This is What I Can Do

•March 5, 2012 • 2 Comments

Some job interviews require you bring a piece of your work with you – a project you have worked on, a piece you have written, designs you have developed – an example of what you can do, something that shows your capabilities and shows how you work.  It forms part of showing how you could do the job.

Many would have been wondering what the new way that Jesus was bringing would look like, what it would mean in practical terms, how it would effect life…

Jesus goes to the other side of the lake, and meets a man “with an evil spirit”, who people had been trying to bring under control for years.  The spirits in him begin a conversation, and we soon see what Jesus can do.

A Man with Evil Spirits

1Jesus and his disciples crossed Lake Galilee and came to shore near the town of Gerasa.  2When he was getting out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit quickly ran to him 3from the graveyard  where he had been living. No one was able to tie the man up anymore, not even with a chain. 4He had often been put in chains and leg irons, but he broke the chains and smashed the leg irons. No one could control him. 5Night and day he was in the graveyard or on the hills, yelling and cutting himself with stones.

6When the man saw Jesus in the distance, he ran up to him and knelt down. 7He shouted, “Jesus, Son of God in heaven, what do you want with me? Promise me in God’s name that you won’t torture me!” 8The man said this because Jesus had already told the evil spirit to come out of him.

9Jesus asked, “What is your name?”

The man answered, “My name is Lots, because I have `lots’ of evil spirits.” 10He then begged Jesus not to send them away.

11Over on the hillside a large herd of pigs was feeding. 12So the evil spirits begged Jesus, “Send us into those pigs! Let us go into them.” 13Jesus let them go, and they went out of the man and into the pigs. The whole herd of about two thousand pigs rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

14The men taking care of the pigs ran to the town and the farms to spread the news. Then the people came out to see what had happened. 15When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had once been full of demons. He was sitting there with his clothes on and in his right mind, and they were terrified.

16Everyone who had seen what had happened told about the man and the pigs. 17Then the people started begging Jesus to leave their part of the country.

18When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man begged to go with him. 19But Jesus would not let him. Instead, he said, “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how good he has been to you.”

20The man went away into the region near the ten cities known as Decapolis and began telling everyone how much Jesus had done for him. Everyone who heard what had happened was amazed.

If anyone had been wondering what Jesus could do, this shows it.  This man has been suffering, no one could control him or release him – Jesus does.  Whatever “with an evil spirit” meant, it was holding this man down, stopping him being the person he could be – and Jesus freed him from it.  As Tom Wright points out, some human beings “need a drastic rescue operation” (p 41) – Jesus is doing that for this man.

There are so many layers to this story.  One of the interesting things about this passage is that the demons recognized Jesus.  Many of those around had failed to do this.  They were missing out on what he had to offer.  But the demons saw Jesus for who and what he was, they knew he could do mighty work, and we see it happen.

So, if Jesus can release a man from as difficult a situation as this, he can bring his release to us too.  Have we got ourselves caught up in something we should not have, our we being held back by chains?  Jesus longs to rescue us too – will we let him?  However far we have gone, God never abandons us (Tom Wright p 43).

Yesterday we thought about suffering.  Will we let God touch our suffering too, and release it from the hold it has over us?

Lent leads us to reflect on what is holding us back – everything. This is our opportunity to let God free us.

Jesus has power over all the forces of the world.  We’ve seen what he can do for this one man – what can he do for us?

This, Mark is saying, is what it’s like when God takes charge (Tom Wright p 43)

Thank you Lord

for your power to overcome,

that nothing is stronger than you.

I give to you the things that hold me down,

keep me back,

and ask that you break their power over me.

My I recognise you,

and all that you can do

and trust you

with all of my life.

 

This year, I am again following the Big Read using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

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Can You See Me?

•March 4, 2012 • 2 Comments

I love to see the littlies playing hide and seek.  Their delight in thinking they are tucked in somewhere where no one can possibly see them – and the rushing out to reveal themselves.

It feels at times, like God is hiding from us.  We cannot grasp him, his love and peace are elusive.

Lent, is the time we think of Jesus in the wilderness.

The Judean wilderness stretches for miles.  The landscape is stark and bleak. There is nothing for shelter, no sustenance, nothing to get you out of it.

Psalm 22 begins with echoes of that, but by the time we get to the part that Tom Wright focuses on today, the tone has changed:

22and when your people meet,

I will praise you, LORD.

23All who worship the LORD,

now praise him!

You belong to Jacob’s family

and to the people of Israel,

so fear and honour the LORD!

24The LORD doesn’t hate

or despise the helpless

in all of their troubles.

When I cried out, he listened

and did not turn away.

25When your people meet,

you will fill my heart

with your praises, LORD,

and everyone will see me

keep my promises to you.

26The poor will eat and be full,

and all who worship you

will be thankful

and live in hope.

27Everyone on this earth

will remember you, LORD.

People all over the world

will turn and worship you,

28because you are in control,

the ruler of all nations.

29All who are rich

and have more than enough

will bow down to you, Lord.

