Rev. Dr. Kristin Johnston Largen
It feels good to stretch, doesn’t it? When you have been sitting at your desk too long, or riding in a car for an extended period of time, it feels so good to stand up, raise your arms above your head, lean left and right, roll your shoulders back, roll your neck, stand up and down on your tip-toes a few times—you get the idea. When we stay in one position too long, our muscles get tight and stiff; and if we go days, weeks or even years like that, we lose mobility and flexibility—sometimes permanently.
As I was reflecting on this text from Mark, I was thinking about “stretching,” and the ability to bend, to assume a new position, to take on a new idea, to make a new connection. What is true for our bodies is also true for our hearts and minds, and the same physical rigidity that can set in without regular motion also can infect our thinking, and the ways we engage others.
In chapter 2 of Mark’s Gospel, over and over again Jesus challenges the assumptions of those around him: “Why are you saying you forgive sins; you can’t do that!” “Why are you eating with tax collectors and sinners; you shouldn’t do that!” “Why aren’t you fasting? You should do that!” Apparently, correcting Jesus’ “wrong” behavior is a full-time job. Jesus simply doesn’t seem to know how we’ve always done things around here. It’s a “new wine/old wineskin” kind of problem.
But what those around him cannot see is the wonderful new thing Jesus Christ is doing in the world: the new message of forgiveness, reconciliation and hope he inaugurates; the new ways of being in relationship to others he models; and the new interpretations of old commandments he embodies. It’s all right there in front of them, and they are missing it, because they are bound to their old ways of thinking and being. They either can’t or won’t stretch to take in the new wine.
Like so many of Jesus’ parables, there is an invitation in here for us—an invitation to stretch. The life of discipleship is a life on the way, a life on the move, a life of stretching and growing, following the One whose name we bear. This Lenten season, what new thing is God inviting you to participate in; what new ways of seeing the world? Where is God inviting you to stretch?
God of surprises, you call us to follow in the footsteps of your Son, Jesus Christ, and share his heart of love, grace and mercy. Give us the courage to say yes to see with your eyes the new thing you are doing in the world; give us the strength to go where you call us, into new spaces of growth and transformation; give us the confidence of your presence guiding us and holding us. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN.
