Able to Hear (26 of 49)
Lectionary, Year B, Proper 06
Christopher B. Harbin
Mark 4:26-34
Just because you have told me something does not mean that I have understood you. It does not mean that I don't want to hear you. It does not mean that I am refusing to listen. It may simply be that I am simply unable to process your message because of what is going on in my life, or because we do not share the same experiences, the same perspective, the same beginning point. Hearing what God has to say is often similar. There are things we are not ready to hear, even if God would like us to understand them. Why should we expect everyone to understand what we do when there are issues God has not yet made clear to us?
Today's passage in Mark has occasioned many questions to me over the years. When it comes to Jesus' use of parables without explanation, the essential question has been, why did Jesus not simply give a more direct message? Why keep certain things hidden? Why not speak more openly? Why not just tell it like it is, with no holds barred? Part of the answer lies in Mark's concluding statement. The crowds were not ready to hear the fullness of Jesus' message. They were as yet unable to comprehend. Rather than speaking openly and directly about all the issues of the good news he had to share, he approached most of it in figures of speech, in stories, in illustrations that people would remember, even if they did not understand them at first glance.
Time and again, I had the experience in college of having a professor say something that stuck with me, even though I did not understand it. Once the course was over and I was halfway through a different semester, that saying would come back to mind and click. My grade would never reflect what I had learned, but my life might be changed, challenged, and richer for finally understanding what I had been told some time before. It did no good at the time for my professor to tell me what they meant. If I were to recall ...
Lectionary, Year B, Proper 06
Christopher B. Harbin
Mark 4:26-34
Just because you have told me something does not mean that I have understood you. It does not mean that I don't want to hear you. It does not mean that I am refusing to listen. It may simply be that I am simply unable to process your message because of what is going on in my life, or because we do not share the same experiences, the same perspective, the same beginning point. Hearing what God has to say is often similar. There are things we are not ready to hear, even if God would like us to understand them. Why should we expect everyone to understand what we do when there are issues God has not yet made clear to us?
Today's passage in Mark has occasioned many questions to me over the years. When it comes to Jesus' use of parables without explanation, the essential question has been, why did Jesus not simply give a more direct message? Why keep certain things hidden? Why not speak more openly? Why not just tell it like it is, with no holds barred? Part of the answer lies in Mark's concluding statement. The crowds were not ready to hear the fullness of Jesus' message. They were as yet unable to comprehend. Rather than speaking openly and directly about all the issues of the good news he had to share, he approached most of it in figures of speech, in stories, in illustrations that people would remember, even if they did not understand them at first glance.
Time and again, I had the experience in college of having a professor say something that stuck with me, even though I did not understand it. Once the course was over and I was halfway through a different semester, that saying would come back to mind and click. My grade would never reflect what I had learned, but my life might be changed, challenged, and richer for finally understanding what I had been told some time before. It did no good at the time for my professor to tell me what they meant. If I were to recall ...
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