What is the greatest commandment Jesus asks? To love God with all your mind,
heart, soul and strength. And the second? To love your neighbor as yourself.
How do we worship God?
The readings of this Lenten season have described this in detail -- faith,
trust, hope, obedience, and grace, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked,
sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and those in prison. . . repentance,
reconciliation, and covenant.
If we love our God with all our heart, might, mind, and soul, we love our
neighbors as ourselves, we grow in solidarity with them. This again falls under
"Pious Platitude Alert", but the repetitive nature of the saying should not
blind us to its compelling reality.
The Prophet Hosea (14:2-10) calls us to put our trust in God, not in the work of human hands, not
in the military might of the superpowers of the era, but rather in the God who
gives compassion to the fatherless. As we do this, our "defection" is healed,
wrath is turned away, the desert blossoms and becomes fruitful. This is the true
wisdom, even if it isn't endorsed by the "conventional wisdom" of our secular
era. No wonder the crowd didn't dare ask Jesus any more questions. He had
already explained what they needed to know -- clearly and without ambiguity.
When we understand this, like the scribe who questioned Jesus, we are not far
from the Reign of God.