all the way down to it, Dallas Willard
got it from someone else – the Holy Spirit. All of this to say, I want to give credit where it is
due.
How do we worship? It’s not easy. For a God we cannot see, hear or touch, how do we know
Him? How do we experience Life in God? For many people the barometer of faith is how
many “quiet times” you have had in the last week. If you read enough, prayed enough, and
journaled enough, then your life in God should be full. The problem with that line of
thinking, according to Ortberg, is who did the greatest job of quiet times in Jesus day? The
Pharisees. The problem with them, according to Jesus though, was that they didn’t have Life
in God. They were doing all the right things and missing the point.
Jack Mills is a 90-year-old man British man who has been married for almost 70 years.
They ran a story on this couple because he has given over 3000 bouquets of flowers to his
bride. Every week, Jack has given her flowers. This grand gesture was probably read by a
lot of men. Imagine the thousands of husbands in stale marriages reading about this and
deciding to emulate this gesture. For some, this might be a welcome gesture and it might
reinvigorate marriages and reignite romances. But imagine some men doing this without
changing anything else about their love lives. Imagine a few of these women are allergic to
flowers and the gift ends up doing more harm than good. Imagine some husbands picking
up this habit but still neglecting to spend anytime with their wives on the weekend.
Imagine a husband bringing home raggedy flowers from the discount bin. Or flowers
freshly picked from his wife’s garden still covered with clumps of dirt. The gesture is a good
place to start but the issue at hand is the state of the heart. Raggedy flowers simply won’t
do. Last minute flowers simply won’t do. God wants our heart, and gestures are empty if
they are not accompanied by a change of the heart.
The Shema was meant to be a Pledge of Allegiance, a reminder for all Jews about the
number one commandment. Notice in verse 1, Moses says this is the commandment.
Remember, Moses has just given them the 10 commandments but he goes on to say, this is
the commandment. As if to say, this is the summation of all of the other commandments is
this, to love God with all that you are. Moses is in good company here because Jesus will say
the same thing over 1000 times years later. A lawyer will ask Jesus, “What is the greatest
commandment?” Jesus doesn’t point to one of the Ten Commandments; he goes to the
Shema, the Pledge of Allegiance, “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloyhenu, Adonai Echad, Love the
Lord with all of your heart, mind and strength.”
Prior to saying, “Love God with all that you are.” There are really two bold theological
statements that come from the Shema: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. This is a major
monotheistic statement that has two implications. The Lord alone is God. That means two
things: God alone is God. And you are not him. If God is God then I am not. Ernest Kurtz, a
historian of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), wrote an authoritative account of the discovery
and development of AA titled “Not God.” The first two steps of AA are admitting you have a
problem and confessing there is a higher power. This is essentially saying, there is a God
and I am not him.
This theological statement is foundational. It should prepare you for worship, Adonai
Eloyhenu, Adonai Echad, God is God. God is one. He is singular and I am not him. That
means that everything that I have is his. I am indebted to him for my life. I am indebted to
him for every breath, for every blessing. He is the King and I am the servant. There is a
reason that this is the Jewish Pledge of Allegiance. It changes you and sets your heart right
for the day. God is God and I am not. This prepares your heart for worship. It humbles you
and glorifies him. With that in mind, we come to the specifics of how to worship.
Deuteronomy 6: 6-9
These words, the Shema, you are to remember them, because they humble you and because
they prepare you for worship. Don’t forget them. And he says, post them on your hands, put
them on your doorpost, place them on your forehead. The Jews did exactly that, literally.
They created phylacteries and mezuzahs. They would write down the Shema on a small
scroll and put them in a tiny box. This was called a phylactery. They would then wrap them
around their hand or bind them to their forehead. This is still a practice to this day. On our
recent trip to Israel, I saw men with what looks like a ring box connected with leather
wrapped around their arms or wrapped around their heads. In a similar fashion, mezuzahs
are a little compartment or box containing the Shema, and they are fixed to the right side of
a doorpost. They are affixed at a forty-five degree angle pointing towards the entrance.
Phylacteries and mezuzahs put God in a box and they were placed in obvious and open
places to remind you of God and remind you of the Shema and ideally remind you to
worship.
Now for some Jews, this might be really meaningful. They would see that picture of God in a
box and they would be reminded, Adonia Eloyhenu. Adonai Echad. God is God and I am not.
And it would lead them to worship. But for others, God in a box became just that. Their
worship of God became confined and symbolic. The box limited their worship and over
time it became like discount flowers. It became like flowers with the dirt clumps still on
them, a meaningless symbol, a box to tick, completely devoid of meaning. Completely
missing the point of worship.
