Let the Main Thing Be the Main Thing

Gospel: Mark 2:23--3:6

                ²³One sabbath [Jesus] was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. ²⁴The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not Lawful on the sabbath?” ²⁵And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? ²⁶He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not Lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” ²⁷Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; ²⁸so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
 ^3:1Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ²They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” ⁴Then he said to them, “Is it Lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

1 Samuel 3:1-10 [11-20]

¹Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
  ²At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; ³the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. ⁴Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” ⁵and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. ⁶The Lord called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” ⁷Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. ⁸The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
  ¹⁰Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” [¹¹Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. ¹²On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. ¹³For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. ¹⁴Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”
  ¹⁵Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. ¹⁶But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.” ¹⁷Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” ¹⁸So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”
  ¹⁹As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. ²⁰And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.]

           Bishop Roger has a phrase he uses to remind us in the synod office to stay focused.  “Let the main thing be the main thing.”  It’s not an original phrase. The organizational guru Stephen Covey popularized the phrase, not surprisingly.  It’s part of the organization-speak that is annoyingly helpful.

           Let the main thing be the main thing.

           So we are finally back to Mark’s gospel, after a long detour through mostly John in Easter and Pentecost.  Most of our gospel texts for the rest of the church year—through Christ the King Sunday on November 25—will come from Mark.  So fasten your seatbelts!  Because who is Mark’s Jesus, Sunday School Class?  [Man of Action]  He’s not a different Jesus, of course, but every gospel writer looks at Jesus through a slightly different lens.  That’s why the canon kept all four of the gospels:  if you look through the four lenses you get a three dimensional picture of Jesus.

           Math.

           In John, he talks.  In Matthew he talks to Jews.  In Luke he does a bunch of stuff, eventually.  In Mark, he works.  By the end of the first chapter of Mark’s gospel, Jesus has healed multiple sick people, cast out multiple demons, and preached throughout the Galilee. He has also been baptized and tempted by the devil in the wilderness. 

           Chapter One. 

           Jesus doesn’t even appear in Chapter One of Luke’s gospel.

           Our lesson for this week comes from Mark 2, where Jesus first encounters the friendly neighborhood Pharisees.  It won’t the last encounter, as you might imagine, because the things that irritate the Pharisees about Jesus are often rooted in stuff he does.  And he does a lot of stuff in Mark.

           If we review that stuff—that Pharisee-irritating stuff which Jesus does—we are likely to come to a familiar place about which our bishop warns. 

           See, Jesus is really good at keeping the main thing the main thing.  Really good at it—like supernaturally good.

           What’s “The Main Thing” for Jesus?

           Love.  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  The commandments which allow us to love our neighbors are super important.  They are the main thing.

           The Pharisees were the holders of the Law.  The big Law, the one that encompassed not just the Torah, but the writings, and the prophets, and the Midrash—the scholarly interpretation of the Torah and the writings and the prophets.  They knew all of the fine points of all of the Laws.  The six hundred thirteen Laws that made up the Mitzvot—the Laws in the Torah.  Plus the various interpretations in other sources.

           It was a lot to order.  It was a lot of order.  And, with apologies to Stephen Covey, Order isn’t Righteousness.  The Pharisees had a tendency to be blinded by the former, to the detriment of the latter. 

           The lesson before us this morning shows us why this is a problem.  The scenario is a simple one:  Jesus and his disciples are travelling in the Galilee on the Sabbath.  The disciples are plucking the heads off of the stalks of grain.  They were gleaning, in other words, which is permitted by the Law.  That’s why the text is careful to say that they were “plucking” the grain, rather than “harvesting” it.  The poor and travelers were allowed to pick grain for their own use.  They weren’t allowed to use a sickle, or harvest enough grain to keep. 

           Gleaning is a provision for “daily bread,” a promise God has made to God’s people since they were wandering in the wilderness and God provided manna.  We still pray for daily bread.

           So the disciples were following the Law in their gleaning.  But the Pharisees thought they might be opposing another law—the commandment against working on the Sabbath. 

           The Law says that people can have daily bread, and gives provision for them to secure that daily bread.  But it also says no work on the Sabbath. 

