Deuteronomy 6:1-8:20
Love the Lord. Oh church, let us love the Lord. Deeply love Him and really love Him. That is our Sinai in this desert of the Law, that is our sacred and wonderful place of revelation in the midst of hardship and struggle. To fix our eyes on the Lord and to let our heart grow in affection for Him, to have Him as the first in our day and the last. To deeply desire him and be fully gratified in Him. To be warm towards Him and unrelenting in our attending towards him. This was how Jesus summed up the Law in words and this is how Jesus fulfilled the Law in deeds. It’s just love, mere love. And yet there is nothing stronger and nothing more wonderful. It’s a simple and child-like thing and yet all riches and all wisdom lies therein. Love. Oh church, let us love the Lord. Let us love the Lord again. He is so worthy of it. All we have has come from him. He loved us first, so let’s love him back. Let us love the Lord, let us really love Him, let us deeply love him. Let us love the Lord oh church, let us love the Lord.
Luke 11:33-54
And love is a distinctive of Jesus followers; love and justice are the daily tithe for those who walk in the way of the Lord. Eating with others, calling them to account, lifting your fingers to help them - this is love. Unlocking the keys to knowledge and ushering people in - this is love. Giving what you have to the poor and taking the least important seats - this is justice. Listening to the prophets and following their call - this is the justice of the Lord. And this love and justice, this glorious distinctive of The Way, is released through the eyes - through what we see and how we look at the world. That is where we should focus our prayers, that is where we should expend our efforts - on having the Spirit renew our vision, on having the Spirit giving us eyes to see the Father and all that the Father is doing. Love and justice don’t come through sheer effort and skill - they are prayed in through the eyes, they are flooded into our hearts through what we see. So let us look on Jesus and fix our gaze on him. Let us see him and love him. Let us let Him shine his light into us. Then we will see love and justice flowing from us into the places we reside.
Psalm 42:1-6a
I’ve never seen a deer pant. In fact I’ve barely ever seen a deer. A dog panting - that I have seen, but never a deer. I wonder if deers slobber as much as dogs? My soul slobbers for you O God...
