Radical Commandment

Claim: man cannot escape worship. We are bound to worship something or someone. As a result, our thoughts conform to what we worship (or you might say "idolize"). Our thoughts ARE what we believe. And we are hopelessly chained to operate ONLY according to what we believe to be true and good.

It is uncommon for man to worship just ONE thing with any amount of exclusivity. We, by our fallen nature, look for ways to avoid exclusive commitment to pretty much anything.

We don't want a job that requires full commitment. 40-hrs, maybe. Even in those 40 we don't prefer full commitment. We have to have our own time to cell-phone, email, break, doodle, research hobbies, etc. It is part of the curse of man. He is un-committed.

We don't want a hobby that requires full commitment: I want my hobby neatly packaged for me, in a trailer, on wheels, where I can store it in the garage and easily pull it out for a saturday, then placed back in its spot until I decide to spend a little more time on it. And those people who "collect" things (you know them, they spend all of their free time searching for Elvis memorabilia and driving across the country to look at a poster from 1973, while their house is filled with thousands of similar relics), yeah those people, we consider to be a bit too far on the fringe of normalcy.

The unbelieving world defines "normalcy" as a diverse, and well-mixed distribution of commitments. Anyone with a commitment to something which is not adequately dissolved into a homogenous solution of other commitments, we see as "abnormal." We allow for it, to a degree. But we sell ourselves on the idea of "balance" as a fundamental pillar of "healthy" life.

The unbelieving world doesn't even want relationships which require full commitment: we would prefer to be able to flirt with that other person rather than "having to" stick to the old drudgery of monogamy.

And as this infects the church, we don't want commitment in those relationships either. So we re-define "the church" to allow for us to distance ourselves from them at will. Neatly packaged, on wheels, stored away in the garage until I grow tired of it, and trade it in for a different model.

If this is true of us, of "fallen" man, then we can begin to see the RADICAL nature of the greatest command: to love the Lord, your GOD, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all of your strength.

It was radical when Moses repeated it to the wandering Hebrews 1400 years before the birth of Jesus. It was radical when Jesus repeated it to the lawyer of the Pharisees. People who haven't fully diluted their commitments are IMBALANCED, you see.

The command left no wiggle room for a measure of anything else. He did not command his people to "throw in a measure of loving God to your pursuit of life, your career objectives, your political bent, your free-time, in order to get a healthy balance."

Not coincidentally, Psalms opens with "Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord."

When the salt loses its savor, we, the household of God, the royal priesthood, cease to be the distinctive (abnormal) people that are easily identifiable to a fallen world pursuing their well-balanced, pH-neutral mixture of idols.

The poor, the broken, the infirm do not come to us, as representatives, as family of the Great Provider, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, for help in times of need. Why would they? It is hard for them to distinguish us from any other group of idol-worshippers.

So they look to Government-sponsored agencies and "charitable organizations" pushing twisted worldviews. These have supplanted the priesthood as the "suppliers of need" and connection with our Father.

What then? What is the mission field for those who would be servants of the Lord, followers of Christ? I cannot escape the notion that it still comes down to living, teaching, arguing for and convincing our fellow believers, the greatest of the commandments.

Were not the Levites a bit "abnormal", even among the Jews? The weird ones.

Kind of "extreme", you know. Are we not called to this?