Thursday, March 09, 2006
From AscensionNYC
Thursday in the First Week of Lent
Psalm 19
Genesis 39:1-23
1 Corinthians 2:14 - 3:15
Mark 2:1-12
These readings have to do with the power and might of God. While we are made in His image, we are really very different from Him.
In Genesis, God's power is such that He protects Joseph no matter what happens. Even when sent to jail for a wrong he did not commit, the Lord made Joseph "prosper."
In I Corinthians, Paul explains to us that as humans we can't understand everything that God does for us. We are of the "flesh," but to understand God, we have to be if the "spirit." He likens the ability to receive God to an infant drinking milk, not eating solid food, for an infant can not digest solid food until he has grown. We, being human, can only comprehend human things, unless we grow in the spirit. Then we will have the ability to comprehend God. This is not something automatic -- we have to work at it.
Mark illustrates this limitation of ours to comprehend the complexity of God. Jesus has returned home and is in the midst of people who have known him all his life. He sees a paralytic and says to the man that his sins are forgiven. What crazy thing is this? Who can forgive a person's sins but God? In order to prove to those there that Jesus is God, he heals the paralytic, and the people all watch the man stand up and walk away. Then they understand. Unless we can see something with our own eyes, we humans can not believe it.
So the message for today is that we need to work at developing our spiritual side and listen carefully in order to understand God more fully, with the knowledge that, like Joseph, God is "with us" and will "show us steadfast love."
Genesis 39:1-23
1 Corinthians 2:14 - 3:15
Mark 2:1-12
These readings have to do with the power and might of God. While we are made in His image, we are really very different from Him.
In Genesis, God's power is such that He protects Joseph no matter what happens. Even when sent to jail for a wrong he did not commit, the Lord made Joseph "prosper."
In I Corinthians, Paul explains to us that as humans we can't understand everything that God does for us. We are of the "flesh," but to understand God, we have to be if the "spirit." He likens the ability to receive God to an infant drinking milk, not eating solid food, for an infant can not digest solid food until he has grown. We, being human, can only comprehend human things, unless we grow in the spirit. Then we will have the ability to comprehend God. This is not something automatic -- we have to work at it.
Mark illustrates this limitation of ours to comprehend the complexity of God. Jesus has returned home and is in the midst of people who have known him all his life. He sees a paralytic and says to the man that his sins are forgiven. What crazy thing is this? Who can forgive a person's sins but God? In order to prove to those there that Jesus is God, he heals the paralytic, and the people all watch the man stand up and walk away. Then they understand. Unless we can see something with our own eyes, we humans can not believe it.
So the message for today is that we need to work at developing our spiritual side and listen carefully in order to understand God more fully, with the knowledge that, like Joseph, God is "with us" and will "show us steadfast love."
Mary Gaillard
