prayer

Personal prayer for the reader

Memorial, Our Lady of Sorrows

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

1 Cor. 15:1-11, Psalm 118: 1-2, 16-17, 28, Luke 2:33-35

Including Stabat Mater

Because today is the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows the liturgy contains a unique element, the Stabat Mater. This thirteenth century hymn is a devotional prayer to Mary about the sufferings she endured staying close to her Son, “to the last.” The prayer asks to participate in the suffering and pain inflicted on Mary and Jesus so that the person may come to live eternally in heaven.

At first blush, the prayer can seem too intense.

Let me to my latest breath,
In my body bear the death
Of that dying Son of yours.

Wounded with his every wound,
Steep my soul till it has swooned
In his very Blood away.

Personally, I have always resisted any view of salvation that involves us seeking out pain and suffering to “be like Jesus.” Jesus wasn’t out looking for scourging and crucifixion, people in authority who were threatened by his ideas and actions killed him. Rather we need to follow Jesus’ path of love, care and forgiveness. Really sticking to that will present enough challenges in and of itself. And that is where this prayer has something to say. It is a strong statement of how painful it can be to stay close to Jesus.

The Gospel gives us what was possibly for Mary an early insight. Simeon says, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel….” Mary is going to live her life with a Son who raises questions no wants to hear. She will see wonderful things happen and be frightened by those who oppose and ultimately end his life. She will end up standing in sorrow watching her only son, her first born taken from her. Executed on a cross. The prayer says,

“Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled,
She beheld her tender Child,
All with bloody scourges rent.”

This is real loss. She is witnessing her Son’s defeat. He and all he tried to accomplish is gone. He lost, the authorities have won. She has to wonder what it was all for if his life only led to this degrading, disgusting moment. Everyone has run away or denied him.

It is hard for us to appreciate the reality of her situation since we see her thousands of years later as people who believe in the resurrection and life after death. But resurrection hadn’t yet happened for her. And in one crucial way it hasn’t really happened for us yet either. Human angst over death is frighteningly deep. It’s hard to hold on to a belief that says death is a gateway to new life. It was hard to accept in the first century when Paul could still point out to the Corinthians that, Jesus then “appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.” The philosophical viewpoints of the time were challenging the Corinthians about what Paul had taught them. None of us, not the Corinthians, nor Paul himself are very far from Mary’s experience. We have no way of knowing for sure until it’s over.

This is where the prayer, in my opinion, holds a substance and value that is important for us. It says,

O sweet Mother! font of love,
Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with yours accord.

Make me feel as you have felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ, my Lord.

What the prayer offers is an example of a deep, personal human connection. Mary loses her only son but stays “close to the last” out of love. The prayer focuses on a mother’s love for her child. That mother’s bond of love is a clue to our salvation, our holding on to a belief in the resurrection and the life after death it offers. There’s no sure way to know, to be sure intellectually, that there is life after death. However, coming to know, to experience, Jesus is a connection that will survive death.

The challenge is that to have a close loving relationship with Jesus takes exactly what it took for Mary. We have to live with him for a lifetime. Relationships of love develop over time, with care, experience, challenges and joys. If we want to be confident, to trust in life after death we have to live this life coming to know the God who offers it. This means something different for each of us. But at core it means coming to know ourselves, understanding the truth about what drives us, what really fulfills us and the gifts we have been given. Accepting ourselves and these gifts honestly, we can be grateful and generous just as Jesus was. The way he was for so many during his life and for Mary on Easter when his rising from the dead changed tragedy into joy. The way God’s Spirit continues to free us from fear and enable us to say what today’s Psalm does, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.”

