What is Important?

You could make a list of important things. To name only three might take some time and think. If you listed fifty things, your work might go quickly until the final few spots. If you had a committee to decide, it could take days, because of course when you ask different people, you get differing answers to the question, “What is important?”

Salespersons, declare things associated with their product. Luxury cars provide you with comfort and prestige, The Subaru folks claim their cars bring love. To the service provider, it is their service that is important. A campaign worker says their candidate’s idealogy is important. A religious teacher points to the virtues and graces of their belief and practice. A folk singer or activist might point you to the hammer of justice, the bell of freedom, or the song about the love between your brothers and your sisters. Another might suggest that you give peace a chance. Doctors say diet and exercise are important.

You can see how your list can quickly get to fifty or more important things. “Faith, hope, and love abide, these three,” writes St. Paul. Then he adds, “And the greatest of these is love.” We do not argue. Most everyone knows the value of love, kindness, hope, health, fairness, education, air, water, food, shelter, respect, wisdom, tenderness, etc. These contribute to the quality of that important thing we call LIFE. Each of you wants it for yourself, and if you have managed to keep a lovely heart, you want it for others too.

We are all after happiness and the good life. We have practical considerations that fit with the physical world, human societies, and our bodies. We have philosophical and spiritual answers that connect with minds, hearts, and souls. Though we preoccupy ourselves with many unimportant things, we can name many important things. I certainly wish I would attend less to superficial elements in life and invest more in things that matter. Kierkegaard started one of his essays with the simple prayer, “Lord, give us dull eyes for things which are of no account, and keen eyes for all your truth.”

In scripture lessons assigned for Sunday, we will find Paul pointing away from futile externals and toward what matters. We will see Jesus, in the Gospel according to Luke, steering his disciples to rejoice in their secure connection to God, not in the dazzling experiences of their mission. First look at Paul as we see him through his letter to the Galatians. He knows that his tradition has forever promoted the outward sign of physical circumcision. This cause has, in Galatia and elsewhere, eclipsed what he has learned and experienced: that Jesus Christ recreates the person from the inside out, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Paul chooses to call this the all-important “circumcision of the heart.” He guides people away from the ancient, outward act which does nothing to save, and toward the inner work of God that remakes the person entirely:

May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! (Galatians 6:14-15)

In the gospel account, we learn that Jesus sent out seventy disciples in pairs to announce peace and the kingdom of God and to cure sick people who are in the towns all about them. Here are some key slices of the story from Luke 10:1-20,

The Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him … He said to them, … “Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. …Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; … Whenever you enter a town… cure the sick who are there, and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.” …The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Notice how, when they return, the divine power which the paired-up disciples encountered, coming through them to heal people, captivated their attention. We can understand how it would. Jesus teaches them that their experience of delivering power is not important when compared with the reality that they belong to God. They are all included in the life of God.

As you go through the day today, you will have so many experiences, some connected to the truly important, some mere distractions. Hold close to you, as an exercise in spiritual maturity, two important truths. First, your connection to the Crucified and Resurrected One has made you a new creation, which is everything; second, your name has been written in heaven, and that belonging to God will never pass away.