Mark, Discipleship, and so forth.

I just finished plowing my way through Mark for my "quiet time" ritual, and I thought I'd share some of that, since my last few posts have been just complaints (I'm practicing for Rush Limbaugh's job!).

Clearly, one of Mark's distinctives is his emphasis on the path of discipleship. His gospel takes Jesus from baptism (the beginning of discipleship) through resurrection, and leaves the ending wide open. Another distinctive is that Jesus doesn't do a whole lot of talking, or "teaching." He lets his actions do the talking. In this sense, it's a little difficult to get to know Jesus by reading Mark. And this sense of mystery is definitely present to all the characters in the story, who basically have no idea what is going on--even up to the ladies who discover the empty tomb in 16:8.

I can totally relate to this. For most of my life, I'll admit, this whole Jesus business has been hard to figure out. I'm to the point now where I kind of resent people who appear to have all the answers, especially when they're arrogant about it.

Why is it that I've never been able to "hear" from God during a quiet time? How come my Bible study time never seems to have any relevance to what I'm going through in life? What the heck does Jesus mean in all of his last days teachings? Why is it so difficult to sustain a prayer to God? If the disciples couldn't get Jesus talking to him face to face, what on earth chance do I have when I'm just alone with my thoughts?

And I know I'm not alone in these questions, especially among seminary students.

Maybe the "personal" discipleship and contemporary methods (spiritual disciplines) are what's out of whack. You know, when there is only one verse in the New Testament that remotely supports a daily personal quiet time (or does it?), I kind of wonder if the reason my quiet times don't work is because they're not even God's pattern to begin with?????

More to come......

(spoiler alert: it takes a village to raise a Christian)