Posts by The_Embassy

I recently heard a pastor with decades of experience remark that the passage in Mark 7:24-30 is one of the most difficult in the Bible.[1] “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” Jesus said.[2] How does one defend this apparent ethnocentrism directed at a marginalized mother who is desperate to find a cure for her child?

Confronting difficult passages is, well, difficult. And the Mark 7 passage is but one of many that we or people in our congregations may struggle with.

Have you ever heard the lyrics to the song titled “Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone”? It’s unfortunate that sometimes we have to lose something, or almost lose something, before we recognize the value in it and appreciate it. I was reminded of that by a man whose recovery from an illness had been very long and difficult. He said, “Victoria, I see my life in a completely different light than before I got sick. Today, my precious things are family and friends. I’ve realized that appreciating what you have every day is what’s important.”

It’s easy to start taking for granted things that can’t be replaced. We live in a great country with houses that have running water, electricity, and every convenience. We have places to work and worship and stores of all kinds–whatever we need is basically at our fingertips.

Yes, we have trouble with portion sizes, even as adults. What makes us struggle like that? What makes us buck against our portion, whether it’s a portion of finances, of food, of resources, or of work? Many things to be sure, but perhaps one of the things driving that resistance is our sense of entitlement. It’s the idea that we deserve more or deserve less, depending on what’s being portioned out. In either case, the amount of our portion is somehow unfair.

This is at least a part of what’s at the core of Psalm 73. It’s a psalm of struggle; a song of complaint against the perceived unfairness of what the psalmist saw playing out before him.