Bryan Richardson

Anonymous

Re:Verse passage – Mark 5:21-34 (day three)

“A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years, and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse…”

Not only did this woman suffer from severe anemia, but also from violations of her bodily autonomy and privacy by men hawking various purported cures. In addition to that ignominy, the repetition of useless curative attempts had siphoned away hope, leaving her weaker and more poverty-stricken than ever before. She wasn’t just bleeding, but humiliated, shamed, exploited, poor, and neglected after her encounters with every alleged healer for over a decade. No wonder she wanted anonymity. The Lord’s mercy allowed her that dignity. Only after curing her body did Jesus inquire about her identity and restore her self-worth by addressing her as “daughter.”

Revive

Re:Verse passage – Mark 5:21-23, 35-43 (day two)

“Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.”

In life’s events, there is a point beyond which experience has taught you that it’s useless to press for a certain outcome. It’s too late, or too little, or too painful. It’s over, it’s gone, it’s empty. It’s beyond repair, it’s beyond recognition, it’s beyond anyone’s ability. It makes sense that you would come to the conclusion to walk away from hoping for a certain thing. Still, some longings persist. And when those longings keep running into disappointment, you can start to feel despair that no one seems to be able to answer those longings. Jesus goes right there to the deepest places in you. What you thought was ended, over, failed, dead, he can revive. The risen Savior has given new meaning to these words: “It is finished.”

Wonder

Re:Verse passage – Mark 5:1-20 (day three)

“No one was strong enough to subdue him.”

It might be tempting read the above passage and think, “…except Jesus. Jesus was strong enough to subdue him.” But Jesus doesn’t subdue the man – not in the sense of vanquishing him anyway. Even the unclean spirits aren’t presented as opponents in a cage match won by Jesus. Instead, this remark seems to point out that everyone who had tried to intervene in the man’s life approached the circumstance as a power struggle, not as a redemptive moment. Jesus wasn’t interested in shutting him down, but in raising him up. This man was made (by the very Lord who encountered him that day) to laugh and to know beauty and to love and to work and to rest. Jesus knew the man’s true identity – not a weirdo, but a wonder.

Safe

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:35-41 (day three)

“Jesus himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.”

Jesus’s sleeping in a boat during a storm on the lake was one indication that he found himself at home in his Father’s world. Another indication: entrusting his body’s safety to the skills of those who piloted the boat while he slept. Would you feel at ease sleeping – or even riding at all – in a vehicle operated by certain folks? Jesus lived in the world unconstrained by overarching concerns for his personal safety. Do you think he minded eating a meal in a public place with his back towards the door? Was he reticent to touch someone with a communicable disease? He cared for his body’s basic needs. The rest of his energy he used to listen and laugh and befriend and shepherd. Seeking to live thusly is a holy quest.

Yield

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:26-32 (day two)

“The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.”

Nothing remains unchanged of all that has been created. All things in the world proceed according to their way. And everything has a way, whether good or bad, desirable or undesirable – fruit, results, effects, endpoints. Sometimes you can trace the origin of an outcome, and sometimes you can’t. It’s all too much to track, regardless. You’ve blamed yourself for hardship when you had no power to change what happened. You’ve credited yourself for success instead of expressing gratitude for good fortune. And amidst it all, unseen, God acts to move this universe along according to his purpose. To learn the way of yielding to God’s activity is the lifelong discipline from which come contentment, thanksgiving, humility, and joy.

News

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:21-25, 33-34 (day three)

“For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.”

There are no secrets that have ever done any good for any family, giving rise – always – to shame and confusion and despair. Secrets in a business setting lead to unethical, and often illegal, behavior. Within a government, secrets, though often presented as necessary for security purposes, will invite abuses of power which bring about large-scale suffering on a global scale. The kind of life that God lives, and therefore the kind of life that all inhabitants of the heavenly realm live, is a life devoid of any hiding. In God’s society, all things are good, and all persons have access to all things. This good news is the opposite of dark secrets.

Weed

Re:Verse passage – Mark 4:1-20 (day three)

“Do you not understand this parable?”

This question Jesus asked his disciples reveals that not only did they not grasp the points of his parable, they also didn’t know how to listen to him. The things being taught (for instance: the way you live will influence your receptivity to wisdom) are important. But information transfer alone will never make a person fully aware of what is happening in real time. For that, you need a story, because only in a story can you begin to see how your experiences present you with opportunity or questions or temptation or new ways of living. While it might be true to say, “the concerns of this life will keep you from what’s really important,” that doesn’t intersect your life. Jesus said it better: “What feels like a weed growing out of control in you?”

Become

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 72:1-14 (day three)

For he will deliver the needy when he cries for help,
The afflicted also, and him who has no helper.
He will have compassion on the poor and needy,
And the lives of the needy he will save.

The prophetic word of the Bible always envisions a day in which attentiveness, empathy, and liberality will abound. We don’t live in that day yet. It’s hard even to imagine such a day. But you long for it, even when you act in ways contrary to it, as everyone does. In that day, neediness will give way to assured resourcefulness. Affliction will surrender to tender comfort. Poverty will fall to generosity. That is the world God is bringing into existence – a world in which God will act in these ways, and so will you. It’s yours for the believing and becoming.

Weekdays

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 96 (day three)

“Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day.”

The word salvation often gets associated with escape from damnation. But its meaning is, of course, wider than that. The God who is able to save you from hell is also able to keep you from being swallowed up by the demands of the day. That is surely one kind of salvation. It is in the mundane (in the sense of the daily, necessary, stuff of life) that you live most of your life. And Jesus stood right in the middle of that reality when he taught about worry concerning food, clothing, safety. When Jesus was a helpless baby, he did not die, though shelter was meager, Herod was cruel, and paternity was questioned. Jesus knew God’s salvation on the daily. And he will not keep it from you when weekdays are hard.

Save

Re:Verse passage – Psalm 89 (day three)

”I will not lie to David.”

The Lord has intimately involved himself in the affairs of men. As St. Paul himself said, God is not far from any one of us. Although human beings are mortal and are limited in understanding, God does not exploit that state of being. He doesn’t mislead or obfuscate. He doesn’t insult the intelligence he gave to humans. Rather, he relates to human beings with – as this Psalmist and other biblical writers attest from their own experience – lovingkindness. The mad, painful, confusing existence each person knows will stabilize and settle and cease to threaten when one calls on God as the only hope for rescue. People who have testified to God’s response of calm and strength didn’t read it in a theology book. They lived it. They lived to tell you about it. God will not lie to you. He will save you.