Tuesday, February 28, 2012

It is Enough*


Did you ever notice
that in every story about Jesus
it seems that he was always coming from somewhere
and just about to head out somewhere else?
Especially in Mark
in Mark, Jesus is a man on the move
a man on a mission
with not much time to get it done
This Jesus, this Markan man
never stands still
let alone sits down
for a cup of tea

We get it now
we can see the hurrying
rushing reason  of it all. . . 
right there before him it stands
the cross
waiting
always 
just waiting. . . 
But what must it have been like back in the day?
Did they think he was rude?
Or just wonder what the young man was 
always rushing off to?

And now, here he comes and here he goes 
again
Coming from Nazareth
to the Jordan river
where John and his pals hang out
Was he coming to see John?
Or did he go in order to
jump into the Jordan
for a quick baptismal bath
before rushing off to the next thing?
John . . . check
baptism . . . check
wilderness . . . check
I don’t think so
at least not that last part

There he was
coming up out of the Jordan
fresh and refreshed
when comes the secret telegraph message
from God for his ears alone
at least in Mark
where it is Jesus who hears
and others who must wonder
Jesus who sees
and others who must scratch their heads
heavens rending
dove descending
God-voice proclaiming
all for Jesus . . . all for Jesus

But he hardly gets out of the water
scarcely has time to towel himself dry
when the Spirit dove
turns into the divine cracked-whip
driving
Driving?
Driving Jesus into . . . 
W - I - L - D - E - R - N - E - S - S
The wild place
where the wild things are
where rules are left behind
and knowing what comes next isn’t even possible
Where savage and scary and unsafe live
the land of monsters
the place where it all begins
The land called chaos

Wilderness travel
is a going back
back into the primordial ooze
from whence it all began
The place of the ashes and dust of all things . . . 

Jesus is chased back
back to beginnings
back to first things
back . . . back . . . back . . . 
There is no going forward
for him
for us
until he has first gone back
It’s dangerous
this chaos-place
where rules haven’t yet been made
and those without wings
are dared to fly
those without bread
challenged to eat rocks
those without power
mocked to don their king robes and claim it all
There
back into that nothingness. . . 
There 
Jesus must go
driven there by God’s own fury
that it should be so
to the wilderness
doth Jesus go

What must it have been like
to survive all that
only to find
on his return
that John was arrested
sure to die
in the hands of such a one as Herod
unfit, surely, for even the sandals of John?

He doesn’t miss a beat
this wilderness-surviving Jesus
it’s like Messiah boot camp. . . 
when you come out of that
you’re stronger
tougher
and you stand just a little bit taller
able to see what others cannot
able to see the wilderness
that lives inside
of you
able to see the face of that and live

When you survive the place where the wild things are
you just know
that whatever you do next
is enough

This is my Son
the Beloved
in him I was
I am
I will be
Pleased

And
it
and
he
is
enough

___________________
*Continuing from yesterday's post, this is the 2nd Sermon Reflection from the 1st Sunday in Lent, reflecting upon Mark 1.9-15 (Jesus' baptism, time in the wilderness and beginning ministry after the arrest of John).

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