Friday, February 6, 2009

Today’s text

Mark 1:35-39

In the morning, long before dawn, [Jesus] got up and left the house and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, 'Everybody is looking for you.' He answered, 'Let us go elsewhere, to the neighboring country towns, so that I can proclaim the message there too, because that is why I came.' And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out devils.

Reflection

‘That is why I came.’ It makes no sense, but the words bring strange comfort. There’s nothing remarkable about them, except the quietness I hear in your voice.

You don’t force the words, Jesus. There’s no dramatic emphasis, no steely resolve, just a simple statement expressing an unshakable awareness of who you are and what you are about.

You are about the revealing of God’s intention to change the world, to fill it with compassion and justice like water covers the sea. This is what you are about in every moment and circumstance. Your eyes fix on a single point on the far horizon that informs each word and act. Your focus never changes.

Mine does. I think that is why I am moved by your words. You know who you are, and you never lose track of the center of your soul no matter what else is happening, no matter how others respond, regardless of momentary distractions.

Approval or rejection, success or failure do not deter you from that which you came to do.

And you came to draw us into the love that burns at your heart. Little wonder that your words should bless me. You know why you are here, and you are here for me, for all of us.

God knows we all need it.

Draw us in, Jesus. May God’s loving rule be the horizon point that steers us each moment through the landscape of our days.

Fix our vision on the compassion that is your intention for our world that we, as you, may know why we are here.

Pr. David L. Miller