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Mark 4:21-34

²¹ He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? ²²For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. ²³Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ ²⁴And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. ²⁵For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’

²⁶ He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’

³⁰ He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; ³²yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’

³³ With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; ³⁴he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

The lamp set under the bushel. The mustard seed that grows into the flourishing tree. The farmer who rises to sow her seed night and day. I have heard these parables too many times to count. I grew up in an Evangelical tradition that emphasized reading the Bible quite constantly and literally. I would imagine that even if the Biblical text had featured less prominently in my early life, I’d almost have to be raised under a bushel to never have heard parable “takeaways” like, “you reap what you sow” or “all you need is the faith of a mustard seed.”  

When I sat down to read today’s text, my intention was to practice Missy and Deacon John’s suggestion to read slowly, prayerfully, impressionistically, and with the eyes and ears of my heart. What happened instead is that I had to force myself not to skim, to gloss, to make assumptions. It was so tempting for me to reduce these words of Jesus to “lessons” I had already learned. I love to learn, and I’m ever in danger of my own desire to “check off” more boxes of knowledge and experience. For me, spiritual practice is discipline because it’s a slow schooling in how much can’t be known, is ever unknown about myself, the world, the Sacred. To read this way is to feel my way into all that is unresolvable in a text like this. Here Jesus says, “there is nothing hidden except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret except to come to light.” Later we read that Jesus only spoke in these cryptic parables, but explained it all to his disciples in private. Far from unspooling into tidy threads of wisdom, I find that parables invite me to get more comfortable with discomfort in messy and sometimes tangled bits and bobs of story and meaning. 

This is, in my experience, a more authentic reflection to life, at least to mine. Spiritual practices and communities don’t always make clear the path in front of me. These are scary, uncertain times. There are no easy answers or straightforwardly accessible wisdom. I want those things sometimes, of course. Perhaps this is why I first read today’s text like a snack to be scarfed down after a tough workout! It’s much more difficult and much more powerful to listen quietly and slowly to the uncertainties and mysteries of the text and of my own heart. 

Genesis 42:18-28

¹⁸ On the third day Joseph said to them, ‘Do this and you will live, for I fear God:  ¹⁹if you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here where you are imprisoned. The rest of you shall go and carry grain for the famine of your households,  ²⁰and bring your youngest brother to me. Thus your words will be verified, and you shall not die.’ And they agreed to do so.  ²¹They said to one another, ‘Alas, we are paying the penalty for what we did to our brother; we saw his anguish when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen. That is why this anguish has come upon us.’ ²²Then Reuben answered them, ‘Did I not tell you not to wrong the boy? But you would not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.’ ²³They did not know that Joseph understood them, since he spoke with them through an interpreter.  ²⁴He turned away from them and wept; then he returned and spoke to them. And he picked out Simeon and had him bound before their eyes.  ²⁵Joseph then gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to return every man’s money to his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. This was done for them.

²⁶ They loaded their donkeys with their grain, and departed.  ²⁷When one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging-place, he saw his money at the top of the sack.  ²⁸He said to his brothers, ‘My money has been put back; here it is in my sack!’ At this they lost heart and turned trembling to one another, saying, ‘What is this that God has done to us?’

Here we are on a new adventure, co-writing a Lenten reflection with our neighbor/ dog park friend. We said yes with no idea of what we would say. Once we received the passage, we panicked. The passage was not immediately accessible. Who were all these brothers? And why did they reject that having both the grain and their money was a blessing? A dog walk was certainly in order.

Fear was present as we discussed the reading. Do I know enough about the bible to really have something to say? Would we be judged for what we had to say? Are there wrong answers?  Both of us felt caught in a fear spiral: fear > wariness > distrust then fear again.

During uncertain times and circumstances, like the brothers found themselves in or current events we are facing as a community, one can get lost in fear and reconciling what feels like a tragedy with the idea of faith. Why is this happening? What really is going on? Will everything be okay? When caught in our fear spirals, we started leaning towards suspicion and questioning motives, causing us to nearly miss the blessings of the present moment right in front of us.

What is the way through the fear? As we unpacked the passage reflecting on what struck each of us and what the brothers may have been experiencing, we each had to stay present; present in the fear, present with the task at hand, and present in the space with each other. Having each other, we could not retreat into that fear because that other person was there to push us through (thankfully with a lot of generosity and humor). We kept coming back to something our pups ask of us all the time – be present in the here and now; take one-step forward at a time and allow the mystery of faith to unfold.

Mark 3:19 - 35

Then he went home; ²⁰and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. ²¹When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ ²²And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ ²³And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? ²⁴If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. ²⁵And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ²⁶And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. ²⁷But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.

28 ‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; ²⁹but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— ³⁰for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’

31 Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. ³²A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters^* are outside, asking for you.’ ³³And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’³⁴And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’