Third Sunday after Epiphany - B

Years B
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20

There are many great balancing acts where we are not shaken, where we rest. Among the greatest is that of "none."

Are you seen, do you see yourself, as being of little value, of great value? The difference is smaller than a jot or tittle. It takes nothing to push a balanced scale, an empty scale. Let it go.

Fisher of fish or fisher of folk? Net leaver or family leaver? First journey or second journey to Tarshish or Nineveh? We tell ourselves stories that one is better than the other.

In a time of fulfillment "all" and "nothing" lose significance.

Let me have all things, let me having nothing, I freely and heartily yield.
Let me have repentance, let me have good news, I freely and heartily yield.
Let me have mourning, let me have rejoicing, I freely and heartily yield.
Let me have prison, let me have Galilee, I freely and heartily yield.

What has been the tension you have been holding on to to define your present time here? Might this be a time of fulfillment where you can yield to both rather than wait for one to knock off the other?

= = = = = = =

rock against rock
devil against sea
addiction against addiction
we set our dilemmas
wavering between them
holding both so precious
we could never put one down

time against space
matter against energy
galaxy against quark
we set our paradoxes
choosing one and then
favoring the other
once, twice, and thrice

doctrine against doctrine
hymn against praise
faith against hope
we set our institutions
burning with passion
burning each heretic
loving sets more than love itself