Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Tuesday, November 29, 2022


Psalm 69:1-16

Isaiah 2:1-18

Mark 4:21-41


Observance: First Tuesday in Advent


Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?


The first thing we notice about Mark’s gospel that distinguishes it from the other three is that it is so short. One can read the whole thing in under an hour. This means that when we get a nice big chunk of text, like this morning, it can feel like we have been bombarded with several different lessons that we could spend an entire week working through.


But when we are interpreting the scriptures we should use the three rules of exegesis: context, context, context. Context within the verses surrounding the passage, context within the book, and context within the entire Bible (and we keep expanding the context until our time runs out). As we learnt yesterday, Jesus is standing on a boat and making a big speech, looking to teach an important lesson. He keeps returning to this image of a seed to make His point understood. We then finish with a story of what happens when the speech is over and the boat is in transit.


So when we look at these rapid-fire lessons thrown at us, we can see that they are all from the same lesson by Jesus, and that they keep returning to the same theme: the word of God. The word of God seems to be able to do quite a lot: it reveals secrets and brings everything to the truth. Also, it is given and received, and the intention is for the word to keep being sent along and shared around. When it is sent along and shared around, we don’t know exactly how it brings about the kingdom of God, just that it does. And we learn that when it does bring about the kingdom of God, it encompasses everything; is built into the fabric of reality (“the earth produces of itself”); and that the word is a resting place for all of creation.


It is like everything in the universe is marked with the hallmark of God’s word. There is no “neutral ground” upon which two people can meet, place God’s word off to the side in a glass box, and observe and experiment upon it. The birds sing about it; the growth of plants show how it works in practise; we are made in the image of it; the way we think is because of it.


This episode in the earthly life of Jesus finishes with the conclusion of His sermon, and He and the disciples pushing off to visit another part of the lake. This is part of the same story that began yesterday with the parable of the sower. Having spent all this time proclaiming the power of the word of God, the story ends with Jesus manifesting that power over creation in the calming of the storm. This word of God, that has had such a big build up, is shown to be in the person of Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God. Christ’s imprint is found in everything in creation. The truth of Christ, proclaimed boldly and truthfully, brings people into His kingdom. The supernatural mechanism that links proclamation with conversion is not known by us. But the power of Christ, the Living Word, is so great, and the fact that His truth is embedded into our very being, means that we have nothing to fear if we make it the only thing we ever rely on.



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