Today I want to talk about contrasts. Both today’s psalm and our second reading talk about God’s Law. The psalm suggests that every word and every letter of every alphabet would not be enough to talk about God’s Law. Paul says that everything that the Law says can be summed up in one word.

That’s quite a contrast, isn’t it? Which is it: God’s Law is inexhaustible, using every word and every letter of every alphabet; or, God’s Law is so simple that it can be boiled down to one, single word? That’s what we’re going to explore today.

Recently--but before we were so rudely interrupted by earthquakes, floods and power outages--we’d been talking about parallelism in Hebrew poetry. Parallelism is when an idea is said once, but then repeated in slightly different terms.

The point is not repetition for repletion's sake. When something is repeated--and you notice it--you’re getting a new perspective, a new light shone on the term.

But parallelism isn’t the only oddity of Hebrew poetry. Another is writing acrostic poems. Every new pair of lines begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. (If it were in English, the first pair of lines would begin with a, the second with b, and so on.)

The point of acrostic poetry is, again, not simply that it’s clever. What the author is really trying to get at is that, whatever it is that they’re talking about, it takes every letter of the alphabet to get at what they’re saying! (In English, it’d be like writing a poem to your beloved where her beauty is described in couplets that run from A to Z. “The whole alphabet cannot express your beauty!”)

The only problem is, Hebrew poetry isn’t written in English! And, interestingly, that means two things. First, English translations of the Bible cannot repeat what’s happening in Hebrew. They can give us the words but, in giving us the words, they can’t also follow the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Second ... How to put this? God doesn’t speak English; he speaks Hebrew!

Granted, I’m being facetious. But the writers of the Hebrew Bible aren’t! In their mind, God reveals himself through his Word (capital W) and his Word is written in the words of Hebrew! Therefore, to write a poem where every couplet begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, you’re saying something like this: “You know what I’m really trying to say through this poem? Using every letter in Hebrew, even God can’t say all there is to say! That’s how big, or important, or beautiful this topic is!”

Open your green hymnals to page 273 at the front. If you’ve ever wondered what the longest chapter is in the longest book in the Bible, here it is: Psalm 119. It begins on page 273 and continues for six pages--and 176 verses--later, on page 279!

Psalm 119 is an acrostic psalm. But it’s an acrostic psalm where, not just each couplet, but each section begins each line with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. (Today’s responsive reading, for instance, is on page 274. Every single line of that portion of the psalm begins with the fifth letter of the Hebrew alphabet: He.)

The one and only topic of all 176 verses of Psalm 119, using every letter in the Hebrew alphabet, is the wonder and the majesty of God’s Law. As we read in today’s responsive reading, “Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end ... Lead me in the path of your commandments, for that is my desire ... Behold, I long for your commandments; by your righteousness enliven me.”

If other poems claim eloquence by devoting two lines each to every letter of the Hebrew alphabet, imagine how much greater the claim is when every line of every section of a poem is dedicated to a different letter of the alphabet! In a poem like this, the author is saying, “This is how vast God’s Law is! This is how perfect and complete it is! This is how extensive and all-encompassing it is! Every letter of every word testifies to the greatness of God’s Law!”

So how, then, can Paul write today that everything that the Law says--everything that it is--can be summed up in a single word?

Talk about contrast! On the one hand today, we have a responsive reading that claims that even if we use every letter of every word, we still couldn’t exhaust the depth and meaning of God’s Law while, on the other hand, we have another reading that claims that everything that the Law says can be summarized in a single word.

What a contrast! St. Paul knew his Bible. Like most the educated people in his day, he would have learned the entire Hebrew scriptures--the Old Testament--by heart as a child. What we know by reading, he knew deep within himself.

He knew Psalm 119’s claim to the vastness and inexhaustibility of God’s Law. And yet he wrote what we read today! Notice how firm and compromising it is: “Owe no one anything, except to love one another ...” Paul then goes on to explain. “For the one who loves another has fulfilled [or completed] the law.”

Now, just in case we haven’t followed or understood what Paul meant, he further explains. And, again, notice how firm and uncompromising he is! He writes, “The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet” [those are from the Ten Commandments]; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling [or the completion] of the law.”

What a contrast! Within minutes of each other, we participated in a responsive reading today that claimed that God’s Law is inexhaustible, unfathomable, and unreachable. No matter how many words we use to describe or praise it, always it’s above and beyond our reach.

No sooner were we done with that then, lo and behold, we listened to St. Paul say that everything that the Law says can be summed up in this one word: love your neighbor as yourself.

Which is it: infinite complexity or sheer simplicity? Every letter of every word in every alphabet or the single word, love?

People of a certain age will remember the ad where one person holds up a package of Certs, saying, “It’s a breath mint!” while someone else protests, “It’s a candy mint!” The battle would go on until someone finally steps in, explaining that Certs is “Two, two, two mints in one!”

What we have today is a contrast, but not a disagreement. God’s Law is at one and the same time so intricate, so complex, so deep that all of human language and knowledge cannot grasp or encompass it. But, at the same time, Paul is absolutely right! For all of its complexity, God’s Law is love, plain and simple.

I think about all this as, once again, we prepare for the start of a new program year. In the coming months we’ll baptize infants whose only knowledge and experience of God will be in the love shown them by their family and, we pray, us. And we’ll bury Christians who have spent an entire lifetime within the church.

We’ll shelter three and four-year olds in our Nursery School and plumb the depths of scripture in Bible studies. We’ll be simple and we’ll be complex. We’ll look for hidden depths and treasures while never losing sight of the simplicity of love that stands behind everything we do and everything we believe.

And we’ll remember, day after day and week after week, that there is a face to love and to the unfathomable mystery that is God. And that face is Jesus.

Can we be both complex and simple at the same time? We can! For, by God’s grace we are children of the mysterious God whose face is love and whose name is Jesus. In his name. Amen!