The “O’s” in the Shema
By Pastor Susan Schnieders
Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. And as for you, you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Deut 6:4-5
This is called the Shema prayer, one of the most famous biblical prayers, appearing in both the Old and
New Testaments. It appears first here in Deuteronomy; as Israel prepares to enter the promised land,
Moses warns the entering generation not to repeat the mistakes of their parents’ generation, but instead to
listen to and love the one God above all else, and in so doing, lay hold of the full blessing of the promised
land. Their allegiance must be to the one true God alone.
In the New Testament, a Jewish scribe asks Jesus to name the greatest command in the Torah. In Mark
12:29-31 Jesus answers, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall 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, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment
greater than these.”
Because Jesus would have prayed the Shema growing up, he drew upon it in his teachings, indicating that
we can trust it as a “first principle” or true teaching. In Deut 6:8 following the Shema, Moses exhorts the
people to “bind these words as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as symbols between your eyes,”
suggesting that the words of the prayer ought to guide the vision and activity of every moment in Israel’s
life – that everything they think, do, desire, and become is grounded in a love of God above all. Jesus
extends the activity of this love outward into the world on mission (“love your neighbor as yourself”).
In the next six weeks of the sermon series, “The Six ‘O’s’ of Church,” I believe the Shema will echo
throughout the series. The first “O,” Orthodoxy, or right thinking about God, has to do with the mind.
The second, Orthopraxy, has to do with our practices or what we do with our bodies (strength) to serve
God. Ortho-kardia, the third, is all about having the right heart towards God – a heart of love that comes
out of right thinking about God and reinforced by right living. Ownership, or personal responsibility for
one’s relationship with God, is inherent in the command “You shall.” We must intentionally choose these
postures and activities. The fifth and sixth “O’s,” Offering and Overflow, relate to Jesus’s extended
commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.”
As we delve into the six “O’s” of church, we’ll see that they are reflected in this prayer (not a
coincidence!). Perhaps as we explore these concepts, a good practice (orthopraxy?) for the next six weeks
might be to pray Jesus’s version of the Shema from Mark 12 and see where God might invite us to grow.
Shalom!