In our gospel reading for All Saints Sunday, a scribe comes to test Jesus' knowledge of God's commandments. This, of course, was the scribe's specialty – his claim to prestige and power in his religious society. Jesus passes the test, and therefore, wins the approval of the scribe. But the feeling was not mutual, and Jesus warns the scribe, and us, that being a saint is more than just knowing the right answer....
A couple seasons ago, I picked up a book on a topic of interest to me: how to golf. And this book was chock full of useful pictures and descriptions and explanations – how many knuckles you should see on your right hand and your left if you are gripping the golf club properly; where you should stand relative to the ball if you are driving versus chipping; when you should backswing to the one o'clock position and when you should backswing to the eleven o'clock; how far around your hips should swivel on the follow-through. And after digesting everything in these books, I have some great news: IN THEORY, I am an excellent golfer.
A scribe, in our gospel reading today, has just listened to Jesus' explanation to the Saducees about life after the resurrection. And when he likes what he hears, the scribe brings Jesus to HIS primary topic of interest – God's commandments. Keeping track of the 613 laws that God gave to Moses was the scribe's profession – his bread and butter – and the scribe was anxious to increase HIS OWN prestige by confronting this prestigious rabbi named Jesus.
But Jesus went off script, and he made an addition to the great commandment, the Shema of Israel, at least compared to the version we heard today from Deuteronomy. Jesus added, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your mind”, where the word “mind” is our stab at a translation from “dianoia” in the ancient Greek. Great, thinks the scribe, and he responds “you are right, teacher. Love God with all the sunesews” – which we then translate as “understanding”. “Understanding – OK, now you're in MY wheelhouse,” thinks the scribe! Understanding God is way more important than that stuff the priests do in the temple – those sacrifices they make to bring people forgiveness for their sins.” And Jesus' response to this subtle switch of meaning? Not, “welcome to the kingdom of God,” but instead “you are NOT FAR from the kingdom of God.” Not far, but not there yet. And if the scribe, who is a supposed expert in all things pertaining to God, if HE can't get approval from Jesus, WHO ELSE is going to dare ask their question?
Love God with all the understanding – that's right up our alley as well. We prefer to keep our faith at the level of understanding – of knowing all we can about God and his promises. We eagerly read the 1400 new Christian books that are on the Christianbook.com new releases list - all promising to tell us exactly what posture we should use to pray, what words we should say to try to convert Buddhists, how to explain the Holy Trinity to six-year-olds, whose story of sinner-to-saint to remember when we're depressed. We want, IN THEORY, to be good Christians. And a theoretical faith is quite comforting, and quite comfortable. But does a theoretical faith make us saints?
Jesus actually said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your mind.” You shall love God with all your THINKING, with all your PURPOSE. You shall have God ALWAYS uppermost on your mind. That is very different than mere understanding. Loving God with all our mind takes FOCUS and ACTION. Loving God with all our mind CREATES change and impact in the world, and this EXPANDS the kingdom of God, as the kingdom becomes real for those around us. Without this, we are not far from the kingdom of God. Not far, but not there yet, according to the great commandment.