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Mark 9:30-41 

³⁰ They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; ³¹for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’ ³²But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

³³ Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ ³⁴But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. ³⁵He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ ³⁶Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’

³⁸ John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone^* casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’³⁹But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. ⁴⁰Whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

I think the disciples did understand what Jesus was telling them but they didn’t want to hear it. I imagine they were just beginning their journey with Jesus and a)didn’t want to hear they Jesus expected to die and b)were thinking they had just given up everything to follow him and what will their future be if he died.

We often don’t want to hear the truth even when we know it in our hearts. It can be natural to avoid bad news because facing reality often requires some action on our part or at least requires us to imagine a different reality.

We are facing a difficult reality and uncertain right now. Feeling safe requires us to have faith that our leaders are doing their best for us. We can rejoice in knowing our faith in Jesus Christ gives us the strength to do our best for each other.

¹ Corinthians 13: 1-13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,^* but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; ¹⁰but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹²For now we see in a mirror, dimly,^* but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

I can’t really imagine a more important message to hear today than the one of this text. For this reflection, I rewrote the verses to suggest how this message belongs with us this Saturday afternoon, March 28^th, in the middle of a pandemic:  

If I speak in the power of governors, world leaders, and politicians, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have medical training, and understand all mysteries of this virus, and if I have all the medicines, vaccines, supplies, so as to remove this illness, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³If I sacrifice my food or time in quarantine to help others,^* but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient: It recognizes the gift of simplifying right now; it is gentle with our children, family, friends as we all sometimes poorly navigate this difficult time. Love forgives.

Love is kind: It compels us to pray for others, think of others, cry for others

Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant⁵or rude: Love finds peace with limitations, accepting that we are where we are—quarantined, isolated, or still going outside to go to work—and chooses to find breath, stillness, courage.

It does not insist on its own way: Love releases control, trusting God and inner resilience

it is not irritable or resentful;⁶it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth: Love is genuine, honest, embracing all the parts of ourselves that show up in scary times—the grief, fear, anger, gratitude, panic, hope.  

⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things: ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends: It never ends

Exodus 2:1-22

This story is one I remember well from Sunday School as a child.  As a child,  I'm sure my attention would have been drawn directly to Baby Moses and how his life unfolds.  Now, as a mother of two small children, my thoughts turn to Moses' mother, his biological one that is, whose courageous act saves her baby's life.  How outrageous that she is nursing her baby "for" this other woman, yet how overjoyed she must be that her baby is alive (safe from being killed), that she will be able to take care of him as a baby, and that he will have safety and privilege as he grows up (for a while at least).

It's difficult to comprehend the injustice found throughout this text.  Given the helpless circumstances Moses' mother found herself in, I imagine she must have cherished every moment she had with her baby, knowing that one day she'd have to give him up (again) and bring him to Pharaoh's daughter.  In the present moment I find myself with more time with my two children, 42 hours a week more, to be exact. There are parts of each day where I'm able to cherish and appreciate that time, but often the insanity of trying to work and take care of a one and three year old at the same time gets the best of me and I become frustrated, negative, and overwhelmed. I'm grateful that my family is healthy and that my husband and I have jobs that allow us to work from home.  Our situation is almost best case scenario in today's world.  Still, when I'm going about my day, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture.  It's also easy to beat myself up, but at the end of the day all I can do is try to forgive myself and ask God to forgive me and help me to do better the next day to cherish my two children and my many other blessings.