Reading the Gospels for Lent

 

Read ~ Mark 9-11

 

In chapter 9:33 the disciples are arguing about rating and ranking, they want to know who is the GOAT (greatest of all time)?  Who is the MVP of the disciples?  Who is going to win the award, get promoted, be seen as a success.

 

I am so glad we don’t do this anymore…now excuse me while I go check attendance at the church, how the budget is doing, and if this post is trending on Facebook yet.  Insert irony here.

 

We are constantly competing and comparing, we are still the disciples wanting to know where we rate and rank, jockeying for position. 

 

This is echoed in chapter 10 when Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than someone who is rich (possessed by their possession, clinging to control, stuffing their life with stuff) to enter God’s realm.  We enter God’s realm open-handed. We are like the disciples staring at the crowd of 5000 and 4000 holding only a few loaves of bread and fish while everyone is eyeing our dinner and licking their lips.  Faith begins when our competency and control ends.  Faith, God’s address, is at the end of our rope. 

 

This is true not only for us, but for God’s love in the flesh of Jesus the Christ.  In chapter 11, Jesus enters Jerusalem to the shouts and songs of “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday.  But you and I know the story will take a turn toward pain and blame and shame as less than a week later when Judas, Jesus’ friend, betrays him, Peter denies him, and all the rest run away deserting him.  Eek, and I thought my friends disappointed me sometimes.

 

This story is our story.  We strive to succeed and spend our lives trying to get ahead.  Along the way we encounter others who hurt us, leaving scars that sometimes don’t heal.  We limp, just as Jacob limps after wrestling with God.  At the heart of Lent is both a mirror and window.  A mirror for us to see ourselves in these words, our own story in this story.  And a window to see others too.  To connect to yesterday, we don’t know why the other person did that, said that, thinks that, votes that way.  We are a mystery to ourselves and others.  Why do we think we have it all figured out? 

 

Lent invites us to cease from striving.  Grace is free.

Lent invites us to stop clinging.  Love is unconditional.

Lent invites us to be who God calls us to be.  Beloved is your first, middle, and last name (as well as everyone else too).

 

May these truths this day open to you to the One whose love we don’t compete for because God’s love will never be exhausted or fully explored in our lives.  Be in God’s love this day. Amen.