Scripture passages to be read on the upcoming weekend seem unrelated–yet there’s a golden thread connecting them all. These are written to communities under some duress: being exiled in a strange land with unknown deities; or searching for a central point upon which to base their faith; or trying to remember the story which enchanted and claimed them before their Lord was crucified. We who hear are encouraged to own these communities as our own, ruefully admitting to an ongoing brokenness that threatens to un-focus our hope.
ISAIAH of Babylon exhorts his fellow exiles to retain their faith (40-21-31): ”Have you not known? Have you not heard?” Despite our human limitations–and they are many–the prophet reminds them that God is still greater than all their distress: ”…who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing”. Are you powerless? Does even the vigor of your youths grow weary and exhausted? ”Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
St. Paul recognizes the diversity of the people of CORINTH (vv.9:16-23): their customs, their particular demons, their dreams. Upon what, then, can faith be centered? Can there be a common law of Christ? Even the “freedom” the Apostle claims is subject to this gospel of renewal in Christ, a command to freely enlighten the despairing and hopeless with visions of ultimate glory beyond the grim horizons of cloudy distress.
Our exploration of MARK’s Gospel (1:29-39) continues Jesus’ encounter with the first Disciples. The story opens with five guys, dirty from work, coming into the house expecting to hear, “Wipe your feet! If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times!” Yet all was strangely subdued: the matriarch was a-bed with a fever. Jesus helped her get up, and the fever left her–and she resumed her matriarchal duties of providing hospitality. The story continues with all of Capernaum crowding around to be healed/saved, and then with Jesus & Co. travelling around Galilee to point out that the Kingdom of God has drawn near. What are the demons (and fevers) that stand in the way of our intimacy with God?
We can gather from these accounts that God wants to be–and IS–attentive to the concerns of the People. Most of us have experienced these moments of abandonment, when the familiarity of God seems but an empty promise. YET STILL the Holy Team walks with us, to cast out the demonic and to restore the youthful strength and optimism, to point out where God is seen to be at work.
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
You’re invited to prepare your hearts and minds for the hearing of biblical readings for the upcoming weekend, every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com
My Blog 
Leave a comment