Thoughts on Today’s Lessons for June 7, 2015
Adam und Eva, Pavement mosaic, 1163, Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunziata, Otranto.
Adam and Eve ate the fruit that God forbade. Then they realized that they were naked, and they probably figured out a lot more, too. Adam and Eve were scared. They covered their bodies, and hid. When God found them, there was plenty of blaming going on, starting with the snake. But what if Eve had simply told the serpent, “No”? Would the bible have ended right there? No. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and they lost their home in the garden. But God stayed with them, opening up the biblical narrative of free will and belief that leads down through all the prophets to Jesus … and us.
Psalm: Psalm 138
Even in the world outside Eden, a world of work and pain and hunger, we know that God remains with us. Speaking out of that broken world, the Psalmist praises God and thanks God for being with us when we are in trouble, for answering us when we call. In words that surely remind us of the beloved 23rd Psalm, we remember that God keeps us safe even when we walk in the midst of trouble; God’s strong hand protects us from our enemies.
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
We may feel as if we live a life of affliction and wasting away in our fallen world, but that anguish is only momentary in the greater scheme of things, Paul assures the people of Corinth. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, God will raise us, too. The pain that we feel now is only temporary; through God’s grace we will live forever in God’s glory beyond all measure.
Gospel: Mark 3:20-35
We return to Mark’s Gospel to find Jesus in his early ministry in Galilee, and he’s in trouble with his neighbors and his family. All this preaching! Touching lepers! Casting out demons! The neighbors think Jesus has gone crazy, or is possessed by a demon. His family comes out to try to calm him down. His responses probably did not make his mother and brothers happy, as he tells them that his followers are his family now, with work that takes him out into a broken world full of serpents and sinners.