Lovingly Write, Talk, and Fail: A Sermon for Confirmation Sunday ~ Deuteronomy 6:1-9

 

For thousands of years, daily, when waking up or going to bed, many Jews recite aloud a creed, which is lifted from the book of Deuteronomy 6:4-9. It’s called the Shema, the first word of the creed, the command to “Hear.” It reflects the heart of Jewish and Christian spirituality and formation, which is love.

This is the first prayer that Jewish children are taught to say. It sets out the purpose of faith, Scripture reading, prayer, what God wants, and who we are designed to be - love. As a faithful Jew, Jesus would have prayed this creed himself twice a day. So no one would have been surprised that he shares it as the Greatest Commandment. I’d briefly like to tell you three things about how it will help you with your faith. It will remind you to lovingly write your faith on everything, lovingly discuss your faith with everyone, and lovingly fail with your faith.

Lovingly write your faith on everything.

In the Shema, one of the things that comes through is that faith encompasses our hearts and heads, our bodies and our beliefs, even material things like doorframes, houses and gates. We’ve focused a lot on beliefs and they’re important but faith is so much more than that. If you are going to live your faith well you are going to need adopt ways of writing it on the world. Faith is more than mental dexterity it’s also muscle memory.

In the Jewish tradition, they do this by using a mezuzah, which literally means doorposts. A mezuzah is a little decorative box affixed to a doorway which contains the Shema so that every time the leave or enter their home they are reminded to whom the world belongs, for whom the world was made. They physically remember what faith is and what people are made for. Whenever passing through the doorway, many people touch a finger to the mezuzah as a way of showing respect to God and also kiss their finger after touching it to acknowledge that what God asks for is love and that God made everything for love.

The Apostle Paul reminds us of this truth by speaking about Jesus says, “¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

It’s one thing to believe that God made all things in love but you need to practice it, to inhabit it, to let it settle in your body, that God made the world out of love and for love. Find ways of reminding yourselves that the world and everything in it is a place of faith, a chalkboard of praise, a graffiti laden world of love which illustrates the One and Only God. The poet Mary Oliver does this by looking to nature.

The Wren From Carolina by Mary Oliver

Just now the wren from Carolina buzzed

through the neighbor’s hedge

a line of grace notes I couldn’t even write down

much less sing. 

Now he lifts his chestnut colored throat

and delivers such a cantering praise–

for what?

For the early morning, the taste of the spider, 

for his small cup of life

that he drinks from every day, knowing it will refill. 

All things are inventions of holiness.

Some more rascally than others. 

I’m on that list too,

though I don’t know exactly where. 

But, every morning, there is my own cup of gladness,

and there’s that wren in the hedge, above me,

with his blazing song.

Mary Oliver is right. When you can remember that faith involves all of God’s world, an embodied love, then “all things are inventions of holiness.”

One of my favorite books is called Honoring the Body, by the theologian Stephanie Paulsell. In that book, she names a number of daily things that we do with our bodies that can be expressions of Christian faith and goes on to tell a story that dramatically captures why God would want us to “tie” and “bind” faith to ourselves. She speaks of the terribly painful experience of having a miscarriage the day after Christmas leaving her, she says, “screwed to my bed with depression, unable to work, read, or pray.” She was, however, able to talk to friends and she poured out her heart and her pain. She cried to her friend, “I am so depressed that I can’t even pray. I try to pray, but I can’t.” A few days later, a package arrived from her that contained a simple beige jumper and a note that read, “I have prayed in this dress every day for a year. You don’t have to pray. Just wear it. It is full of prayers.” Friends, adopt this sort of imagination to following God. Write on doors, on dresses, on bird’s, the amazing love of God.

Lovingly discuss with your faith with everyone

Another feature of faith that you’ve hopefully learned, that will help you in the days to come is that faith is a conversational thing. You are, the Bible says, to “Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Now, do you imagine that the writer means that you are to talk to yourself? No. Faith demands all of us loving talking to each other. I want to tell you that you will struggle with your faith, wonder about your faith, be curious about your faith and to remember that you are part of a community of faith that has existed for thousands of years and in the hearts and minds of millions. Talk to them! Your faith will struggle when you stop talking about it with others – when you no longer have a community to talk about it with.

There’s a great story about a Rabbi who visited a young man who no longer coming to worship at the synagogue. The young man made a compelling argument about how he could worship God on his own, didn’t need other people, didn’t have time to waste on others, some of whom he didn’t much care for any way. And the Rabbi listened and then went over to the fireplace where a roaring fire was going. He took some tongs and pulled out a glowing ember and placed it in front of him on the tiled floor and they both watched as the ember slowly turned from a flaming red ember back to a cold piece of wood. You get the point, right?

Find a community where you can express yourself, ask your questions, share your doubts, offer your insights. Find a church where you can talk about faith and sexuality, politics, money, race, and God’s love. Find a community where you can talk, share, listen, and burn with love for others. If you can’t, the fire of your faith is likely to go out. However, remember that I’m not telling you to find a church where everyone agrees on everything – that’s not a church, that’s a cult.

Lovingly fail with your faith.

The word “impress” that the NIV uses in vs. 7 is a repeated action, and means to “imprint” or “stamp.” Today we are not stamping you with the phrase “be good” but with the possessive “God’s. And that needs to be stamped again and again and again. Let me state that again plainly because this is a problem with most churches. The church's job isn't to stamp people with the phrase “Be good.” The Shema reminds us that we are to stamp everyone with the phrase “God’s gift.”

One of my friends is a former youth pastor who helps high schoolers build their faith by helping them construct a rule of life. He starts by asking them four questions: 1. What does the world say? 2. What does scripture say? 3. How will you behave? So far all these questions make sense. But it’s the fourth question that, in my opinion, is the game changer. The fourth question is: “What will you do when you fail?”

We’ve talked about how sin isn’t simply about a broken rule but a broken story which wants you to hide from God, to believe that God doesn’t love you, doesn’t long to heal you. If we are to understand Jesus and the Gospel then we must be able to admit that we fail God time and time again, these failures are painful and destructive, but God is faithful, forgiving and loving and doesn’t require our perfection but merely love in return.

Moses will announce to all of Israel: “After the Lord your God has done this for you [subdue Israel’s enemies], don’t say in your hearts, ‘The Lord has given us this land because we are such good people . . . You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not . . .” (Deuteronomy 9:4, 6). The point of faith is not that you are good but that God is always good!

If you want to have a faith that will last, then find ways to write it on the world and on your yourself. If you want faith to last, find a community who will lovingly talk about it with you – no matter what. If you want to have a faith that will last, then always remember that you will fail but God’s love does not.