The Jews missed this. For centuries, they put God in a box and they missed the point. Now,
as is often the case, we are prone to read stories from the Bible and laugh at the Jews and
their silly practices. They put God in a box? They thought that was worship. We would
never do that. And yet, we can. We often do. For many people, they have been told growing
up in church that in order to love God with all of your heart, soul and mind, you should sit
in front of a book for 15-30 minutes a day. You should journal. You should close your eyes
and pray in silence. On the surface, these are all good things. And they all have great
potential to lead you to worship. But they also have great potential to become discount
flowers. They have the potential to put worship in a confined box. Some people will
faithfully open up their Bible every day and it brings them great joy and the presence of
their Maker is obvious in their life. Other people read the Bible every day and they are dry
as a bone. Or they tried to read it every day and gave up.
The purpose of the mezuzahs and phylacteries are the same as you opening up the word.
They are reminders and spiritual practices. Two things you have to remember about
spiritual practices: 1) They are not ends to themselves. They are meant to lead you to
greater spiritual growth. 2) If they are not leading you to spiritual growth but you do them
anyways, you might be missing the point.
I want to let God out of the box for you today. Here is the metaphor that I want you to
understand that might change the way you view and understand worship. Let’s make
spiritual health synonymous with physical health. If you went to a doctor, who cares about
your physical fitness in the same way that a preacher cares about your spiritual fitness; he
would probably have a quick answer for you if you asked him how you could get in shape.
He might have three standard ideas that are commonly used for health; run, bike, or swim.
These are all well-known exercises that yield good results and are universally accessible for
most people. Run, bike, swim. In the same way, many spiritual doctors (pastors) when
asked about getting into spiritual health might reply with a similar version of run, bike and
swim and they might say, pray, read your Bible and journal. Now those are all good things
that yield good results and are universally pretty accessible.
The problem is that some people have bad knees, some people are uncomfortable with
bikes and others don’t like to swim. If that is true, then the doctor should not put exercise
in such a narrow box. He or she might then suggest playing basketball, or kayaking, or
push-ups and sit-ups. In a similar fashion, some people are not wired to spend hours
pouring over the scriptures. This doesn’t mean they can’t find spiritual health. For some
people contemplation in nature might be the best way into his presence. For others, serving
the poor might be the most meaningful way to know him more. For others, creating art
might be the best way to experience his love and to express love back to him.
Hear me on this. The end goal is to love the Lord with all that you are. The end goal is not
being a perfect attender at Bible Study Fellowship. The end goal is not being able to pray
for 6 hours without interruption. I believe these are powerful avenues into his presence
and even though they are difficult, they should be sought out. However, they are not the
end goal. He is. Just so you know, Abraham had no scriptures to read and he did not journal.
And yet he is in the Faith Hall of Fame. I want to let God out of the box for you today but I
also want to make one thing clear. I don’t want you to miss this. I am not freeing you up to
do nothing. If God is God and you are not, and if you are called to worship him with all that
you are, my exhortation to you and to me today is not to dabble but to do. Maybe you are
prone to say today that you are not a journaler. You are not wired to sit down and read the
scripture for 30 minutes at a pop. That’s ok but don’t dabble. Find a way into his presence.
Find your spiritual version of kayaking and go after it. If you meet him in nature, be
intentional about meeting him there. Take time to breathe him in and reflect on his
goodness. If you experience him in an art museum, make sure and meet him there. Look for
him in the strokes of the brush and the curves of the sculpture. Don’t dabble. Do. Be
intentional.
Seventy-one years ago, the Pledge of Allegiance underwent a major change. The purpose of
the pledge was to remind people of their covenant and their allegiance to this great
country. But in December of 1942, they had to change the original version of the practice
because the Bellamy salute now meant something quite different. When Francis Bellamy
created the pledge of allegiance, he created a salute where you raised your arm and pointed
your fingers all in the same direction. The problem was that a madman on the other side of
the globe was now using that same salute for his evil regime. And so they said, we will no
longer do the Bellamy salute. Not because it was inherently evil but it had become
associated with something that missed the point. And so they said, “Place your right hand
over your heart.” This was a revitalization of the old practice, a reminder of your heartbeat
aligning with the pledge. In much the same way, we cannot keep up with old practices if
they do not keep the point of our pledge. Adonai Eloyhenu. Adonai Echad. God is God and
you are not. He wants your worship but more than that he wants your heart. Let him out of
the box this week and meet him in a fresh new way.