Devotion • July 31
Today’s Scripture Reading
Mark 3:19b–35
Then he went home; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin” — for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” (NRSV)
Reflection
More than a thousand delegates were crowded into the Illinois statehouse on a hot summer day for the Republican State Convention. It was June 16, 1858, and they were there to select their nominee to run for the United States Senate against the Democratic nominee, Stephen A. Douglas.
By 5:00 in the afternoon, they had selected a local lawyer and state legislator, Abraham Lincoln, then promptly decided to break for dinner. Lincoln was scheduled to give a speech that evening at 8:00 p.m. to define his campaign, a speech which came to be called “A House Divided.”
Lincoln and his audience would have recognized these words from Mark 3, yet the speech was considered too radical and led to Lincoln’s failure to win the Senate seat. The words were radical when Jesus said them too, so radical that his mother Mary, along with his brothers, tried to get him to stop talking to the crowds gathered to listen.
Our country is again living through a time of great divisions and has become “a house divided.” I know many families split over current issues and if they can agree to gather together, they know it is better not to bring up certain topics. Sadly, some families have decided it is better not to get together because the divisions are too painful. Family by family our nation becomes “a house divided.”
This happened within my own family and we made a point of continuing to talk about shared values and beliefs, memories that bonded us together, whatever united us and could bring us together. We never fully stopped talking about what divided us but eventually agreed that there was more to our relationships that could bring us together than what could separate us.
Ultimately, it is the realization that we are all children of God, created in God’s image; that can bring us together. If we could see each other’s hands as the tools of God, then we could all work to bring heaven on earth. If we could look at the face of another person and see God’s face, then we could treat all people with love and dignity. If we could look into the eyes of another and see the cosmos, then we could know that every person is created with wonder and awe. If we could know how much connects us, the same desires and yearnings, we would realize there is so little that separates us.
Prayer
Loving God, help us to see only you in all we meet today and to treat every person with love and dignity so that your kingdom will come and your will may be done. Amen.
Written by John W. W. Sherer, Organist and Director of Music
Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church
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