🦁 Epiphany 5-7

Readings: Psalm 102:12-28; Job 6:1-13; Mark 3:7-12. 

Reflection

Good morning. This is Tim Tribble, broadcasting from Sacramento, California. Today's readings come to us from Psalm 102, verses 12 to 28. The Book of Joe, Chapter six, Verses 1 to 13, The Gospel of Mark, Chapter three, verses 7 to 12. 

Joe, what do you say? The Book of Job is about the trials and temptations of a man true to God. And it's, you know, if Murphy, Murphy, All Murphy's Law, right. And we all know we've been in the military, you know, Murphy's Law we live with every day. So here we are. If Murphy were a book in the Bible, it would be Joe. Everything you can go wrong did go wrong. And yet, Joe, throughout it all and all his wailing and crying and the ashes on his head and, you know, tearing his clothing and all this that went on remained true in his faith. God was with him and God would help him. And all of us in our lives have been through those really, really, really tough times. 

For those of us in the military, I know in the Marine Corps, they call it the crucible of when I was in basic training in the Army. Fort Dix, New Jersey, in 1984, it was called Paragon Trail, but it was the 72 hour. That was where we went out. We were in the field. You know, in our case, and the Army went down this trail that different portions than the trail in your squad, you had different things. We, you know, with the machine guns firing at us, we had the gas area where we were. Gas had your gas masks on. The ambushes and all that stuff that went on to test us and everything that we had learned and the previous eight weeks of basic training. It's not easy. It's very difficult. Very tough. Of course, things went wrong. We were out we had a lot of sand out there. Our M-16s were getting we were getting jammed all the time. Remember sports? Yeah. So we were doing that a lot to clear our weapons. Of course, firing blanks was never a good thing, the M-16 either. That always caused problems. 

But again, when we're faced with difficult wish, when things go wrong, when we're in these horrible situations where things just don't go right and horrible things seem to be happening to us, that is the time that is so, so important for us as Christians to stop, pause, take that deep cleansing breath and give it to God. 

There's a saying, you've heard me say this before in the podcast. There's an old saying, God will never give us more than we can handle. And of course I do not agree with that statement. 

My version, if you will, of this God will never give us anything greater or more than we can handle together. It's always with God. There's a great poem. I'm not going to read it right now. You can look it up for footprints. 

It's very powerful because it talks about this is this is a person reviewing, going back and looking back at their life as if they're walking across the sand of the beach and there's two sets of footprints. We see Jesus walking them and there's only one. And in areas, there's only one word. Why? Why did you abandon me and Jesus? I didn't abandon you. I carry you. 

To have someone who has your six like that, there is no greater, greater partner. There's no greater battle, buddy. There's no greater to be worth and to put your trust in because God will never let you down. And that is a cornerstone of our faith, as God doesn't let us down. If we are faithful and true to God, we go to Him in prayer. If we work diligently in our lives, being as Christlike as we can be, and take that seriously every day, God is with us. God will always take care of us in our reading. And Mark, today, this is the waning days of Jesus's ministry and goal. So and when Jesus started his ministry, he didn't go down to Jerusalem at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee, which was the the the center of the Jewish faith. That's where the tabernacle was. And all of that, that's where you went, you know, the sacrifices and everything were made there in the High priest, etc., etc.. That's not where Jesus started. Jesus started in Galilee, up all the way other end of the Sea of Galilee up north. He was in the outer rim, if you will, and he had been up there going in the synagogues and teaching there. People referred to him Rabbi as teacher, and that's how he was viewed. He was he was his great teacher and he healed people and he he cast out unclean spirits. So he attracted quite a bit of a following. Now, earlier in the chapter three was when they were trying to kill him. So Jesus is we're getting ready to get out of here. So he withdrew with his disciples to the sea, told him, Have a boat ready for him. And he went in the crowd and continued to heal diseases and cast out the unclean spirits. They heard the thing. Jesus could have stood in the boat and put his arms up and made this mass, you know, prayer, healing, you know, whatever you want, however you want to phrase that he could have done that in mass. Jesus was in the crowd. Jesus was a one on one person. Jesus wanted to be there, have that face to face contact with, with the people that he was healing and the spirits he was he was casting out. 

And one of the things he was these unclean spirits. They knew who he was and they would start they would cry out, You are the son of God. And he would tell them, Nope, stop. You not do not make me known. Couple of thoughts behind the healing and what false acknowledgement was Probably one of them. And the other one. That wasn't time yet. 

That doesn't come until the end of his ministry. And the last four days, of course, when we make near the grand entrance into the city, on the on the back of the donkey and where he is declared the king of the Jews, there is not that time yet, but Jesus again is out with the people. And this is something so important for us. We as Christians have a terms to hide behind the walls of our church building. And it's really important. We we need to be, if we're going to minister, reflect that we are going to be living that Christ like life if we are going to be emulating what Christ did. Christ was with the people. And it's really important for us to be out with the people in amongst them, ministering to them, taking care of their needs, helping them out, showing them God's grace on it.