Hearing the Voice

•February 25, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Sometimes you need to hear something said out loud.  We may well, suspect it, but you need to hear it put into words.  There is something about a thought, expression or understanding being verbalised that makes it concrete and real.

And who isn’t waiting to hear those words,

I love you, and I’m proud of you?

The Baptism of Jesus

9About that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptised him in the Jordan River. 10As soon as Jesus came out of the water, he saw the sky open and the Holy Spirit coming down to him like a dove. 11A voice from heaven said, “You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you.”

  Jesus and Satan

12Right away God’s Spirit made Jesus go into the desert. 13He stayed there for forty days while Satan tested him. Jesus was with the wild animals, but angels took care of him.

  Jesus Begins His Work

14After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee and told the good news that comes from God.  15He said, “The time has come! God’s kingdom will soon be here.  Turn back to God and believe the good news!”

Attribution: RIA Novosti archive, image #842747 / Maksim Bogodvid / CC-BY-SA 3.0

You are the One I love, you make me very glad (Tom Wright, p12)

The words of God to Jesus – his voice saying what Jesus, John and those gathered needed to hear.  Verbal confirmation of what they were beginning to suspect.  Yes Jesus is God’s son, yes this is what he’s been talking about for years, yes the new thing I promised is here.

Mark wants us to hear the voice of God at Jesus baptism (p12) – but not only then.  Are we open to hearing God’s voice day by day?  As we set aside time and space during Lent, are we expecting to hear God’s voice?  Are we listening for it?  Will we respond when we hear it?

For as Tom Wright points out, “Those who hear this message, must also hear another one”.

‘Turn back’ – turn back from doing things your own way, from organizing your life according to your own hopes and whims.  If God is becoming king, and if Jesus is being installed as the human king through whom God’s kingdom is now happening, the only appropriate reaction is to abandon our own little hopes and schemes, and let God be God in our lives. And through our lives. (p 13)

God is speaking.  What is he saying to you?

Thank you God

that you speak to me.

That you speak words of reassurance –

and words of challenge.

May I hear your voice,

your word to me,

and respond

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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What are They Doing Here?

•February 24, 2012 • Leave a Comment

If you’re ever invited to a dinner party, or a wedding reception, or some other gathering, do you spend time before wondering who else might be there?  Will there be old friends to catch up with, new people to make friends with?  Will you be surprised by some of the guests…?

How surprised the legal experts were to turn up to a house and find Jesus,

Sitting at home with tax collectors and sinners

(Tom Wright, p 8)

Mark 2:13-17

13 Jesus went back again to the shore of Lake Galilee. A crowd came to him, and he started teaching them.14 As he walked along, he saw a tax collector, Levi son of Alphaeus, sitting in his office. Jesus said to him,
Follow me. Levi got up and followed him.

15 Later on Jesus was having a meal in Levi’s house.  A large number of tax collectors and other outcasts was following Jesus, and many of them joined him and his disciples at the table.16 Some teachers of the Law, who were Pharisees, saw that Jesus was eating with these outcasts and tax collectors, so they asked his disciples,
Why does he eat with such people?

17 Jesus heard them and answered,
People who are well do not need a doctor, but only those who are sick. I have not come to call respectable people, but outcasts.

What are they doing here?  Who invited them? What is he doing mixing with that sort?

But remember, “It’s time for a change“, Jesus has come to do, not what expected of him, but what God needed of him.  He’s not come to those whose lives are already sorted out – what would be the point in that?  He’s come to those who need to know the new way of living, the freedom from ties of the past, that God offers.

Jesus comes speaking for God (p 9), and doing it in a new way – the way God had always promised.

If the world was already in a good state, people were living as they should, there would have been no need for Jesus to come.  But it wasn’t, so he had to come to show how it should be – and that included all people.  Jesus was not bothered by where people had been, what they had done – his interest was in what they could be – in and through God.

These were people who had been shunned, Jesus was “determined to treat them differently” (p 10) – and thank God for that,  He was not encouraging their lifestyle, but showing them another way, offering them healing and new life from what they had become.

So, this leaves two points:

  • how quick are we sometimes to judge who should and shouldn’t be “in”?  Are there people we believe are “beyond the pale” and have no place in the kingdom of faith?  Would Jesus reject them or accept them?
  • If you are left with a feeling that you are not good enough, for God, for faith, for a new start – that’s not so.  God welcomes all-comers to come and sit at home with him.  You can receive his love, his forgiveness, his hope, his healing and a new life.

Jesus calls,

Follow me

That includes you and me – will you?

Lord

I know

that there are things I have got wrong,

actions I am not proud of,

ways I have gone that have not been your ways.

Thank you that you still invite me to follow you.

I come Lord,

wanting to learn your ways,

and give myself to you.

May I never turn up my nose

at others you have invited too,

but may we journey together in support and learning,

and in your love, forgiveness and hope

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 bible, God, Jesus, lent
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You’ve No Business…

•February 23, 2012 • Leave a Comment

In our suspicious world, we often have to prove who we are. There are many instances of needing your passport, and often proof of address too – I even had to do so when paying money to the solicitor.  You have to state your business – and prove it, to show that you are not carrying out anything illegal or underhand.

Jesus encountered a similar challenge, in Tom Wright’s translation:

What business have you got with us?

image from Stratforder

Mark 1:21-28

21 Jesus and his disciples came to the town of Capernaum, and on the next Sabbath Jesus went to the synagogue and began to teach.22The people who heard him were amazed at the way he taught, for he wasn’t like the teachers of the Law; instead, he taught with authority.

23 Just then a man with an evil spirit came into the synagogue and screamed,24
What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Are you here to destroy us? I know who you are—you are God’s holy messenger!

25 Jesus ordered the spirit,
Be quiet, and come out of the man!

26 The evil spirit shook the man hard, gave a loud scream, and came out of him.27 The people were all so amazed that they started saying to one another,
What is this? Is it some kind of new teaching? This man has authority to give orders to the evil spirits, and they obey him!

28 And so the news about Jesus spread quickly everywhere in the province of Galilee.

Jesus is here.  “At once”, immediately, he gets stuck in to what he has come to do.  He starts to teach – and in a way that people can grasp.  He has come, not to bring more rules and regulations, but to free.  But still the question:

What business have you got with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

What are you doing here?  What do you want of me?

Perhaps those are your questions today – what do you want with me Jesus?  If you are taking time out this Lent to be with God, to reflect on his place in your life, are you worried that as God comes into your life, he might want to take over, to destroy us?

I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that as a teenager, I had no problem believing in God, but I didn’t want to become  a Christian, because I believed it would cramp my style.  Now was the time for fun, plenty of time for that Christianity stuff later…

The man with the unclean spirit asks the question – and Jesus answers it.  God comes, not to destroy, but to free; not to cramp our style, but to release us from the things that hold us down; not to tie us up in rules and regulations, but to show us what God really wants of us.  He might be in charge (p5), but that’s a good thing – he’s bringing real meaning.

So, as we reflect during Lent, let’s not be afraid of what God wants to do, but welcome him.  Let’s not cling on to things that feel safe and what we know, but let Jesus do his work in us.

I echo the prayer of Tom Wright (p7):

Sovereign Lord,

help us to trust you

when things seem out of control

Posted in God, Jesus, lent
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