Sent
Day 533, Monday, Jan. 26
Mark 1:1-19
When I was in high school and college it was popular to post motivational posters on your wall—those and bumper stickers served as the memes of the pre-internet era.
A poster I kept up for many years had a picture of a sailing ship on the ocean with the words, “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are made for.”
One of the characteristics of Mark’s gospel is movement. Notice how often the author includes movement in his writing—people in Mark are always walking or traveling or going from one place to another. Like the ship on the poster, they don’t stay in one place. Safety isn’t the priority. Progress is.
The first sentence of the book sets the tone with a quotation from the prophet Isaiah. A messenger is sent to prepare the way and make straight paths. The book and the discipleship it presents are a journey.
When Jesus calls his first disciples, he is already on the move and invites him to walk with him. “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.”
The Christian life, as presented in Mark, is a road to be traveled, not a philosophy to be contemplated.
But even in Mark there’s room for reflection. Right after the baptism of Jesus, “At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.”
Pretty soon we’ll be starting the season of Lent, which is also a 40-day period of preparation for the journey. We will also soon start reading the letters of Paul, which are about his journeys. Buckle up; it’s a long and exciting road.

Rev. Mark Fleming

Monday meditation

Psalms 69:19-29
You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you. Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none. They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and a trap. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them. May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents. For they persecute those you wound and talk about the pain of those you hurt. Charge them with crime upon crime; do not let them share in your salvation. May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.
But as for me, afflicted and in pain—may your salvation, God, protect me.

Prayer focus
Lord, give us strength for the journey.