On Sunday, we read Jesus’ response to the question, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered the question by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5—"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 might.”
These verses (called The Shema, which means “hear”)—are the centerpiece of the Jewish prayer life. Every morning and evening, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one…” was recited by Jews in the time of Jesus (and continues to be recited by Jewish communities all around the world even to this day). According to rabbinic teaching, saying this prayer was a means of saying “yes” to the kingdom of God. (This makes Jesus’ response to the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom…” make sense!)
The declaration that the LORD is one might seem a bit odd to our ears, and a Christian might wonder how the Trinity fits into this declaration. (The answer is that God is indeed one, but this singular God exists in three persons.) The statement has little to do with counting, though! Its implication is that the LORD is unique; he alone is God—there is none other besides him. Of all beings that a person might worship, he is before the others, in a class by himself. We might say, “He is preeminent, singular, and different.” When Moses followed this declaration with, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might,” he was making it clear that the LORD alone deserves our full affection, obedience, and worship.
This declaration is as needed now as it was then. True, we are unlikely to be tempted to worship some other divine being or some manmade idol. But we are still tempted to give our love, our affection, our obedience, even our worship to things and people that are not the LORD. In this election season, when we are tempted to look for deliverance, security, and prosperity from the hands of political leaders and parties (or despair of ever receiving deliverance, security, and prosperity because of those same leaders!), let us remember that the LORD is unique. He alone is God, and he alone deserves our love and service.
In Christ,
Steven+
Scripture Reflections
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus’ question to the blind man in Mark 10, our Gospel reading this past Sunday, has been resonating in my heart since we heard the same question asked of James and John the previous Sunday (Mk. 10:36). What do we want Jesus to do for us? In what do we feel our need of him, and what do we blithely assume we’re capable of on our own?
As Jesus assured James and John, in following him we will drink from his cup and be baptized with his baptism, which is to say, we will share in his suffering and even his death. Do we, like them (but perhaps not so bluntly), believe ourselves fully capable of following Jesus? “We are able—all we need from you is the promise of the greatness that is the due reward of our willingness and capability!”
James and John’s answer of, “We are able,” to Jesus’ question brings to mind the story from Mark 9 of the man whose demon-possessed son the disciples were not able to heal. When Jesus came down from the mountain, he explained to Jesus why he had come to him and summed up what had happened in Jesus’ absence: “So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” He then asks Jesus, “...if you can do anything…help us.” Jesus rebukes him saying, “‘If you can!’ All things are possible for one who believes.” The man’s response is so poignant: “I believe, help my unbelief!”
What is the root of our unbelief in Jesus’ ability? On inspection of my heart, and on hearing the story of James and John, unbelief seems in part to be rooted in pride. Where we are assured of our own ability, perhaps we lack faith in Jesus’ ability because we don’t know we need him. The blind man in Mark 10 comes to Jesus knowing his own lack and confident in Jesus’ ability to heal him. The end of his story, though, seems to point to a deeper lack and the beginning of a deeper healing. Jesus tells him his faith has made him well, and sends him off saying, “Go your way”—“And immediately,” Mark tells us, “he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.”
Following Jesus, drinking from his cup and being baptized with his baptism, is not something I am able to do; like James and John in the Garden of Gethsemane, leaning on my own ability ends with me deserting my Lord in pursuit of safety wherever I can find it when that death he would lead me to is looming. “What do you want from me?” he asks. “Lord Jesus, I want my way to be swallowed up in following you on the way to the cross. I want my eyes to be opened that I might see you, my ears dug out that I might hear you, my mouth opened that I might speak your words, my heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh, my fainting spirit to be upheld by your willing Spirit. I want to know my need of you. Show us our inability, that we might look to you—for you, oh Lord, are able. We believe, help our unbelief!”
Hannah
Why did we pick the name Church of the Incarnation?
On Sunday, October 13, during the Sunday School hour, we began a three-part discussion on the name of the church. This three-fold explanation is a part of the fall series on the identity and mission of Church of the Incarnation. If you missed the first session on the church’s name, you can listen to it here. (If you missed the session on September 29 about what it means that we are Anglican, click here to listen.)
We grow to understand things in two ways—through experience and explanation. I am using the Sunday School hour this fall to talk about the identity and mission of Incarnation, so that our experience of the church would be complemented by an explanation of who we are and what we value.
My hope in this is simple: When we understand something well, we value it. When we value it, we participate in it more deeply and share it with others. Incarnation has been a gift, by God’s grace, to each of us. I would love for the people of the church to understand more clearly who we are and what we are about so that we are all able to rejoice more deeply in what God is doing and to share it more freely with others.
If possible, take some time to listen to the sessions you missed before coming to Sunday School this week (Oct. 27). We will continue the discussion about what our name means and why it was picked. As usual, Sunday School and childcare will be available for all ages.
Steven+