Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: This is Sundays with Bishop Ken.
Thanks for sharing some quiet time with the Lord today. Our guest reader is Father Burt Gome, a senior priest from the diocese of Saginaw in Michigan. Father Burt was a priest in the diocese when Bishop Ken was its shepherdess.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: A reading from the holy gospel according to Mark.
At that time, John said to Jesus, teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us.
Jesus replied, do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.
Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ. Amen, I say to you will surely not lose his reward.
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with 2ft to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.
The gospel of the Lord in our tradition, we don't pick the readings for Sunday or, for that matter, weekdays. They are assigned. There is something good about that. It forces us to be a full gospel church.
Otherwise we who preach or plan liturgies would simply pick out our favorite passages, and a lot of the gospel would be left out.
For example, today's gospel. This passage would be an unlikely choice for any liturgy.
But passages like this force us to go where we might not otherwise have gone.
They force us to think new thoughts rather than rehash old ones. They force us to recognize that the truths we hold are far greater than our own personal grasp of them.
In this particular passage from Mark, there is a great contrast. On the one hand, we see Jesus show great tolerance, even tenderness.
He says that the disciples should not try to stop the person who was casting out demons in Jesus name, even if he isn't a follower of Jesus.
And then he says that if someone gives just a cup of water to one of his disciples, they will receive a reward.
Then in the next sentence, Mark has him talking about people being thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck for causing scandalous. He goes on to say that if your hand or foot causes you to sin, we should cut it off. Or if it is your eye that causes sin, pluck it out.
On the one hand, tolerance, tenderness. On the other hand, severity.
Actually, we have this on the one hand and on the other hand many times in the gospels.
In some places, Jesus says such things as come to me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome. For my yoke is easy and my burden light to a criminal on the cross. After just a few words, he promises paradise that very day.
He tells parables like the prodigal son, the lost sheep, parables of tender mercy.
Then in other places, we have Jesus saying such things as, if you love your father or mother more than me, you aren't worthy of me.
He tells the rich young man he's got to leave everything to follow him.
He tells us we've got to suffer and pick up our cross and walk in his footsteps.
What do we learn from this?
We learn that we are sons and daughters of God, made in the image of God, and the Lord has great expectations for us.
That is a compliment. The Lord thinks more of us than we do.
He knows what we can do with God's grace, and he calls us to great things.
But the Lord knows that we are human, and the Lord has great mercy when we fail.
In other words, the Lord opens his arms full and wide in expectation, and I opens his arms just as full and wide in mercy.
We have to do both.
One without the other will not do arms wide in expectation but narrow in mercy, or arms narrow in expectation but wide in mercy.
It's easier to do one or the other, but we must do both.
Each of us might have our own inclination to lean one way or the other, depending on our personality type.
Sometimes we will have to swallow hard and be more demanding than we might otherwise be.
Other times we will have to swallow hard and be more merciful.
We have to do both. And we see both in the gospels arms wide in expectation and arms just as wide in mercy.
We don't pick and choose this or that part of the gospel. We are a full gospel church, and we are full gospel disciples.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us today. If you like this week's reflection, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform for daily reflections. During the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, subscribe to the Little Books app found on the Apple or Google Play stores. The podcast is brought to you free of charge from little books. To help support our ministry. Please consider donating by clicking on the donate button now. And of course, why not tell a friend about this podcast? Sundays with Bishop Ken is produced by Little Books of the Diocese of Saginaw. For more about little books and great resources for the whole family, visit littlebooks.org dot.
