The quiet reflection service is a guided meditation on the readings for the week, accompanied by a couple of hymns. It starts at 11.30am on Thursdays, and runs for about 40 minutes.
Following is the link to the service for the 18th February 2021 . Time of Reflection 21.2.21 If you click on it, it should open in your browser. (To return to the page, press the ‘back’ button in your browser.)
Alternatively, you may just read the whole text below.
A Reflection on the Gospel of St.Mark, Chapter 1 verses 9 – 15
HeQi
Lent 1 18 February, 21
Hymn 250 Christ, when for us you were baptised
Mark 1:9-15 The Message Eugene Peterson
1:9-11 At this time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. The moment he came out of the water, he saw the sky split open and God’s Spirit, looking like a dove, come down on him. Along with the Spirit, a voice: “You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.”
1:12 –13 At once, this same Spirit pushed Jesus out into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by Satan. Wild animals were his companions and angels took care of him.
1:14-15 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.”
Silence
Commentary by William Loader
“This ‘snippet’ from Mark’s opening chapter focuses on the baptism, the temptation and the summary of Jesus’ ministry. Now we have the opportunity to reflect again and especially on this key sequence. From identity to reflection to task.
Given the framework of thought within which Mark celebrates Jesus and in his prologue presents him to the reader, we are doubtless correct to see the time in the wilderness as both preparation and struggle from which he emerges victorious. The victory here promises victory everywhere. John was in the desert awaiting what was to come. Now Jesus is in the desert. The desert is a primal place of wild forces and wonders. It is a place of hope and new beginnings. Israel passed through the waters of the sea and set out for the wilderness, where they stayed for forty years. Jesus is like Israel. Matthew and Luke know a tradition (from Q) where this has become the major focus of the temptation story. In Mark’s brief account this symbolism is probably present, including the 40 days, but equally strong is the more overriding sense of the desert as place of danger and wonder. Revolutionary hopefuls would make their way into the desert and prepare to liberate Judea from the Romans.”
Silence
“Preparing for liberation entails facing the raw elements. Part of that is struggle and Mark suggests this is Jesus’ first victory. Part of it is return to simplicity and trust. As John lived off nature (the providence of God), so Jesus would be ministered to by the angels. Mark says nothing about fasting. Back to basics, back to trust, becomes a key teaching of Jesus later when he appeals to the simplicity of birds and flowers (Matthew 6:25-34). Jesus was living off ‘bush tucker’ for a while, like John. The deliberate step into radical simplicity (driven, of course, by the Spirit) is a model for spiritual discipline and a timely focus for Lent. People need to find their desert places. For some the struggle and the fear of the struggle will be overwhelming. If the Spirit ‘drove’ Jesus into the desert places, we may need to lead people very gently. The journey to inwardness belongs to wholeness, but for many people they either do not know where to go or they feel constrained by stereotypical models. Every minister is in this sense a spiritual director. We need to learn how to lead in ways that will make the journey possible for people.”
Silence
It is almost stereotypical to begin the account of a great person’s life with a story of struggle. This is so doubtless because it so often reflects actual experience. The experience here is defined by the surrounding passage. It is not any journey into inwardness, but the journey to meet the God in that inwardness who seeks to establish a reign of liberation and wholeness and grapple with the forces which are working in the opposite direction. This frame of reference gives a certain structure to the experience. It is not modelling interiority as floundering in introspection, as if the desert experience is its own reward. For some people it could be disastrous. It is the liberating Spirit who leads him there and then leads back and then provides the energy and power for Jesus to proclaim and become good news.
There is a danger is seeing any one of the three aspects of the passage in isolation. Being, without engaging the issues, is remote and might evoke adoration from others but has little point. Struggling, without a sense of identity in being and doing becomes floundering. Doing, without being and struggling with the underlying issues, becomes activism”
Silence
Commentary Ched Meyers
“But Jesus is not proposing a utopian dream that can be realized only in another place (heaven) and/or time (the afterlife). The gospel leaves no room for otherworldly religion: “The time is now; the sovereignty of God is here” (Mark 1:15).”
Enfold us, Lord, in your love,
surround us with your peace,
encircle us with your power.
Enable us to be what you would have us be;
empower us to do what you would have us do;
through Christ our living Lord. Amen David Adam
Hymn 494 In water we grow, secure in the womb Brian Arthur Wren