Action

I didn't originally mean for this post to have such a religious bent, but my renewed inspiration for it came from reading the Bible last night. In particular, this:

³⁷When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. ³⁸But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised.
 ³⁹Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? ⁴¹But give what is inside the dish ^[j] to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
 ⁴²"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
 ⁴³"Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
 ⁴⁴"Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it."
 ⁴⁵One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also."
 ⁴⁶Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
 ⁴⁷"Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them. ⁴⁸So you testify that you approve of what your forefathers did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹Because of this, God in his wisdom said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.' ⁵⁰Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, ⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.
 ⁵²"Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering."

I have been struggling for the past year or so with this notion that perhaps reading the Bible was getting me nowhere. Now, let me explain what I mean by that. It seemed to me that I was trying to seek God through knowledge - like God could be found by studying for some kind of test. I realized that my search for God had kind of stalled out at the research stage. I had read all the books. I had read the Bible many times. I had taken classes and participated in discussions and sought out experts. But in the end, I didn't feel like I had come much closer to God than when I had started. I understood a heck of a lot more about Christianity, to be sure, but I hadn't yet really experienced it.

My thirst was still there.

At first, I decided that maybe I was over thinking all of this research. I'm one of those people that can get down into the nitty gritty when I really try. I remember when I was named education Petty Officer in boot camp that I was trying to explain naval history to my fellow recruits and a good friend of mine looked at me and just said, "We don't need to know that on the test. Just tell us what we need to know." I've taken that to heart over the years. Nitty Gritty is fine and fascinating and all, but it takes time to learn and ultimately doesn't change what you already know.

There are over 400 something laws in Jewish life and yet, Jesus boiled them down to two. Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself. In these two commandments are the LAW and the PROPHETS. Talk about your summaries.

But what I think Jesus was trying to explain to the Pharisees in the above passage was the same thing that my friend was trying to explain to me in boot camp, "You're missing the point. I'm not in the book. I'm not in the law. Those things are only ways for you to find out about me." Jesus says that the true leader would be able to not only follow the laws but also practice justice and show the love of God.

Jesus's whole ministry was about taking the word down a peg and augmenting it with the deed. It wasn't enough to just be knowledgeable. If there was no practical application of that knowledge, all that was heard was a clanging cymbal (a noise without meaning). You could follow every commandment to the letter, know every law, do everything that you read about, but if you weren't also willing to sell all your possessions and follow Christ's example, everything you'd done would amount to nothing.

Action follows thirst. After doing all that research, after studying about compassion and love and righteousness, the only logical next step is to practice those things. To be in the world means that you need to study it, but also to experience it. It is not enough to donate off hand so that somebody else can do the work for you. You need to be out there doing the things that God wants you to do. The words are only there to point you the way to the well. You still have to physically go there to be filled.

Of course what action you take is dependent on what you need to satiate that thirst. For me, it was going to Kenya. For you it might be raising a family or educating kids or just being a shoulder to cry on in a time of need.

I don't think our actions have beginnings and endings. I think our actions become a way of living, a way of moving through the world and experiencing it. Visiting a homeless shelter once and dropping off an old coat is a good thing, but it is not a lifestyle. Actions should permeate our lives like yeast. They should move through us and raise us up and transform us until we are complete.

Knowledge is a fine thing, but learning about things and not being inspired to do things because of that knowledge ultimately does nobody any good. Knowledge comes first. Actions next. But neither works without the other.