It is the things we do that matter, not the things we say Ceilon Aspensen, February 10, 2024February 10, 2024 The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is it’s the things we do that matter, not the things we say. My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this: Exodus 29 & 30: More consecration, investiture, and traditions associated with the sanctuary. Mark 12: When God is at the center of our lives, so is gratitude for what what we’ve been given, and our priorities will be in the right order. In this regard, it is the things we do that matter, not the things we say. Psalms 40: Don’t keep the great things God has done for me a secret. They are a testimony to his goodness. Proverbs 9: Wisdom is available to all who seek it, but not all do seek it. When we see others shun wisdom and choose folly, stay out of it and let the Holy Spirit sort it out. (Remember the advice to not “grab a stray dog by the ears.”) In Mark 12, Jesus reminds us through a parable that all of the Earth was created by God, and though we derive benefit from it through our own hard work, the raw materials for our success were provided by God. The only appropriate response is gratitude and thanksgiving. However he reminds us of the basic nature of human beings, which is to forget all that we’ve been given and to attribute all of our success to our own efforts as if we had invented the Universe, and not the other way around. In illustrating this fundamental truth through the telling of this parable, he is also recounting the history of the prophets who came before him, as well as forecasting his own future. There’s a lot going on in this chapter of Mark, but it is all connected. On the surface it seems to be a series of unrelated questions of Jesus, designed to catch him in an error of some kind, by which he could be discredited. But the questions aren’t unrelated. He takes us from a parable of ingratitude, to answering a question about potential tax evasion (which would have been considered seditious in those times), to answering a question about who a woman would be married to in Heaven if she had been widowed by seven brothers from the same family. All of the questions were about property (women were considered property in those days). Jesus provides the perfect answer when he says, “Pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar–and God what belongs to God.” “They were amazed at him” because his answer exposed these Pharisees as being more committed to their social traditions and financial advantage than they were to the spiritual laws of God. He later tells his followers to beware of people like this, who are more concerned about the trappings of faith than the spirit of the law and a relationship with God that included love for one’s neighbor. Jesus addresses that also, when he answers yet another question by telling them that the greatest of all the commandments is to love God “with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” I’ve mentioned before that I knew a United Methodist pastor who regularly preached that he believed that Jesus was saying there was only one great commandment (love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength), and that loving your neighbor as yourself was the way to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. I agree with him. It all comes down to that one thing. Finally, Jesus points out that the way we give reveals our true spiritual intentions. He contrasts the wealth of those who enrich themselves at the expense of the poor with the widow who literally gives her last penny to the offering box at the synagogue. She gave all she had to the poor, when she herself was poor, while the wealthy gave a little of their surplus. I don’t think this is necessarily a call for all of us to give away everything we own (although Jesus does have something to say about that in other places), but it is meant to shame those who barely give anything (if they give anything at all) to the poor while the poor give all they have when necessary to support those in greater need than themselves. I believe Jesus uses this story to demonstrate what loving your neighbor as yourself looks like: when someone is in desperate need, if you have anything to give them you should give it. One last thought on this topic comes from today’s Psalm. That chapter is all about giving thanks and letting others know of the great things that God has done for us. Many people interpret that to mean that we should go around shouting about the goodness of God, being a conspicuous witness. Perhaps. Perhaps not. I think the way in which we do this should be dependent on the circumstances we find ourselves in. For example, I am an academic with a PhD. If I am in the company of other academics and those with PhDs, quoting the Bible and talking about the goodness of God will likely give them the impression that I am a lunatic Bible thumper. I don’t think that’s what God has in mind. However, the widow in the temple giving her last penny to the poor, when she herself is poor, communicates volumes to those watching about the goodness of God. By her actions she demonstrates the goodness of God to those around her, and to any Pharisees who might have been paying attention, she might shame them into reconsidering their own actions in that regard. It is the things we do that matter, not the things we say. That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today? 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