The Daily Office: 2nd Week of Lent

Mon. – Mark 3:7-19a
Tue. – Mark 3:19b-35
Wed. – Mark 4:1-20
Thurs. – Mark 4:21-34
Fri. – Mark 4:35-41
Sat. – Mark 5:1-20

The bulk of this week's readings from Mark's Gospel include the one section of the Gospel in which he gives us his version of the "greatest hits" of Jesus's parables. I confess that I sometimes feel like the sower who throws out the Word of God as best he can every Sunday, never sure what effect he's having on the listening congregation. That's how I situate myself in the Parable of the Sower. Where do you see yourself in this Parable? The Greek word parabole means "symbol." And the meaning of a symbol is determined both by the one communicating, and the one hearing. What you see in the symbol is as valid as what I see. Let your mind wander as you read Jesus's parables, and see yourself in them.

Of course, Jesus told the parables first, and he had an intention behind them. To be honest, there is good news in his parables, and bad news. Keep in mind that in Mark's Gospel, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower after his family has come to take him away because they thought he was out of his mind. And just before that, he had been accused of demonic activity. Note that in the Sower's Parable, there are four different places where the seed lands. And in three of those places, the seeds come to naught. In other words, the sower's failure rate is 75 percent. Ouch! Is that all we present day sowers have to look forward to?

The letter parable of the growing seed, starting in verse 26, is the other side of the coin. It's amazing what one seed can do right under our eyes, but without our notice. On neighborhood streets, I've seen mighty trees that have split the concrete sidewalks in two. But at one point, that mighty tree was just a small shoot that year after year, grew little by little. How many years of time-lapse photography would it take to document that tiny shoot splitting the seemingly immovable concrete. Try you might, but it can't be visualized. It was just that one day, we noticed that there was now a tree there, showing the sidewalk who's Boss.

Amid our failures and disappointments, Jesus in his parables encourages us to keep trying, and trust that his grace will bring results that we cannot visualize. That's the Good News.