Mark 1:9-15
Mark's gospel is so short, there is an immediacy to it we have in no other gospel and this morning we are pushing right through. Right through the baptism and temptation to these words, "repent, and believe in the good news." Well what is the good news, repentance is, how? We don't wait long to see the examples of this in Mark, what immediately follows is healing after healing of people on the outside margins of society, which brings them back into community and wholeness. What pushes against Judaism is being sick or having a handicap meant you or your family had sinned and you were being punished. Get right with God and you would be healed, not someone coming along and, poof, healed, but get the law right, be more righteous, are you getting the picture?
How many times has that been asked this week after the shooting in Parkland in Florida? If only we had prayer in our schools, if only... and the list goes on. Now repent means to turn and Jesus is turning from one way of thinking to a new way. What if this is the good news? What if it is really living into the question and turning it? Doesn't this bring us deeper than a surface examination?
So I want you to do a little activity with this. Stand, and turn away from the screen, what do you see? Write down every detail, and think about why you are noticing this detail and when you are done turn and do it again until you come back to here.
What did you notice, what things stood out? Were there opportunities, was there a new way of seeing something? Did you think more deeply about what you were facing? One time for a retreat we took a rock and wrote down every detail we saw, everything. You start writing about the surface things, then you keep looking deeper, seeing veins, variations in color, maybe where pressure caused an oddity and soon you find you are looking into your own heart and soul a connection. Maybe this is true good news.
See turning from one way into another way brings us along a road of questions and self-examination, places we usually don't like to travel down. We'd like it to be simple, like sin covers everything, not looking at someone deeply, or finding the connection to us which may bring a wholeness because it takes time. Time in this day and age is filled, it means slowing down and taking the time to turn. Because God is with us in this turning. This is what Lent is about, self-examining. Taking time to connect, to live into our hearts, to find the connections with all of life.
This week one of the pictures from the aftermath of the shooting was making the rounds on social media. It was a mother, hugging her daughter once she found her, and the pain, relief mix on her face, but also there were the ashes from the service of Ash Wednesday. We are dust and to dust we return, brought out in front. We are not our own, we are God's. It has always been and will always be. We like to think we control it all with laws and rules and ways to act and then something happens and tears this all apart. Its all part of turning.
So don't be afraid to turn and look, look deeply this Lent. Wander the wilderness of your soul, look at what you are looking at. Listen more deeply to hear the call of good news. Be more present to the questions which resound in your heart, and turn. Keep turning and follow the way of the Spirit this Lent.
Mark's gospel is so short, there is an immediacy to it we have in no other gospel and this morning we are pushing right through. Right through the baptism and temptation to these words, "repent, and believe in the good news." Well what is the good news, repentance is, how? We don't wait long to see the examples of this in Mark, what immediately follows is healing after healing of people on the outside margins of society, which brings them back into community and wholeness. What pushes against Judaism is being sick or having a handicap meant you or your family had sinned and you were being punished. Get right with God and you would be healed, not someone coming along and, poof, healed, but get the law right, be more righteous, are you getting the picture?
How many times has that been asked this week after the shooting in Parkland in Florida? If only we had prayer in our schools, if only... and the list goes on. Now repent means to turn and Jesus is turning from one way of thinking to a new way. What if this is the good news? What if it is really living into the question and turning it? Doesn't this bring us deeper than a surface examination?
So I want you to do a little activity with this. Stand, and turn away from the screen, what do you see? Write down every detail, and think about why you are noticing this detail and when you are done turn and do it again until you come back to here.
What did you notice, what things stood out? Were there opportunities, was there a new way of seeing something? Did you think more deeply about what you were facing? One time for a retreat we took a rock and wrote down every detail we saw, everything. You start writing about the surface things, then you keep looking deeper, seeing veins, variations in color, maybe where pressure caused an oddity and soon you find you are looking into your own heart and soul a connection. Maybe this is true good news.
See turning from one way into another way brings us along a road of questions and self-examination, places we usually don't like to travel down. We'd like it to be simple, like sin covers everything, not looking at someone deeply, or finding the connection to us which may bring a wholeness because it takes time. Time in this day and age is filled, it means slowing down and taking the time to turn. Because God is with us in this turning. This is what Lent is about, self-examining. Taking time to connect, to live into our hearts, to find the connections with all of life.
This week one of the pictures from the aftermath of the shooting was making the rounds on social media. It was a mother, hugging her daughter once she found her, and the pain, relief mix on her face, but also there were the ashes from the service of Ash Wednesday. We are dust and to dust we return, brought out in front. We are not our own, we are God's. It has always been and will always be. We like to think we control it all with laws and rules and ways to act and then something happens and tears this all apart. Its all part of turning.
So don't be afraid to turn and look, look deeply this Lent. Wander the wilderness of your soul, look at what you are looking at. Listen more deeply to hear the call of good news. Be more present to the questions which resound in your heart, and turn. Keep turning and follow the way of the Spirit this Lent.
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