Midrashing with Mark

Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

In Mark's gospel, the first one to name and claim who Jesus is...is a man with an unclean spirit.

Not a religious scholar.
Not someone who studied the Bible daily.
Not someone who had the right credentials or a certificate of accomplishment up on the wall.

Seriously, the one who gets it first is the one who would have been last, least, and pushed to the fringe of society. 

What do you make of that?

Maybe it the person who annoys us the most who is the first to call when someone we love dies.
Maybe it the person who takes all the credit for your work, but also stays late with you one night to complete a project.
Maybe it the person who voted exactly opposite of you that has something to teach and tell you.

Of course, we would prefer people who teach and tell us things be from our tribe.  We'd rather hear important truths for people like us...rather than someone who gets on our nerves.

When has this been true for you?

Tell that story.  Or listen for that story.

Too often today we fail to see the humanity of people who are not like us.  We diminish and degrade others ~ sometimes to make ourselves feel better or because we want to score points (as if life is a game) ~ we see this all along.  I know is the script we are given to read by our leaders.

But ~ as Richard Rohr says ~ the best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.  We don't love because it is easy or fluffy or 'the right thing'.  We love because we are loved.  We love because God's love fills our cup so much it runneth over and saturates people around us.  Take some time to savor both the unconventional and inconvenient truths of the gospel that disrupt us toward a better way of being in such a time as this. 

May our reflections offer more than a trace of Gods grace.

Blessings~~