Grupo de Familia

[Music]

Welcome to

Family Group. We're wrapping up this

season of family groups, although

we have family group service on Sunday, June 8th

. So

make sure you're communicating about

that. And of course, in June and July we're going to

have these summer groups. Hey, I'm

encouraged that there are already several who are

training, so God willing, and we're going to

have a very special time this

summer

connecting as an FM community. Amen.

Well, this Sunday, in our

study of the Gospel of Mark,

we saw how in

narrative literature, we see the themes of

conflict in the Gospel of Mark,

just as Mark uses pairs of words

to show us as an audience, as

believers, as followers, where we

should pay close attention.

So in those pairs we saw eh two

healings of two blind people,

right? Telling us

that the point is not physical healing,

eh, but the point is what's

happening, right?

Spiritually. Ah, how spiritually blind we can be

. Oh, and well,

I hope that study has

helped you. I'm sure there was something,

right? That caught your attention, that

interrupted you, not only

can we say something about the sermon, but no,

what is God telling you? What did God tell you

? How did it surprise you? What

invitation did

you receive from God? But anyway, before we

explore a little bit more of what

we studied and we have some questions,

let me share a few words here in

English. So

justicap closing the season of groups

and we have June and July. And so if you

want to start a group, please make sure

uh that we connect and that you know how we

can help you uh set up that group for

the summer.

Um and then here uh last Sunday, right?

We looked at sort of the themes

in the Gospel of Mark. At least some of

them. We looked at conflict, but also

how Mark uses pairs uh to signal to us, hey

, here's where we need to pay close

attention. And we saw and we read uh two

healings of two blind men. Uh, and of

course the invitation was to pay

attention to what's happening uh in

between. So I'm going to do a quick

recap uh probably mostly in Spanish

here, but I will have questions,

bilingual questions there at the end.

So, eh conflict, right? We saw how

in the Gospel of Mark, ah, Jesus

has conflict ah, mainly with

the human being. Ah, I mean, the

human being has a conflict with Jesus, I think that

would be better, right? Eh, because of our

foolishness, our lack of attention, our

not taking it seriously. We see that in

chapter one. We

obviously see the

malice of the authorities in

Mark's Gospel, their appetite for

control, for status. Oh, and how do they

start, right? uh, with criticism, but

uh, they end up

collaborating with Pilate, oh, and executing

Jesus.

which shows us that the conflict

that Jesus had with the

authorities comes to light, it is revealed that

those authorities were not faithful to God

as they proclaimed.

Well, their true intention comes to light

, to maintain control, to

enrich themselves, to maintain their

religious status, but also their

prejudices, right? Of not wanting to include

marginalized people, of wanting

Jesus to serve them instead

of them submitting to Jesus. So, we

can certainly relate, right?,

with these

authorities. Oh, and of course, we can

see those themes in our world today,

right?

But more relevant to us are the

disciples, in whom we see

that

they

constantly do not take

Jesus seriously. They have a sincerity where

they ask, who is this that even the

wind obviously answers Jesus, eh

chapters later? Who do people say

I am? They say to him and he says,

who do you say? And we obviously saw

Peter's response, but then it comes

to light that they wanted to domesticate

Jesus, that the disciples

also wanted to control, to define the type of

Messiah that Jesus should be. So there

's tension there, and there's

conflict, and that's where we can

relate a lot

spiritually, where we

can also be sincere and genuine,

but that doesn't mean we're

right. It

can also be revealed in

our lives, in our faith, that

sometimes we do not take Jesus seriously, that

sometimes we want Jesus to serve

us more than we want him to serve us.

So, there are different topics there that

we can relate to. But

anyway, the class is recorded in

part one, part one and part two because it

was very long.

