Scripture Scribbles: July 14, 2024

the Gospel

Mark 6:7-13

Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits. 
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey
but a walking stick—
no food, no sack, no money in their belts. 
They were, however, to wear sandals
but not a second tunic. 
He said to them,
“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave. 
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them.” 
So they went off and preached repentance. 
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

the scribble

He sent them out two by two.

They were to go out with radical trust and dependency (no food, no sack, no money). And they were not sent alone.

They were sent to preach repentance and heal the sick. And they were not sent alone.

Here in the very earliest mission of what would become the Church, the Lord sends out pairs of friends (his own friends) to bring truth and healing to the world.

I think there is something stunningly beautiful and deeply important about this. We are made for relationship. “The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity.” The language of  God is relationship. God is love. Love cannot exist without a lover and a beloved.

When he sent them out, the Lord clothed the Twelve in his own divine authority. And he sent them out in relationship with him and with each other.

I think that the Lord knew that part of the way the Twelve would help bring about repentance and healing would be in the way they related to each other. Surely they would relate to each other imperfectly at times, but they would be rooted in their shared relationship with the Lord. And that kind of friendship feels and looks very different from one without Jesus at its center. Holy friendship itself is a beacon of hope in a hurting world.

God chooses us and brings us close to know him and he sends us out. None of us is without mission. And none of us is sent alone.

As I type these words my heart is filled with gratitude for the women the Lord has brought me into relationship with on this journey. They have helped me to know Him better. They have helped me to see my own belovedness more clearly. They have helped turn my heart toward the Lord again and again. They have helped me live with deeper trust. And the grace-filled oil of holy friendship has anointed and healed deep wounds.

This is always the story with the Lord  isn’t it? His goodness is unbelievable in its richness: We are sent together on mission to preach repentance and heal through Christ while we ourselves are repenting and being healed through Christ together.

Today’s devotion was written by Lucia Parker DeMarco