Based on Amos 8:1-2, 9-12, Colossians 1:15-23, Luke 10:38-42
We find ourselves today in the first month of our fourth year together. As I often do at the beginning of our reflection time, I’m going to pose a question for you to ponder. This is not an easy question to answer, but it might prove helpful in clarifying what you believe. Ready? What is the most important thing to you (i.e., teaching, scripture, doctrine, creed, lived experience) about your Christian faith? That is, if you had to distill everything you know about being a Christian to a single point, what would that one thing be for you? Now that I’ve asked you that question, it is quite likely that you will be so deep in thought that you won’t hear anything else that I have to say this morning. Therefore, I will remind you that the text of this reflection resides on our website under the “blog” tab at the top of the home page.
It is a hard question to answer, isn’t it? Afterall, the average bible contains some 1500 pages of information and teachings about God and God’s relationship to humans. How can I expect you to pick just one thing; to distill everything about Christianity that you’ve ever heard, read or been taught into a bumper sticker? It’s like the question asked to Michelangelo about how he carved the statue of David from a slab of marble. The great sculptor supposedly answered that from the large marble slab he simply removed everything that wasn’t David. That’s the focus and clarity that I’m looking for in your answer – for you to remove everything except what is most important to you. It may come readily tripping off your tongue, or you may spend the rest of your life discerning your answer. I can tell you from personal experience that your answer will quite likely change with time and study.
It is critical for us, with all the insistent voices of our age ringing in our ears, to get clear about what we believe is most important as we do our best to follow Jesus. For example, the reformer Martin Luther believed that the most important thing about being a Christian was to focus oneself “Sola Scriptura” – only on the scriptures. In Seminary, my Systematic Theology teacher said that the most important thing about understanding Christian theology as described in the Bible was to see everything in the light of Jesus the Christ. The United Methodist Church teaches that our primary missional focus is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Well, perhaps our scripture readings for today will help us answer the question of what one thing is most important as we live our lives of faith following Jesus. The prophet Amos continues to inform King Jeroboam and all who will listen just what God has planned for them. It is clear that the northern kingdom of Israel had forgotten the first commandment given to their ancestors by Moses! Therefore, God is going to “spare them no longer” because they loved making money more than God and they “trample the poor and do away with the needy of the land”. In response to their apostasy, God will send a famine – not of food and water, but “a famine of hearing the words of the LORD”. God will remove God’s presence from them, and they will wander alone for an unspecified amount of time.
Paul is reminding the believers in Colossae about the one thing that they need to focus on in their faith journey. That one thing is the supremacy of Jesus, who is the visible image “of the invisible God”. Paul tells them that, “…Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now God [he] has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in God’s [his] sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel….” For Paul, this was the one thing that he most wanted the Colossians to understand.
Jesus and his entourage are visiting the home of Lazarus and his two sisters. The younger sister, Mary, sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to him teach, while Martha is distracted by attending to all the duties of a first-century hostess. Martha addresses her worry and frustration to Jesus and asks him to tell Mary to help her. Jesus replies that Mary is doing the one thing that all his followers need to do – and it will not be taken away from her.
So, we’ve received input from many different sources about what one thing might be most important about being a Christian. Since you are United Methodists, you might be wondering, “What did John Wesley have to say about this?” It is a very good question and I’m glad you asked it. The answer to your question is that in 1734 John Welsey preached a sermon based on Luke 10:42 entitled, “One Thing is Needful”. In it he stated that the one thing that was most important for Christians is, “…To recover our first estate, from which we are thus fallen, is the one thing now needful – to re-exchange the image of Satan for the image of God, bondage for freedom, sickness for health. Our one great business is to raise out of our souls the likeness of our destroyer, and to be born again, to be formed anew after the likeness of our Creator. It is our one concern to shake off this servile yoke and to regain our native freedom; to throw off every chain, every passion and desire that does not suit an angelical nature. The one work we have to do is to return from the gates of death to perfect soundness; to have our diseases cured, our wounds healed, and our uncleanness done away….”
I find that this sermon, irrespective of the sometimes difficult to understand 18th century English, is worth reading on a regular basis, because it so powerfully speaks to us about where our focus should be as disciples. The practical point that Wesley makes is that you can tell a great deal about a disciple’s priorities by the way they spend their time and money. Sounds a lot like Jesus, who taught that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”.
Wesley believed that it was absolutely essential that God’s priorities were our priorities. As a result of his conviction that one thing is needful – being renewed and remade in the image of God – he used anything that he could to constantly remind people of what was most important. Wesley created the “Three General Rules” to help guide the people called Methodists to (1) Do good, (2) Do no harm and (3) stay in love with God – what Wesley termed as partaking in the “Ordinances of God”. They were also to be in right relationship and watch over one another in love through various small and larger group activities. The goal of all of this focus was to fan the flames that God had lit in people’s hearts and lives. To help every Methodist keep their eyes on Jesus and to keep them attentive to nurturing and growing their relationship with God and with all of their neighbors.
I agree with our founder that the one thing that is most important in our lives as disciples of the Christ is to discover the image of God that has been placed in each of us, and then to live out of that image into the world. The hard part about this is that there is no one “right” way to go about this. Focusing on the teachings of the Bible, however, is a good place to start. Spending time with God each day in prayer or meditation, with scripture-based devotions, will be fruitful. Time spent routinely in small groups sharing our lives, in worship, and in activities focused on social justice issues will continue to break open our hearts and minds and to transform us into true disciples that have learned to walk in “The Way”.
How will you answer the question of what one thing is most important in your walk with Jesus? To begin to discover your answer, I suggest trying one new spiritual discipline. For me, spiritual disciplines help me to work like Michelangelo to remove all that isn’t Jesus from my life. It is a daily struggle, as there are so many who try to distract and mislead me – so many competing options. I have discovered, however, that nothing in the world compares to sitting at the feet of Jesus. That is the one thing that I need to do – nothing is better, and it can never be taken away from me. May your “one thing” be to find your way to the feet of Jesus too – amen!