Wednesday, February 10, 2021
![the-letter-shin[1]](https://thenoontimes.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/the-letter-shin1.jpg?w=500)
Shin
My heart reveres only your word . . . I rejoice at your promise . . . Your teaching I love . . . Seven times a day I praise you . . . Lovers of your teaching have much peace . . . for them there is no stumbling block . . . I look for your salvation . . . I fulfill your commands . . . I observe your decrees . . . I love them very much . . . All my ways are before you.
In this penultimate strophe the psalmist has finally arrived at deep understanding of what it means to follow the Law. It is not a stringent adherence to a long and complicated set of requirements.
God says: There is really only one law. Many of you have created layers and contingencies for yourselves but all of your regulations do nothing if they do not build my kingdom. All of your small rules and overbearing stances do nothing if they are not respectful of each human condition. Your fears create worlds I do not intend. Your desire to control only antagonizes others and sends them away from me. There is only one law and it is this: Love one another as I have loved you – love your enemies as well as you love your friends – ask me to intercede for those who harm you. Your joy at finding me in this one law will be evident to all so rather than preach with your lips . . . spread the good news with your thoughts and actions. This will engender in you an eternal fire that overcomes all obstacles, a perpetual passion of love and peace that can never be extinguished.
Our interpretation of God’s law is an invention of our fears and fantasies if it does not call us to forgive one another as God forgives us. Our ideas about Jesus’ teaching are an invention of our egos if they do not urge us to redeem one another as Jesus redeems us. Our beliefs about how to live out God’s precepts are false if they do not move us into action with the Spirit.
There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test [Jesus] and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?” He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord your God with your all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself”. He replied to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live”. (Luke 10:25-28)
We look for peace. We seek life eternal. We want all obstacles in our lives to fall away. A true and deep understanding of God’s love of all – even our enemies – brings us the serenity and union with God that we long for.
When Christ asks us how we read God’s law . . . what do we answer? How do we act?
Tomorrow, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Taw.
To understand more about the letter Shin and how it represents both the flame that is evident and the flame stored in embers, go to: http://www.inner.org/hebleter/shin.htm
Image from: http://www.heb4you.com/hebrew-alephbet/21th-letter-of-the-hebrew-alphabet.html
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