Mark 1:29-39
Mark gives us the gift of brevity, yet in the short stories and descriptions we are left wondering, that is if we are rally looking at the text. Again this week Mark gives us a story with gaps, with no further leading forward and we are left searching for the answers in lonely places just as the people go to find Jesus in the place where he has withdrawn to.
How many times do we really search for Jesus? When is the last time you have asked where was Jesus in my day? How do we tell an encounter with Jesus? Are we even on the lookout for this encounter or are we so wrapped up in our own world and doubts and fears we haven't even bothered because there is no way Jesus is there?
Searching for Jesus takes us down paths of intentionality, of seeing deeper into ourselves and opening up to the whole world. Searching for Jesus means we try to see every or most encounters of our day as something holy, sacred, in people we don't know and people we don't care to know. In Epiphany isn't this what we should be doing? Searching to find this Jesus in our lives, day to day and all around us.
It took the wise men a whole year before they find Jesus. He is not the babe in a manger, but the child sitting on his mother's lap. They journeyed a long time on dangerous roads trying to find this treasure. Something they could not find in their own worlds. Something they had to make this long and arduous journey for. There have been stories written about the journey, about others they met and brought with them to see the child. About others who were healed. The little drummer boy, Amahl and the night visitors, each a little different but each author searching to find Jesus, so much so they want to put it into story form and share it. Share the hope they found there, share the healing they experienced, share the story of what it is to search and find Jesus at the end.
So if I asked you where have you seen Jesus this week, would you have an answer, would you have a story? The search for Jesus isn't just a one time encounter and then we are done. We are meant to search for Jesus our whole life because Jesus isn't something we can distill into a set of facts. It took four gospel writers to tell their stories of searching for Jesus. There are hundreds probably thousands of books written about this search for Jesus. They all focus on one aspect of the search something which has worked for the author, maybe something which connects with your own search, they are only one way among many.
Opening ourselves to searching for Jesus means we realize we have something which is lost when it is not there. It means we don't have Jesus all figured out and put in a nice safe place where he can't bring us into new territory in our lives. Searching for Jesus means we take the time to look deeper, harder, and yes even into the scary places and we risk growing in our faith, in ourselves, in our understanding. Searching for Jesus means at the most desperate of times in our world, we are not afraid or scared of what is happening all around us and we keep true to searching for Jesus.
The Confessing church during the time of Nazi Germany was certainly this. These people dared to keep searching, daring to do what might seem small now, but then it was actually really brave to search. To keep Jesus connected to being Jewish, to keep finding Jesus as weak and not strong, to keep finding Jesus in those that the Reich wanted to throw away. Jesus was found and lost and saved because of these people who would not let fear tell them who a distilled Jesus was.
We are not in this type of present danger and we seem to have somehow lost the quest for Jesus. There are many who claim they are spiritual but not religious, just Google this if you don't know or haven't heard the phrase. They are searching because organized religion has forgotten how to search. It is this part we need to reengage in the church. Searching for Jesus means we don't know all the answers and that is scary because we have always been the answer institution. This way of searching will open to us a new door. A new door of finding a spiritual journey and path which doesn't end with answers, but opens us up to the deeper questions.
Will you join us? Will you join us in the uncertainty? Will you join us in the long hard journey? Will you join us in searching in the lonely places, the forgotten spaces, the thrown out people, in our own lonely hearts? Where do you find Jesus?
Mark gives us the gift of brevity, yet in the short stories and descriptions we are left wondering, that is if we are rally looking at the text. Again this week Mark gives us a story with gaps, with no further leading forward and we are left searching for the answers in lonely places just as the people go to find Jesus in the place where he has withdrawn to.
How many times do we really search for Jesus? When is the last time you have asked where was Jesus in my day? How do we tell an encounter with Jesus? Are we even on the lookout for this encounter or are we so wrapped up in our own world and doubts and fears we haven't even bothered because there is no way Jesus is there?
Searching for Jesus takes us down paths of intentionality, of seeing deeper into ourselves and opening up to the whole world. Searching for Jesus means we try to see every or most encounters of our day as something holy, sacred, in people we don't know and people we don't care to know. In Epiphany isn't this what we should be doing? Searching to find this Jesus in our lives, day to day and all around us.
It took the wise men a whole year before they find Jesus. He is not the babe in a manger, but the child sitting on his mother's lap. They journeyed a long time on dangerous roads trying to find this treasure. Something they could not find in their own worlds. Something they had to make this long and arduous journey for. There have been stories written about the journey, about others they met and brought with them to see the child. About others who were healed. The little drummer boy, Amahl and the night visitors, each a little different but each author searching to find Jesus, so much so they want to put it into story form and share it. Share the hope they found there, share the healing they experienced, share the story of what it is to search and find Jesus at the end.
So if I asked you where have you seen Jesus this week, would you have an answer, would you have a story? The search for Jesus isn't just a one time encounter and then we are done. We are meant to search for Jesus our whole life because Jesus isn't something we can distill into a set of facts. It took four gospel writers to tell their stories of searching for Jesus. There are hundreds probably thousands of books written about this search for Jesus. They all focus on one aspect of the search something which has worked for the author, maybe something which connects with your own search, they are only one way among many.
Opening ourselves to searching for Jesus means we realize we have something which is lost when it is not there. It means we don't have Jesus all figured out and put in a nice safe place where he can't bring us into new territory in our lives. Searching for Jesus means we take the time to look deeper, harder, and yes even into the scary places and we risk growing in our faith, in ourselves, in our understanding. Searching for Jesus means at the most desperate of times in our world, we are not afraid or scared of what is happening all around us and we keep true to searching for Jesus.
The Confessing church during the time of Nazi Germany was certainly this. These people dared to keep searching, daring to do what might seem small now, but then it was actually really brave to search. To keep Jesus connected to being Jewish, to keep finding Jesus as weak and not strong, to keep finding Jesus in those that the Reich wanted to throw away. Jesus was found and lost and saved because of these people who would not let fear tell them who a distilled Jesus was.
We are not in this type of present danger and we seem to have somehow lost the quest for Jesus. There are many who claim they are spiritual but not religious, just Google this if you don't know or haven't heard the phrase. They are searching because organized religion has forgotten how to search. It is this part we need to reengage in the church. Searching for Jesus means we don't know all the answers and that is scary because we have always been the answer institution. This way of searching will open to us a new door. A new door of finding a spiritual journey and path which doesn't end with answers, but opens us up to the deeper questions.
Will you join us? Will you join us in the uncertainty? Will you join us in the long hard journey? Will you join us in searching in the lonely places, the forgotten spaces, the thrown out people, in our own lonely hearts? Where do you find Jesus?
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