But hey, eh, so what can we

learn here? Well, we have some

reflection questions here,

and the idea here is that we can examine and

compare the main point that we

can perhaps focus on today or the

main theme. I'll share some thoughts in

English right now. Hold on. Ah, the

main theme we can say that

constantly in the Bible eh

correctly tells us, right?

topics like we were blind and now and

now we see if what

the Gospel of Mark does is correct. I think it

includes a third space, where you

are not necessarily completely

blind, but you also don't see clearly, that

is, we have spiritually blurred vision

. And I think that's what

comes to light in Peter, that's what comes to

light in the disciples who have that

debate about who is right. and

it comes to light between James and John,

eh, that they want to be on the right, on

the left in glory, right? Jesus

is

focusing and

pointing out to them that we are on this path to

the capital to

confront, not necessarily the

authorities, although the authorities will be

confronted. We are going to confront

death, we are going to confront

sin. And it is there on the cross where it will be

revealed who Jesus truly is

.

Ironically, the one who recognizes Jesus

for who he is is a Roman soldier who

says, "

This is really the son of God."

and there he also invites us to have

humility, right? Of not feeling like we

know everything, but continuing to learn

because God continues to reveal himself, God

continues to transform us. So, it's very

important that we continue to pay

attention to you.

Ah, so this issue of blurred vision,

eh, constantly, I think

we may be there. The challenge is

that

we normalize having blurred vision. And it

is not healthy to have spiritually blurred vision

. Yes, it's better to

blind her, but with blurred vision we can

make serious, serious mistakes. We can

also stop enjoying our

Christianity or we start to over-rely on

other people, uh, on other things

to be the people that God has

called us to be, right? Uh, in other

ways, we call that codependency,

which is one of the most serious sins, it's

one of the most serious cultures within

Christianity. This codependency that we

do good, we say good,

we serve God when someone

reminds us, when someone

challenges us, when someone

inspires us, sometimes, we are not

waiting for these human waves instead of

attending to the faithfulness, the

presence, the authority, the leadership,

the unconditional love, the call that

God gives us

daily.

Ah, so you and I like Peter, you and I

like these disciples, you and I like

James and John, we constantly have

blurred vision and it's important

that we learn from Bartholomew, right? This

man who hears that Jesus is

passing by and there is a theme there too, right?

What did he do first? I'm

listening. So how do you hear

God? What spaces do you create? What

habits do you create? What practices do you have

to listen to God? If it's only

Sunday, you're going to be living in a

blur, aren't you? So, first

Bartomeos listened and then what did he do? He

took the initiative, he began to shout, he

began to call out to God, to Jesus, son

of David, calling him as the king who was to

come, the king who has been

pointed out in the Old

Testament, who is coming and now he is and

now he is here. Ah, obviously he had

challenges and conflicts with the crowd, the

people, even the disciples. But the

question that Jesus asks

Bartholomew is, what do you want me to do for

you? And wow, that's the question of our

lives. What do you

want from

God? Not that you need. We will always

need things and we should ask

God, beg God, make those

requests because God is good and

generous. But the question is not what

you need, the question is, what do

you want? I mean, what kind of Christian do

you want to be?

a

blind Christian or a Christian with blurred vision or

a Christian who truly

sees. We see that Bartomeos wants to see, but

he wants to see because he wants something more than

his sight. He wants to see because he wants to

follow Jesus. And upon receiving his sight,

what does Bartomeos do? Follow Jesus on

the path. Which way? The way of

God. The path of denying yourself,

of carrying your cross, of serving God, of

serving humanity.

to a path where there is no vanity,

where there is no competition, where there is no

violence, where there are no alliances with other

authorities, there is an alliance and

fidelity to God.

So, Bartomeos is the example of what

kind of follower we should be.

From his

humility, from his desperation, his

passion and his clarity. I want to see and it comes

to light. Why did I want to see? Because I

wanted to follow

Jesus. So we have to examine

that question, right? What do you want? What

Christian team do you want to be? Don't

settle for

blurry vision. Oh, and no, be careful of

codependency, you're waiting for

the

strategy to come to you where God is already

calling you, right? So, well, uh, all of

that I think is happening there in our

studio. Before these questions

I make a brief reflection in English.

