Together For Good

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Connecting Questions

What’s been a good lesson you learned from an elder?

What’s been a good lesson you learned from someone younger than you?

Prayer for Illumination

Let us pray, Loving God, we pause today grateful for this next breath. We are grateful for the chance to connect with others today for we all carry such hurts and hope. Open your Word to us. Open our hearts to let your word speak to us and change our lives. We pray in the name of the Jesus, Amen.

Context

We are “Together for Good”; God is good! Our fall is a season of exploring the way God builds relationships all through the stories found in scripture. Come explore the many opportunities to grow in faith and carry on the work of Jesus Christ at Easter. So glad you are here!

Sermons can be found within our service recordings at Easter.org/worship.

From Pastor Mark Throntveit at EntertheBible.org:

Deuteronomy is cast in the form of a series of three sermons delivered by Moses on the plain of Moab just prior to the Israelites’ entrance into the land of Canaan (1:6-4:43; 4:44-28:68; 29:1-30:20). Much of the second sermon consists of a long body of legislation (chapters 12-26). Wedged between the second and third sermons are a covenant renewal at Shechem (chapter 27) and a list of blessings and curses (chapter 28). Deuteronomy concludes with the Song of Moses (chapters 31-32); Moses’ blessing of the tribes (chapter 33); and the death of Moses on Mt. Nebo (chapter 34).

Look at the Book

Open Deuteronomy 6. It is presented as a series of speeches. Have you ever attended a famous speech? What was it? What was it like?
Verse four begins with a verb. What is it?
The second word of verse 4 is a name. Who is it?
Who in your life has told you to listen?
God commands Israel to listen, but we learn a key detail about this God. The Lord is ______________. What does that mean?
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is also called the Shema (shuh-mah). For many practicing Jews, they commit these verses to memory and recite them twice a day. Do you have a phrase, prayer or scripture you repeat daily?
Rabbi Alter calls these verses a “catechism.” What is a catechism? What is Luther’s Small Catechism? If you grew up studying it, do you remember any phrases or ideas?
Interesting, we are called to love God. Can we be commanded to love people?
How are we supposed to “love God?”
What is something you practice or rehearse or have done so in the past? Why do we rehearse?
Verse seven could be translated as “rehearse.” What might it mean that our sanctuary where we gather for worship is a place to rehearse the key parts of our faith before we go and live it during the week?
Notice the connecting words: home and away, lie down and rise. What is being said with these pairs?
What would you want to bind scripture to your body? What might that say?
The words being bound is torah, teaching, or law. This was seen as a gift to all people. In the Lutheran tradition, we look at the Bible through the eyes of “law and gospel.” The law shows us how we fall short everyday (Romans 3:23) and how frustration with our own sin drives us to the gospel. The gospel being the good news of forgiveness of sins because of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection. We are good news people. What does that mean to you?
What do you want to talk about that has not been brought up yet?

Taking it Home

What is something you’d like to add your faith catechism to “rehearse” this week?

Grow Guide | Oct 8, 2023