           This is a problem, right?  Do we need a lawyer?

           Nope.  Who do we need?  We need Jesus.  Keepin’ the main thing the main thing.

           “Rabbi,” the Pharisees declare, “Your disciples are doing what is not Lawful on the Sabbath.”

           “Yes,” Jesus replies, “Just like King David.”

           Any scholar of Jewish Law knows that The King David Smackdown is a winner.  But it isn’t some wildcard played to win the hand.  Jesus is making an important point.  Yes, there are laws about the proper keeping of Sabbath.  Four of them, to be precise.  But the purpose of the Law is to make our lives better—to enable us to live together better.  The Law, including the laws about Sabbath, was created for us—not the other way around.

           It makes no sense for the Law to be used in a way that hurts people.  That’s not its intention.  And just to be clear, allowing people to go hungry is hurtful.  All who claim to be a children of the God of Abraham—meaning all of us—should be doing what they can to make sure no one is hungry, no one is hurting, no one is in danger.

           That’s the main thing.  Love of God and love of neighbor, which are, of course, two sides of the same coin.  We love God by loving our neighbors.  And we love our neighbors by keeping the law.  Leaving grain in the fields for hungry travels and the needy.  Giving alms to those who request them.  Paying a living wage—yeah, there’s a law for that. 

           The second part of the lesson is pretty anticlimactic for those of us who know Jesus and who paid attention to the first part.  Jesus entered the synagogue, where there was a man who was suffering.  Mark tells us that the Pharisees, “watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him.”

           Were any of you hanging on the edge of your seats when I was reading it?

           Did you already know what he would do?

           A man was suffering, and Jesus had the ability to help him.  Any law that would prevent a believer from helping someone in need is superseded by the command to help a person in need.  It’s that simple.  Let the main thing be the main thing.

           And the main thing is loving our neighbors. 

           It can be pretty easy to get distracted these days.  It seems to be harder and harder for us as a people to love one another.  So much meanness in the world.  I find it really troubling—how ‘bout you?

           Following Jesus isn’t always easy.  Especially in an age when we hear things attributed to the Christian faith that couldn’t be further from The Main Thing—love of God and love of neighbor.  Personally, I’m finding it hard to love a lot of fundamentalists right now.

           But the Main Thing says I have to do that.  Love ‘em.  And stand up for the gospel when what we hear is a perversion of the Law.

           We gotta focus on the main thing.  Which means listening for God’s call, watching for the neighbor in need, being tuned in to opportunities to serve.  That’s how we focus.  We listen.  We watch.  We do.

           And just as important as the how is the why.

           Why do we focus on the main thing?  Because we live in a time when there are too many other things vying for attention in our communities.  In our nation.  And God needs us—needs us—to focus on building the kingdom on our midst.  God needs us to be like Mark’s Jesus—getting busy for the sake of the kingdom.  Healing, proclaiming the kingdom of God, feeding the hungry.  We need to be people of action!

           And yeah, we’re busy people, too.  So maybe as we are focusing on letting the main thing be the main thing in the big sense, the loving God and loving our neighbors, maybe we also need to spend some time discerning what our main thing is. 

           We know what God has called all of us to do.  We need to listen for what God is calling each of us to do.  What God is calling us to do as a congregation.  As individuals. 

           We need to find our main thing.  And then we need to let it be…the main thing.

           People are hungry.  More than every before in this country, this rich rich country, people are hungry.  Maybe your main thing is making sure they have daily bread.  Or making sure they have affordable housing.  Or making sure they can read by third grade, so that they can have opportunities when they grow up.

           And maybe your main thing is caring for God’s creation.  Fighting for safe schools.  Could be anything.  I don’t know what your main thing is.  You might not know either.  Here’s what I do know:  God has a main thing for you.  God is calling out a main thing to you, just as God was calling Samuel.  So it’s okay if you don’t realize the first few times that it’s God.  Samuel was a really great prophet and he didn’t recognize God’s voice.

           Until he did.  And then he did great things.

           And so will you.