Doorframes and Foreheads
“Doorframes and Foreheads” by Pastor Rosanna McFadden
Good morning! It is such a privilege to welcome now children and new family into our family of faith. After a week of loss and sorrow, it is especially welcome to remind ourselves of the new life and hope in our midst. Thank you for not only your welcome, but your commitment to support these families. They are precious to us.
Our text today is one which would have been VERY familiar to Jesus and Jews for a thousand years earlier and a thousand years since it was recorded. These words are about Jewish belief and identity, including the Jewish value for children and passing on beliefs and practice to future generations. We in the Christian tradition are some of those future generations which have inherited the beliefs which shaped Jesus, and how children learn those beliefs and are shaped by them too.
You might notice that I didn’t include the specific words — the author od Deuteronomy did in verse 4 and 5, and you can either find them in your own Bible, or I’ll share them with you in just a moment. But before I tell you what those words are, I want to talk about the process of how they were supposed to be displayed and shared. From verses 6-9: They must always be on your minds; recite them to your children, talk about them when you are sitting around the house; tie them on your hand or on your forehead; write them on the doorframes of your house and on the city gates. In other words, these words should be everywhere for everyone. These words are important, and these words should shape who we are.
The words in verse 4 are a Jewish prayer which was to be recited every morning and every evening. Those words are “Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad,” which means Listen, Israel! Our God is the Lord! Our God alone!” This prayer is called the Shema, from the first Hebrew word which means Listen! The prayer goes on, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength.” Wait a minute — didn’t Jesus say those words? Of course he did, twice a day, since he was an observant Jew. But he also used that phrase when he was asked the question, what is the most important commandment?
This prayer, these words, are the foundation of Jewish identity and although they may have been recited in worship, and I know they have been set to song, they are not primarily intended for big dramatic settings. This prayer is what shapes a home, and the people who live in that home. This principle applies to Christian homes as well as Jewish ones. We might choose slightly different words, but imagine what it would be like if Creekside folks, including the children whom we dedicated this morning said every morning and every evening, “God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Of course, you’d have it memorized in couple days, but formation is a deeper process than memorization.
Deuteronomy says we’re not just supposed to recite these words, we’re supposed to think about them — constantly — and talk about them all the time. Whew. Wouldn’t that kind of old after, say, 50 years?
Consider for a moment, the things which you do every day, or maybe several, or many times a day. You wake up — at least once a day. I hope you bathe, regularly. I don’t need too many details. You check your phone — many of you do this several times an hour, maybe even during worship, or if you’re my mother, every three or four days. What this passage is saying, and what spiritual formation folks have been saying ever since, is that there is a connection between what we do every day or many times a day, and our spiritual health and relationship to God. If you offer thanks or say grace at meals, that is part of this tradition. Members of the Thee Seekers class, who have been studying Tish Harrison Warren’s book, Liturgy of the Ordinary, have been exposed to this idea. Character and behavior are shaped less by great big events than they are by the ordinary things which we do every day, day after day. Lather, rinse, repeat.
This is why a home which is shaped by faith is so important. It is great that you are here this morning — it is wonderful that we were able to dedicate children and their families to Christ and the church. I hope you find this sermon inspiring (that’s not a question, you don’t have to respond to that), and that the fellowship makes you feel welcomed, and that you stay for Sunday School and learn great things about the Bible and Christian formation. But if you leave this place and spend the next six days cursing and complaining, picking fights with your spouse or co-workers, criticizing your children and kicking the dog, another Sunday at Creekside is unlikely to undo what you’re conditioning yourself to be the rest of the week.
A Christian home is not a place where everyone is perfect — any more than a church is a place where everyone is perfect. Home should be a place where we are practicing, if not constantly, at least a whole lot — how to love each other the way Christ loved us. A place where we are talk about what God means to us, and that if God is the most important thing, then maybe we shouldn’t do that other thing. If you have a sign which says, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord,” God bless you, but you have to actually figure out what that looks like, and that’s work you gotta sign up for every day, every time you walk out the door, and every time you come home. For God so loved the world . . .
We have to trust that God’s word has the power to change and transform us. There is a sense of supernatural power in words which is embedded in our language. Maybe you know this already, but it took me a ridiculously long time to figure this out. Consider the word “spelling,” which I think of as putting letters in the correct order to make words; but it’s also casting a spell, something with power beyond ourselves — which is why there are spelling books in every elementary classroom, but if you try to put a book of spells in the school library, some parents’ group is going to make a fuss.
The prologue of the gospel of John says, in the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God. That word, Jesus Christ, the perfect embodiment of God, has the power to transform our lives, our families, our cities, our world. But for that to happen, we must keep Jesus in our minds and in our conversations. We have to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We can write God’s Word on our doorframes or tattoo it on our hands — or maybe on your forehead — but where we really need that word is written on our hearts.That is my prayer for myself, for you, for these families and children, and for everyone who allows Jesus to shape their lives. May the love of Jesus Christ be within us and around us. May the love of Jesus Christ guide our feet and keep us on paths of righteousness. May the love of Jesus Christ be something that others see in us, and that we share with them. Every day. Amen.