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Practical Spiritual Values (Part I)
Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Leviticus 19:18, Mark 28:28-34, and “The Wild Geese” by Wendell Berry
Douglas K. Huneke
January 29, 2006
This congregation is blessed with a rich diversity of interests and expertise among its members. For 25 years Don Miller worked at Bayer on the recombinant DNA technology that produces the protein hemophiliacs need for blood clotting. Don and I are planning a series of teachings and classes for the spring on science, religion, and ethics – the interface between spiritual values and 21st century science. As the spiritual/ethical starting point, Don asked me what I considered to be the basic, prevailing spiritual values to which we in this church aspire.
What practical values lead us to feed and care for the hungry and homeless, build houses in Mexico, bring health care and an orphanage to Guatemala, and send two groups to rebuild after the hurricanes? What core values support our commitment to spiritual practices, and our interests in studying the Bible, ethics, science, world religions, theology, history, and politics? Is there a straightforward but not simplistic statement of practical spiritual values that we could all generally ascribe to and that would link the activities, interests, and disciplines of our beloved community?
Our spiritual ancestors faced a similar challenge to that posed by Don Miller: identify the core prevailing spiritual values that guide the pursuit of the moral and ethical life. Is there a practical statement that is not as daunting as The Ten Commandments and the 613 categorical codes that evolved from the Law? In Psalm 15 David brought the 613 down to eleven. Isaiah reduced them to six. The prophet Micah got them down to three, “Act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly before God.” Just prior to the time of Christ, a student challenged the great teacher, Hillel, to instruct him on the whole law while standing on one foot. Hillel said, “What you hate for yourself, do not to your neighbor.” Jesus' version of Hillel was, “Do to others what you would have them do to you.”
It was Moses who created the teaching that revealed the heart and soul implicit in the Law and framed it for practical daily use. It is the classic creed that has guided the spiritual and moral life of the Jews from that day to this: “Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
A Scribe once asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the first of all commandments?” Jesus turned to his roots, answering, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'” Please note that Jesus inserted the ‘mind' as one of the four pathways for loving God. Jesus continued, “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.” For the first time, Moses' “Hear, O Israel….” was united with the line from Leviticus, “…you shall love your neighbor as yourself….” The Scribe happily affirmed the way Jesus connected the two lessons into a unified, central teaching.
Jesus' union of “love the Lord your God” with the command to “love your neighbor as you love yourself” is the foundational spiritual value that directs the life and work of this congregation. What we seek through Jesus' teaching is the congruence of authenticity where our core inner spiritual values are exemplified in our outward lives and relationships: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength…and your neighbor as yourself.” Today, I want to explore three key elements of this teaching: love, heart, and soul; next week love, mind, and strength; and February 12, love of self and neighbor.
Wendell Berry writes in his poem “The Wild Geese,” “And we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. What we need is here.” Jesus recognized that faith might wander off as devotion and love bump up against the realities of life. It is human nature: people are distracted from their spiritual loyalties and practices by competing demands; some turn to other gods, to traditions with greater or lesser demands, and to the fads and fancies of culture and times. Jesus' teaching calls us back to attention and intention, to realize in the quiet heart and with clear eyes that we do not need lesser gods or even a new earth or heaven; what we need is here, in our hearts and souls.
“You shall love the Lord your God….” In spite of countless servants of endless hierarchies who teach fear of God and unquestioning obedience, this text reveals to us that the authentic relationship with God is born of a mutual abiding love – love, never fear. To love God is to be in touch with your deep desire to live each day in conscious union with God. When we are in touch with that desire, love of God courses through our days, from rising to sleeping, in our prayers, decisions and actions, and in relationships at home and work.
This love of God is total, complete, and consuming, experienced and expressed through each of the central elements of our lives: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul….” What does it mean, “With all your heart….”? The heart is the symbolic place from which we feel our passion and hold our devotion. We say that the heart is the home of love. It is in the heart that we know our desires, both the good and the less-than-faithful. Union with God does not mean we deny our full humanity. On the contrary, we love God through hearts that are inclined to good and to ill. It is precisely because we love God with our whole being that we strive to act faithfully and honorably, and to turn aside choices that diminish and compromise our core being.
What does it mean, “With all your soul….”? It is in the soul that we sense God's presence and experience that feeling of being fully alive and filled with Spirit. The soul is the birthplace of our greatest dreams and most passionate visions, and it is the source of the strength to exceed what we think to be our mortal limitations. It is from this place of vitality, energy, and abundance that we most keenly experience what it means to be “created in the image of God,” and what it means when we say “it is not my ego that lives, but Christ who lives in me.” Soul is where we feel the deepest union with God and Christ and Holy Spirit. To love God with all your soul is to be fully alive, wide-awake and astoundingly aware, and, with no vulnerability, freely and unconditionally open to God.
“And we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. What we need is here.” Love God with all your heart and soul, mind and strength…and your neighbor as yourself – love passionately, fearlessly, with abandon and all your being!
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Wendell Berry, Collected Poems 1957-1982. “The Wild Geese” – “Horseback on Sunday morning, // harvest over, we taste persimmon // and wild grape, sharp sweet // of summer's end. In time's maze // over fall fields, we name names
// that went west from here, names // that rest on graves. We open // a persimmon seed to find the tree // that stands in promise,// pale, in the seeds marrow. // Geese appear high over us, // pass, and the sky closes. Abandon, // as in love or sleep, holds // them to their way, clear // in the ancient faith: what we need // is here. And we pray, not // for new earth or heaven, but to be // quiet in heart, and in eye, //clear. What we need is here.”
Isaiah 33:15.
Micah 6:8.
Deuteronomy 6:4, 5.
Mark 12:28-30.
Mark 12:31.
Leviticus 19:18c.
Op.cit., Wendell Berry.
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