Radicalized

For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page, which includes Vest's current Living by the Word column as well as past magazine and blog content. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century.

In my Century lectionary column for this week, I mention Scot McKnight’s description of the dual love commandment in Mark 12:28-33 (and synoptic parallels) as the “Jesus Creed”—which also happens to be the title of his popular book on the subject and the name of his blog.

My sense is that our lectionary readings from the Leviticus holiness code and the Sermon on the Mount are summae of the gospel. In my work with youth, especially confirmation, I find such summations to be immensely helpful—not because they reduce the gospel to simplistic formulas but because they are manageable nuggets of spiritual wisdom that young people might hold on to long after other elements of their religious education have faded away.