Memorial, St. John Chrysostom

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

1 Cor. 12:12-14, 27-31, Psalm 100: 1-5, Luke 7:11-17

In today’s Gospel a widow loses her only son. Jesus, “moved with pity” becomes involved when he steps forward to touch the casket, breaking Jewish purity laws in the process. He then brings the son back to life and gives him to his mother. It is an amazingly straightforward story of God stepping in to rescue the life of a woman completely alone in the world. I think it is crucial to notice why Jesus acts. Jesus does this because he was “moved with pity” for her. Personally I have always felt drawn to these statements of emotion on Jesus’ part. I think they are little windows into the long ago reality of what happened. I think these little asides, if you will, are there because people at the time were so touched by Jesus’ genuine human outreach that it became an integral part of the story. They couldn’t tell the story about this unbelievable miracle without including the emotion they saw in Jesus. This is important because in the history of the Church there has been a long tradition that emphasized Jesus’ divinity over his humanity. For me it is the humanity of Jesus that helps me sense what God is all about. So this story says that God is touched by the fragility of human life, by one woman’s need. God hurts when we hurt, God acts out of a deep personal attachment to each of us. Too often we have not come to see God’s love in those personal terms and, I think, to that extent, we are the poorer for it.

We must also remember that this was Jesus acting to help this woman. And frankly Jesus of Nazareth, isn’t here anymore. Now it’s our turn. In our first reading Paul makes it clear we are the new Body of Christ. Each of us is part of the ongoing presence of God in this world. Paul expects his followers in Corinth to recognize that each of them has been given their own unique spiritual gifts so they can do their part. Luke’s story shows us how concrete Jesus was in demonstrating God love. He raises a man from the dead so his mother will not be left completely alone and without support in her life. Paul says each of us is part of the larger Body of Christ. We are one in the Spirit so that we can carry on God’s work as prophets perhaps, but more likely as teachers, assistants, administrators, workers. People who are willing to help heal the emotional and physical wounds of life today. I think too often we believe that God acts in unknown mysterious ways reaching out of the ether to put things right. But the Bible says, God needed to send his Son, as a person to live among us so that young man in Nain could be given to his mother. Today, mothers still need their sons and daughters rescued from the possibility of death, and fear and other awful realities. So our faith cannot be only an expression of good feelings or solely an adherence to ideas about God. Faith is only real when it acts as God acts. When we do what is needed for others. When we live by the same deep personal concern that Jesus had and are moved to action to save one another.

Thursday, Twenty-Second Week of Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

1 Corinthians 3:18-23, Psalm 24:1-6, Luke 5:1-11

So I think today’s readings ask us to decide what makes us happy: really happy, little kid giggles happy, picturesque mountain view happy, peaceful quiet by the fire happy, being with each other happy. There was a yogurt commercial a few years ago in which two young women tried to describe how good the yogurt was with descriptive experiential phrases like that. This is about more than yogurt. It’s about what is most important in our lives. However, the yogurt commercial hints at what is involved here and that is, trying to capture, i.e. trying to understand what something means. How good is good tasting yogurt? What does it mean to be happy with life?

The back story is that Paul is trying to tell the Corinthians that they shouldn’t be fighting over whose teacher or preacher of the Gospel is the most authentic. These early Christians had started to develop factions even before other people were calling them Christian. Paul is trying to bring them back to the core message of the Gospel, their faith, that their connection is to Christ and God the Father not any one teacher. What they have learned through Christ about God is true wisdom. Looking other places for the answers to life is foolish.

What I heard when I read it today is the way he makes his point. He turns around their arguments of which teacher they belong to and says that they belong to God because of Jesus Christ. Therefore all the rest, the teachers, the future, this world, their very lives belong to them. They have all the wisdom, value, and authority they need because of their understanding of God’s gift to this world. To put it in terms of Luke’s Gospel, they have all the fish that Simon and his partners have in both their boats. They have already been given the wisdom, the insight into what is valuable in life.

