Evangelism – that art form that allows us to share the love of God with another in such a way that they also love God. It is not an easy trick and it so often fails. As we look at the reading from Mark, I think some of the reasons are clearly visible.
Jesus has been doing remarkable things and God’s power has been on display. However to the traditional leaders of the faithful, he isn’t doing it right. There are rules you know, and you – Jesus and company – are not following them! The desire to follow God has become deformed into following rules. Some of those laws, such as pledging the money that should be used to support aging parents to the altar, are self-serving. No matter, they are now part of the tradition and often we are better at teaching tradition than sharing true and powerful experiences of God.
Jesus’s statement against this understanding of defilement, breaking God’s law, is telling. The problem is not what happens to the outside of you, but what is coming out of the inside of you. Your words and actions are what is important to God, not what you eat or how you eat it.
Habakkuk shares today a poem, perhaps a prayer, describing the awesome experience of nature, of a storm, and attaching it to the victories achieved in battle. History and nature intertwine here to explain the experiences of the people in light of the activity of God. God controls the cosmos and God controls history.
Habakkuk assures his readers that rejoicing in the Lord is not in response to victory alone. That even if there were no food, fruit on the vine, failed olive crops, and flocks lost, that even then, God is the source of salvation and strength.
We need to know that. We need to know that faith is not about following laws, or always winning because “God is with us.” Instead God is our hope in times good and bad. Our faith is not proved by our success but by our reliance on God in all things. That in God is there is a healing that we might not expect, or perhaps in the case of the Syropheonician woman, even seem to deserve.
Today, may you find God in the world around you. May you find the healing that even you may not believe that you deserve. May you find salvation.
Jesus has been doing remarkable things and God’s power has been on display. However to the traditional leaders of the faithful, he isn’t doing it right. There are rules you know, and you – Jesus and company – are not following them! The desire to follow God has become deformed into following rules. Some of those laws, such as pledging the money that should be used to support aging parents to the altar, are self-serving. No matter, they are now part of the tradition and often we are better at teaching tradition than sharing true and powerful experiences of God.
Jesus’s statement against this understanding of defilement, breaking God’s law, is telling. The problem is not what happens to the outside of you, but what is coming out of the inside of you. Your words and actions are what is important to God, not what you eat or how you eat it.
Habakkuk shares today a poem, perhaps a prayer, describing the awesome experience of nature, of a storm, and attaching it to the victories achieved in battle. History and nature intertwine here to explain the experiences of the people in light of the activity of God. God controls the cosmos and God controls history.
Habakkuk assures his readers that rejoicing in the Lord is not in response to victory alone. That even if there were no food, fruit on the vine, failed olive crops, and flocks lost, that even then, God is the source of salvation and strength.
We need to know that. We need to know that faith is not about following laws, or always winning because “God is with us.” Instead God is our hope in times good and bad. Our faith is not proved by our success but by our reliance on God in all things. That in God is there is a healing that we might not expect, or perhaps in the case of the Syropheonician woman, even seem to deserve.
Today, may you find God in the world around you. May you find the healing that even you may not believe that you deserve. May you find salvation.
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