The first five books of the Old Testament overflow with details about holy days, about the garb that priests are to wear, about the different kinds of sacrifices, about who was the son of who, and about a legal order unlike any the world had seen at that time. It astonishes me to think that so many faithful Hebrew followers memorized these first five books, in all their tedious details. In contrast, I find it difficult just to read these books in their entirety, because the differences in culture, in economics, in tradition, and even in theology make it seem that early parts of the Bible have nothing to do with people like me.

Still, in the middle of such foreign text, passages like this one in Deuteronomy remind me that there is one God and one Love that stretches from the beginning of creation until the end of time. Everything written in the Bible ultimately leads us to know that God loves us, and that our response to God is to love also. We love our Maker because God loved us first, and we love even strangers because God loves them. Out of that love comes all good, all praise, all humility, and all salvation. Ultimately, the Bible is all about love.

History shows us how easy it is to let love slip away from being the center of our walk of faith. Even though most Hebrew boys had memorized this passage, the Bible is full of evidence of followers forgetting the instruction to cling to God, to put aside pride, and to show God's love to others.

I think what happened and what still happens is that we start to increase the scope of these essential commandments. We know that Hebrew boys would have memorized these verses, but they would also have memorized the names of Shem's descendants in Genesis 10:22, about sacrificing kidneys and livers in Leviticus 3:4, and the name of the company leader for the tribe of Issachar in Numbers 10:15. By the time of the New Testament, the religious leaders had a branch of mathematics dedicated to ensuring a correct tithe. All of these are "good", but "good" should never be allowed to crowd out "great".

We still have that problem today. We often speak in a special religious vocabulary that pushes away the "strangers" that we are called to love. We debate about styles and elements of worship that we believe are either too "old" or too "new" and in doing so, pull the focus of the worship service away from worship. We allow "good" causes (both liberal and conservative) to intervene in our religion and direct our efforts and our walk away from what are our two greatest commandments.

There is only one "and" we are permitted to use. We are to love God and love people. We are to be known, as were the early Christians, as people with a remarkable and holy capacity to love. If we are known for our beliefs, or our morality, or our practices, no matter how good those things may be, we have allowed something to interfere with our love. Nothing else matters but Love.