"If every choice is a means to some other end, what is the end at which all things aim?"

Every choice and every action is a means to some other end. But what is the end at which all things aim? Philosophers, theologians, and everyday intentional people have asked that question for millennia. Aristotle was wise to point out that money cannot be the end at which all things aim because it, too, is a means to an end. A good reputation or being well-liked cannot be the end at which all things aim because, he said, people are fickle. Today someone may like you, and tomorrow, sometimes for no apparent reason, a person may not like you. Happiness, he concluded, is the end at which all things aim because happiness is something we choose for the sake of happiness and not as means to some other end. Since all truth is God’s truth, I thank God for Aristotle’s helpful framing of the question.

For people of faith and goodwill, it would benefit us to consider Aristotle’s way of clarifying our pursuits. What guides our thoughts, choices, and actions? More importantly, what do we habitually think about and act upon?

It is not uncommon for people, particularly among those who self-identify as Christians, to say that their faith guides their choices. Pressed a little further, they often say that the Bible shapes their thoughts and choices.

I recently came across a Facebook post in which a person of sincere faith shared an article with the somewhat neutral endorsement, “good read.” The article, written by megachurch minister and author of scores of books, expressed concern about the need to save Christianity from what he believes is “the ‘Great Apostasy’ before Christ’s return.” The great apostasy he speaks of is the “water[ing] down of the Gospel to make it ‘palatable’ for today’s culture.” The megachurch minister then went on to elaborate about why he thought same-sex relationships and social justice movements are the cultural trends that Christians are accommodating and thereby watering down the Gospel.

This is not the place to elaborately refute the specific matters that were identified as the “Great Apostasy.” But, like Aristotle, I think it is important to ask the question, “What is the end at which all things aim?” And, with that end in mind, we should ask ourselves what habitual thoughts have influenced our choice to pursue that end?

Why would someone habitually think about something the Bible gives such little attention to? If our habitual thoughts inform our choices, and our choices are aimed at an ultimate end, why give so much intentional thought to a subject that receives such little attention in the source (Bible) to which we look for guidance.? And particularly for Christ-ians, why give so much attention to something Jesus said nothing about? If one is going to give attention to something, particularly if they claim to follow a leader, wouldn’t it seem more constructive to focus on that which the leader was preoccupied?

So what was it that occupied Jesus’ mind and attention? Time and again he announced the good news (Gospel) of the kingdom (kin-dom) of God. And to clarify what he meant, he announced in his inaugural sermon that he had been sent to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:18-19).

The first of Jesus’ proclamations needs no explanation. The final statement, to proclamation of “the year of the Lord’s favor,” is the year when all debts are cancelled and property is redistributed back to those who sold property due to financial distress. In short, it was a social justice initiative woven into the law of Moses to prevent the division that invariably ensues in communities where wealth in concentrated into the hands of the few, and there is a disparity between the wealthy and the poor.

Again, it is not my intention to refute at length the particulars of the common indictment made against those who read their Bibles differently; nor am calling into question the sincerity of those who make such accusations. We would all do well to habitually think and choose the ultimate aim of Jesus. And for him, the end at which all things aim is the creation of the kin-dom of God on earth as it is in heaven. The favorable year of the lord is the year (which can be this year is we are willing) in which all of God’s children, regardless of race, nationality, sexual-orientation, denomination, or sacredly held orthodoxies are treated as the children of God they are — with infinite value and unconditional love. May this be the aim that guides our habitual thoughts, choices, and actions.