All Saints Lutheran Church
Pastor Raita Neely
Mark 12: 28-34 The First Commandment
June 22, 2003
Today I will touch just briefly on the Ten Commandments in general, and
then spend a bit more time on the first commandment.

It was the day after Christmas in 1989. Romania was in turmoil. On
Christmas day, President Nicolae Ceausescu, unable to quell the tide of
dissent in Bucharest, had been tried and executed. Now no one was in
charge. Western reporters flooded into the country from the south,
searching for someone who could speak English. Finally they found someone,
and in one sentence she summed up not only the predicament of Romania, but
the human condition. "We have freedom," she said, "but we don't know what
to do with it "

The world is divided into those who long for freedom and those who have
freedom but don't know what to do with it; those who long for God to come
and bring justice, and those who fear that God just might. The Book of
Exodus is a testament to both these condition. It speaks to those for whom
freedom is a dream, and to those who sense that freedom is becoming a curse.

The Ten Commandments are a gift from God to those who have been set free,
showing them how they can keep their freedom. In the process, the people
find out that to be free means to be a people who worship God and a people
who are at peace with one another.

The commandments are meant to be practical, basic, trustworthy everyday
guides for us. They are a partnership with God and a partnership with our
neighbor. They help us to know how to keep these partnerships healthy and
where not to wander. They help us to lead a life which is blessed by
justice, peace and wholeness. The commandments are a gift from God with the
intent to keep us free as we live with God and as we live in community.

The commandments presuppose and celebrate the conviction that freedom is
never absolute. Human beings invariably find themselves in a state of
servitude. The question is -whom will you serve? God's decision in the
first commandment is that human life should serve God and God alone. God
enunciates the terms for an enduring relationship with God and with our
neighbor. The commandments help create a community protected from behaviors
that have the potential of destroying it.

The first commandment is a summary of all that follows. We begin with a
creed, a grounding in God. For you see God has made a decision about you.
God hasn't waited to find out how sincere you are, how devout or religious
you are, or how well you understand the Bible. God hasn't even waited to
find out if you are interested or willing to take God's decision seriously.
God has simply decided. " I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other
gods." Luther in the small catechism asks What does this mean for us? And
answers with: We are to fear, love and trust God above anything else.

God's decision stands even though God knows full well the kind of person you
are. God knows you better than anyone else can or will ever know you. God
knows your strengths and your weaknesses. God knows what you are most proud
of in your life, and the things you would like to hide - hide from God, hide
from others and hide even from yourself. Regardless, God has decided to be
your God. God wants to be as close to you as your breath.God wants to be
the one who gives you confidence and value, to open a future to you in the
freedom of God's Word. God wants to be the one to whom you turn for
everything and anything you need.
To have a God means to have something in which your heart trusts completely.

God wants to be our only God. Lord over all other lords. This God has
promised to be your God and has claimed you as God's own. Therefore you
shall love God with your entire being.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, every one of you sitting here this morning,
this is the Good News that I have to tell you today. You can love God with
all your heart, soul, mind and strength. You can trust God. You can cling
to God because God clings to you! God loves you, even though and in spite
of, the doubts, the fears, the worries, the sweaty hands, the frightening
dreams in the middle of the night, and the cracks that threaten to become
caverns in your life. Even though you live in the midst of brokenness, God
still loves you.

With a God like that at our side, this is no time to hide in the back row,
no time to try to slip away unnoticed. You are God's beloved sons and
daughters.

Given the flaws of which you are all too aware. Given the blemishes of
which you are perpetually embarrassed. Given the sins of which you are
continually ashamed, this seems to be an incredible and outrageous claim for
the church to make. It really would be, were it not for Jesus who is making
this incredible claim on your behalf. He comes with the highest
authorization. He is God's beloved Son. He is the one who comes among us
to make public the secret , to reveal what has been all too hidden in the
pain and ambiguity of this fallen world: God loves you and me. We are God's
own children.

Adoption into God's family is a gift from God. We see it most clearly in
baptism, as we see a baby brought forward by family and friends. That baby
can do nothing for herself. She is utterly dependent. All he can do is eat
and sleep, gurgle and laugh and cry. But with water poured over her at the
font, and God's words spoken, God is acting. God declares before us and
before the world, that Jesus died and rose again for that child. Jesus'
fate is her fate. That baby has a new identity. That baby has a new
destiny. The creator will never abandon, the creator will always love, the
creator will always welcome that child. Nothing and no one can ever
separate her from the love of her new heavenly Father in Jesus Christ.

This is our God, the one who loves us completely, the one who will never
abandon us. This is the God that we are to love with all our heart and
soul, our mind and strength. What might this mean? Love for God is to
proceed from our whole person: the heart - understood to be the seat of will
and intellect, soul - the seat of desire; mind- the seat of understanding
and a brain that pursues truth; and strength- understood as spiritual
strength.

In Hebrew thought, the soul is the breath of life, the part of us that is
the breathing part. To love God with our soul, therefore, is to love God
with every breath. We breathe because God has breathed life into us. We
have the capacity to love God because God first loved us.

Back in the fourth century, some Christian monks visualized this insight in
a memorable way. They talked about prayer as a breathing exercise. "As you
inhale," they taught, "thank God for the gifts which are given you for
today. As you exhale, tell God how you are going to use those gifts."

We misunderstand love if we reduce it to a sentiment of the heart. Love is
also something we do. Love is a word that taps our energy and flexes our
muscles.

To love God with all our strength is to keep our part of the relationship
that God has established with us. We are called to do the tasks which God
has made it possible for us to do. Each day we awaken, tasks that we can do
for God's sake come our way. If we pledge each new morning to love God with
all of our strength, we pray that the work we do will be part of God's word,
that we might delight in his ways and walk with God's love.

Someone has paraphrased the commandment as "Love the Lord God with all your
passion and prayer and intelligence and energy."

But who is this God whom we should love wholly?
It is the God who made you and everything that is. It is the God who raised
Jesus from the dead. It is the God whose Spirit like a mighty wind brings
us a word of forgiveness and hope. It is the God who opened the hearts,
minds and mouths of the disciples to preach the good news all over the
world.

When God says, "I am your God," you can expect this God to give you
everything you need to live. You receive life, purpose, heritage, destiny,
gifts, truth and the freedom of forgiveness. Because of Christ, God refuses
to hold your past against you, no matter what shape it has had. God takes
you as you are and loves you. And when God says, "I am your God, the am
stands forever. God is, was and always will be your God. This God even
promises resurrection and opens your future after death.

Luther called the First Commandment the whole sum of the law and the whole
sum of the gospel It sums up all the laws and commands of God because it
requires the faith of the whole person - our fears, loves and trust, our
hearts, souls, minds and strength. It is from this commandment that all the
others follow.
The First Commandment sums up the whole gospel because it is God's promise,
the announcement of the decision that God has made for you and each of us in
Christ. This is the same promise Paul declares in Romans 8:31 when he asks,
"If God is for us, who is against us?" Because God is for us, Paul goes on
to say, nothing "in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love
of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

As God makes you new, you will discover the freedom that God gives, the
freedom that is given with the joy and certainty of God's promise. The
freedom that makes us into people who worship God and live in peace with
each other. What more can we ask or desire than God's gracious promise that
God will bless us and will protect and help us in every need. Amen.