Preaching: Mark 12:28-34  Part 2

In the movie, Toy Story 2, Woody finds himself in a terrible dilemma. An unscrupulous fellow has stolen him from his owner and hidden him away. The thief hopes to acquire all the toys who years ago starred in a famous television series, and Woody completes his set. Now he can sell them all at a great profit to a toy museum. At first Woody didn't remember ever being in such a series, but gradually the memories of the show come back. In the movie's climatic scene, after an adventuresome search, Buzz and the other toys find Woody. They want to release him from his confinement and take him back home to his owner. However, Woody is not sure he wants to go with them. His former colleagues from the television series tell him that he has an opportunity to live forever. Their new owners will put them away behind glass in a museum, where they will never again be handled. Never again roughed up by playing children. And they will live forever. That's tempting!

On the other hand, Buzz and his other friends remind Woody of their owner's love and care for them, and especially Woody. Sure, they are handled harshly. Certainly, eventually they will wear out; their owner will lose interest in them; and they will be discarded. Yet their years will be filled with love. Here's Woody's dilemma: Does he want to live forever safely encased in a museum or does he want to choose a life that has limits but one in which he is loved and enjoyed by his owner? Which should Woody choose?

Woody is faced with a question that may have haunted the scribe who came to Jesus. He asks Jesus, "What's most important?" What is the absolutely essential and crucial matter for life? Mark catches us off guard with the character of this scribe. In Mark's story, the scribes are most often Jesus' opponents. (See next Sunday's Gospel lesson.) However, this particular scribe asks exactly the right question. "Which commandment is the first of all?" What is most important, he asks. Sometimes the important questions come from the most unlikely people! So, we learn to listen to everyone because they might just open a door for us.

The question of what is most important lives on in our contemporary world. Woody was forced to ask it, and so are we. Today there are so many options, so many possible directions to take in life, and so many claims of importance. Few of us have not had to wrestle with a choice: To decide what is most important and meaningful for us and then pursue it. Yet which will it be? Family, fame, economic prosperity, good health, excitement? Which shall we choose?

Jesus' answer to the scribe's question surely did not surprise the scholar. The scribes were students of the Hebrew Scriptures, so certainly this one knew what Jesus might answer. (However, there is some evidence that the question of the most important commandment was debated in Jesus' time.) Jesus first quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and then couples it with Leviticus 19:18. The scribe affirms Jesus' answer to his question and restates it. Then, surprisingly, Jesus declares that he is "not far from the kingdom of God." Knowing what is important in life brought him to the vestibule of God's reign.

To choose love of God and love of neighbor as the highest and most significant goals for life is to choose God's rule in our world. The commandments ask us to order everything—absolutely everything—under love. When we do, things fall into place. All of our other obligations and goals find their proper place when love of God and neighbor is given highest priority.

In the last decade or so, we have created a new word in our vocabulary. We now speak of "prioritizing." That means setting our priorities, ordering them from first to last. You may have some questions about our tendency to make verbs out of nouns, but in this case it has a productive result. The challenge of life in any age—but most especially in contemporary life—is prioritizing. Ordering our goals.

Woody finally made his decision. He chose to return to his home and owner with all his toy friends. He chose love over endless life. That's a courageous decision but a wise one. That little toy cowboy points us to something essential, to what is most important in life: not our own welfare (not even eternal life) but loving God and others. In Joe Baroody's terms, Woody faced his own mortality and in doing so was inspired to love.

For us Christians, the priority of love is unquestionable. We know it to be the most important thing in life because we have learned that God is love. The final, ultimate truth in the whole of reality is love. In Christ we meet that love face to face. He loved God so much that he fulfilled the divine will for his life by going to the cross. He loved us humans so much that he laid down his life for you and me, his friends. Because of Christ we not only know love to be most important but have a model for what it means to love both God and neighbor. Also because of Christ we are empowered to love—not just commanded, but empowered. In Christ's cross, God gives us the strength, the power, and the wisdom to love. "You are not far from the kingdom of God"—not far, if you love.

Pastors may want to consider using this Sunday's Gospel lesson as the first of two sermons on the broad question of what is most important in life. In a sense, the poor widow and her offering is a decisive act of choosing what is most important (Proper 27).

Robert Kysar Candler School of Theology Atlanta, GA