Jane

Gilgun I dont get it. For thousands of years human beings have had the key to the good life where everyone would have enough and we would care for each other and ourselves. Yet, three quarters of the worlds population suffer because of the actions and inactions of other human beings. The key to the good life is the Israel Shema. Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6: 4-9). Related to the Shema is this. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord (Leviticus 19:18). To me, this is the original Good News. This is what people could have lived, breathed, taught, and acted upon. Some did. Many did not. So, we have rapes, murders, child sexual abuse, kids shot on the streets, water boarding, countries threatening other countries, starvation, and holocausts. We have budget cuts that harm the most vulnerable and bring more richness to the super rich. Selfish, devastating me-first actions throughout the world are committed by countless hundreds of millions of people over thousands of years. It doesnt even seem to matter that the Christian tradition sought to fulfill these two principles. This is from the gospel of Mark. One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, Of all the commandments, which is the most important? The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater

Weve Always Known: Why Dont We Do it?

than these. Well said, teacher, the man replied. You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God. And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions (Mark 12: 28-34). Jesus lived these two commandments. He called out those who caused suffering. Some of those in power did not like it. They killed him. As he was dying, Jesus said, Forgive them, Lord. They dont know what they are doing. Indeed. Many still dont know what we are doing. We founded a religion based on Jesuss life and teaching. Jesus did fulfill the Scriptures. He brought forward the most important ideas human beings will ever have. We apparently see his life and teaching through a glass darkly. What Happened? I wonder what it will take for people who say they are Christian to live the words that Jesus fulfilled. Many have lived these words. Yet, so many others go their merry ways, destroying other people while telling themselves and those like them what wonderful people they are. Many people besides Jesus have been killed for living these words. I wonder what makes it so hard to live these words. I was raised Christian. These words took second and third place to rules and dogma that I heard from the pulpit and in religious instruction. Original sin, the immaculate conception, Jesus is God, Mary is perfect and you are not, confess your sins, dont touch the host, and all those other things. What Happened to Experience? The experience of a loving God. The experience of loving God. The consequences of experiencing the love of God. Where was this talked about? I did not hear about this from the pulpit and in religious instruction. I dont hear people talking to each other about what it means to love God. Weve gotten so far away from the words of Scripture that many people have no idea what it feels like to love God. If we love God, we naturally love our neighbors as ourselves. We dont put ourselves above others and think destruction has good outcomes. In our everyday lives, we think about the consequences of our actions. We work on letting go of revenge

motives. We dont let others push us around. We set simple limits and let others know when they have crossed the line. We take good care of ourselves. We dont put ourselves down. We work on letting go of our own self-hatreds. We care about the well-being of others. We dont put others down. We work on not hating others. This is all so simple. What makes it so hard? Lets do what the Shema says. Talk to our children about the love of God, talk to each other, talk when we go to bed and when we get up, put a sign in our homes. Lets live these simple words. Spiritual but Not Religious More people than ever are spiritual and not religious. No wonder. They have an inkling of what it means to be spiritual. They know through experience that there is something beyond ourselves that gives our lives meaning. They may not say they love God. They may be uncomfortable with the word God. Why wouldnt they be? The word has so many meanings, including the father in the sky, an all-powerful being who choses some and not others, the punishing being, the being who grants our wishes or not, among so many others. People who are spiritual and not religious know God is love and seek the spiritual as a plant seeks light. They recognize that they long for something. They may call what they long for a spiritual presence. Some people call this God. If people in religious institutions put the Shema front and center, churches would be filled with people who now are spiritual and not religious. Many people are turned off by the messages and beliefs that have subordinated the central message of all religions. The central message is this. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and might and love your neighbor as yourself. All else follows from this. So simple and yet for thousands of years subordinate and mostly ignored. What a price we have paid for ignoring these simple principles. Why I Wrote This I wrote this after four days of anger and upset. These difficult emotions arose in me after spending five hours at a social service agency that serves the most high-risk children and families in the county where the agency is located. I heard stories of a mother with four young children who is about to be evicted and who has no place to go. I heard of a teenage girl in bed with her boyfriend with the bedroom door open in full view of a social worker who was talking to the girls mother. I heard of a boy in residential treatment for volatile behaviors and whose only support in this world is about to die an early death because of lung disease caused by her smoking.

In the newspaper this week, I saw a series of three photos of two men fighting in the streets of an Arab country. The first photo shows the two of them about to shoot. The second shows one of the men immediately after he was shot. The third shows the man who was still alive pulling on the dead man as if to awake him. The events in these lives are preventable. Such horrors dont have to happen. If we lived the words of the Shema and talked about them as Scripture recommends, these events would not happen. Our own lives would take on new meanings. God is Not Money There is one God. God is not money. God is not power to get your own way. God is not social status. God is not I am better than you and mine is bigger than yours. You are not God. God is love of others and of the self. People who love themselves love God and others. Whatever material goods and social status that they have they use to foster love of God, others, and the self. Everything we have and are is subordinate to the love of the one God.