When Israel is at the mountain in Sinai - God speaks. As you know, this mountain God of freedom speaks ten times, only ten, and then not again at Sinai, for after that everything comes via Moses. These ten utterances constitute the only direct speech of YHWH. As he spoke ten times, he spoke three times about the love of God, "love" being a covenant word for honoring treaty commitments. You know them no rival gods, no manufactured replicas as fetishes, and no words that reduce God to a means. A pause....and then he spoke six times about love of neighbor, "love" being a covenant word for honoring treaty commitments. You know these six about parents and killing and committing adultery and stealing and giving false witness and coveting. Three for God and six for neighbor - nine altogether, love of god and love of neighbor, the two great commands. The two great commands that must really be spoken together - one close to the other. These are to be so close they must never be allowed to stand alone. In fact, we must argue that they cannot stand alone. To love God is to love neighbor - to love neighbor is to love God. To go about the day saying we love God and yet the way we live with our neighbors is in the way of warfare and abuse and oppression, we are not really a people who "love" God - or enter into a covenant relationship with God. We become a distant people separated from God and separated from our neighbors. At Sinai the life of the new community is being shaped for life that will not only be a covenant among themselves, it will also be a witness to the world of what it is to be in a covenant relationship with this God and God's people. The covenant is no coercive. It is a gift just as the life that is held up in these "words" for the people. Connection: We are always walking in the covenant. It is for us - it is for our living - it is for our joy and our fullness of life. You, O God, make us your own and we are given the opportunity to reflect your glory within the simplicity of this day - in how we live with one another. Guide us to be for others the touch of your love. Amen. |
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