Mark 8

August 31, 2008

 

Ships are safe in the harbor, but that is not why ships are built.” Sarah Palin

 

How to get rid of God

God bothering you? He has been known to do that. Before you answer quickly and patently I invite you to think about something.  I have heard that God comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. The comfortable among us should take note. God is not comfortable with our state or paradigm of comfort seeking. I was in a conversation with someone recently and quoted the above statement. It was interesting to watch the reaction. The person literally had to get up from the table where we were talking and take a walk. This person became very upset at the thought that God was not comfortable with their need for comfort. They were very bothered by the idea that God would be so concerned about their comfort level that He would go out of His way to bother them. They started thinking that God was going to dream up some terrible thing to do to them just because they were comfortable. I have to at least applaud this person for being willing to admit that they are a comfort seeker. How many of us would do that? How many of us would be open to knowing if we are too comfortable for God. How do we know if we are a comfort seeker or even a comfort addict for that matter? It is a question worth pondering. I have been pondering it for some time because I am contemplating serious change in my life and have to admit it means challenging that which is comfortable in my life. Actually I would say it is more familiar than comfortable. I have not been comfortable for some time but I am asking myself if I am willing to leave the familiar. For me the answer is easy. I always find God in the unknown if I am obediently following. Too often we lose God in the familiar; i.e. we trade God for comfort.  I suppose it is especially crucial for leaders to be sensitive to this natural tendency towards the ease of familiarity. I suppose leaders may be among those whom God challenges most when it comes to this issue. I was reading today about some leaders that Jesus was making very uncomfortable. They had perfected the system of the familiar…the comfortable. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day worked hard to maintain an environment of personal control which provided them with an enjoyable level of comfort. They made the rules and expected people to follow. I guess what upset them most is that Jesus didn’t play by their rules. In fact, he changed the whole game. Isn’t that what makes us nervous? God tends to mess things up just when we get everything adjusted to our liking….just when we get comfortable. In Mark 8:1- 13, I see all these dynamics at work. Jesus had been out in the countryside with a large crowd of people for several days. In the leaders minds he was “brainwashing” them with new ideas. This could only lead to lack of control and discomfort. They had to challenge it. So, after Jesus performs what any rationally thinking human would consider a miracle…the feeding of over 4000 people with only a few scraps of food, the leaders show up with bright lights and start questioning Jesus. I suppose they wanted to know just who He thought he was to take their subjects away and fill their minds with who knows what. He was rocking their boat. So they question him. This was not just any kind of questioning. It says they tested him. It reminds me of the old west show down where the town big shot calls out the new hired hand to see who will rule the town. This questioning was about turf and authority. “Let’s see who is faster on the draw. Let’s see what you’ve got.” they challenged. Would we ever talk to God like that? I guess it depends on how he is interfering with our comfort level. It is a good question to consider. Of all things, they asked him for a sign. Where were they when the miracle feeding thing was happening? The response of Jesus to their challenge is in itself enough to convince me of his Godness. (He could have turned them into toast for their insolence.) Instead, He sighed deeply….painfully….and asked a question of them, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign?” It is if he was asking, “Why can’t this generation believe?” The troubling, unrecorded but implied answer I perceive is that maybe they were too concerned with protecting their comfort level to believe. Then he did something that should startle all of us who value the familiar over faith. He left them! How discomforting. How afflicting! How contrary to a lot of what we hear! How paradoxical! How true!

Just a thought.

Dance with God