Mark 12:28-34
Big Rocks First
James Sledge November
4, 2018
As
seminary student, I did my summer internship at a small town church in eastern
North Carolina. They provided housing for me in a mother-in-law suite attached
to the home of a widowed, Jewish grandmother named Reba. As far as I know, Reba,
her son, and his family constituted the entire Jewish population of that town.
Reba’s
house and my suite shared an enclosed porch, and she and I would sometimes sit
out there and chat. On one occasion she offered that differences between faiths
didn’t really matter. As long as people believed in God and tried to be good, that
was enough.
Now
I don’t know that Reba actually thought there were no significant differences
between Jews, Christians, Muslims, and so on. Her statement may have been a
mixture of her being very hospitable to me combined with a tactic she had long
used to blend in as a religious minority. I don’t really know. But there are
many people who see the “All faiths are basically the same” idea as a good way to
bridge religious differences.
Given
the problems some religious folks cause, it’s tempting to think that blurring
the distinctions between groups might help. But a vague, blurry, Christian
identity turns out to be difficult to pass on new generations of believers. It doesn’t
require liturgies, worship services, or institutions. And I wonder if the
widely held notion of Christianity as intolerant, anti-gay, pro-Republican, and
so on, isn’t partly the result of more liberal Christians having blurred our
identity to the point that the Christian part isn’t really visible to others.
If
someone who had not grown up in a church walked up to you and asked, “What does
it mean to be a Christian? What’s non-negotiable?” how would you respond? What
would you tell them beyond, “Believe in God and try to be good”?
When
Jesus is asked about what is non-negotiable, he answers by quoting from Scripture,
our Old Testament. He starts with the Shema from Deuteronomy.
“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and will all your soul (or life), and with all
your mind, and with all your strength.”
But
Jesus doesn’t stop there. He was asked for the commandment that is “first
of all,” but he adds as second, from Leviticus, “You shall love our neighbor as
yourself.”
Now
I don’t know about you, but to my ear, loving God with all your being and
loving your neighbor as yourself has a very different ring to it than “Believe
in God and try to be good.” I believe the world is round, but there’s no love
involved, no relationship. I generally obey the law and think of myself, in
some ways, as good, but again that’s not necessarily about love or
relationship.
Belief is a private thing that I can
keep to myself. Being good is something I can do regardless of religion. And so
if someone who doesn’t know a lot about Christianity encounters a Christian or a
church whose faith has turned into “Believe in God and try to be good,” they
may not get much sense of people devoted, body and soul, to God. They may not
meet people who lives are animated by love of neighbor.
___________________________________________________________________________
All
Saints Day was this past Thursday, but we typically celebrate it here on the
first Sunday in November. All Saints remembers those saints who have died
during the past year, and the names of those from this congregation are in the
bulletin.
Many
people’s understanding of the word “saint” comes from the Roman Catholic
practice of elevating a select few to sainthood, people who lived particularly
exemplary lives of faith and have miracles attributed to them. New Testament
writers, however, use the term for all who are in Christ.
The
Apostle Paul typically addressed his letters to those who are called to be saints,
or to all the saints in such and such a place. Saint does refer to being
set apart or consecrated for holy purposes, but Paul and other Christian writers
assume that this happens to every believer. In our baptisms, we are joined to
Christ and consecrated for holy work in the world.
There is nothing really wrong with
believing in God and trying to be good, but that is not a holy calling, not the
work of saints. Radical devotion to God and radical devotion to neighbor is.
Loving God with every fiber of our being and making the needs of our neighbor
at least as important as our own is the new and full life Jesus says that we
are meant to live. That is our holy purpose, the heart and soul of the lives we
were created for.
_____________________________________________________________________________
A
time management guru was speaking to a class at a top business school. Mid-presentation
he pulled out a one-gallon Mason-jar, filled it with fist sized rocks, then
asked, “Is this jar full?” Everyone said, “Yes.”
Then
he took out a bucket of gravel and began pouring it into the jar, shaking it so
that the gravel worked its way in between the rocks. Again he asked, “Is the
jar full?” A single student answered “Probably not.”
Next
he brought out a bucket of sand and poured it into the jar, filling the spaces
between rocks and gravel. Once again he asked, “Is the jar full?” and the class
shouted, “No!”
He
took out a pitcher of water, poured it into the jar, then he asked the class if
they understood the point of the illustration. One student offered, “No matter
how full your schedule, if you try really hard, you can always fit more into
it.”
“No,”
the speaker replied, “that’s not the point. The point is—if you don’t put the
big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”[1]
Our
world treats Christianity, faith, spirituality, as extras added to already full
lives to provide something that’s missing. But Jesus insists that radical love
of God and radical love of neighbor are the core, the very biggest rocks. And
oh how the world needs more people living out this radical way of Jesus.
Our world is so broken, so filled with
hurt and pain and hate. And that is so, in no small part, because so many
people put their own good and the good of those in their group ahead of loving
God and loving neighbor. They may believe in God and try to be good, as long as
that doesn’t interfere too much with getting what they want. But they know
little of the sort of life Jesus invites us to discover, the life of saints.
____________________________________________________________________________
In
our gospel reading today, when Jesus tells a scribe what the two biggest and
most important rocks are, the scribe responds, “You are right, Teacher… – this is much more important than all whole
burnt offerings and sacrifices,” or any other smaller things. And Jesus
responds, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
O
Lord, pour out your Spirit on us. Call us once more, and show us how to order
our lives, so that we may live as the saints you created us to be, so that we
may know the joy of living as citizens of your coming reign.
[1] From The Thoughtful Christian.com Leader’s Guide to Martin
Thielen, What’s the Least I Can Believe
and Still Be a Christian, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011)
No comments:
Post a Comment