Deuteronomy 5:1-21;
6:4-9
My wife and I were on our way to a family gathering when a Harley Davidson motorcycle pulled up next to our vehicle at the red light. My daughter looked over at the motorcycle and asked why the motorcycle was so loud to which my wife responded “Because it’s a motorcycle”. We should have known that this would become another of her “why” moments. Regardless of the answer that was given the response to that answer was entirely predictable; “Why?”
“Because the engine is on the outside.”
“Why?”
“Because motorcycles always have engines on the outside.”
“Why?”
“Because thats how they are made.”
“Why?”
It went on like that for a while. At the time I thought it was the longest red light of my life. Finally I couldn’t take it any longer, I squeezed my wife’s hand and asked her if I could give it a shot. She welcomed the opportunity for some tag team parenting so I gave it my best shot, explaining to the two year old that,
“Motorcycle engines are loud because the engine releases fuel which is then ignited by means of combustion in turn driving the pistons up and down by creating miniature explosions that creates energy that propels the motorcycle forward and since the engine is not encased these actions appear louder than other engines which are encased under the hood of a vehicle.”
Our daughter, after a long pause finally acknowledged by responding…. “Oh, Okay”
My wife laughed and asked me, “Is that right?”
I advised her that I had no idea but I didn’t much care about the accuracy of my answer only that she would stop asking why.
Today’s reading introduces us to the book of Deuteronomy. Although we are only reading a small portion of Deuteronomy you’ve heard the short version today. Deuteronomy is a much more in depth look at the ten commandments, taking each commandment one by one and explaining the relevance of each commandment, along with specific ways of putting those laws into action. By far the most intriguing part of the presentation of the ten commandments in Deuteronomy is that it tells us the why before the what.
It tells us why we are given the law.
It tells us why we are to follow the law.
It tells us why we are to see the law as a gift.
We don’t have a tendency to see the law as a gift in our own Christian practice today. We prefer to see it as an accusatory tool, a method of condemning those we believe are failing to keep the law. You don’t have to read too far along to find out that we all seem to fall short of the law. Perhaps if we saw the law as a gift we would use it as a gift rather than a curse? But to see it as a gift we have to explore the why.
The interesting thing about this “why” is that it isn’t a complicated answer meant to confuse us into a resigned “Oh, okay” response as my answer to my daughter was. It isn’t a riddle, it is an honest expectation.
“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 being, and with all your might.”
There is only one demand being made in this verse; to hear. Our love is not being demanded here. However, it is expected, which is what we often find so confusing about God when we read the Hebrew scriptures. What we often fail to recognize in our reading of scripture is the manner in which those who receive the love fail to reciprocate that love.
Consistently throughout the story God’s love is given, freely, graciously, without merit. Yet seldom do we find a fraction of that love returned to God. No matter what gift is given, and always given in love, God is told time and again that those gifts are not only insufficient but unworthy of so much as a thank you. Perhaps a better translation of this verse would be
Why wouldn’t you love the Lord your God with all your heart?
Why wouldn’t you love the Lord your God with your whole being?
Why wouldn’t you love the Lord your God with all your might?
Maybe they should have added;
“For crying out loud, what more does God have to do to get so much as an I love you?”
But we all know that love is a tricky matter. Love freely given is not always given in return.
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In one of the greatest pieces of modern American literature, "A River Runs Through It", Norman Maclean tells a semi-biographical story about his family, with a particular focus on his brother Paul. Norman and Paul, both in the novel and in real life were the sons of a local presbyterian pastor in Montana. Norman returns home following his college education at Dartmouth to find his brother, Paul, living a dangerous life plagued by substance abuse and gambling debts. Throughout the story Norman, along with his family, struggles to find a way to help Paul.
The sobering conclusion of the story finds Paul brutally beaten to death in an alley. Norman, after sharing the devastating news with his mother and father, that Paul has been killed, is forced by his father to give his honest assessment of what he believed happened to Paul. Norman and his father come to the same conclusion; they loved Paul, they wanted to help Paul, but Paul refused their love or their help. Norman’s father preaches to this point in his own sermon claiming,
“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”
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| Norman Maclean |
I have days where I cannot help but declare my love for the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Batman, Chicken Wings, Oktoberfest! But how often do I find myself making such public professions about my love for God? I have told complete strangers of my love for peanut butter and vanilla ice cream in the checkout line at the grocery store, but I find myself much more reluctant to share that same love for God. Could that mean that I love peanut butter ice cream more than God? If we seriously consider our public expressions of love for material desires, perhaps we have found the fundamental issue at hand; the truest form of love is the model of love we find in God and that is a form of love that is not in service of the self.
~
Someone once asked a Lutheran why they were Lutheran, imploring them to convert to their own understanding of proper Christian practice so that this Lutheran could go to heaven and avoid hell. The individual being questioned responded by asking,
“If I love God because I am scared of hell then I am a coward. If I love God because I want to go to heaven then I am selfish. And if I love God for either of those reasons I am a liar because I cannot truly love God unless it is in response to the love given, for that reason and that reason alone.”
Loving God is not a demand made but a natural response. It is the same natural response we long for and hunger for in our daily living. Love is always a risk because love is an investment and it is an investment that we do not take lightly. We expect returns for that investment and if those returns do not multiply our initial investment, well, we stop investing most of the time.
~
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On Thursday one such investment dried up. I was wrestling with this sermon when I contacted one of the Marines I served with in Iraq. We spoke about another Marine who had been deployed with us and I came to find out that the Marine we were discussing had been in a motorcycle crash. A police officer attempted to stop him and a chase ensued. It didn’t end well. This Marine that had survived a difficult tour in Iraq was killed as a result of the police pursuit and motorcycle crash.
We still aren’t sure why he fled, but there are suspicions that he may have been intoxicated. Although I didn’t know this particular Marine well, my dear friend and I were troubled by the events that had occurred. He was a spit and polish Marine and I never heard him say or receive a bad word about anyone. Many of us have reached out over the past ten years, attempting to help others to heal from the scars accrued during our time in Iraq. It was what led my friend in his pursuit of a Ph.D. in philosophy. It was part of what led me to seminary.
One of the reasons this particular Marine and I remain close is because it is in these moments that we feel the greatest despair. Much like Norman Maclean’s family, my friend and I often feel we have failed because those most in need elude us. We weren’t even aware of the struggle he was going through over the past ten years. This is the point at which it is easiest to resign oneself to the simplistic view that there is no use in helping anyone that will not help themselves.
Just imagine if God took such a stance? Because today's reading is in direct opposition to that prescription for help. We are called to model the love that God has shown us, the love that is unmerited, undeserved, and never reciprocated. It is always a risk and it can come at a heavy price, but it wasn’t a price that God was not willing to pay over and over again.
The greatest irony in our Christian faith is that we consistently find ourselves calling out for the humanity of God rather than the Godliness of humanity. Because it is in this one command that God calls us to living out God’s model of love, freely given, unmerited, undeserved, with not only God but one another. But it is all too easy to say that such a love is not possible as a people flawed by original sin, it is far too hard, it certainly cannot be done.
So we call out for the humanity of God and we assume that we see the humanity of God in Jesus Christ when what we are actually seeing is the Godly love in humanity that is modeled in Jesus the Christ.
I pray that model can reorient us all to love God fully, turning us in love toward one another in Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Sources:
Maclean, Norman, and Barry Moser. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. 1st ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
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