Our Lord

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Adonai, Come O God, Jews, Moses, O Antiphons, redeem us, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Torah

On this second day of the O Antiphons, we see the paradox of the Christmas event. The word used to name the one who is to come is the title used by the Jews when reading the Torah to avoid using the proper name of God. Saint Paul uses it to speak of the one “who did not deem equality with God something to be grasped, but rather he emptied himself” to come as a child and be with us as one of us. And yet we have come to know him also as Lord.

O Adonai, Leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

The Great Commandment

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God, Hebrew, Jesus, Lord, love, love your neighbor as yourself, Mark, one, psalms, The Shema, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Torah

Today’s gospel (MK 12: 28-34) is always a reminder to me of the rootedness of Christianity, that our heritage is the same ancestry as that of Jesus, stretching back thousands of years. I am always moved when I think of Jesus growing up reading/chanting the same psalms that I do and there is something perhaps even more visceral about his answer today to the scribe who asked him to name the first of all commandments. I envision Jesus standing up straight, sun as back-lighting, raising his voice to respond: Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Ehad. (Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.) I read a commentary recently that said, “The Shema does not have to be recited in Hebrew. It may be recited in any language the worshipper understands but the miracle of the Hebrew letters makes the prayer much more powerful in Hebrew even if you don’t understand the words.” I have found that to be true (as I’m sure some Christians find with some Latin hymns from our youth or others find in Sanskrit chants). I first learned a chant of the Shema some years ago in a Wisdom School session and continue to find in it a feeling of strength and identity that transcends the boundaries of religion. The meaning of the words is imprinted in me in a place deeper than my mind and calls me to an expansiveness that can only come from the heart.

We know the text that Jesus was quoting from the Torah. I will take it with me as companion today, my prayer being for a greater consciousness of unity across the world.

Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

 

 

 

 

 

The Rabbi’s Yoke

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burden, cultural, inner motivation, intention, Jesus, law, Matthew, rabbi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Torah, yoke

A clear image comes to mind when Jesus says this morning (MT 11:28-30) “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” I see a team of oxen joined together by a wooden structure that keeps them together and joins them to a wagon that is full of supplies of some kind. That “collar” that joins them has always been known to me as their yoke. Whether or not the “burden” that the oxen are pulling is heavy or light, they themselves are heavy and so the yoke appears that way too.

Some years ago I heard a talk that gave me a new interpretation making the “yoke” Jesus was talking about more plausibly light. It seems that as rabbis began to interpret the Torah for their students they stressed different things in the law: care for the poor, personal piety, proper worship, etc. It did not mean that they jettisoned part of the given law but rather that they considered the community to which they were speaking, the cultural situation, etc. (just as we know the gospel writers did) and taught what was most needed for the people who were their disciples. Their interpretation came to be called their yoke. So when Jesus spoke of his yoke being easy and his burden light, he was calling us to the way of love and to what he came to reveal of the Kingdom of God. For those who truly grasp his message, it is not a question of the outer experiences of our lives being the determining factor in our assessment of ease or difficulty, but rather the inner motivation and intention that allow a vision and a path of light. It does not mean that we will never feel burdened but that we will be able to withstand our trials in light of the example of Jesus who came to share his “yoke” with us.

Torah of the Heart

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covenant, freedom, joy, Lord, love, psalm 119, Torah, trust, truth, worship

Once again this morning it is the psalmist who speaks to my heart. I return to that longest psalm (119) for my morning praise (vs. 41-47).

For the sake of the covenant we keep between us, Lord, let your love descend and hold me fast. Allow my mouth to utter words of truth, this Torah of the heart, which I shall trust and keep forever. Then in freedom I will walk upon your path and know these precepts are yours alone. I’ll bind them to my heart with deepest joy for I love and worship all you love, my Lord.

May these words bring comfort, peace and well-being for all who seek the God of love today.