Scripture passage: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39).

Message: According to The Lutheran, 9 in 10 Americans believe there is a God. “Americans’ belief in God,” the magazine reports, “has remained steady throughout the 60-plus years that Gallup has asked the question. Its latest poll showed that 92 percent of Americans said they believe in God” (August 2011, p.9).

But, who is this God we reportedly believe?

In his award-winning book, GOD: A Biography, Jack Miles says, “No character…on stage, page, or screen has ever had the reception that God has had” (p. 5). Everyone has heard of him; everyone can tell you something about him.

Yet, who is this widely recognized God?

Is he our Father in heaven? The Father almighty creator of heaven and earth? Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is the One we love with heart, soul, and mind the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? The One who led the Israelites out of slavery and brought them safely through the sea?

Or, is deity a product of humankind’s creative imagination? Supreme Being? Greatest Good? Highest Power?

Some say this question is an idle one. It doesn’t matter, they assert.

For example, Karen Armstrong, author of A History of God, argues that the content of belief is secondary. “The authentic test of a religion is not what you believe,” she declares. “It’s what you do, and unless your religion expresses itself in compassion for all living things, it is not authentic.”

Maybe, but I doubt it. People who are by nature sinful (self-centered) do not get to enactments of compassion apart from a knowledge of God of unconditional love and limitless mercy. People, in short, do not integrate compassion into everyday life apart from a relationship with a loving God. Belief matters.

Therefore, let us pray that our knowledge of God may be deepened.

Prayer: Gracious and holy God, give us diligence to seek you, wisdom to perceive you, and patience to wait for you. Grant us, O God, a mind to meditate on you; eyes to behold you; ears to listen for your word; a heart to love you; and a life to proclaim you; through the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen. <>(Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 76)

Contributed by Dick
Monday August 15, 2011
Liturgical Year A: Week 38
Liturgical Color: Green
Sunday Gospel reading:
Lectionary 20 (Proper 15)
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost