I have been reflecting this week on the scripture assigned for today in the lectionary: Mark 4: 35-41. I've been using a sort of lectio divina approach each week as I study the gospel selection for the following Sunday. I have known this gospel account...Jesus stilling the storm...for as long as I can remember. I do not remember a time in my life when I did not know it...thank you Clinton Cox and Lucille Cox for that and much more...and yet, as I read it early this week, a phrase from the account in Mark 4 really caught my eye and spirit...v. 34: "And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was." Just as he was, huh? What might that mean? They took him, just as he was: tired, with little voice left from teaching all day? They took him, just as he was, without any bag or extra cloak, not suitably prepared for a rough night at so, no yellow slicker and boots to match, not even an umbrella? They took him, just as he was, worn out, his guard down, ready to sleep? Just as he was...he had nothing with him but himself to give to anyone around him; his teaching spent for the day, with no protection. Just bringing himself was enough.
It was enough because he knew who he was---the son of the Father, and he trusted God and did not worry about what could happen...who he was, and in whom he trusted was wholly sufficient for the voyage.
What has come to mind for me in reading this all week, "just as he was" is the hymn Just As I Am....you might share my experience with this hymn...I went through much of my young adulthood making fun of it because I connected it with the camp evangelist whom I would hear down at a teen institute at Little Grassy Lake for a week, as my parents took me for evening services as a child. My "making fun" was my own attempt to dismiss a certain evangelistic approach that at that time I felt was manipulative. But if there was some merit in being suspicious of the approach ,there was no merit in dismissing the hymn.
Just as I am without one plea
but that thy blood was shed for me
and that thou bidst me come to thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am though tossed about
with many a conflict, many a doubt
fightings and fears within, without,
O Lamb of God I come, I come.
Just as I am, thy love unknown
hath broken every barrier down;
now, to be thine, yea, thine alone
O lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as he was, just as I am.
I need to learn to be just as he was. I need to know who I am, sin and all; and to believe that God who knows us just as we are, loves us unconditionally as we are, but does not leave us as we are. And knowing and believing, I need to learn to completely trust my future to my God.
And I need to get into the boat, just as I am, and trust my disciple friends to row that boat ashore, alleluia. I need to beleive that it is really only by God's grace that I can climb aboard; only by his grace that the wind will blow; and only through God's powerful hand, using sometimes others in my life to steer, that we reach the shore beyond.
2 comments:
It reminds me of Mr. Rogers - my childhood TV person - who assured me in my living room that I was special just as I was.
We need to hear that more often, I think. Thanks Susan.
Thank you for your perceptive comments, and for your reference to Charlotte Elliot's great hymn. It is true that some evangelist's have used the song for tear-jerking manipulation. But the truth it expresses is no less true because the song has been abused.
In fact, as you indicate, it not only represents the attitude needed by the sinner seeking salvation, but by the Christian too. Whenever we come to the Lord, we must come just as we are. God bless.
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