Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (OTA)

Deuteronomy 6:1-15

“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, ² that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. ³ Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. ⁶ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. ⁸ You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ⁹ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

¹⁰ “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, ¹¹ and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, ¹² then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ¹³ It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. ¹⁴ You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— ¹⁵ for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth.

Warning I am going to brag, I have in every room of my house a cross, of some kind. I have made sure that no matter where I am in my house I can look and see a cross. I do this because of this text. "You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." The point is not to have a cross in every room, but it is to always have the word of God around your house. Just as when he says, "You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." In baptism I know that I was marked with a cross upon my forhead and upon my heart. I also carry that sign of the cross upon my hand.

Everything you do and everywhere you go, You are the light of Christ shining in that place. Sure if there are other Christians there, they are also shining the light of Christ. But it is still your responsibility to represent the Word of God in all your life. The text starts with "You shall talk of [the word of God] when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Everywhere we go and everything we do, we should remember God's word of judgment and of forgiveness.

You have been marked as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. I have marked my house with these reminders. I do my best to mark my life with these reminders. The reminder that I am a sinner in need of a savior, and I have a God who loves me enough to sacrifice his only begotten son for me, and likewise lay down his life for me, and even continue to call me to faith and point me to those crosses and crucifixes.

This is my wish for you to find something that not only continues to remind you to love The Lord your God, but also that reminds you that he Loves you!