Mark 10:46-52

Year B - Pentecost +22 or Energy to Witness ²²

October 25, 2015

Mark 10:46-52

“What do you want me to do for you?” This question was asked last week of conniving disciples. This week it is asked of a blind man. 

This is a question we might begin asking one another in a congregation or community. This is a far different matter than the political season statement, “Here’s what I can do for you.”

There is a communal lectio divina process that reads a scripture passage a couple of times listening for different words or phrases or evocative images or sensual engagement or other non-verbal way of entering the land of story. Eventually what is listened for is a shift in one’s own life that is reported. At the end each person “Prays” for the intention to shift mentioned by the person on their right and has their own intention “Prayed” for by the person on their left. This honoring of an intention/vision other than one’s own opens the group to listen together more wholly for any question they might hold in common.

Now comes the question to each of us, “What do you want your religious/spiritual tradition to do for you?” It may be something quite doable. It may be something unattainable as it still has too narrow a focus. Either way there is a clarity available about what we might partner together to be about and what needs to be left for a season or another group to address. This clarity is a clearing away of what stands between our realities and our vision of them. So much can get in the way and block what might otherwise be seen: so much privilege, so many tapes, such a load of burdens, etc.

May you continue to call out for mercy and continue to respond to calls for mercy.