Advent Week One – Letting Stuff Go – Mark 13:24-37

Hi folks, as we enter advent I have asked some folks to write a blog for each week, based on a passage, and a theme that the Methodist Church have put together called ‘Out of the Ordinary’. This weeks blog is written for us by Ben, to see the reading that its based around click on the link.

We will meet at 7.30 at the Enigma Tap on Sunday, i hope to see you there.

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So, I must admit when Rob asked me to write this blog I couldn’t for the life of me relate the passage with the title. One website I looked at for inspiration had the same verses written in 70 different versions of the bible. (No, I did not read all 70. Ones like the Orthodox Jewish Bible had a lot of Hebrew in it and funnily enough its not a language that I am fluent in!) As I read this passage in all the versions I could find, I struggled to relate letting go with what essentially to me is a passage about preparing and being ready. Verse 35-37 is literally saying to watch and be ready for when the master will eventually come home! Verse 37 says it literally: And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch! How do you relate letting something go when it’s to be telling you to be ready for the signs of the Coming of the Son of Man?!
Those who know me know I love a tangent but bare with me there is a link!
I am a serious over thinker, as a child it was described as an ‘active imagination’, as an adult its usually referred to a therapist. What if? Is my brains most used question and usually is not a good thing as it creates a rabbit hole that isn’t easy to get out of. This is also run into the religious aspect of my life as well. I started so well as I grew up, I gave my life to God and life was peachy as a Son in the church. But as I grew up life got in the way distractions and events made me even question the validity of religion.

How does this link in with the blogs subject I hear you ask, and I have been asking myself the same question for the last few days as I tried to plan to write this.
It finally clicked as I was having a shower just before I came to write out the blog. Inspiration can come from anywhere and for me the hit single from a popular Disney film about Ice cropped up in my head during my shower. (Might have been to do with the fact a tap was being run downstairs making the water feel Frozen!!) I had to look up the actual lyrics after the shower and if you haven’t done so I would recommend doing so and really dissect the. ‘Let It Go’ is sung by the character describing how she has always had to hide but eventually she has held it in for too long and now she is ready to let all the stuff that has been held on to go.
The link, how ever tenuous it may seem, really helped me connect both the passage and the title as well as the time of year the passage is usually focused on. As a church we focus a lot on the symbolism of letting go of the old us and being reborn into the new us as a child of Christ and the biggest act we have of that is baptism. (Hence the realisation in the shower, water washing away. I have never claimed my brain was normal in its thinking!) For me it reminded me of first coming to Beachcomber FX. Having spent a few years not really fitting in or finding there was to much ‘Stuff’ in the way of me reconnecting with GOD, Beachcomber FX showed me that I can let go of a lot of the ‘stuff’ I had grown up on and assumed I needed to be a Christian.

Advent is usually a time for us to let go of the stuff that has happened throughout the year and look towards the birth of Christ and into the new year. This doesn’t mean forget the stuff that’s happened, letting things go I don’t think should be about forgetting about it. Each thing we go through builds who we are, letting stuff go is letting go of the hold it has on letting you move forward.

An analogy for this would be the humble tree. The easiest analogy for this is the rings in a tree trunk. The rings tell a lot about the tree’s life, and you can see the good and bad, but for each extra ring in that trunk it shows the tree has let that go of the stuff that happened in the last year and moved on to the next. Trees are a constant use for analogies and symbolism throughout the bible. This passage is known for the parable of the Fig Tree, but there are two other trees that I felt had more relatability to me for this passage. One for its symbolism and one for its physical growth.

The Palm tree is known more for its role at Easter. For me it’s how it grows that gives a good analogy, as the palm tree grows it loses its lower leaves with the new ones growing out of the top and for each leaf lost it becomes part of the trunk. You can see the stuff it’s had before but its always looking forward to growing higher. It uses the ‘stuff’ it has let go to grow higher and stronger on its path.

The second tree is more about its supposed symbolism in the bible. This is the Sycamore Tree. I have never realised that the sycamore tree is mentioned multiple times in the Bible as the main story I remember it from is to do with Zacchaeus. The commentary that accompanies this story sometimes is how Zacchaeus abandons his pride and climbs the tree to see Jesus as he walks past. The commentaries draw the symbolism of us needing to be in a place in our lives where we have a clear picture of God and his teachings. The ‘stuff’ being pride in Zacchaeus’s case. For us it could be anything that distracts us from looking forwards to the Coming of Christ.

I will round up this blog with some final thoughts, but I hope that it has made some sense and hasn’t been a whirlwind stop tour of my brain making no sense whatsoever.
It’s never easy shedding the stuff that makes up our lives and the trials, tribulations and wins that we go through in life, I know that all too well having been through enough therapy sessions and trying to find ways to numb or forget the hold my past has on me. T0o many things tell us we must forget the past stuff, that the past is the past and it doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t think this passage is telling us to forget the stuff but more shed the hold it has on us. By letting it keep a hold on us it distracts us from our job of watching and waiting for Christ. The verse 36 states, ‘Lest he come suddenly and finds you sleeping’. Even not looking at it from a Christian POV all the stuff we each carry around can distract us from life and living it to our fullest.

I don’t have any answers to letting stuff go, it would be very hypercritical of me to suggest anything as I am the worse at following said advice. But in the run up to Christmas I hope that each and everyone of you will find some way of letting stuff go and breathe easier.
Like the palm tree what stuff can we shed that can be used to make us stronger and look higher and further.

God Bless.

Questions:

What line from a song has stuck in your head this week?

What is your favourite type of tree?

When was the last time you ‘didn’t fit in’, what was it like?

What other ‘biblical’ trees come to mind?

What films does this bible passage/or the blog remind you of?

What methods allows you to forget about the world around you? Music/physical activity/other?

What other stories in the bible talk about letting go?

Why do you think letting go is so hard?

Image by Zorro4 from Pixabay

Rob Wylie

Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team.  He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held.  He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.