Some Explaining to Do

In a followup blog post to last week's entry at i.ucc.org, I've written a new Bible reflection about Mark 4:26-34. It's called 'Some explaining to do." (Though I thought of calling it "More riddle-talk.")

More seeing but not perceiving, hearing but not understanding. But now there's some explaining happening.

In the blog article relating to Isaiah 6:1-8 (and 9-10) I posed the possibility that the "Seeing but not perceiving, hearing but not understanding" lines from both Isaiah and Jesus quoting Isaiah were an invitation to dig deeper rather than a command or "reality statement" that some people were never going to understand the words or their meaning.

In one of this week's Bible readings, Mark 4:26-34, Jesus tells more parables. This time they are about farming and about how plants grow. He talks about the tiny mustard seed and the large plant that comes from it. You may have heard the phrase, "The faith of a mustard seed" referring to how small things begin and how amazingly large they can become through faith in God.

And again I find interest in a verse right at the end of the reading. In verses 33 and 34 the explanation that Jesus always talked to the people in riddle-talk -- parables. But Jesus would do further explanation to the disciples in private.

There is more to learn! There is more to understand! There is more to seek! Jesus talked about these things with his disciples. He got into smaller groups and really hashed out the stories. Jesus and the disciples were involved in what I think we would describe as "midrash" -- where rabbis and students discuss scripture and the possible meanings. They tend to look at things from several angles and try to really chew on things as they seek deeper and deeper meaning.

I think Jesus example of digging deeper into the stories with the disciples further supports the idea that the stories weren't meant to turn people away or to confuse them to the point of giving up. They were an invitation to learn more.

Our discussions here are also an invitation. Let's engage each other and engage the Bible. Let's continue to seek deeper meaning in what the still-speaking God reveals.

Not Understanding

I've written a new blog entry at i.ucc.org. It's about the call of Isaiah in Isaiah 6:1--8. Naturally, I spend most of my thoughts on verses 9-10. It's called "Something more to learn."

Hearing but not understanding. Seeing but not perceiving. What is it that we're missing?
This week's Bible reading comes from Isaiah 6:1-8. So naturally I'm going to really talk about verses just after the reading.

Isaiah 6:9 - 10: And God said, Go and say to this people: Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand. Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.

The Isaiah 6:1-8 reading is about God's glory and Isaiah's perceived inferiority and God's call and Isaiah's response to God's call to share God's news with everyone. Isaiah's willingness to step forward even when he felt unprepared and frightened is a great example for others who are afraid to stand up and share God's unconditional love with everyone.

But those verses after the "send me!" from Isaiah have always bothered me. It's as if I don't have the faculties to completely understand what they are saying. I've heard that it means that there will always be people who will reject what God's followers have to say, but that we continue to say in anyway. I've heard that the rejection is a test to see if we're really following God's call. I've heard that God hardens some hearts and lets others be open. I've heard that when Jesus quoted these words in Matthew 13 and Mark 4 that he was necessarily excluding some people from ever receiving the good news. I've thought that the verses were meant to chide those who ought to know better and still turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the needs of those who are persecuted, moved to the fringe and unloved.

And I don't think any of that is complete with what the verses say and with how Jesus used them. I think the verses are an invitation to dig deeper and discover more about what the Bible passages mean. I think that the parables Jesus told invited the listener to search for more because they were confused at the first hearing. I think that those who heard the words of Isaiah and the other prophets were invited to continue searching for more that would be revealed through God's word as they contemplated, studied, discussed and prayed about what they had heard.

I think the words from Isaiah 9:9-10, along with them being quoted in Matthew 13 and Mark 4, are verses that invite us to learn more. They invite us to realize, as John Robinson did as he spoke to the Pilgrims departing for the new world, God "has yet more light and truth to break forth out of his holy word."

There's more to learn, more to understand, more to seek. God is still speaking,