What’s Really Important

Some people have dropped away from organized (?) religion because “there’re too many rules”. Well, I suppose, there ARE those concepts which call for enforced prayer, sacrifice and meditation times, and negate all the fun things… Scriptures read this weekend–if your congregation isn’t observing All Saint’s this day–introduce us to some folks who were trying to live a righteous life by obeying all the footnotes. There’s nothing wrong with our self-imposed disciplines/habits; if these things work for you, by all means keep at them! But are they basic to our route to perfection?

RUTH 1:1-18 has been spoken at weddings, and sung about in several “anthems”. “Where you go, I will go…your people shall be my people…” What’s happening here is the formation of a relationship, even the affirmation of that which already was a closeness. The Book of Ruth is in the Hebrew scriptures because it establishes the line of David’s ancestry; it’s in the Christian scriptures because it lifts up the necessity of selfless surrender to the needs of others. God’s grace has already been seen to function in the lives of Naomi & Ruth: each has a glimpse of What’s Really Important. Although there are many social niceties which would shape the lives of these ladies, their love for each other was remarkable…

The author of the Letter to the HEBREWS is still contrasting the Levitical high priest to the priesthood of Christ: the human priest must sacrifice once a year for the sins of the People; whereas Christ has been there, done that, and constantly carries our ongoing brokenness to God for forgiveness and wholeness. The writer implies a community unfolding in and through Christ, and infers that each of us is somehow dependent upon the Christ-image in The Other. This may be my own interpretation of the moment, yet I’m more and more aware of how dependent I am on not only my daily peers but also on those whose good deeds in the past have set me up. If we’re each in a covenant with the living God, What’s Really Important?

The Gospel according to MARK, 12:28-34, is so central to the Christian doctrine that it appears also in Matthew and Luke. The story is that Jesus is approached by a good man who has done his best to keep ALL the Law (no pork, etc.) yet feels as though there’s Something More. “Which Commandment is absolutely essential?”, he asks. “The first”, Jesus replied, “is to 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, that you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There are many codicils in the Law and the Talmud, but they all depend on these, the Love of God, and the Love of the Other. That’s What’s Really Important!

There are a lot of Good People, made in God’s Image, who get sidetracked and hung up on the details, Seems to me that Jesus’ entire ministry points to the WHY of God’s worship and ignores (downsizes?) the HOW, leaving each of us to evolve our own methods. Central to all, though, is the importance of God, often shown by how important we make the ones around us.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Join me each Tuesday at horacebrownking.com to explore how we can yet be shaped by the lessons read to us on the coming weekend.