First Things First
There is a common principle of wisdom, understood nearly universally, but so hard to practice. To live in a fulfilled way in virtuous pursuits, in an effective way, a person needs to put first things first. It is a simple principle but involves some complicated processes of knowledge, wisdom, and will. To put first things first, one needs confidence in knowing the true top priorities. Once identified, putting them first requires persistence, undistracted focus, and sacrifice. Step one: identify the “first things”; steps two through one hundred: diligently practice thoughts and actions that put them first day by day, decision by decision.
When we choose and enact priorities, it is a matter of clarifying our beliefs and that leads us into the follow-through. It is tough. I see this matter as an overarching message of the combined scriptural material for the upcoming Sunday. In the Gospel (Mark 3:20-35), Jesus challenges disciples to an extreme devotion to God, defining family as those who do the will of God: “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
In the Epistle (2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1) Paul tells the Christians, they must view eternal things as the first priority of action and diligence, not visual and material circumstances. He asserts that what he speaks to them is rooted in his conviction that Christ has been raised, and that they all will therefore be raised in Jesus. He asserts that current afflictions are a preparation for the more important, glorious eternal things: “…we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”
In the First Lesson, Samuel, upset about the movement among the people, is complaining to God. The people are demanding a monarch, the system of leadership they see other nations have employed. Samuel, a prophet who turns out to be the last in the line of the Judges of Israel, complains to God that their thirst for a king puts a human figure before God. Samuel does not want them in this way to displace God, and for that matter, to displace him in his role as judge and prophet. He sees it as a shift off of the first thing which is, to quote adamant demands of the Torah:
When a prophet or dreamer appears among you and offers you a sign or a portent and calls on you to follow other gods whom you have not known and worship them. Even if the sign or portent should come true, do not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer, God is testing you through him to discover whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. You must follow the Lord your God and fear him; you must keep his commandments and obey him. Serve him and hold fast to him.
(Deuteronomy 13:1-4)
Anywhere we look in the Old Testament, and perhaps in the New, we identify a dramatic tension in the story of salvation. God asks humanity, “Will you not put me first.” The story of Eden in Genesis, the patriarch stories, the movement from Egypt across the wilderness, the tribal confederacy, the prophets’ challenges to kings of Judah and Israel: all deal prominently with God wondering, “Why will my people not remain loyal to me in this generous holy covenant?”
In line with this, the dynamic challenge of Jesus to those who would be disciples is will you put the will of God first? Matthew records Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. In it, we find a core injunction: the Teacher’s wisdom on human anxiety concerning security. We anxiously seek what we need for clothing, food, and drink. Jesus redirects, saying, “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Jesus tells us to put the kingdom of God first, and our challenge is to discern how we can do that day by day. What perspectives and what kinds of decisions and actions fit with the reign of God? The Psalm for this Sunday gives us a beautiful pair of couplets to steel our resolve:
1 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; *
before the gods I will sing your praise.
2 I will bow down toward your holy temple
and praise your Name, *
because of your love and faithfulness
I see these as positive promises to God stating strongly that we hold God to be our top priority, and in our actions, we put God before all else. Perhaps it will be possible to go deeper with these passages and this theme in future reflections. Let’s conclude for now by taking to heart the Collect of the Day for Sunday, asking God to help us think rightly and do rightly, as the main priority:
O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.