“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. – Mark 12:29

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 3, 2014): Mark 12

One of the most basic of Islamic Creeds is a belief statement called the Shahada. The Shahada describes the Muslim belief with regard to the essential nature of God. It simply states that “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet (or his messenger.)” In Islamic thought there is no room for a discussion of other or lesser gods. Allah is one and there can be no other. The confession of the Shahada is what sets Islam up as one of the great monotheistic faiths of our world. And of the three great monotheistic sister faiths, Islam is the youngest.

The oldest of the monotheistic faiths is Judaism. And it shouldn’t be surprising that Judaism has its own version of the Shahada. In the case of Judaism, this creed is called the Shema and it again describes the basic nature of God. The Shema says this - Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). And again the Shema, like the Shahada, leaves no room for any other God. The idea of there only being one God is also stated strongly in the Ten Commandments. The first of the commandment clearly states I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:2-3). While in English it might sound like there is a hierarchy of the gods with the God of Israel occupying the highest rank, the real meaning in Hebrew is that there are no gods in orbit of the God of Israel. There is no entity in this universe that can be described as even coming close to the God of Israel. According to the Jewish understanding of God, God is God alone.

And in choosing the Shema as the most important law, Jesus is vocalizing his agreement with this Jewish belief – God is God alone. And this is hugely important for Christianity. We are sometimes accused of not being a monotheistic faith because of a mistaken belief that we believe in three Gods – the Trinity or the belief in God as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But the reality of the Christian faith is that our belief is in only one God. In this respect we have no argument with the either the Shema or the Shahada. Our belief is that the God who is heaven, the very being who Jesus addressed as our Father God when he taught the disciples to pray, is the same God that came down to earth and was born as child in the manger. (Does this mean that Jesus prayed to himself? Yes it does!) It was this God that became like a servant in his interaction with us, not a lesser god who was sent to us by the will of the all-powerful Father. And it this God who even now continues to be the binding force connecting his people.

As Christians, we emphatically believe in only one God - a God who loves us and is interested enough in us to become part of our history, our now and our future. This is our God. We do recognize this one God in three personalities or purposes, but he remains the same God – and he is God alone.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Matthew 23

Personal Note: Happy Fifth Anniversary to my daughter Alyssa and her husband Greg. I continue to be proud of both of you.