January 18, 2009
Rev. Kip Gilts

Do you remember what it was like to be tucked into bed?  Have you recently been involved in a tuck it?  I love that time.  All is quiet.  There may be a story, there may be laughter, there may be long conversations, but in a true tuck in there is mostly just the tuck-er and the tuck-ee.

Turning a house into a home is our emphasis for the first few weeks of this New Year.  Just how do we do that? A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that we generally start by getting some furniture.  An empty house just does not feel very homey.  There are three pieces of furniture that have produced a sense of home for me - a sofa, a kitchen table, and a bed.  We talked about the sofa as the place where the mitzvah and the torah are received - the expectations of our fathers and teachings of our mothers.  Last week we addressed the kitchen table, where both the body and soul are fed.  Today, we go to the piece of furniture that is not open to the general public.  Have you ever had guests in your home and warned them, “Don’t go into the kids’ bedroom?”  While we entertain guests on the sofa and at the kitchen table, the bed is for family only.  The day has come to a close, weary bodies lie down, begin to reflect on all that has taken place since they have left this sanctuary of rest, and the ritual of the tuck in begins.

When I was a boy we had a triple bunk bed for Kemp, Kyle, and me (two of my seven siblings).  Every night mom or dad would come into our room, say good night to us, and lead us in the prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.  God bless mommy and daddy, all my brothers and sisters, everybody in the world I know, everybody in the world I don’t know.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.”  That prayer always got me to thinking.

As a dad, I have experienced thousands of tuck ins. I have loved them all.  It is the time when I get the chance to remind my children what is most important - that they are loved.

The book of Deuteronomy is kind of like one long tuck in.  The people of Israel had spent forty years wandering in the wilderness and now they are at the end of their journey.  They can see the Promised Land.  But before they can go in, they have to rest.  Moses calls them together and reminds them what is most important.  Hear now the Word of the Lord found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

⁴Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. ⁵You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. ⁶Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. ⁷Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. ⁸Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, ⁹and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 

This is the word of God for the people of God.  In this passage Moses instructed the Israelites to love and obey the Lord.  Let us pray. 

This passage is known to those of the Jewish faith as the Shema.  That’s the Hebrew word that starts it all off.  In our translation it is, “Hear,” in some others it is “Listen”.  I like Shema best because it has that quieting sound to it, almost like at the time of the tuck in at bedtime, “Shema, I have something important to say.”   
 

Love God with all that you are

Moses and the Israelites were camped out at the other side of the Jordan, looking into the land that they will call home.  Moses has called them together and said, “Shema, I have something important to say.  The Lord is our God, and he alone is our God.”  This was to assure the Israelites that this was not a territorially restricted God who was to be left at the customs gate.  The Lord was always to be their one and only God.  They were to love the Lord, their God, with all their heart, soul, and might.  They were going into a land that was filled with regional religions where many gods were worshipped.  This declaration according to Keil and Delitzsch, “precluded any form of polytheism or syncretism”.  The Lord is God – period.  They were going into a land filled with religions of fear and appeasement.  Loving the Lord God was a different sort of religion.  It would be to the residents of Canaan what “love the IRS” would be to us.  Now I have nothing against the IRS, but I have no desire to get to know them, let alone love them.  I just want to pay my taxes and be left alone.  That was much of the contemporary religion, but not so for the Israelites.  Theirs was a personal God, a loving God who invited and expected them to relate to God personally, loving God with their emotions and will (the heart), their appetites and desires (the soul, which comes from the Hebrew word “nephesh”, that is literally “appetites”), their mental and physical abilities (the might). The Lord God expected them to love him with all that they were. 

Do you know what that’s like?  My wife expects a deep and attentive love from me.  In fact, just lately she placed next to our bed this sign, “Kip, Always Kiss Me Goodnight. Tammy”.  She also expects to be taken to a movie, and out to dinner every so often.  I have done that.  In 1996 we went to see a movie.  It was called Jerry Maguire.  It was a romantic movie.  One memorable scene has the title character, played by Tom Cruise, declaring his love for his wife, played by Reneee Zellweger.  They had been separated for awhile and he came to realize his need for her in his life.  He offers a romantic speech, “Hello.  I’m not letting you go.  How about that?  (After a dramatic pause he continued.) Tonight our little project, our company, had a very good night, a very, very big night, but it wasn’t complete.  It wasn’t nearly close to being in the same vicinity as complete, because I couldn’t share it with you.  I couldn’t hear your voice or laugh about it with you.  I miss you.  I miss my wife.  I love you. You complete me.”  I remember almost every eye in the movie theater was moist during that scene.  I looked at my wife, struck a romantic pose, and said, “Ditto.” It was a moment - a moment when I discovered that “ditto” does not get it when professing your love to a woman.

The same is true for God.  It is not enough for us to listen to the beautiful prayers offered here this morning, strike a heavenly pose, and say, “Ditto”.  Ditto does not get it.  God expects you to love the Lord with all that you are.  Your heart, your emotions and will have to be yielded to God.  Your soul, your appetites and desires, have to be in accordance with God’s for your life.  Your might, your physical and mental abilities, have to be employed for God.  Tonight as you lie down in bed, ask yourself the question, “Do I love God with all that I am?”  If not, open your life up to that possibility as everything quiets down around you.  Shema, I have something important to say. Love the Lord your God with all that you are.
 

Teach God’s expectations always

Moses called his people together and stressed the importance of the tablets twice given – the Ten Commandments.  He wanted them to be sure not to forget them, but to teach them always.  They were to recite them, talk about them at home or on the road, and even include them in the tuck in (when you lie down) and the good morning (and when you rise).  These commandments were an important piece of their relationship to God.  They were carried around in the Ark of the Covenant for centuries and continue to be revered by Jews and Christians alike.  But are they the subject of our conversation?

I have a confession to make.  When mom or dad would lead us in that bedtime prayer, I never said, “If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”  It was too scary.  Sometimes I would even cover my ears.  That probably would have been a good time to talk to mom or dad about God’s mitzvah, God’s expectations.  It would have been a good time to talk to about life and death and my fears related to each of them.  It was really the only time I thought about them as a kid.  I didn’t think about this kind of stuff while playing kickball in the street.  I didn’t think about them while watching TV on the sofa or eating dinner at the kitchen table.  I didn’t even think about this kind of stuff at church, but at the tuck in when all was quiet I thought a lot about God.  As I parent, this is still the place where a lot of deep conversations occur.  Now I am typically not one to keep my kids’ experiences confidential.  They make such good sermon illustrations and they have been so generous in giving permission before and sometimes after I’ve mentioned them.  However, in this case the details of these conversations are not for public display.  Let me only mention that in the past 23 years we have talked about forgiveness, love, eternity, things that don’t make sense to us, fears, assurances, and even rock lyrics and what they have to do with the story of Jesus.  Never underestimate the teaching theater that is found on the side of a bed at the time of the tuck in.  “Shema, I have something important to say.”  Teach God’s expectations always, love God with all that you are, and…
 

Take God’s expectations Everywhere

They travel well.  The Israelites were told to take them everywhere.  Bind them on their hands, fix them on their foreheads, and write them on their doorposts and gates.  Before there was American Express there was the living relationship with the Lord, who was really the first to coin the phrase, “Don’t leave home without it.” One commentator noted that verses eight and nine stressed “undeviating observance” to God’s expectations.  There was nowhere they would go where these would not be there.

Last summer I went out to see Chelsea in New York.  We had the chance to see a musical, In the Heights, which is about a girl who graduates, leaves home, and tries to discover who she is.  In the midst of her struggles she is reminded that she is never alone.  Her mother scolds her for having hid things from her parents.  She said, or rather sang, “If you have a problem you come home. You don’t run off and hide from your family all alone!  You hear me?  When you have a problem you come home.  As long as we’re alive you’re never on your own.”  Well, you can imagine my emotional state during this musical.  When I regained my composure, sometime on my flight back to Texas, I wrote Chelsea an e-mail assuring her that she takes home everywhere she goes.  With it goes our love, our pride in who she is, and our confidence that the Lord God is there.  As I read this passage I sense the assurance of my heavenly Father saying, or rather singing, “If you have a problem you come home. You don’t run off and hide from your family all alone!  You hear me?  When you have a problem you come home.  As long as I’m your God, you’re never on your own.”  I learn that most at the bedside during the tuck-in.

Shema, I have something important to say, “Love God with all that you are, teach God’s expectations always, and take God’s expectations everywhere.”  Shema.  Shema.  Amen.