Mark 8:27-30. Is it an accident that our reading through the Bible book of Mark this year has brought us to this question on the weekend when we launch our Saint James -Kingstowne site? I mean, who Jesus is and how he impacts our lives is a central question for us Jesus-followers. Interestingly enough what each follower sees in Jesus has its own nuances and flavors. In the end (I hope I’m not giving too much away of my message/sermon for the weekend) each us has to decide for ourselves. We do not change who Jesus is by deciding for ourselves but we do change the way we respond to his message and sometimes we even change who we are or thought we were.

I am beginning my week of reflection on this passage by trying to figure out who others say Jesus is. In general my experience of both churchy and non-churchy people is that they have a healthy respect for Jesus; sometimes I’ve actually found more respect outside the churchy setting for Jesus because sometimes we churchy people are so sure we know what Jesus is about we don’t stop to consider we could have missed his point altogether. Sometimes we churchy people are so busy selling the following-Jesus-thing that we lose sight of Jesus himself; we re-make him in the image that sells best. Sometimes we churchy people aren’t willing to listen to what anyone else may have to say about Jesus either. I guess it goes to show you that we’ve got the same challenges today as Jesus faced 2000 years ago.

Those are some of my initial thoughts as I read and re-read this Bible passage from Mark this week.

Mark 8:22-26. Jesus heals a blind man. He takes him aside so there is no spectacle and then spits in his eyes which partially heals the man. Then Jesus touches his eyes again and finishes the job. I wondered this week if healing, being made whole, is a process and not an instantaneous event. The first piece of the process in this story brings partial sight to the blind man. The second touch brought fuller restoration. Of what can we be healed? What is healing? What does it mean to regain our sight? Are we blind, only in a different sense than this man? Are the disciples more blind than this man as evidenced in the story just before this in Mark 8:14-21 when Jesus asks if the disciples will ever understand; we might ask will they ever see? What is this story meant to tell us about our own lives and the healing of which we find ourselves in need?

I’ve been doing some more reading of that Mark passage we’re working on for the weekend: 8:14-21 (see my previous blog). Jesus sees the bread as a teaching opportunity, as something more than a loaf a bread. While the disciples are anxious about their poor lunch planning, Jesus is anxious about religious folks who will attempt to ruin the message he is bringing for all people.

Sometimes when we get so focused on one problem or issue, we miss anything else that might draw our attention or even be more important. The disciples are doing just that in the boat while Jesus is trying to show them something more. I don’t want to miss the more for my myopic focus on the less, whatever that “less” may be for me today.

Mark 8:14-21. Here they come again… it is amazing that the church ever got off the ground with early Jesus-followers like these guys who once again don’t get it. They’re on a boat trip with Jesus and only have a loaf of bread. Now, mind you, Jesus just fed 4000 men plus with proportionally less than a single loaf to 12+ folks but these guys are concerned they didn’t pack enough or that someone else is to blame for not bringing it- wasn’t it James’s job or Andrew’s maybe to bring the bread… Anyway maybe this story is supposed to give us hope that even when we don’t get it, we’re not alone in that. Maybe this story is a reminder that even disciples cannot understand anything about Jesus without and before the crucifixion and resurrection? In any case, I’ve begun to look at this story for what it might tell me and the Saint James community about living in faith today…

Mark 8:11-13.  I wonder sometimes what it means to have faith. If I am honest, I too want signs that make it clear who Jesus is, what he is all about, where I fit into the bigger picture, and the list could go on. The religious “in-group” (Pharisees) pulls Jesus aside to ask that he give a sign from heaven for verification purposes. Jesus refuses- no sign for the generation that demands signs. Does that mean we are left in the dark? Uncertain? Why don’t we get a sign?

Then I think again. What if I got a sign? Which sign would work for me? What about when my faith seems to be ebbing away- do I need a new sign every time? Yet I also sense certain signs in my life. People can say (and they’d be correct) that the sign I see are interpretations of what is happening in my life. Do I have to see that chance encounter as a sign or a mere coincidence? What constitutes a sign- flashing lights,  a disembodied voice fromt he clouds? I’m beginning to ask those kinds of questions about the passage for this weekend and as always, I welcome your comments.

In this week’s reading from Mark 8:1-10 (see my Another Feeding story blog), I note in verse 5 of that reading that Jesus first takes stock of what he has to give. The disciples and he evidently came with at least some supplies for this journey. I think it is important for us to take stock of what we have to give as well. What do I have to give- money, time, wisdom, strength, joyfulness, peacefulness, hopefulness, a free hand, an open ear? In taking stock, am I willing to share it? Is there someone who may need what I have more than I do? How much would God have me withhold for myself?