In the Gospel the overwhelming catch of fish demonstrates for Simon that he is in the presence of the divine. Nothing else could provide such a bounty. Simon and James and John were fishermen they knew these waters, fished them all the time, yet they had never seen a catch like this. They didn’t understand the true gifts of this life, much like the bickering Corinthians. Encountering Jesus opened an unseen door. The story says, Jesus transforms “no fish” into “more fish than they can handle”. It means, Jesus transforms what looks like a harsh world with nothing to give for our efforts into a world of wealth and plenty. The Psalm sends the same message, “the earth and all that fills it” belongs to the Lord and the Lord chooses to give it those “whose heart is clean and desires not what is vain.”

Which brings us back to Paul’s references to what it means to be wise. In Matthew’s Gospel, Simon acquires that wisdom by recognizing the unbridled generosity when he sees it and he changes his life as a result. It’s easy to not see the world or our existence that way. We think we’re smart and wise in our lives. We too have fished this lake a long time. Too often the world can appear harsh and unforgiving. Paul thinks this is a foolish view. I think we are being fools when we fail to seek out what makes us truly happy. What could be wiser than knowing what life is all about? What would produce more joy than being satisfied with my own life? Too often we can be dissatisfied and unhappy with life. Looking for happiness in things beyond ourselves, perhaps in approval, power or possessions. I think if we can believe in God and recognize God’s overwhelming generosity in our lives we can describe happy in very different terms. We can recognize close relationships, being open and honest, admitting mistakes, helping others, following our dreams, being at peace with ourselves, and being in love as the true wealth of this world. Oh, and eating really good rich creamy ice cream. (I don’t actually like yogurt.)

Tuesday, Twenty-second Day of Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

1 Corinthians 2:10b-16, Psalm 145:8-14, Luke 4:31-37

There are lots of spirits in today’s readings: the spirit of men, Spirit of God, unclean spirits. Personally I’m big on Spirit. My sense of my relationship with God is with God’s Spirit.

Without going into the details, the Corinthians are having an esoteric argument about having the proper spirit that would make a person wise, mature and perfect so they would be superior to others. The Gospel tells a simple story to illustrate that God’s Spirit overcomes evil spirits and heals people.

In both cases the proper Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus. When Jesus is present the Holy One of God drives out whatever afflicts a person. Paul says it this way, “so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.”

We certainly don’t always understand the things that go on around us, or things that happen to us. I’m sure each of us has had demons that have hobbled what we were able to do. Sometimes our society can’t accept a change that would mean more equality or opportunity for others. It isn’t always clear where we need contemporary exorcisms.

However, I think we should still recognize that it is the Spirit within us that needs healing. If we can heal the spirit, then life changes. The simplest example I can think of is rainy days. Sometimes a rainy day makes me feel like I don’t want to get out of bed. Just stay under those covers and leave me alone. Yet just as often the day can be rainy and dark and I am eager to light a fire in the fireplace, sit on the couch and read a good book. On those days the rain gives me a reason to do what I want. What’s the difference? The difference is the Spirit of the day. Spirit can change anything. How many stories do we hear about physically disabled people who go on to overcome adversity and challenge our very understanding of what it means to be disabled?

These may not sound like spiritual examples. But I think they are. God’s Spirit is so woven into all of reality that you can’t separate worldly concerns from heavenly concerns. I think every decision we ever make is a spiritual connection to the God who made us. How else do we define ourselves except by the decisions we make. We either express in how we live, a life of love and care and humility, guided by what we have learned of God’s love and care for us or we don’t. We either do things that reflect and create a relationship with God or we let other ideas, other spirits, rule who we are. It doesn’t mean we get it right all the time. It means we are trying to follow what Jesus showed us. When we do, when we choose the way of love and generosity, then unclean spirits will be driven out because we too know who the Holy One of God is and just as Paul said, “we have the mind of Christ” and it is his Spirit that can change lives, rainy day or not.

Thursday, Twenty-First Week of Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings

1 Cor. 1: 1-9, Psalm 145:2-7, Mt. 24:42-51

Both of this morning’s readings have to do with waiting for Christ. As we can tell from the letter to the Corinthians this wasn’t any easier in the first century than it is today. In fact, the Corinthians had a challenge we don’t have, they were thinking that Jesus might be coming back in their lifetime. For us, the issue of staying faithful is a challenge since we live in a world that isn’t supportive of many of our values.

