January 28, 2018

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time B Deuteronomy 18: 15-20; 1 Corinthians 7: 32-35; Mark 1: 21-28 There are so many questions that I have in my life about God, and people ask me all sorts of other questions. What can I believe? I find that the bottom line is what does Jesus tell us about God. Do my feelings and opinions agree with what Jesus has said? Or do I make God the kind of god that I want him to be? Sometimes I want God to speak to me directly, and when He doesn’t I get turned off. Sometimes I just don’t want to believe that God speaks to me through people that I do not like and certainly don’t expect them to be delivering some message from God. I wonder what God’s voice is like? Psalm 95 puts this very succinctly: “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” How do I know if what I hear is really God talking to me? Or is it just myself doing all the projections? Let’s look at today’s readings for some clarification with these questions. The Book of Deuteronomy is long series of instructions given by Moses to the people as they were in their wandering years after being freed from their slavery in Egypt. Moses is preparing them for their new life, the promised land, where they will experience freedom, a place of their own. It comes with the firm assurance that God is with them and will never abandon them. They have been promised this ‘land flowing with milk and honey’ meaning that it will have fields and farm land so that they could grow their crops and live in peace. Moses’ concern is that they will become very complacent if they are filled with all he benefits of the land and will abandon God and live the good life. Why would they look back to their horrible slavery, why not be spoiled by this rich abundance? Moses thinks they will forget God and not realize that they need God every moment of every day, always. So Moses impresses on them they will need God as much as they did in their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. They must listen to God’s word. God will provide prophets for them, much like Moses; these will be their moral prophets. Human weakness will lead them astray and they need to be reminded of God’s love and the direction that God is leading them. Paul is getting very practical with the Corinthians. They have a lot of worries, worries are part of our every day life. These worries can knock us off kilter when we need to develop a balance between serving God and living in a world that wants to separate us from God. So how can they best serve the Lord while dealing with the things of the world, especially in their alluring, attractive distractions of ‘I want…I need…what about me’s? How can I best serve the Lord without being distracted by worldly concerns even within the context of marriage? In a previous verse (v 7) Paul asserts that: each person, “…Has a particular gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.” From this statement as well as Paul’s insistence on no divorce and remarriage, we can deduce that God gives the married couple the gift or grace to live marriage within the teachings of Jesus. Each state of life is a vocation from God. Am I living it the best that I can, and am I living it in charity and love, as Jesus taught and lived? So I must live my life and be concerned with things that “…please the Lord.” Live in the present moment, that is all we have and it is a gift from the Lord. Todays reading is a pivotal point in Mark’s gospel: Jesus is in Capernaum, He is both speaking and teaching as well as commanding the evil spirt and exorcising. Mark is very concerned with how the onlookers are reacting: “‘What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey Him.’ His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.” Bonnie Bowman Thurston, a Scripture scholar says, “Capernaum was at the north end of the Sea of Galilee on the highway between Ptolemais and Damascus. It was an important Galilean town, a center of customs and the location of a tax office, so it was an outpost of Roman administration.” We don’t know from Mark what Jesus spoke about but the people were astonished by his authoritative teaching. Obviously, He wasn’t quoting others as the Pharisees were so often to do, but He was using His own authority. So what was ‘different’ about Jesus’ authority? The people are seeing a different kind of ‘authority’. Today His authority is centered around empathy, compassion and respect for the man filled with an unclean spirit. His authority didn’t show fear but inspired some sort of trust. It focused on trust as being the responsibility to serve others by revealing the God who calls each person to empathy, compassion and mercy. ‘I care about you, let me help you.’ It helps each of us to see not only the value of love but also how it is like a snowball starting at the top of the hill, when it reaches the bottom it has gained much momentum and become larger and bigger. So it is with love that inspires imitation and it can only spread out if it is real and given freely. It is God’s love…God loves me so that I can see my own value and I can love others. What was it like sitting by the Sea of Galilee on the day watching the man of God caring, loving, being so compassionate and touching and then healing the possessed man. Today, Jesus interrupted human history and made us realize that life is not lived without God. God’s presence is all around, in the sad and ugly, the comfortable and uncomfortable, the fearful and the hopeful. We are the ones who are to see what Jesus did and are to pick up the call to help respond with love. Jesus is challenging perceptions we might have to sit and watch rather than be involved. The Kingdom of God is present; and it’s a Kingdom of the now. The now depends on me because I am the only person God has in this ‘now moment’ in which I am living and have a part. If not me, whom? God sends prophets, examples to us, but it is so easy to not accept these people, I’d rather hear directly from God. Then it becomes my plan and not God’s plan. God is always calling us to refresh our lives anew by challenging us to get up, get out and do…live love. So I reflect on: • Where do I hear God’s voice? • What helps me to be centered on Jesus so that I can keep calm in all life’s situations? • Who is Jesus to Me? What is my relationship with Him? • Would Jesus’ teaching have survived through the ages without the apostles as witnesses? • Do I feel that my life, words, examples and care are important tools that Jesus’ uses to touch others? • Miracles are signs of God’s love. Would people have come to listen to Jesus without the miracles? Do I realize I am a ‘miracle-worker’ when I share, care, bring love? So why do I seem to hold myself back as often as I do? Sacred Space 2018 states: “At some point in their lives people may feel themselves being brought to their knees by urges and forces that are too strong for them. They need to turn to a power above and beyond themselves. Jesus, with that power behind Him, comes close to each one of us—in His teaching, in the Christian community, in the Church.”