We are surrounded.
Surrounded by the unseen, the unheard, the unnoticed.
The invisible wraps around us.
It is the air that we breathe.
The water we swim in.
The light and the darkness that fills our horizon.
What don’t we see?
What do we miss?
What are those things that bring the unseen and unnoticed into focus?
What is the uncommon sense that opens the eyes of our heart?
The God lens that cures our myopic vision?
The greatest mystery that we miss out on, that we over look, is each other.
The Gospel lesson. Divorce and children.
Except it isn’t really about divorce and children. Read it carefully.
It is about women having a say and being heard, it is about the mutuality of marriage, an equal partnership.
It is about seeing and hearing those who are unseen and unheard, especially children.
These were cutting edge controversial issues in the first century. They are still a hard challenge. But, they are normal things that we strive for today, they are no longer revolutionary.
Who don’t we see today?
Who do we dismiss?
Who is left out?
What does it cost to notice? To attend? To recieve the kingdom that is hidden all around us?
That is what the Gospel lesson is about today.
Having an eye and an ear and a hand for the unseen, the unheard, the untouched.
Because that is what God is like.
That is what Jesus brings about as he steals the world the back from bondage to the devil. Remember how Mark begins with the devil tempting Jesus in the wilderness and afterward Jesus is with the wild animals? It is the beginning of Eden returning, as it was in the beginning. Jesus is setting the captives free.
The earliest Christians experienced Jesus as liberation from the powers of sin, death and hell in all their many variations, being set free from captivity. The great prison break of biblical proportions.
They experienced Jesus as an awakening, eye opening, seeing what was unnoticed before, a whole new world.
Is that the Jesus we encounter today?
Is that who moves our heart?
Or is God just another weight? Another way to put one another down. More of the same just a different name?
Or is God good news? Does God mean Freedom?
Freedom to see one another for the first time?
When we see Jesus do our shackles fall away?
That is the Gospel lesson today. The Pharisees were looking for ways to dismiss and control women, more shackles. And Jesus’ answer is that women are equal and that marriage is a mutual relationship, as it was “from the beginning”.
The Pharisees wanted chains, but what they got was freedom. “They can divorce you too.” “Uh, oh.”
The disciples wanted to dismiss the children and be all about the important people, more chains.
And Jesus says God is all about children, all about those who are easily dismissed and unseen.
The chains fall to the ground.
That is the hidden Jesus that we so desperately need today.
That is the kingdom that surrounds us that we are invited to receive.
The unseen God, unheard, unnoticed.
The invisible one wrapping around us.
Whose breath brings life.
Jesus is the water we are born from.
He is the horizon of creation born anew that always calls out to us.
Jesus is the uncommon sense that opens our eyes to the mystery of each other.
May we receive that kingdom as a child, as it was from the beginning.