Lent 12

Inscrutable.

Are we allowed to call the Lord 'inscrutable'? I had to look that word up to make sure it meant what I think it means (when you make up as many words as I do, this proves to be a good practice) and sure enough: Impossible to understand or interpret; impenetrable; mysterious.

It is possible that my method is the problem here. Sitting down, reading 4 or 5 passages and then just typing in the hope that God says something may not be optimum. I think the truly spiritual folk meditate or sit quietly in silence or have music playing or something. I think they probably also take a bit more time with these things.

It's possible this isn't God's fault.

Probably it's the person who put together the passages for today. That guy wasn't listening. Jerk.


The passage in Mark is a bit difficult: first Jesus' family shows up and he leaves them hanging outside while he says to those assembled, "Who are my brothers and sisters? you guys are! the people who do God's will are." Mary and the brothers just wanted to pick him up for dinner, but no, he's got to make a point about God's will - sorry family. He was probably still mad about the wedding and being forced to make wine.

Then he goes on to tell a story about where and how wheat grows and at the end says, "Those who have ears to hear, let them hear."

This morning I don't have ears to hear. Because what I'm hearing is that Jesus is a jerk, and difficult to understand and sure, mysterious even, and this guy is the guy who we're all trying to be like. This is the guy I've built my hope around and he can't even open the door to his own mother.

This is what makes me wonder if people who are sold out on Jesus, and sure of everything and sending non-believers to hell - I wonder if those people ever read the Bible. Because as much as the first 10 days of Lent were faith-building and life-giving, these last two are a bit of a slog and it's gettting harder to see and hear. And still, still we're meant to journey on. Still, faith requires sticking this bit out too.

You see if you can figure it out.

Mark 3:31-4:9

New International Version (NIV)

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.
³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

The Parable of the Sower

4 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. ² He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

⁹ Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”