Come IN??

The “in”-ness to which this particular writing in Mark’s first chapter – believe in the Good News – calls us to look!

Life lived agape.

Inside a lofty interior, like a cathedral or other public building, our eyes are sometimes drawn upward by the architectural character of the space.  Something happens physically when we look straight up.  (You can try this.)  To look STRAIGHT up, we need to put or head back very far, and if we don’t stop it, our mouth opens to allow that upward turning.  We are literally agape.  Our mouth is a gaping shape from which our natural vocalization would be Ahhhhhh.

When we allow ourselves to stand in the middle of something, we are opening ourselves to Awwwwwwwwe.

Owned or Loaned?

A second thing that happens when we enter a place not our own (which includes any interpersonal relationship) is that we relinquish control.  The word “relinquish” is from the same Norse root as the word “loan.”  When we enter, we discover that something we thought we owned (our control) is only loaned to us.  When in the posting two days ago I mentioned someone swinging the door open and saying “Come IN” when all we wanted to do was drop something off – like “here’s a dinner for you; I gotta go.”  In 2012 I posted the story of a meal in a Migrant Camp in “I’m the 4th of the Magi: Doofus."

Funny.  We glibly say that our children are loaned to us, our life is loaned to us, but when we look at attitudes and behavior, we act as if we own them.  Even in amorous love, we are subliminally guided by syrupy lyrics like “You belong to me” and “Be mine”. 

Restrained or Embraced?

A third thing that happens when come IN to a place or relationship is that we are embraced.  The word “embrace” (in-bras) comes from French embrassier, to hold in the arms.  But it is natural for animals, including humans, to discern whether being held is threatening or loving. 

So Mark’s story of the beginning of the life of this historical character Jesus is the story of a guy who wants to embrace us, or even more quizzically wants us to let his Father, who we can’t see, embrace us. 

But the Good News that he invited us to believe from the inside is the Kingdom that has been promised to the striving, suffering, wandering, failing Jews, now occupied by the Romans.  (He swings the door wide open in a little while, inviting everybody, even the Romans.)  So those listening are looking for shelter from this political storm, a promised paradise, and protecting arms of a strong leader.

Will we let this invisible Father wrap us up and consider it embrace and not restraint?  Will we come in and light, relinquishing our plan made when we thought we owned our time?  Will we allow our emotional and psychological jaws to drop, and limit our language only to awwwwwe and ahhhhhhhhhh?  

Jesus called, in this reading from Mark’s first chapter, the first two of his homies, James and John.  But first he called us.  Will we enter?  Will you?

Next: Kingdom, Free Will, and Kid-Proof Car Doors

 FreeLemonadeStand by John J. Daniels is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.