What I noticed about the readings this morning is they seem to take two very different approaches to staying faithful. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is addressed to people who live their faith. In fact my sense is that they have made their faith a part of who they are. Paul compliments them as having been enriched with “all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ has confirmed among you.” It is evident that they have faith because they are talking about Christ to their friends and neighbors. They are excited about being Christian.

It seems to me Paul knows these people are solid in their faith. All they really need is a reminder that, “God is faithful” and the relationship they already have with Jesus will “keep you firm until the end.”

The scene in Matthew’s Gospel is completely different. First of all, this is set at least 25 or 30 years earlier and there isn’t a believing community yet. Jesus is trying to explain what a relationship with God might look like. So in this story from Matthew, Jesus is literally trying to explain what it means to be faithful. The example is about leaving someone else in charge. That someone may act out of your wishes consistently, all the time you are gone. Or as soon as you are not there to oversee what is happening that someone may, in fact, act contrary to your wishes, since you won’t know anyway. In this situation, when the person is not following your wishes, he or she had better keep watch. The story essentially expects that people need some oversight, or fear of discovery to be kept in line. If you’ve raised children you understand the necessity for this approach.

These two stories are great examples of at least one difference in how people can respond to God. In the Gospel someone is following directions, rules and guidelines established by another. If he or she follows them faithfully then as Jesus says, the Master may well put that person in charge of more property give them more responsibility. The motivation for acting a certain way is from outside the person.

In our letter to the Corinthians, these people have long ago been put in charge of more property, they have more responsibility. They have come to take charge of their own lives because they have developed a relationship with Jesus that has resulted in their confidence about life and the values they try to live. They have received spiritual gifts that enrich their lives. They are “in Christ Jesus.” They have a fellowship with Christ. Which doesn’t mean they have all the answers or don’t find keeping faith a difficult task. Rather there is no question about how they want to live and how they are trying to live. It is a part of who they are and what they are about. They may be challenged by situations from the outside but that is not the source of their motivation. The motivation, the desire, the care they exhibit is their own, from the deepest part of who they are, because of a love, a connection to God and Jesus. There is no need in this situation to stay awake as if God’s coming would be a surprise. For these people of God who were in Corinth, God is already there. Jesus has already come.

Monday, Fifth Week in Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings:

1 Kings 8: 1-7, 9-13, Psalm 132: 6-10, Mark 6:53-56

I find these two readings very impressive. They are filled with excitement and celebration and joy.

In the reading from Kings all the various parts of the Hebrew nation are gathering to celebrate the new Temple that Solomon has just completed. Priests, ancestral leaders, tribes and all the people have come to Jerusalem and they are sacrificing sheep and oxen that are too many to count. Here is the Temple that David had wanted to build but Solomon has finally completed and everyone wants to be part of it. This is the place where God will reside. It says to every Jew, God is here in our midst. The God of the covenant, the God of the ark and their journey from Egypt is now here in Jerusalem their capital city. God resides with them, lives with them and therefore is available to them. To use the words of the New Testament, God is “at hand.”

This same flavor is present in the Gospel. Jesus arrives at Gennesaret and people recognize him at once. What’s more they don’t just keep it to themselves and crowd around to see or talk to him but they take off to bring other people who are sick to be near him. Wherever he goes, people who are hurting come to him for healing. People are brought on stretchers and laid out on the ground so they can touch his cloak. People are excited that he is now here and available and they come to seek healing. And Mark says, “All those who touched him were healed.” What could be more exciting than that? People were excited because the presence of Jesus meant they could be healed. Just as the Israelites were excited to have God present in their midst through the temple, these villagers had something to celebrate.

