  This is the first of two papers which study the behavior of the SU(2)
holonomies of loop quantum gravity (LQG), when they are acted upon by a
unidirectional, plane gravity wave. Initially, the LQG flux-holonomy variables
are treated as classical, commuting functions rather than quantized operators,
in a limit where variation from vertex to vertex are small and fields are weak.
Despite the weakness of the fields, the field equations are not linear. Also,
the theory can be quantized, and the expectation values of the quantum
operators behave like their classical analogs. Exact LQG theories may be either
local or non-local. The present paper argues that a wide class of non-local
theories share non-local features which survive to the semiclassical limit, and
these non-local features are included in the classical limit studied here. An
appendix computes the surface term required when the propagation direction is
the real line rather than $\mathrm{S}_1$. Paper II introduces coherent states,
constructs a damped sine wave solution to the constraints, and solves for the
behavior of the holonomies in the presence of the wave.
