3/1/2023 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 24:1-25:46, Mark 10:13-31, Psalm 44:9-26, Proverbs 10:20-21

Today is the 1st day of the month of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. Here we are, brand new, shiny, sparkly month out in front of us. The 3rd month of the year. The 60th day of the year. And it is a joy and an honor to gather together today, in our little sacred space, our little oasis that we create everyday, all around the Global Campfire. Moving into this month together and continuing our journey through the Scriptures together this year. And so, new month of course, but we will pick up right where we left off. And that will lead us back into the Book of Leviticus. So, we’ve gone through a lot of the priesthood and the requirements of the priesthood and the ordination of the priesthood, and through a lot of the sacrifices and what they were and what they represent. And then we’ve gone through festivals, parties, celebrations that are built into the culture. Times to stop what you’re doing and remember who you are and where you’ve come from and where you’re going and who God is. And so, we pick up the story, Leviticus chapter 24 verse 1, through 25 verse 46 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so really, just a really beautiful scene in the Gospel of Mark today. Jesus was becoming known as a teacher, as a prophet, and some were starting to wonder if He’s the One, the anointed One, the Messiah. And so, crowds are around Jesus. We’ve been reading about this since the beginning of the year. Crowds are around Jesus but parents are bringing their children to Jesus, that He might bless them. And that is, that is really, really beautiful. I think of a picture that I seen as a kid, Jesus sitting on a rock, it’s probably a famous picture, but it was around a lot when I was a kid. Jesus sitting on a rock, holding a little child. Children sitting around Him, standing around Him and then the adults kind of back a little bit. And I remember that, that picture because it kind of went along with Jesus loves the little children all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in site. Jesus loves the little children of the world. And we see this in the Gospel of Mark today. And it’s more than that He just loves them, He loves how they are. He’s looking at them and they have not lost their innocence to pessimism and cynicism yet. It’s just that Jesus disciples, they’re not tracking at all, so they’re trying to shoo kids away so that the grownups can be fed. And it’s Jesus that like, don’t, don’t do that, run them away from here. Don’t try to shoo them away from me. Truly I tell you, I quote from Mar, truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child, will never enter it. And He took the children in His arms and placed His hands on them and blessed them. We encounter this story, and this point, this sentiment, in other Gospels. And the challenge and often for us, as adults is typically to imagine what it would be like to have the trust and faith of a child. But for those of us who are parents, let’s just think about our own kids. God has given them to us. Like, they’re ours to steward on behalf of the Kind and His Kingdom. They’re put in our care. And to them, we will be the most poignant representation of what God is like, in their lives. And so, how much of our spiritual journey do we withhold from them thinking they’re just too little to understand. When reality may be that they have so much for us to learn. And so, often we find ourselves in positions where it’s like, do what I say but not what I do. When what we do is telling them and instructing them a lot more than what we say. But what we’re learning from Jesus himself is that God’s kingdom is centered around what a child has. The faith of a child is valued in God’s kingdom. And we spend so much times on ourselves, trying to get back to that place while maybe leading our children in a direction, the same way we were led. So that they have to circle back around and figure out what it looks like for them. What if we understood that we are stewarding our kids for God. And it is not a lightweight thing. Like, it is the greatest responsibility in humanity. We can be going for our job promotions, we can be going for our education, we can be going for our career or anything that we can be going for, there isn’t going to be something that is, that carries more weight than in stewarding our children for the kingdom of God and doing everything that we can because the world is set against us, we know it. Doing everything that we can to preserve that spark of wonder that exists in their hearts where anything is possible. The faith of a child. Children who have been nurtured in this way, do believe nothing is impossible. I’ve seen this play out in my own life. I’ve seen this play out in the lives of my children. I’m watching this, like I have a granddaughter and her name is Regan. And I couldn’t love her more. But watching her learn the wonder of it, because she believes he world is a good place. And she’s just a little girl but she lives from that place. And I look at her, I look at Ezekiel, our son, and I think, I mean, for me, there’s nothing that taught me more about God or myself then my children. I had flawed parents. Like, I’m flawed, like everybody’s flawed. But they did show me that, and I’ve tried to pass that because I believe what Jesus is saying here. Because I’ve been in the world long enough to know that there’s every reason to mistrust everything. And everybody has an opinion about everything and there’s a lot of tension in the world and there’s a lot of mistrust in the world. And there’s a lot of divide and conquer going on and I’ve seen this my whole life. So, I’m a cynic by nature, I’m pessimistic by nature. I don’t buy into anything without a long period of discernment. And so, is that how the kingdom of God works? Like, maybe it’s smart to be wise but within us is the spark of wonder even there because there’s a spark that connects us to God, that connects us to the infinite, that connects us to the eternal. That connects us to how it’s supposed to be. If that flame goes out, it’s hard to get it lit again. And when we participate in blowing it out in our children’s lives, through our own brokenness, then that’s, that’s a problem. That’s a problem in the kingdom. And we can say, yeah but I didn’t have, like my parents, if you knew our origin story. If you knew how lucky I felt when I finally got out of there, but that’s really actually what I am talking about. No child of God should need to escape the place that they were placed to be stewarded, unless they weren’t stewarded at all, and instead broken and abused in some sort of way. And so, that leaves a lifelong struggle toward wholeness to try to put the pieces back together again. And I’m not saying to any of us are that kind of people. I’m simply saying, what if we actually paid a little bit more attention with intentionality, to the fact that we’ve been given gifts from God to steward and they are the future of this kingdom. And maybe if we would slow-down and not just offer all of the kinds of instructions that simply make our lives easier. But if we would slow-down and get to know them, we might find that they can remind us what of what wonder and awe feels like. They can teach us what the world has tried to beat out of us. Maybe we can steward and protect them and they can teach us what it looks like to be whole. It’s worth thinking about anyway. 

Prayer:

And so, Jesus, we invite You into that since we’re thinking about it. And we invite Your Holy Spirit into it. There’s, there’s no way to talk about this and make it a blanket thing, that one size fits all. We all have very different stories, very different backgrounds, very different everything. And so, there is no person that can say, here’s how this is done, except You. Except You. And You are here and You are available. And so, come Holy Spirit, into this. Into the relationships that we have with our kids, into the postures that we have toward them and others. Into the places that are young in us and how we treat those places inside of ourselves. May we realize that You have called us Your children, the children of God for a reason. And may we reclaim what has been stolen from us, that we might feel awe and wonder at Your creation and all that is in it and all that awaits us. Come, Holy Spirit, into this, we pray. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Will be posted later.