Lent Day 7: BIND

Recite the Primo Credo Today in the Morning and in the Evening:

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.
~Mark 12:29-31

Today, on the Sixth Day of Lent, we continue to discuss the Primo Credo, a variation of the Hebrew Shema Yisrael that Jesus himself told us was the bedrock of our entire belief system.

We have been meditating on it now for five days (today is day six) and will continue to do so until Resurrection (Easter) Sunday.

We have been reciting it every morning and every evening, as faithful Followers of YHWH have been doing for thousands of years.

Last year at this time,I meditated on it quietly for most of the day while away with my husband for a weekend get-away. During a two hour drive home, I closed my eyes (don’t worry, my hubby was driving) and let the words of the first line move through my spirit. My husband commented that I was sleeping. “No,” I replied, “You didn’t hear me snoring, did you?” He laughed and concurred. I really was awake that whole time with my eyes closed, fully focused on that passage.

As I meditated upon it that day,I let the words “read" me, several things came to the fore that I really needed to know and process.

I do not always have that level of success when attempting to stay focused while practicing Christian meditation.(If you want to understand Christian meditation and how it differs from other forms of meditation, I suggest you refer to the following link: http://www.allaboutspirituality.org/christian-meditation-faq.htm)

I’m very glad that I’ve kept up with learning the practice and have not allowed either my oft unsuccessful attempts or the misinformed concerns of others to discourage me.

Meditation on scripture has the capacity to create a fused connection to The Word of God. When we meditate on scripture, we become wiser and gain insight, and even have the ability to have victory over those things which oppose us (enemies, and the like). (See Psalm 119: 97-99)

That “fused connection” can also be called “binding.”

Today’s Verse is:

5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (New International Version)

We are called to BIND the word to ourselves. Now clearly, although it is a huge practice to wear tefellin or phylacteries (which are ornaments that have a tiny copy of the Shema written on parchment rolled up inside that are worn on the arm or forehead by devout Jews, even today), it is probably more likely that this command is made metaphorically. For example, another passage of scripture makes the command to “circumcise your hearts” but clearly if we did that we would not survive. Likewise, the command to “bind” is not necessarily meant to be taken literally, although I must admit the idea of wearing a piece of jewelry with scripture written on it is rather intriguing…

So, what does this command to bind all about, then?

Interestingly, the Hebrew translation of today’s verse says: “Speak of them while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise. Bind them as a sign upon your arm and let them be tefillin between your eyes.”

I think there is a clue, here in the phrase “between your eyes”…

What I’ve got between my eyes is my grey matter.

“Binding” has more to do with creating a permanent connectedness mentally to God thorugh meditation than it does with adorning ourselves with fancy holy jewelry.

Creating a permanent connectedness to The Word of God…Now that is truly a “pearl of great price”!

On this Sixth Day of Lent, may you bind God’s Word to your heart in such a way that your connectedness to Him is enhanced.Remember: whatever you bind on earth will also be bound in heaven. Amen

BIND I MYSELF

I bind unto myself this day
the strong power of the Trinity.
The Three in One, the One in Three,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word.
Bound to Your Word I Ever Shall Be.

Bound to the Father,
Bound to the Son,
Bound to the Spirit,
Bound to the Three in One.

God, and Spirit, and Jesus,
In My Work By Light of Day...
On the path By Dark of Night...
Enlighten My Heart,
Quicken My Soul,
Strengthen My Mind,
That I Might Win the Fight.
©Tracy B. Dickerson, 2010