READINGS: November 1, 2015 ~ Proper 26 ~ 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost ~ If All Saints not observed on this day ~ Ruth 1:1-18; Psalm 146; Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Psalm 119:1-8; Hebrews 9:11-14; Mark 12:28-34 ~ Communion Sunday; New Members Received.
November 1, 2015 ~ All Saints Day ~ Sometimes Observed on First Sunday in November, these are the readings ~ Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9 or Isaiah 25:6-9; Psalm 24; Revelation 21:1-6a; John 11:32-44 ~ Communion Sunday; New Members Received.
The First Commandment
“Hear, O Israel: Yahweh, our God, Yahweh alone, is one. You are to love Yahweh, our God / with all your heart, / and with all your soul, / and with all your strength.” — Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
In a recent writing Baptist Pastor Allyson Dylan Robinson suggests we, as a society, are addicted to certainty. Certainty is like a drug, she says. It can comfort us and buoy our spirits as it blocks out questions, doubt. But it can only block out questions for a time.
The mellow high of certainty will wear off and questions will reassert themselves, eventually. And when questions reappear is exactly when we start searching for a new fix. So, like any addiction, certainty dehumanizes us as we become driven for that fix.
Now, questions arise naturally in the human mind. This is a function of the God given gift of reason. So, in order to grab for the certainty to which we are addicted we must renounce the gift of God. When renounce the gift of reason, certainty helps us to a place called ‘willful ignorance.’
Certainty, this willful ignorance, presents us with a theological problem. By definition God can never be fully known. Certainty is, hence, the ultimate heresy since it presumes the revelation God has given to us is exactly identical with a whole knowledge God. [1] — these the words of Allyson Dylan Robinson. (Slight pause.)
It seems to me our society is not just riddled with and addicted to certainty. It is downright crippled, immobilized by certainty. And you can see certainty in our politics, in our sports, in our religion.
Why does certainty cripple, immobilized society? Addiction to certainty insists only side can be right, there is only one belief in play, only one side has valid answers. And since, as I said, certainty is the ultimate heresy, you need to wonder if we even know it’s a heresy, if we know certainty misrepresents and misrepresents especially God. (Slight pause.)
Perhaps there is one thing which leads us toward an insistence on certainty, this willful ignorance. And that one thing is a very human attribute.
I think we humans have more than a slight tendency toward egocentricity. Each of us— to be clear myself included— each of us likes to think we are at the center of the world. And if we are at the center of the world, needless to say, we are right. And we are certain of that.
It is, of course, one thing when an individual displays egocentricity. Egocentricity on the part of an individual can be overcome since that person can be placated or simply ignored. But it’s quite another thing when a social group, a society, a collective, displays egocentricity.
Egocentricity on the part of a group is not just hard to ignore. Egocentricity on the part of a group presents problems and dangers and challenges.
Certainty on a group level gives voice and gives action to a myriad of social ills from racism to sexism to classism to imperialism to fantasies that the apocalyptic age is upon us. I want to unpack that just a little. Racism makes the sometimes tacit but clearly egocentric, ethnocentric claim that one race is superior.
Sexism says one gender is superior. Classism and imperialism make similar claims: one sub-group, nationality or country is superior.
As to the egocentric fantasy that the apocalyptic age is upon us, that might be the most self-centered claim of all. Why?
The real claim being made is this time in which we now live and the people of this time are so special that God will see fit to end the world now— right now. And thereby these special people might actually be witnesses to the apocalypse, now. This claim is the height of egocentricity, to say nothing of certainty.
All that brings me back to these words from Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel: Yahweh, our God, Yahweh alone, is one. You are to love Yahweh, our God / with all your heart, / and with all your soul, / and with all your strength.”
In Hebrew those words are identified as the Shema, Shema being the word which means to hear. And in the Gospel reading Jesus is asked to name the greatest commandment and repeats the Shema. If that’s the text Jesus chooses, there should no question about this: the Shema, this text and no other, is central to all Scripture.
Now, when the reading from Deuteronomy was introduced, you heard about 613 commandments in the Hebrew Scriptures, the culturally popular if mislabeled 10 commandments and the two commandments cited by Jesus. Let me be clear about this, perhaps as an aside: anyone— anyone— who is says they are certain the 10 commandments are central in Scripture is Biblically illiterate. Biblically literate people understand the Shema is central in Scripture.
Well, back to the Shema: I need you to note there are three components to the Shema, this first commandment. Let’s take a look at them in reverse order. The last component is love God. Theologically, love cannot be real without God. God is the source of all love. And that love is a result of the two previous statements of the Shema.
What are they? The middle component says God is one. In ancient times many people believed there were multiple gods, each with their own duties and Hebrew theology counters that idea. God is one— a God of all things, a God of the universe.
Which bring us to the first component. This first section offers instruction on how one is empowered to love God— how one is empowered to love God. And what’s the first message in these words? Hear. And what’s the name of these words in Hebrew? Shema: hear.
You see, in order to truly be in love with anyone you need to listen to them. In order to be truly in love with God you need to listen to God, you need to hear God. In short, it could be said the first part of the first commandment tells us we need to listen to God before we can love God. It tells us how we can be empowered to love God. (Slight pause.)
I want to suggest that listening to God is the hardest part of the Shema to follow, the hardest thing we will ever do. Why?
Listening demands humility. Humility understands that relationship, that love, depends on hearing a voice other than our own.
Listening to God requires we employ the discipline of self-surrender, requires us to renounce certainty, abandon egocentricity. Listening requires... modesty.
Last and to be clear, the prime issue being addressed by this the first commandment is not the listening to God done by each individual. The first commandment is not addressed to an individual. Nowhere does the first commandment say, “Hey Joe! You and only you need to listen.”
The first commandment is addressed to the community. (Quote:) “Hear, O Israel.” So, it is, first and foremost, not specific individuals but the whole community who need to listen. We all need to listen together. We are all in this together.
Hence, it is fitting that we did two important things as a community today. We celebrated the Sacrament of Communion, an action of community and in community, and we accepted new members into the community.
And it is we, the community, not just individuals, who need to listen to God and listen for God to speak in our lives. You see, when we listen to God as a community, I think we have an opportunity to banish certainty, certainty that seems to be addicting our community. And once certainty is banished it follows we will banish its cousins: racism, sexism, classism, imperialism and any fantasy which says the apocalyptic age is around the corner. (Slight pause.)
Jesus clearly tells us to love God and love neighbor. My guess is the path to loving God and neighbor starts with being humble enough to listen to God. Amen.
11/01/2015
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Earlier I said the whole community, the collective, but therefore each of us needs to listen to God. You might say, ‘Fine, but suppose we all hear different things?’ I would say, ‘You don’t understand. That’s the way it supposed to be. And then we need to listen to one another.’ You see, the two commandments together are love God and love neighbor.”
BENEDICTION: Go now, go in safety, for you cannot go where God is not. Go in love, for love alone endures. Go with purpose and God will honor your dedication. And go in peace for it is a gift of God and the Spirit of God to those whose hearts and minds are in Christ, Jesus. Amen.
[1] These words are edited and paraphrased.
http://www.thebtscenter.org/certainty/
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