Journey

Mark 4:1-20

           I am a trekkie. Even if you aren't, you'll understand the scene of someone stepping into the transporter and moments later they appear in a distant location.  Ahh, the future seems so grand. Instant gratification, no journey - zap! and you're there!

           Life is not like that though. I often speak about us being on a journey to wholeness. This isn't something we can go out and buy. It surely is something we should own however. It doesn't happen overnight and perhaps not even in a lifetime. But that is life, that is our goal, that is our purpose in life.

            We are to created by God in His (or Her) image and we are to know God, love God and serve him. (remember the Baltimore Catechism?) The serve part isn't that bad at all, it involves getting to know who you are and loving others. There, that wasn't too hard was it? Getting to know who you are and loving others - that's our journey. Still, we may not fully succeed, even in our lifetime.

              What I love about this reading and that gives me great hope is how the Apostles don't get it. I mean his own disciples don't get it. They hear what Jesus says and they have to have it explained again and again. This happens over and over in the scriptures too because they also were on a journey. The people he picked seem to be thick headed.  Later, in a different reading, they run from Jesus. They abandon him. Peter, his number one guy basically says 'Jesus who?' I'm not trying demean the Apostles. My point is that if they had trouble getting it and they were chosen to spread the Good News, how can we be expected to get it? 

              I can think of many, many times when I am thick headed. I say things I don't really want to say, I make the same mistakes over and over in spite of my sincere attempts and resolve not to. Why is that ?

              It happens because life is not a transporter from star trek. Life is as I have said many times, a journey to wholeness. We are not perfect and God does not expect us to be.  We are expected to try to love, we are expected to try to move along on the journey and perhaps most importantly, God would love to hear from us once in a while. God longs to hear from us, his children and He is great enough, grand enough, to take it all in. 

               Yes, life is a journey to wholeness. Figure out who you are, own it, cherish it, love it, embrace it. Don't expect to become perfect in an instant.

Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away.Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that
“they may indeed look, but not perceive,
   and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.” ’

And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’