Epiphany 5 – Year B
Mark 1:29-39
In Jesus' setting and Mark's emphasis upon cleanliness, touching a woman, even for healing, leads to uncleanliness. Imagine the residue of uncleanliness that has accumulated through the night with wave upon wave of sick people come to Jesus. Is it any wonder that Jesus was up very early in the morning and away to pray?
In this darkness may be found an extension of Mark's shorthand version of Jesus' post-baptismal temptation. Here the temptation is to locate, to heal and heal again. Here, Simon, as later, personifies a tempter that would have us settle for a little good that matches his expectation rather than a larger good we have been called to.
How do you measure the calling of others to you and a calling or vocation from what you understand to be G*D? Are they close the to the same (G*D and Neighbor) or are they ranked in some fashion?
Where and when is your time to prayerfully sort out your next step? Here the word is that I will be retiring from full-time pastoral ministry in an institutional church setting this coming July 1. I expect I will be working on this pericope in a variety of ways over these next months and will appreciate any wisdom/prayers you might have regarding opportunities, tasks, and temptations I'll be facing.
Did you hear the great gasp from me at this news shared in your last paragraph today Wes? Selfishly, I went to my own need to continue to "sit at your feet" first rather than any word I could offer you.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me ponder. . . what is the connection (or the dis-connection) between retirement and vocation?
ReplyDeleteAlso, is retirement connected to "job," "career," "making a financial living," and vocation connected to "essence?"
Sent to Wes with the blessings of wonderment, awe, and courage ("of the heart") for these months ahead ~
Lynn
Thank you, Anon. and Lynn -
ReplyDeleteRelearning or reappropriating a call, a vocation, seems always to be in order. In this we deepen and/or widen our relationship with ourself and others. Peter's reception of a call last week and re-calibration of that call this week, seems like a natural progression if we are dealing with a living system or a living G*D.
Aren't we always living between gasping and blessing! In such time and space we live and move and have our being.
Wesley