And so just a quick recap here.

Um you know uh in the conflict theme and

the pairings and the intersection of

those uh is uh you know comes to light

that Peter the disciples are actually

not really good examples of following

Jesus. Barth becomes the good the good

example. Um he is clear on what he

wants. Uh he is direct. He is

passionate, he overcomes. There are

obstacles, right? And who are those

obstacles for him? People. They're

telling him to be quiet. They're telling

him to shut up. Um but he keeps shouting

all the more. And Jesus stops, stops

those people and then directs those

people. Says call him. And he stands up.

And then he's asked the key question in

the gospel of Mark. Uh, what do

you want? And I think that's the key

question. What kind of Christian do you

want to be? And so Jesus doesn't say

what do you need? We all have needs

right? And so when we're asked this

question, what do we want? Make sure you

don't answer with what you need. That's

not the question. Now, we do

have and are invited to

the goodness and humility of God to

petition, to ask uh for those needs,

right? Um daily in fact uh we're

encouraged to do that. But this is a

different question. This is the

question. What kind of Christian do you

want to be? What do you want God to do

for you? And I think that is the key to

being a mature Christian, avoiding codependency

, avoiding the traps of

falling into the allegiance of all these

different authorities and political

parties and all these different things

that are taken on all over the

world. Um but to truly pledge allegiance

to God and his kingdom.

Um, and so that is the question I think we're

all asking. If we don't answer

that question and you make it take you

time to answer that

question. Uh, but if you don't answer

and you don't have clarity for that question

then you will be in this space of blurt

vision for a while. Um, and so

you don't have to be there is the point.

Um, so you have to attend to

that question. And Barthimz if again you

look at the steps in that healing, he

first hears that Jesus walking by and

the importance of hearing God. And so

what are your practices um of how to how

you hear God? Um if it's just Sunday

and if it's just from others,

um whoa. I

mean, you're going to have permanent

residency in Blurred Vision Stage and I

don't think that's what you want. So

again, it's a call to respond to God.

based on what you want. And Barth I

think is a great example for us. It's

not the appointed apostles disciples. Uh

we know what's revealed from them. Um

but it's Barthomeus. Not right now. In

all fairness uh to the apostles, they

were just being genuine too. That's what

was happening in their hearts. Now the

faithfulness of God in the resurrection.

What does God do? He goes after um he

goes ahead of them and then gives them

instructions. Come come follow me. And

so we know they're going to have another

interaction uh second touch from the

resurrected lord.

all super

inspiring. All

right, back to this point, right?

From blurred vision. So here

are these questions. I hope you

enjoy them, eh, and that we can continue

exploring this question, right? What do

we want? What do we want

God to do for us

personally, but also as a

church? Okay, here are the

questions. Where do you think our

faith community clearly sees Jesus?

And where can we have

blurred vision? And how do you contribute to

clarity and blurriness? Uh, okay. So,

this first question we were talking

more like as a

church, uh, where as a church? How do we

see Jesus clearly?

And as a church, how do we see Jesus with

blurred vision? Oh, and how do you help us

see Jesus clearly? And

how do you contribute to the fact that we

can still see Jesus, eh, in a

blurry way, right? Ah, and I think this

requires

sincerity and honesty, right? Uh, and

this is the issue of

codependency. Ah. But well, I'll

leave it there. The next question. Mark

places two healings of blind men, one

before and one after the

disciples struggle to accept Jesus' way

of the cross

. What might

Mark be telling us about God's mission and our

response to his call?

Very good. And

finally,

Bartimaeus is healed and then follows Jesus

down the road. What does it mean to imitate

Bartimaeus in your life

today? Very good. Please, you know, pause

read those questions in English.

So, enjoy this

conversation, God willing, and we'll see you

this Sunday. We have a

special guest, Pepe Escárciga, who will be

with us.

sharing his experience

working with marginalized communities.

God willing, see you later, okay? A

hug.

[Music]