Jesus and the disciples had only seven loaves but it was enough, more than enough. Do we sometimes underestimate how far our resources will go? Jesus was willing to stretch and he was the Master Stretcher to be sure. I wonder why I so rarely am willing to stretch myself beyond what I can see is possible. Maybe because that is the realm of God, the realm of faith, and I live in a world where I must rely on my own abilities and resources. With me, many things are not possible but with God, all things are possible.

Mark 8:1-10. As we move forward in the book of Mark, we come upon another story where people were so bent on hearing what Jesus had to say that they head out long distances even without food preparations. This time there were 4000 mentioned. What does this second story tell us that maybe the first story didn’t? Last time a feeding story came up, we talked about being satisfied in a society which thrives on never being satisfied, always wanting more. Here we come upon another story a lot like the first. Did Jesus handle the folks in this story differently? What was different about these 4000+ people from the first 5000+ people we heard were fed? What was the same about them?

Sorry about getting to blogging about the message text late this week. Seems I got focused on doing “second things” most of the early days this week. (see my blog entry from yesterday) Hopefully I am back on track. Just goes to show that even when I (we) know what is the best course of action, sometimes I (we) don’t follow it- I do the urgent rather than the important thing. Live and learn and learn again, I guess…

After Jesus got his vision stretched in the story from Mark 7:24-30, his next move is to travel back through the Galilee (Jewish territory) back to the Decapolis which is primarily a gentile territory. That story is told in Mark 7:31-37. His first encounter there as reported is with a crowd and some people who wanted their friend healed of his condition of deafness. It seems a long trip to another gentile territory if Jesus hasn’t perhaps been stretched by the Syrophoenician woman he encountered before. Don’t get me wrong- I’m glad for the gentile extension since I am myself a gentile but it does seem a stretch and perhaps a new focus to Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus heals the man and once again asks that it be kept quiet. Quiet is not something one can keep if they are suddenly able to speak and hear after not being able to previously. Rather an ironic request from Jesus.

Keeping quiet about Jesus seems pretty easy for us in the United States. When we do speak up about him too often it seems we use him as a club about something someone else is doing “wrong” (rarely do we call ourselves for the same behavior??). What is going to heal my deafness to the cries of people all around me in the world who need hope and love and healing? What will excite me so in the healing that I’ll actually speak of the Jesus I’ve met?

Yes, the scripture says Syrophoenician woman but essentially I think the point is that she is a gentile, not the Jew that Jesus had come to pursue first in his work. It’s an interesting story in the aftermath of the story just before. Jesus disciples didn’t wash their hands before dinner and that ticked some folks off because they were eating with unclean hands and uncleanness was a bad thing. Jesus said that we needed to get over judging based on the outside stuff making people unclean, it was the inside stuff. Now he has a chance to out that into action and the outside of this gentile woman just doesn’t cut it. (Maybe gentile-ness goes deeper?) This woman seeks out Jesus for healing her daughter with an unclean spirit; Jesus says essentially that she’s not on the list of folks to get healing so “no.” Anyone with children is hardly surprised that the woman will not take no for an answer. I can remember my own mother (and father) standing up for me over the years.  I’ve done it myself as has Linda for our kids. A parent simply does not back down so easily. Not only that but she makes a good argument and Jesus backs down. Yes, I said it, Jesus backs down. What does that teach us about God’s giving nature? About who Jesus is? About who we are called to be? That is the stuff that is dancing with me tonight as the message edges get sanded a bit…

It is almost unbelievable to me (notice I said almost) that I’ll be reading scripture and see an immediate link to something going on in my life. I was reading the passage I’ll be using this weekend (Mark 7:24-30) when I began thinking about the applications related to exclusion and inclusion that happened this past weekend with the homeless gentleman at Saint James. (Read my blog “The disconnect between faith and life“) Initially in this passage from Mark, was Jesus saying that there are insiders that rank above the other outsiders? Sure seemed like it when I was reading it. After he talked about the irrelevance of the purity codes, he starts drawing lines elsewhere. Maybe he was just ticked off that someone found him when he was “hiding out” so nobody would find him. Maybe he just had the wrong take on the situation. Maybe he didn’t know that when it came to arguments, the strong love of this woman for her child would trump any logic he could lay out. In the end, Jesus is forced to admit he was wrong! WOW! Jesus was wrong.

This still doesn’t make clear to me exactly how this passage will its way into the message message for the Saint James community this weekend. But if it already has one tie-in, where else may it call us to stretch and re-think our understanding of ourselves and our faith?