Keys (1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20; Mark 129-39)

Synagogue, teaching, healing, and prayer. Jesus’ life hinges on them. Through them, Jesus enters our very history. We should really ask him, ‘Lord, how did encountering the whole of our story, as we are, feel?’ For through these four activities Jesus meets not only the individual. Through every person he encounters, he also teaches, heals, and prays for our collective history. Like an operating surgeon he knows this vast ocean of human affairs from the inside. He ‘operates from within’. That is why it is interesting to see that while ‘they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils’, ‘the whole town came crowding round the door.’ The whole town. So, the individual healings form also a collective centre. The whole of human history is queuing up for healing and guidance.

The key is this ‘all’ and ‘whole’. We miss the point of our Christian religion if we lose sight of Christ as the redeemer of all and the whole of human history. As a kind of parallel to this, we should pause for a moment, right now. If we can’t use the social media as a means (and opportunity) to recover the sense that the human family is one, instead of being a blessing, it will become a curse. We can rightly fear that if this sense is severed from our ‘internet consciousness’, our lives will be regimented by the most powerful force and authority humans have ever created.

So, the stakes are high. The dice can easily turn both ways with the opposite results. If, through our modern culture, we become aware our unity as the one and indivisible human family – the parallel desire for a personal encounter with the Messiah will also arise. If we don’t, then our age will be mentioned in the book of history as one where ‘it was rare for the Lord to speak in those days; visions were uncommon.’ (1 Samuel 3:2)
 
16.01.2019