Deut 6:4-5; Mark 12: 28-34
Writer / editor Michael Davis of the Baltimore Jewish Times teaches religious education at his Reformed synagogue and has witnessed with sadness the level of indifference religious education gets in the lives of his students and their parents. Contrasting the intensive, rigorous scrutiny and concern these parents direct towards their children's secular education and extra-curricular activities, Davis observes that "…many are seemingly incapable of caring about what happens on Sunday. They roll up to the temple, drop off their kids, and expect that when they pick them up two and a half hours later, they'll have been transformed into Jews. I call this "Dry Clean Judaism." Davis goes on to remind these parents and all his readers that religious life can't be confined to a few hours every weekend. "Judaism," he concludes, "is a way of life, a 24 hour, seven-day-a-week blueprint to approach and respond to life." (1)
What is being said can be summed up in a single word – priorities. Generally, I think it's fair to say that we live in culture and time that has confused priorities, and that we resemble, too often, our culture rather than our Savior – the result is we have divided hearts, minds, lives, and priorities.
In answering the question of the scribe, Jesus doesn't recite a list of prioritized commandments, as was expected. Rather, he gives a summary of all the commandments to his questioner. To love God with your everything; to love your neighbor as yourself… to love God and neighbor with your all.
The scribe that had come to test him recognizes he has answered well, and compliments him – even expanding on his answer. Jesus, then, says: "You are not far from the kingdom of God." Don't be confused by this exchange. The scribe is the third in a series of trials confronting Jesus in this section. Trials stories always come in threes. As gentle as this last exchange may seem on the surface, trust me – the scribe was present to make a case against Jesus. Even the words of Jesus might be misunderstood as a compliment. If you read it carefully, you would know better. To say he is not far from the kingdom of God is to say he is not in it – and that's why the final line of this exchange is "and no one dared ask any more questions." To Jesus, knowing the answer doesn't equate to living the answer you know.
- Choan-seng Song, an Asian woman and theologian, says: "God moves in all directions: God moves forward, no doubt, but also sideways and even backwards. Perhaps God zigzags, too … God goes anywhere a redeeming presence is called for." (2)
What is our personal relationship to the kingdom of God? Are we in because we know Jesus Christ, or because we actually follow Jesus Christ? Do we belong because we've memorized the Apostles Creed or the brand spanking new 2000 Catechism for confirmation? Or do we enter in when we yield all of our days (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) and when we yield all of ourselves (spirit, mind, soul and strength) to Jesus Christ. Not when we say it – that doesn't count for anything at all. Not when we mean to do it – that may be fine motivation, but that's not love in action. No – when we actually do it – when we really live like we believe that Christ's claim upon our life is absolute and we surrender our lives absolutely – when Christ becomes our single priority, we are living in the kingdom of heaven.
Instead, most of us live by other priorities. It might be the way we were raised. It might be the way we were taught. It might be the rules and expectations others have of us, or the expectations we have for ourselves. These rules can be family values, they can be high school values, they can be civic values, or they can be religious values. All these rules, because they are the rules, are just the way things are, the way things have always been, and likely, it's the way we think things have to be.
To some very real extent, we try to fit God into all of our existing sets of rules. That's no easy task – we live by so many sets of rules that our sets of rules contradict each other. Yet, religious education and training is no substitute for establishing life's priorities in accordance with God's priorities. Christ alone is the singular priority of those in the kingdom of heaven – and anything else we do, we manage to fit into this overarching rule of life – to follow Christ.
If we would be in the kingdom of heaven, serving God and neighbor in Christ must be our one priority. If, upon examination of our life and our priorities we discover that service to God in Christ is not first, than we might not be far from the kingdom, but then again, we may not be in it. Christ is in that kingdom of heaven, and following Christ is the single priority that can assure us of remaining in God's presence, remaining in God's service, remaining in God's will and purpose for our lives to love God and neighbor.
- There is a story of a Russian peasant who asked a holy man how to "pray without ceasing" as Paul recommends. The holy man advised him to begin by praying with his lips, over and over, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me, a sinner." He advised him that it is prayer itself that will instruct the heart how it can be achieved unceasingly; but it will take time. The peasant began to pray in this fashion, traveling all over Russia, keeping this prayer on his lips as he pursued this holy quest to pray always without ceasing. He comes to consider the Jesus prayer as his true companion on his journey. Finally, one day, he has the feeling that the prayer by its own action passes from his lips to his heart. He says: "It seemed as though my heart in its ordinary beating began to say the words of the prayer within each beat…I gave up saying the prayer with my lips. I simply listened to what my heart was saying." In other words, the prayer had become the active presence of God's Spirit guiding me through life.
1. Michael David, "Dry Clean Judaism," Baltimore Jewish Times, 5 November 1993, 18.
2. "Tell us Our Names; Story Theology from Asian Perspective (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1984), p. 16.