All are invited to join us for Sunday morning service at 1o am.  Sunday School takes place during the service.  Coffee is served after the service.

Rev. Marlene shares her thoughts on Sunday’s sermon.

“Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31

This Sunday’s reading from Mark’s Gospel presents the Shema, the central prayer in Jewish tradition. There are 613 commandments in the Torah, the Jewish name for the first five books of the Old Testament.  Jesus answers the scribe’s question in the passage by reciting the Shema, but he goes a step further.  He also presents a form of the “golden rule” (as we call it now) as the second greatest commandment.  Together, the Shema and the command to love one’s neighbour as oneself are the foundation of the Ten Commandments.  The Shema captures the significance of the first three commandments, while the command to love one’s neighbour does the same for the other seven commandments.

Here we see that love of God is inseparable from love of neighbour.  In the Shema, “love” is a verb.  Thus, people must take action in order to be true to the Shema.  Devotion to God is action, not a sentiment.  Likewise, love of neighbour entails actively seeking their good, not simply remaining neutral or doing them no harm.

It is interesting that the scribe observes, after repeating the Shema, that the commands are more important than burnt offerings and sacrifice. By pairing the two, the scribe points out that action in and of itself is not sufficient to live out these commandments. Empty actions that check boxes, done out of duty or for looks only, but do not have real love motivating them, is not what God wants from his people. One’s motivation is important in living out the two great commandments.  We must be genuine in acting out our love for God and neighbour.  The scribe is able to articulate this reality, which is why Jesus tells him that he is “not far from the kingdom of God.”