Tuesday, March 21, 2006
From AscensionNYC
Tuesday in the Third Week of Lent
Psalm 78:40-72
Genesis 45:1-15
1 Corinthians 7:32-40
Mark 6:1-13
All of these readings have to do with the question of loyalty: to whom or to what do we give our loyalty? What does it mean to defy that loyalty, to take it out of our need to live our lives a certain way? Moreover what might be the conditions we find ourselves in should we violate that loyalty?
I think these conditions of life that test our loyalties are also conditions that form and shape the choices we make. Either we rise above them to make our choices or we give in to them to guide our choices. Which will it be? If life is difficult, and I don't pursue something I want because of the difficulty, how do I perceive that choice? Does it matter whether life tests me or I go along with it? Yes, these passages answer -- life tests us all. The question becomes, what do you do with that test? Do you follow its seeming difficulty as a certainty of where you should go, or do you follow something else inside of yourself, a different loyalty, that may see the conditions of life as something to be lived above, with detachment? These are the questions asked by all of these passages.
If we take specifically the passage from Mark, we see Jesus rejected by those who know him and his family. His teachings and his authority mean nothing to them. They ask, "Isn't this the carpenter? Don't we know his family? Who does he think he is?" and they reject what he has to say. Where are their loyalties -- are they listening with "ears to hear" to his wisdom? Or are they looking around at themselves and their world saying, we already know the conditions of the world to be thus and such: this man cannot speak with authority and wisdom. It is a question of loyalty to the wisdom and whence it comes vs. loyalty to the things they know of the conditions of the world. To recognize God immanent in our world, calling on us one way or the other, one needs an inner loyalty to something that can detach itself from the immediate environment and what it seems to be telling us about ourselves, what we need to think or to believe. And so it is with Jesus and the people who think they've got him buttonholed, who know him from "the world" and cannot recognize the life that is in Him.
In the practice of the Jesus prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy," one calls upon the name of God all the time. This is so we remember where our loyalties lie. It is to call remembrance to us not just of the man Jesus in the bible, but of the living Logos, his personhood and his presence to enter into all our dark places, to change our lives by changing our perception and by enlightening our own wisdom about the choices we need to make. Prayer is forging a relationship, a dialogue if you will, with God. Remember that loyalty -- it's stronger than the tests of the world. These are the relationships that count when you make your choices in the world, facing its realities it will present you with. That's what these passages say to me.
Human beings are innately constructed to worship -- it's a question of choosing what that will be, where our loyalties lie, where our heart is, what we love. Bob Dylan wrote a song about it: "Gotta Serve Somebody."
Genesis 45:1-15
1 Corinthians 7:32-40
Mark 6:1-13
All of these readings have to do with the question of loyalty: to whom or to what do we give our loyalty? What does it mean to defy that loyalty, to take it out of our need to live our lives a certain way? Moreover what might be the conditions we find ourselves in should we violate that loyalty?
I think these conditions of life that test our loyalties are also conditions that form and shape the choices we make. Either we rise above them to make our choices or we give in to them to guide our choices. Which will it be? If life is difficult, and I don't pursue something I want because of the difficulty, how do I perceive that choice? Does it matter whether life tests me or I go along with it? Yes, these passages answer -- life tests us all. The question becomes, what do you do with that test? Do you follow its seeming difficulty as a certainty of where you should go, or do you follow something else inside of yourself, a different loyalty, that may see the conditions of life as something to be lived above, with detachment? These are the questions asked by all of these passages.
If we take specifically the passage from Mark, we see Jesus rejected by those who know him and his family. His teachings and his authority mean nothing to them. They ask, "Isn't this the carpenter? Don't we know his family? Who does he think he is?" and they reject what he has to say. Where are their loyalties -- are they listening with "ears to hear" to his wisdom? Or are they looking around at themselves and their world saying, we already know the conditions of the world to be thus and such: this man cannot speak with authority and wisdom. It is a question of loyalty to the wisdom and whence it comes vs. loyalty to the things they know of the conditions of the world. To recognize God immanent in our world, calling on us one way or the other, one needs an inner loyalty to something that can detach itself from the immediate environment and what it seems to be telling us about ourselves, what we need to think or to believe. And so it is with Jesus and the people who think they've got him buttonholed, who know him from "the world" and cannot recognize the life that is in Him.
In the practice of the Jesus prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy," one calls upon the name of God all the time. This is so we remember where our loyalties lie. It is to call remembrance to us not just of the man Jesus in the bible, but of the living Logos, his personhood and his presence to enter into all our dark places, to change our lives by changing our perception and by enlightening our own wisdom about the choices we need to make. Prayer is forging a relationship, a dialogue if you will, with God. Remember that loyalty -- it's stronger than the tests of the world. These are the relationships that count when you make your choices in the world, facing its realities it will present you with. That's what these passages say to me.
Human beings are innately constructed to worship -- it's a question of choosing what that will be, where our loyalties lie, where our heart is, what we love. Bob Dylan wrote a song about it: "Gotta Serve Somebody."
Janine Economides
