Chapter 13 - Storms

I remember feeling a bit of “pilgrimage envy” when Father Martin described standing in one spot from where he could see “all the places in which Jesus lived and worked.”  What an amazing moment that must have been for him and for anyone who has ever stood there.  This geographical detail also reminds us of how local the life and ministry of Jesus was.  Bethlehem, for instance, is just seven miles from Jerusalem.  The richness of Jesus:  a Pilgrimage consists of these little but so very significant details, which place the Lord Jesus in a context, a context which continues to amplify his words and deeds. 

As chapter 13 progresses, Father Martin reflects on the storm at sea, with Jesus asleep in the boat.  Being in the midst of a tempest, worried that Jesus is sleeping on us, is an experience we can all relate to. 

Father Martin writes,

One of the most common struggles in the spiritual life is a feeling of God’s absence during painful times.  Even some of the saints report this.  Why is this so common?  Perhaps because when we are struggling, we tend to focus on the area of pain.  It’s natural, but it makes it more difficult to see where God might be at work in other places, where God is not asleep (p. 231).

I must admit, during those times in my life when I have experienced “The Silence of God,” I have often failed to consider that while God may not seem to be acting in the places where I would like him to act, perhaps that is so because there are other places where he is, in fact, acting.  And I wonder if my frustration with God, my anxiety and my fear have blinded me to the places in my life where God is indeed active, and very much awake……

To ponder and discuss:


1.  One of the most powerful lines in the story of the storm at sea describes the disciples' reaction.  The Greek is ephobethesan phobon megan:  "They feared a great fear."  God's power can overwhelm and awe.  Has it ever frightened you?

2.  Why do you think Peter asks Jesus if he can walk on water.

3.  Have you ever felt as if God were "asleep" in your life during a stormy time?  What, if anything, showed you that God was with you?


Steven Olson

Chapter 12 - Parables

I had never heard of the Bay of Parables before I read Chapter 12 on the parables of Jesus.  In this chapter, Father Martin helps us connect the person and message of Jesus with the actual places where He taught.

In this chapter we discover that The Bay of Parables is a naturally occurring amphitheater near the sea—the place where people sat as Jesus taught them from a boat.  And why does Jesus share his parables from a boat?  Because the sound of his voice, traveling over the water, is naturally amplified. 

“As I stood under the broiling sun,” Father Martin writes, “I was gobsmacked to see rocks, thorns, and fertile ground.  No one planted the thorn bushes, carted in topsoil, or arranged the stones to make the locale look as it did in Jesus’ time, as if it were a theme park called Jesus Land.  They were just there. . . .It dawned on me that when Jesus used objects from nature to convey his message—seeds, rocks, birds, clouds, water—he may not have been talking in generalities, but about these things right here. . . .It grounded the Gospels and Jesus, in a way that I never could have imagined.  It made me think more about the way Jesus drew on nature in his parables (p. 199).

The strength of our Lord’s teaching lies in his ability to tie the mystery of the Kingdom of God to things and people right in our midst.  Jesus teaches not by stringing together well thought out theological profundities, but by capturing our imagination,  by “teasing” us with what was familiar.  He was a master story teller.  His parables, little stories, were often familiar to his first hearers, so that when he began his stories, I would imagine that there were smiles on the faces of his eager hearers—smiles of recognition.

When I think about the preachers who capture my imagination, they are the people who are able to deliver profound spiritual truths and mysteries by telling a story.  The parables both draw us in and challenge us to consider our prejudices.  They hint at and scratch the surface of the the mystery.   Then, we spend the rest of our lives adding to our understanding of truths which cannot be fully understood.

To Ponder and Discuss:


1.  In your estimation, why did Jesus use parables?

2.  Which parable mentioned in this chapter--The Sower, The Lost Sheep, The Laborers in the Vineyard, The Talents or The Prodigal Son--"teases" your mind the most?  Which one disturbs you the most?




Steven Olson

Chapter 11 - Capernaum

  

The Miracle of Friendship

  

Did Jesus own a home?

Father Martin begins chapter 11 with an interesting question.  The question makes sense, since Capernaum was a kind of home base early in Our Lord’s ministry.