My question is, “Are we that excited?” Do we see the possibility of healing available to us in Jesus’ presence? We know that sometimes amazing miracles have happened when people’s physical sicknesses have been healed. But have we considered the healing that can take place by reaching out to Jesus with less obvious emotional or anxious needs. The key is reaching for Jesus, seeking to touch him. How often are we afraid to ask for God’s help or help from another person? Wouldn’t you think we would be a lot more excited if we believed Jesus could make a difference? So what do we believe about Jesus and the presence of God being right here in our midst? It’s why we need to talk to each other about our faith and our experience of God because on our own we probably can’t be sure. But if someone came running up with a stretcher excited to take us to Jesus for healing, wouldn’t we go? Sometimes we just have to be taken by someone else. We need to hear another’s story. Perhaps once we have had the healing Jesus can give, we would be excited too?

Thursday, the First Week of Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings:

1 Samuel 4:1-11, Psalm 44:10-11, 14-15, 24-25, Mark 1:40-45

Sometimes when reading passages from Scripture it’s a single word or phrase that catches my attention and is the basis for reflection. Today the elaborate story of Israel’s defeat at the hands of the Philistines is too significant to be put aside. The Psalm reinforces my sense that Israel’s defeat is the issue to be talked about because the Psalm is a lament about being defeated.

The key here is the question raised in 1 Samuel, “Why has the LORD permitted us to be defeated today by the Philistines?” How often do we feel like asking the same question? How come I feel defeated? Why isn’t God on my side? Two things occur to me when faced with this kind of question. First, Israel isn’t afraid to ask the question. In fact Israel has a long history of being disappointed with the way God is handling things. Remember that after being rescued from Egypt the Israelites complained at separate times about lack of food and lack of water. They literally put God to the test. Given dire circumstances it’s appropriate to complain to God about what’s happening. It has to do with being in a living relationship. It takes a strong relationship to support honest, passionate argument. We aren’t likely to take our deepest worries to someone who doesn’t care or worse will walk away because what is said is hard to hear. When we’re upset about something it only helps if we talk to people we can trust. So ultimately this question reveals a solid relationship that Israel can count on.

The problem is Israel doesn’t understand what’s going on. The fact they “don’t get it” is stunningly revealed when they bring the Ark to the battle scene and they lose even worse than the first time. The ark is captured and Eli’s, two sons are killed. That is a serious defeat and this is where our reading ends for today. There is no escape from this loss. Which brings me to my second impression about this situation when it seems God isn’t working on our side. My thought is maybe something needs to change. In other words, if life is beating us up so badly that we think God has abandoned us then maybe it’s time to choose another path. Maybe this defeat is God’s way of telling us what we need to hear.

The possible confusion is that doing anything worthwhile takes effort and often costs us something to accomplish. So the trick is to correctly evaluate whether what is going on is truly an overwhelming, game changing defeat or just a reasonable challenge to success. My own experience was that when faced with total crushing defeat I frankly felt that if I didn’t make a change, what was going on was literally going to kill me. It was a point of having to choose a new life or face death. Which interestingly enough is what has happened to the Israelites. Their current course of action is killing them by the thousands.

When the situation is dire then it matches the Psalm today, “For our souls are bowed down to the dust, our bodies are pressed to the earth.” If God is telling us to make a change then we will find what is needed. Lepers were totally excluded from ancient society. But the leper in today’s Gospel sought out Jesus and was healed. That healing changed his life. If our world collapses then we need to look just as hard to find what will heal us.

Wednesday, First Week of Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings:

1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20, Psalm 40:2, 5, 7-10, Mark 1:29-39

Today’s first reading is the namesake for this blog. It begins by saying it was a time when revelations and visions were infrequent. A description that if it doesn’t fit our world reflects what many people believe, i.e. God doesn’t operate in our world the way God did in Biblical times. If God exists then God is distant and only watches us. A popular song a few years ago expressed this exact sentiment.

