🦁 Epiphany 3-7

Readings: Psalm 46; Proverbs 8:1-21; Mark 3:13-19a. 

From the TRNG Room:

Reflection

Good morning. This is Tim Tribble, broadcasting from Sacramento, California. Today's readings come to us from Psalm 46. Proverbs eight and mark three verses 13 to 19. We start off in the day Psalm with something that is of great comfort. God is our refuge and strength. 

That is a very, very profound statement and it's just very clear, concise. He is our refuge from the world, from all the things that we have going on in our lives that are negative. We can seek God in helping us deal with them, and God gives us the strength to deal with them. There's an old saying God will never give us anything that we can't handle. I disagree with that statement. I have a little different take on it. 

God will not give us anything that we cannot handle through Him. It's not about us. It's about God and how God gives us strength to deal with what we are going through when we take it to him in prayer. 

Psalm Excuse me. Proverbs eight. This is the blessings of wisdom as the title for the chapter, depending on what what version you use. But these are all the things with wisdom. One of the things that was pointed out to me years ago in talking to you at the whole Book of Proverbs, when they talk about wisdom, wisdom is represented in the female form. Think about that for a moment. Wisdom presented as a female referred to as she for her wisdom. She provides does this and this is written to men. There's a hint there. 

We look at this and all the things that we deal with in our lives. You know, when we were in the service, we had those leaders. Yeah, the ones that say one thing in front of the commander, another thing in front of us, and everything there, you know, was the Teflon Slick Willie, all that stuff. 

This proverb talks about being straight to him, being righteous. Being of good character. Character matters. It's hugely important. Talks in here about. I will speak noble thing. And from my lips will come. What is right for my mouth will utter truth. That's verse six. And that's just the way we should be. Is it going to be potentially detrimental to ourselves? Yeah. One, we decide to follow Jesus when we become Christians, when we take that oath. That's part of it. We're honest to be honest. 

It's very difficult. We've all heard things. I've had people say things to me before about, well, you know, you're you know, you shouldn't have said that. You'll make you look bad or I didn't do something or miss something or whatever. But it's the truth. People appreciate that. I have a friend. He was an MP in the Army same time I was in. In the late mid to late eighties and he became a police officer here in California and he was known in the community. 

He was honest. Now, he would not please not play games with the criminals or the people he trusted. Years later now he works. He's a parole agent of the prison system and he's had a run in with a couple of folks that he put away, you know, 20 ish years ago. Unfortunately, they are still in the prison system on the different charges and what he arrested them for. But they're all and they're telling everybody, go talk to him. He won't lie to you. He will treat you straight in the in the prison environment. You know, but people understand how important that is to to the prisoners, to have someone. Hey, I'll tell you like it. It ain't pretty. You may not like it, but I'm going to be straight with you and that's an incredible, just incredibly empowering to say, hey, I can be honest and truthful. People will come to you because they want that. They're looking for that. 

Then we go to the book and Mark, and this is the gospel of the gospel of Mark and this is the whole theme that we've had. Sunday we read that was a matthew was last Sunday's reading were Jesus, you know goes to the fisherman and says, follow me. Well, this is the same concept. The the Gospels all do it a little differently because obviously different recollections from different people. But, you know, this is Jesus calling his disciples and anointing them as apostles, giving them the authority to preach the authority, to cast out demons. And we have Simon, who was named Peter. He changed his name. So we know him as Simon. Peter, that is Saint Peter, the rock of the church, the one who denied him three times when he was going through before, just before he was crucified. And then we have James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother, John. So that's James and John. That would be John, the gospel of John. John, not to be confused with John the Baptist, who by this time had either been been executed or was well on his way that direction. 

He also translated into the sons of thunder. There were all these Andrew, Philip, and Bartholomew. Matthew, the tax collector or doubting Thomas. And we have another James. James, the son of Alpheus and Thaddeus, and then another Simon. That is probably why he changed the first one's name to Peter Simon, the Zealot. And of course, the 12th one was Judas Iscariot. Who would betray him. 

This is Jesus putting his people together, the very, very beginning of his ministry. He has come out of the desert. So he was baptized by John the Baptist. He left from the River Jordan and went out in the desert for 40 days where he was tempted by Satan. 

He made it through the temptations. He did not submit to Satan. The angels came down from heaven and ministered to him. He's come back now across the Jordan. He is back in the Galilee area and he is getting by the Sea of Galilee. Now he is picking his posse. He's getting the guys together. They're going to go out and minister with him and help him spread the word that we are forgiven. God loves us as we are, and Jesus spent his entire ministry in and amongst the lowest levels of society we want called caste system. He was not hanging out with the rich and famous. He didn't have a place to live. They went from house to house. We call it couch surfing now. They slept out in the desert under trees, whatever. He didn't have his own house, didn't have a place. He went throughout the area. They're preaching God's love. So that's our our readings for today. And we hope you will join us next time.