I started reading the Bible yesterday for a class where we read the entire Bible, cover to cover, in 90 days. It is quite daunting. I like to read but picking up Genesis and starting to read the required pages for the day seems like I have started a marathon with nil training. It seems especially so when I know I have just as much to read today, and tomorrow and so forth. No room for slackers! One of things that I have noted besides the copious notes I make, is that there is a real sense of history, a sense of relationship with God even if some of it seems a bit wacko. Be that as it may, I feel a sense of common history. Three of the world's major religions are based in the story of Abram, Judaism, Islam and Christianity.
While I feel that sense of connectedness and history, I see that Jesus may have had a moment like this in today's passage from Mark, a great aha moment. I often wonder when it was that Jesus knew who he truly was and when he knew what he knew. As a child did he have a full awareness of his Divine nature? This passage speaks to me that while Jesus may have had an inkling, he certainly may have had an epiphany when he was Baptized by John. Certainly if a voice literally came out of the heavens saying ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’, well that would be a huge clue. The fact that Jesus immediately went out into the wilderness also is very telling. It is such isolated and 'thin spaces' that we often go to listen and hear our heavenly Father. Maybe this was the dawning of a crucial moment for Jesus as a human and especially His divinity.
I am reminded of some of the thin moments in my life but secular and also of a religious nature. However ill I may speak of the Roman Church, the moment I lay prostrate in the aisles of the Cathedral and was ordained is deeply touching, humbling and an acknowledgment of the service that is a part of my very nature.
I also recall the time my daughter was born. I was there front and center and it was a most incredible and powerful moment. A life created, gifted and graced. She still is and the awe of that moment is not lost or forgotten in any way.
When I review the genealogy of the Genesis pages and feel that connectedness, I am reminded of so many 'thin moments' or 'thin spaces' in my life. A silent retreat in a monastery, a walk in the desert with my husband, a silent meditation in a labyrinth, all moments of holiness, humanity and divinity with my creator. What thin moments do you recall from your own life? Are you will to make time for yourself and your creator in silence and separation from the distractions of the world?
Mark 1:1-13
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight” ’,
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight” ’,
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight” ’,
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
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