What happens next in Samuel is what I have taken to be instructive. God calls out to young Samuel in his sleep and Samuel simply goes to Eli to answer the call. Eli however, isn’t calling Samuel. This happens three times before Eli realizes that it’s God who is calling Samuel. He says, “if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” Samuel is called and replies as instructed and from then on is a prophet of the Lord. I believe God is calling to us, all of us, all the time. However, we often don’t realize who is doing the calling. Too often there is no one who can tell us who is doing the calling. We can go along for a long time trying to answer the wrong call.

Importantly I am not taking this act of being called literally. I think it’s a way to talking about knowing who we are and what we are about. The general answers to those questions are: that we are loved by God, meaning worthwhile valued human beings, who are here to love and care for one another as participants in God’s gift of God’s self to the world. How each of us works this out should be the joy of being who we are. I’m convinced God is trying to engage us in our own personal adventures, if you will. The question is, are we listening? Do we pay attention to the people and events in our lives that say something about what is good for us? Are taking the time away from all the rush of living to see what’s actually going on?

Today’s Gospel can be seen as a sample of what real listening to God can accomplish. Are we going to invite Jesus into our home like Simon and Andrew did? The results can be quite dramatic. Simon’s mother-in-law was restored to health. Not only were town’s people cured of illness but Jesus drove out many demons. Isn’t that exactly what we want, to rid ourselves of the demons that plague our lives?

We have to do what Samuel did and what is wonderfully expressed in our Psalm response. We have to respond, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.” We have to say, “Here I am Lord; I come to do your will.” If we can sort out what is good and worthwhile. If we can be honest about who we are and follow our deepest desires then the words of the Psalm will truly ring home.

I have waited, waited for the LORD, and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
Blessed the man who makes the LORD his trust;
who turns not to idolatry or to those who stray after falsehood.

Which is followed by:

To do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”

This certainly is Good News.

Tuesday, First Week of Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings:

1 Samuel 1:9-20, 1 Samuel 2:1, 4-8, Mark 1:21-28

What I noticed in today’s readings was the comment about Hannah after her visit to the temple, she “no longer appeared downcast.” That seems pretty straight forward. In her own words to Eli she describes herself as in “deep sorrow and misery.” So she had come to the Temple and “in her bitterness she prayed to the LORD, weeping copiously.” This was a heart-felt appeal. I think it’s exactly the place where we can feel God’s support.

Catholic’s have a wonderful and useful tradition of published prayers. Everything from the Eucharistic liturgy to the rosary and before and after meal prayers. Catholic schools and parish religious education programs work very hard to pass on these forms of prayer to each new generation. However, that tradition can have the tendency to steer an individual toward more formal and impersonal forms of praying. At minimum the words of prayer are not ours. Worse, we may not be connecting the act of prayer with what is happening for us at a personal level.

We can learn from Hannah. This woman is being totally honest with God and herself. That starts with coming to prayer, “in her bitterness.” Plus she blatantly wants to make a deal with God. This is not, however, a calculated action. What I see here is utter desperation. She is laying herself out there by not holding anything back. If we’re going to talk to God, I think that’s exactly what prayer requires. It involves brutal honesty about who we are, how we feel and what we want. There’s something holy in that process. According to this story it’s the kind of prayer to which God responds. It’s also been my personal experience that when I was emotionally spent and there seemed to be nothing left, at that very point, something changed and I felt better and more able to deal with what needed to be done.

I think it is from these kinds of emotional turn-arounds that the Psalmists and today Samuel exclaims, “My heart exults in the Lord, my Savior.” Note he says, “My heart.” Consider how much of what we read in the Psalms is meant to refer to human events or can be understood to be about the human emotional landscape:

“The LORD puts to death and gives life;

 he casts down to the nether world;

 he raises up again.

 The LORD makes poor and makes rich:

 he humbles, he also exalts.”

Isn’t that where we are most likely to find our God, connected to the deepest part of who we are? That’s certainly what is going on in today’s Gospel.

