3rd Sunday after the Epiphany

DIAGNOSIS

STAGE 1. Fishing, but not following. “Only ” fishermen.

STAGE 2. Not yet “repenting and believing the Good News.” Hooked on something else, even such good things as daily work and family relationships. Maybe even seeking to “save one’s life” with these basic (and God-given) pieces of one’s existence.

STAGE 3. Still stuck, still lost, in what Mark calls wilderness.

PROGNOSIS

STAGE 4. In Jesus the time is fulfilled. In Jesus the Kingdom of God is at hand. In Mark’s rhetoric Jesus is the “ochlos” Messiah for “ochlos” people. God’s royal reign is on the scene as God rules the “ochlos” in Jesus, the Mercy Messiah.

STAGE 5. Disciples participate in all that by repenting ( O.T. “shub” = turn around; N.T. “metanoia” = get a different mindset) and believing the Good News.

STAGE 6. “Come, follow me, and then go fishing.”

P.S.

I recently reviewed DARWIN’S BLACK BOX. THE BIOCHEMICAL CHALLENGE TO EVOLUTION by Michael J. Behe, a Roman Catholic biochemist at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Behe has become a media star in the USA with this l996 publication. He leads his readers into the micro-chemical world of his daily work. There he shows us some of the micro-machines inside living organisms, which carry out the processes that make all living things tick. His claim is that these machines are so complex (“irreducible complexity” is his key term) that no one can even imagine how they could have evolved from prior simpler models and still do what they do. Therefore pan-Darwinism does not cover all the bases in biology. Other biochemists, including one who’s a regular Sabb.theol. reader, urge Behe to be more cautious. They say: “We can’t at this time construct clear images of evolution occurring on this micro-mechanical turf. But that may say more about our imagining powers than about what really could have occurred.” Some of this dialogue with Behe continues on the www. 

If you want to see this review, say so.

Peace & Joy! Ed