Hear Me Quickly, Lord part 3

Hear me quickly, Lord....

Words will not do, Lord....

Listen to my foot falls,
     for I stumble to bring good tidings to someone.
Listen to my groans,
     for I ache toward healing.
Listen to my worried weariness,
     for my work matters much to me
         and needs help.
Listen to my tension,
     for I stretch toward accepting who I am
         and who I cannot be.
Listen to my wrinkles,
     for growing years make each day
         singularly precious to me
             and bring eternity breathtakingly close.
Listen to my hunched back,
     for sometimes I can't bear
         the needs and demands of the world anymore
             and want to put it down,
                give it back to you.
Listen to my laughter,
     for there are friends and mercy
         and the day grows longer,
             and something urges me to thank......


the final verses tomorrow.

Thank you to Ted Loder,  Guerillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle,  Hear Me Quickly, Lord, p. 24.

Hear Me Quickly Lord, part 2

Pray with me using these words from Ted Loder.........

Hear me quickly, Lord,.....

Words will not do, Lord....

Listen to my breathing,
     for I gulp after something like holiness.
Listen to my clenched teeth,
     for I gnaw at my grudges
       and forgive myself as reluctantly
            as I forgive others.
Listen to my growling gut,
     for I hunger for bread and intimacy
Listen to my curses,
     for I am angry at the way the world
       comes down on me sometimes,
            and I sometimes on it.
Listen to my cracking knuckles,
     for I hold over tightly to myself
       and anxiously squeeze myself into other's expectations,
            and them into mine,
       and then shake my fists at you
            for disappointing me.
Listen to my sex,
     for I seek fulfillment
       through the man-woman differences
            and beyond the differences,
               a new, common humanity...........

More tomorrow

Ted Loder, Guerillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle, Hear Me Quickly Lord, p24.

Hear me Quickly, Lord

Pray with me........

Hear me quickly, Lord,
for my mind soon wanders to other things
        I am more familiar with
            and more concerned about
                    than I am with you.

O Timeless God, for whom I do not have time,
catch me with a sudden stab of beauty
       or pain
             or regret
that will catch me up short for a moment
to look hard enough at myself-
          the unutterable terror
                 and hope within me
and, so, to be caught by you.

Words will not do, Lord.
Listen to my tears,
       for I have lost much
            and fear more.
Listen to my sweat,
      for I wake at night
            overwhelmed by darkness and strange dreams.
Listen to my sighs,
       for my longing surges like the sea-
                urgent, mysterious and beckoning.
Listen to my heart beat,
       for I want to live fully
              and stay death forever.

more tomorrow........

From Hear Me Quickly, Lord by Ted Loder [Guerillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle p.24]

Go. Sell. Give. Come. Follow.

  Go. Sell. Give. Come. Follow.

These are the things we have learned in the last 4 posts.

The young man was earnest and respectful.

The young man wanted to inherit eternal life, and believed Jesus had insight into how that might happen.

The young man was very wealthy.

In the end, the wealth held him captive.  He could not come and follow because he could not leave behind his great pile of possessions.

Jesus loved him just the same.

However, Jesus did not revise the five commands.  Those who follow need to first Go. Sell. Give.  Otherwise you have too much baggage trailing behind; too many things that demand your attention; one too many things claiming your heart.

Jesus loved him, but the commands remained the same.

This way to eternal life.........

Go. Sell. Give. Come. Follow.

These are the five commands that Jesus gives to the earnest young man who seeks eternal life.

Go.  Jesus wasn't sending him away to get rid of him.  He was sending him out to do the preliminary work that was absolutely necessary.  We have to bring some things to an end before we can begin our new beginnings.

Sell.  Now here is an interesting point.  Jesus doesn't tell him to simply give it all away.  He tells him to sell it.  Reasonable transactions that bring in cash and would enable this young man to be flexible as he takes the next step.

But it is not just sell some, it is "Sell all that you have".  Not just your extra.  Not just the out of style stuff or broken stuff or ugly stuff.  All that you have.  It is here that this conversion begins to slow down.

Give.  Give it away to those who need it.  Oh dear.  Deposit it into a CD for future needs is not mentioned.  Neither is giving it to your relatives so they benefit from your wealth.  No, Jesus says to give it to the poor.  The ones who need it.

Come.  Now you are ready.  Come back to me, the one who offers you eternal life, the one who is eternal life.  Come back to me and get ready to truly live.

Follow.  I will teach you the way.  I will show you the path.  You will have me close to you and without all those possessions you will be able to move quickly.  You are interested in eternal life?  Well, follow me and I'll show you the way.

I'm not exactly sure where this story ground to a halt.  It isn't clear at what point the young man seeking eternal life decided the price was too high, that whatever eternal life offered it wasn't as attractive as the stuff he had stored at home.  At what point did this young man decide that Jesus lacked authority or power or wisdom?  At what point did this young man stop listening?

It's not clear.  But in the end, he turned away sorrowfully, because he was very wealthy.  Or just possibly, he was the poorest man on earth.  Mark 10.17ff

Five simple commands............

Go. Sell. Give. Come. Follow.

These are the five commands that Jesus gives to the earnest young man who seeks eternal life. (see Mark 10.17ff)  As the story unfolds we learn that he is an observant Jew; he knows, pays attention to and (in his estimation) is obedient to God's commands.

He is respectful of Jesus.  He kneels before Jesus, recognizing him as a Great Teacher.  One could interpret his desire for eternal life to be his attempt to be truly faithful, truly obedient.  He might be seeking a way to seek even greater perfection.

What we don't see until the very end of the story is this.  He is rich.  Very rich, and Jesus' teaching that he Go. Sell. Give.......everything away.......probably made lots of the folks who were watching and listening swallow hard.  When Jesus says everything, well, Jesus is talking about quite a lot.

We could speculate that Jesus was aware of this; the quality of the young man's clothes would have indicated that he was wealthier than the average guy.  For those who believe that Jesus knew everything about those around him, then it is easy to believe that Jesus knew how rich this guy was.

Which also means Jesus knew that in the end he would never be able to do it.  Jesus knew that this requirement that  you leave behind all that separates you from God and, therefore, separates you from eternal life was one requirement that this young man could not meet.  He couldn't do it.

Yet Jesus loved him.  This detail comes only in Mark's version of this story.  Mark tells us, "Jesus, looking at him, loved him."  Before he even gave the commands to Go. Sell. Give. Come. Follow. Jesus knew that this young man couldn't......and yet Jesus' love was not diminished.

"Jesus, looking at him, loved him."  Before the young man turned away.  Before the young man rejected Jesus' offer of both treasure in heaven and eternal life, Jesus, looking at him, loved him.

This is the Good News to me.  This is the love on which I depend.  This is Grace with a capital G.

He is the only person in all of Mark who, although personally invited by Jesus to follow, turns away.  Yet Jesus' love remains.

What else can we learn from this ancient story?