Morning Devotion for the Season of Lent
March 9, 2022
Invitatory
Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
The Lord is full of compassion and mercy: Come let us adore him.
Reading: Mark 1:35-39
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Meditation – Peter Vanderveen
Is there anything worthy of note in this short passage from Mark’s Gospel? Really.
This is a serious question. For this text seems to be no more than the usual filler we expect between the more impressive episodes in the life and ministry of Jesus, all the miracles and debates and confrontations that, by their sheer audacity, garner more of our attention. These few verses are simply a brief narration of Jesus doing what we dully assume Jesus was always doing – religious stuff. He tended to wander off and pray; and when he wasn’t praying, he was naturally busy preaching. To our minds this is so utterly predictable that the utter strangeness of Mark’s report never occurs to us.
For wouldn’t it have been enormously helpful if Mark had informed us how Jesus prayed and for what. What was on his mind? Mark doesn’t even give us a hint. What did Jesus ask of God? These details would be immensely interesting. Mark could have provided us exceptional guidance for how we should approach prayer ourselves. To say only that Jesus prayed tells us nothing – or so it seems.
And in the same way, we are told that Jesus wandered about preaching as well. He clearly had a message. But Mark doesn’t inform us what this message was. He says nothing about it. It was the driving force behind all that Jesus did and, yet, Mark doesn’t offer a word about its content or aim. All that is noted was that it was “good news.” That’s not much help, especially because there was so very much that was troubling in Jesus’ time. He must have said something definitive, something unsettling, something compelling. He was attracting ever-larger crowds. But Mark never tells us why.
Why this silence?
It may have been intentional.
In an essay called “On Success,” the British psychoanalyst Adam Phillips observed, already several decades ago, that “the idea of the enviable life has now replaced that of the good life.” It’s a striking comment. We have become far more ambitious than virtuous, which is evident in almost every sphere of our lives. And though we can easily mark how destructive this is, still we persist under the assumption that this shift is both necessary and promising. And as a result, Phillips stated, “we police ourselves with purposes.” And, in so doing, we “dismiss” and “disown” the world that is actually before us. For we have other designs. Phillips called this focus on success a great and tragic loss. And the rather desperate level of our sheer busyness seems, often, to prove his point.
Jesus’ disciple Simon noted, with an air of exasperation, that “everyone” was “searching” for Jesus, from very early in the morning. They were characterized by their impatience, restless for whatever it was they wanted from Jesus. Jesus, however, didn’t share in their frenetic sense of need. For there was greater good at hand, which was not a matter of getting things done or being clear in pursuing defined objectives. What took priority was prayer in the form of waiting upon God and a message that could only be received and conveyed in God’s time.
It just may be that the “demons” Jesus cast out were actually the very ambitions that drive us most.
Think of this in our present context of ceaseless complaint and all our desires that, mysteriously, exceed our satisfaction, in every aspect of our lives. Mark’s silence may have been the most important point in an important text – and a very needful corrective.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
