August 23, 2018 - - Deuteronomy 6:4-5 - - Listening to Thundering

Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one!

You shall love the LORD your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul, and

with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 NKJV

Notice the very first word of this morning's passage--it is a command and it is emphatic--hear! Read the whole passage out loud. Go ahead. Close the door of your room. If you are on the commuter train, don't worry, just pretend you are putting in ear buds and you are talking on the phone--then folks will ignore you. Now, say it aloud. (It feels a bit funny, doesn't it. Try again, with feeling this time!)

Eugene Peterson notes:

The Christian's interest in Scripture has always been in hearing God speak, not in analyzing moral memos. The common practice is to nurture a listening disposition--the 'involving ear' rather than the 'distancing eye'--hoping to become passionate hearers of the word rather than cool readers of the page.

So we listen in order to find out what is going on--in us. Ezra Pound's H. Selwyn Mauberly expresses the zest of this kind of reader/listener: 'Tell it to me, all of it, I guzzle with outstretched ears'!"

From: E. Peterson "Working the Angles: the shape of pastoral integrity" page 87 & 89

By the Word of the LORD Creation sprang into being.

By the Voice of the LORD the cedars of Lebanon break!

At the thundering declarations of the LORD the people trembled.

Beloved in Jesus Christ, the One Who called stars into being, those white hot, furnaces converting hydrogen to helium by fusion, fiery celestial phenoms, is our King. The out-poured fury of His anger against sin burned against Jesus on the cross. His Word is living and active. It is not tame. It is consuming the sin from within and by the Spirit creating in us new life, the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. Read the Word out loud. Listen to the spoken Word and let the Spirit of God change you according to it.

God of Splendour--You are God and we will praise You!

Christ seated at the Father's right hand--You are God and we will praise You!

Spirit of the Living God, move in our hearts and in our souls and be our strength so that we will give thanks before the Majestic One of heaven and earth! In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.