Even those who are dying

and almost in the grave

will come and bow down.

30In the future, everyone

will worship

and learn

about you, our Lord.

31People not yet born

will be told,

“The Lord has saved us!”

A cry of anguish has become a Psalm of Praise.  How did that happen?

The Psalmist has discovered that:

The LORD doesn’t hate or despise the helpless in all of their troubles.

When I cried out, he listened and did not turn away.

However we feel, God does listen to us.  He doesn’t run away.  He isn’t scared by our emotions.  We don’t overpower him with the traumas we feel.  God isn’t hiding, trying to squeeze into a small space, so we won’t spot him and bother him.  And most emphatically – he doesn’t hate us.

God does not hide from us – but do we sometimes hide from him?

Do we want to sort things out ourselves, be seen to be coping?  Are we afraid of what he might say?

I spent a lot of my life sweeping things under the carpet, pretending they didn’t matter, then one day I turned round and fell over the pile.  I spent a time wandering round the wilderness, not knowing how to begin to get out of it.  God was there, but I could not have begun to praise him.  I preached a lot of wilderness sermons, but it was in that wilderness that I found the strength of God to live with the pain.

God is not a stranger to wilderness.  He has been there, done that, and so can help us in ours.  He has trodden the paths, so he can lead us on them.  To me, God is what he is, so precious, so knowable, so worthy of following, because he is a God of the wilderness too – who wants a friend who is only with us in the good times?  God doesn’t abandon us to our trials, but walks with us.  In the times we have no other support, he is the one who holds us up.  When we have nothing left, we still have him.  God doesn’t abandon the sufferer (Tom Wright p 38).

Now that is a God we can praise – a God who doesn’t hide himself, even when we might hide from him.

And we can cry together:

   “The Lord has saved us!”

Not because life is always nice, but because God doesn’t abandon us and hide from us in the bits that aren’t.

Thank you God that you are always with me,

that you journey with me and hold me up;

that when I have nothing else left

you are there.

Forgive me when I hide from you,

and try to manage alone.

Thank you that you never hide from me

This year, I am again following the Big Read using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in God, lent
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Big Trouble

•March 3, 2012 • Leave a Comment

You know that feeling, when you are watching a situation from a certain distance.  You can see events unfolding – and you just know there is going to be trouble.  You can see personalities beginning to clash, that one is asking more of the other than they are willing to give, that aspirations are not the same. When reality kicks in, there may indeed be trouble ahead.

Jesus warns his disciples

There’s big trouble in store for the son of man (Mark 8:31 – Tom Wright)

 

Jesus Speaks about His Suffering and Death

31Jesus began telling his disciples what would happen to him. He said, “The nation’s leaders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law of Moses will make the Son of Man suffer terribly. He will be rejected and killed, but three days later he will rise to life.” 32Then Jesus explained clearly what he meant.

Peter took Jesus aside and told him to stop talking like that. 33But when Jesus turned and saw the disciples, he corrected Peter. He said to him, “Satan, get away from me! You are thinking like everyone else and not like God.”

34Jesus then told the crowd and the disciples to come closer, and he said:

If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me. 35If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me and for the good news, you will save it. 36What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself? 37What could you give to get back your soul?

38Don’t be ashamed of me and my message among these unfaithful and sinful people! If you are, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

The reality of the situation, of the new way that Jesus is bringing to the world, is that there will be those who won’t like it.  And when people don’t like something they try to ruin it.  When people see that things will change for them, and they don’t want it to; when they can see that they will be losing something by it; when they see it is going to cost them…

So when the reality of what Jesus is bringing kicks in, it will attract animosity, fear and rejection.  Jesus wants the disciples to be clear about what they are getting in to.  Peter doesn’t like the sound of this, he doesn’t want to hear it.  He tries to stop Jesus talking that way.

How are we when we hear the truths of what Jesus has to say?  When he tells us of the costs involved?  When we realise it is not all just plain sailing?  Do we want to stop him saying these things?  To out our fingers in our ears and la, la, la to ourselves?  Do we want Jesus’ ways to be our ways, rather than our ways his?

Jesus offers the best way to live.  But that does involve sacrifice. Jesus has to die to rescue a world gone wrong. There is a cross to carry (Tom Wright p 35).  Are we willing to believe him and go with him?  Are we willing to relinquish things that we think are good, for his ways that are better?  Are we ashamed of him and want to stop his words, or willing to give up what we have and take on board the new way?

There may be struggles ahead, we may not be popular – but whoever said life was going to be easy?  What Jesus does promise is that he has been there before, and he is with us where we go – for the journey we follow is his.

This is Tom Wright’s prayer for today (p 36);

Forgive us, gracious Lord,

where we have preferred human common sense

to the strange wisdom and power of your cross.

Give us strength

and clarity of understanding

to hear your call afresh

and to follow wherever you lead

This year, I am again following the Big Read using Tom Wright’s Lent for Everyone – Mark.  I’ll reflect here – if you’re following it too, or even if you’re not, please share with me.

Posted in Jesus, lent
Tags: , ,

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