“Good book?” I asked Roy, his large and uncomfortable torso leaning forward from his orthopaedic chair was hunched over a small magazine rack with a cup marked, wooden top on it.
“THE. Good book” he replied.
I’m visiting Roy and Mavis for six weeks after a hospital stint. Mavis has dementia, but has such a sweetness that you want to cup her face and kiss the top of her head. She potters around the house in a frilly apron, making tea for Roy, unaware these days he is her husband. The house is chaotic, cluttered with a lifetime of important keepsakes, mountains of soft toys, stacks of DVDs and pictures of faded loved ones filling the walls.
I asked Roy about the scripture he was reading and we started to chat. “We read scripture every morning without fail” he told me proudly, “me too” I replied surprised at this connection we’d found. “Then I’ll reflect on it, sing a hymn and say some prayers, take a seat till we are done” he said.
I cleared a seat on the sofa and sat down. Mavis stood to the side of me. Roy sang loudly, “All to Jesus,I surrender, All to Him I gladly give….” Mavis quietly joined in on the chorus and then hung her head low for the prayers at the end. It was intimate and beautiful and a gift to find Jesus so present in this unsuspecting place on a Monday morning.
I’m sad the people of Nazareth missed the presence of Jesus in their midst in today’s Gospel. What a huge lesson in the dangers of placing God into a neat box and never being open to discover new facets of all He is. It diminishes our faith, leaves us poorer Christians and inhibits miracles.
A little helpful context is that when Jesus “goes to other side of the lake” He is either arriving in Hellenistic lands, the region of Decapolis where the Gentiles lived or on the other shore which was predominantly Jewish, the Herod ruled Galilee region. The Jewish people held a clear picture of what and who the Messiah should be, there would have been a fear of anything differing from this interpretation. With the Gentiles there were no expectations of a Messiah, Jesus could perform miracles there and allow the Good news to be spread. The Gentiles had no desire to squeeze him into a ready made Kings crown. The Jewish side of the lake however, would want to make him conform to their mould. To make him the king they had waited for. (This is why he tells those who believe to keep his miracles secret on this side of the Sea of Galilee).
So what about us ? Do we squeeze Jesus into the box we were first given to hold him or are we brave enough to allow him to be revealed as someone different from our staid world view. I admit there is a wrestling and painful discerning with what is often right before my eyes. I know how scary it can be to have your neat box challenged. I feel it too. I also like to bat away anything that might stretch or threaten to change the size and shape of my familiar God box. It’s a fear of being deceived, of being led into error.
Here’s a thing though, God keeps turning up outside of my box. It’s at best inconvenient. What are you doing here Jesus in this atheistic soldier who willingly lays down his life defending freedom? Is that really you Jesus in the sensitivity and inspiring creativity of my gay friend? Wait… are you…present in this homeless addict that’s asking me how I am getting on?” “Jesus, how is it this Muslim guy has so much to teach me about loving you?”
Here I am thinking I’m bringing the Lord to new people, and finding that as always He has gone before me. That, in fact, He is waiting to greet me in this new place, unexpected only because my box is too small.
If God doesn’t fit in my box, then I’m thinking it’s my box that needs to change.
Do you know the most surprising thing about all this, friends? When I can’t fit Jesus into a box then the most wonderful thing happens, I start to discover Him everywhere.
#Jesus #scripture #carpenterfromNazareth #gospel #gospelreflection #Christianity #catholic #Sundayreadings #godinabox