While we do not have a definitive answer to this question, I was excited to learn about the ancient graffiti in the first century structure (see pages 182 – 183) in Capernaum known as Peter’s House.  In the courtyard of this primitive home, ancient graffiti, written in Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Syriac speak of Jesus as “Lord and Christ.”

This room in a private residence in Capernaum, according to the author, “was held in special regard by many people only a century after Jesus’s activities in Galilee” (page 183).

The graffiti suggests that Jesus himself had a connection to this home.  Did He in fact visit this home, the home of Peter?  Did He own a home nearby?  It’s a tantalizing question.  And was it in or near this place that the Healing of the Paralytic took place?

And, what, indeed, is the miracle that takes place in this home with the thatched roof in Capernaum?  The healing of a paralytic man?  Yes, to be sure.  But I would also suggest a second miracle, a miracle that paves the way for this healing.  I would suggest that it is the miracle of friendship.

Father Martin writes,

The men’s love for their friend has always moved me.  They care for their friend so much that they carry him on his krabattos, which must have taken a great deal of effort on their part.  They love him so much that they are willing to make a spectacle of themselves. . . .And they want him to meet Jesus so much that they risk angering Jesus (or Peter) by destroying an important part of the house.  But no matter—these men want healing for their friend (p. 186).

So, these four unnamed friends take a significant risk in order to place their friend in the presence of the Lord.  “Come  hell or high water” they took action--a gesture which clearly got the Lord’s attention.

Sometimes, it is not enough for us to pray for friends and loved ones.  Sometimes, we need to take action.  How blest was the paralyzed man to have these wonderful friends.  It is a shining example of Christian friendship.

Questions to Ponder and Discuss:


1.  Mark's Gospel says the paralyzed man's friends "unroofed the roof," in other words, ripped off the thatch.  Luke, writing later for a more cosmopolitan audience, changes that explanation to "they let him down. . . .through the roof tiles."  Do such edits in the Gospels surprise or bother you?

2.  The "scribes and Pharisees" have frequently been portrayed in negative terms in Christian history.  Yet, as Amy-Jill Levine and other scholars remind us, they were devout believers trying to lead holy Jewish lives.  Can you understand some of their suspicion of Jesus?

3.  How have your friends "carried you" to God?


Steven Olson

Chapter 10 - Happy

In a recent homily on the Beatitudes, the preacher I was listening to alluded to the fact that it is not known what "mount" (hill?) the Sermon on the Mount was delivered on--a point made by Father Martin at the start of chapter 10.  The preacher also made the point that the Sermon on the Mount was not likely delivered in one sitting,  but that this sermon represents a summary of our Lord's core teaching--a point also emphasized by Father Martin. Through the eyes and experience of Father Martin and his traveling companion, we learn more and more about what Holy Land sites might be authentic and what sites are simply not known.

When I read the Beatitudes, I get hung up on God’s sense of timing.  The promised rewards for all the “blessed”--the humble, the poor in spirit, the peacemakers, those who mourn--seem to be destined to take place at some point in the future.

Also, His list of those who are happy/blest seems out of sync with the world we live in where, by all appearances…..

…Happy are well well-off.  Their worries seem to be few.

…Happy are the gadget-rich.  They seem to have it made in the shade.

. . Happy are the good-looking.  Doors seem to open for them so easily.

And so I ask, my soul asks:  “What about now?  What about us?”

For me, the answer came at an Advent retreat I participated in this week, in which the retreat leader reminded us that God never tires of calling us, and naming us, and blessing us now, in the present.  We need to have the eyes to see and the ears to hear what God is actively doing in the life of each of us.  Now is our time in salvation history, the speaker kept emphasizing.  We need to see it and be open to it.  Open to the continuous outpouring of blessings coming our way in the here and now.  More acutely aware of the activity of God in the present.

Beatitude is not just a future hope.  With the eyes to see and ears to hear, the experience of being blessed/happy becomes a present reality as well.  And we become Beatitude, the more we embody the Beatitudes.

Questions to Ponder and Discuss:


1.  "Blessed are the Poor" is Luke's version of this verse of the Beatitudes.  What does that mean for you?

2.  What is for you the most challenging of the Beatitudes in Matthew's version (pp. 180 -81)?

3.  Do you know anyone whom you would call a "person of the Beatitudes?"

4.  Pick one of the Beatitudes.  Pray about it and try to act on it every day this week.



Steven Olson

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