Jesus is teaching in a synagogue based on his own authority, which to me suggests he talking from his own experiences and what the Scripture of the day means in his life. So this is already a personal encounter with the group. Some man “with an unclean spirit” reveals his deepest fears. Whatever “possessed” this man, it was deeply personal. Jesus’ own personal honesty so jarred him that he couldn’t abide what that might mean for him. The Gospel has already revealed that the other people were “astonished” at what Jesus was saying. Jesus, unwilling to enable any further dysfunction, heals the pain that has occupied the deepest parts of this man.

I would suggest that praying to God: actual prayer, being able to make the connection, may require that we recognize our deepest secrets, fears, wounds and desires. Maybe we need to name the “unclean spirits” in order to expel them from our lives. God certainly is listening.

Monday, First Week in Ordinary Time

~ Retired Bill ~ Leave a comment

Today’s Scripture Readings:

1 Samuel 1:1-8, Psalm 116:12-19, Mark 1:14-20

The challenge with the reading from Samuel is that it is a small first segment of the story of Samuel. We don’t have any of the details from the rest of the story which are usually the focus of what’s important. It is, however, a good exercise in staying with the scripture piece we have instead of importing what we already know from outside this part of the sacred text. I have always thought that it’s valuable to stick with the given text because it forces us to pay attention to little things we might not notice otherwise. It’s too easy to rush on to well-known details that supply a point we’ve all heard before instead of listening closely enough to discover something new for ourselves. I just think God has things for us in every little nook and cranny of life or text but it takes time and real attention to discover it.

What I notice about these first lines in 1 Samuel is that even though Hannah is barren and therefore the subject of ridicule from others, her husband is making open extra efforts to tell her she is special to him. He’s breaking the social attitudes of the time. He loves her for who she is and not because she might give him many sons with which to build his influence and posterity. There are no details here about why he likes her. He just prefers her over the other wife who has given him children. This is exactly the opposite of what someone would expect at the time.

So now looking at Mark’s Gospel I think I see another example of “no good reason” for choosing someone. Jesus having announced that the Kingdom of God is at hand has begun to collect disciples. He’s choosing them. This is exactly opposite of the way rabbis or teachers at the time collected students. Students sought out a teacher. Teachers didn’t go ask for students. What’s more, for me, there’s no interview process here. No culling for the best talent. How many, even really good fisherman, would have the skill set to “fish for people?” I think this is a case of someone who simply likes another person. In this case, at first sight, these guys appealed to Jesus. Again no details about why, he simply chooses them.

Often the conversation about this passage revolves around the fisherman immediately dropping a secure profession and going off to follow Jesus. In this case I think it’s very interesting that Jesus like Elkanah, the husband in 1 Samuel, simply prefers or likes these people. Jesus offers them something he expects to be life changing. He will show them how to do something new, Mark says, “I will make you fishers of men.” These men, who just happened to be there, have been chosen and I think that’s significant even for us today.

I think this story is exactly the pattern that we experience in recognizing God in our lives. God offers us something right in the midst of whatever we happen to be doing. I don’t think this is necessarily a call to ministerial service or a call to change professions. I think it is a message to every single one us that says: God prefers, loves and wants to favor us. No resume required. God’s out to collect people for his Kingdom. Like Jesus who simply, “walked a little further” and found the next two fisherman. God keeps asking people who are right there even if we are socially unacceptable like Hannah or ill equipped for what’s next like the fishermen.

The only problem is, we’re often the ones who don’t believe we are lovable or worthy of being favored. Hannah was offered a double portion of the food but refused to eat. Her husband begs her but she refuses. Are we willing to respond? Are there attitudes we have to drop or behaviors we need to stop doing to accept what is being offered? Are there things we want to change but haven’t felt it was possible? Perhaps we have to recognize the people or situations that are trying to show us something good. The Psalm today talks about thanking God for all the good things God has done. Like the Psalmist we must be willing to “take up” the “cup of salvation.” Are we paying enough attention to discover how this cup is being offered?