Mark 4
11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables; 12 so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again, and be forgiven.”
I love teaching Mark manuscript study. This is my 3rd year teaching Mark 1 in a camp format and my 6th time overall. Plus the three time I went through Mark 1 before teaching it. I tried to calculate the hours I've spent in Mark once-- it's easily 100. Probably more. And yet, every time I see something new. However, this year blew me away.
We study in about 2.5 hour chunks. At the beginning of each chunk, I usually give students instructions about what they should be looking for in each section or some piece of background info that might be helpful. Sometimes, I add an activity or ask a question to get their brains thinking about the topics we'll talk about in the section. After the introduction, I pray and read the text out loud before sending them into personal study time.
We study the parable of the soils in the seventh chunk of Mark Camp. This year, it fell on Sunday night. I like to do some sort of creative entry into the text and this year I pulled out something I'd tried before. After reading half of the section out loud, I stop after reading after verse 12 and I walk out the room. No explanation. I just leave. And, I wait to see if students will follow me out.
If they come out and ask any genuine question (like "why did you leave?") I answer with Mark 4:11-12. I'm trying to push all their curiosity buttons so that they will result with the secret of the kingdom of heaven.
This year, about 10 students came out over the course of 20 minutes (about 1/4 of the room.) However, what happened inside the room was amazing! Upon my departure, one student stood up and said something like, "Well, we should just wait for her to get back. Let's keep working. I'll keep time for us." He would also let people know if they were getting too noisy. Of the students who came out to talk to me, NONE of them came back into the room and shared what I said. Apparently, the room thought I had some personal crisis (some said with my children) and needed to take care of the emergency.
When I came back in the room, I continued on like a typical manuscript session. I sent the room into small groups to discuss what they noticed in the passage. Initially, no one asked me why I had left. I brought the group back and asked for their observations. Still, no one asked. I felt the tension in the room but I was determined to let them wrestle with the secret. When I sent them back into small groups to talk about their questions, one student looked visibly agitated. After talking with her small group, she called me over and said, "Donan, am I Pharisee?" I felt this wasn't a genuine question-- maybe even a rhetorical one-- so I said that I couldn't answer that for her and referenced a previous conversation from session six. She was still frustrated and started to tear up at my unwillingness to give her the answer. I forced myself to walk away so I wouldn't smooth the tension for her. I wanted her to wrestle with the secret of the kingdom.
Finally, at the end of small group time, she called me over and asked what she needed to know about the kingdom of heaven and I answered her with Mark 4:11-12. She looked at her group and smiled.
I saw that student's process play out across the entire room that night. At the end of the study, when one student was struggling with feelings of exclusion from the text, I felt like it was time to talk about the group's experience in my living parable. And, as each person told their stories, I noticed their response had revealed something about the condition of their hearts. For each student who came outside, they didn't want to tell their friends because they didn't think they were suppose to (which I had NEVER mentioned), they had done the work and their friends hadn't or they just weren't sure what I said meant so they didn't think repeating it would help. For students who stayed inside, they thought I would just come in and explain everything to them or maybe they should just focus on the task I gave them and not worry about anything else. And finally, for the student who took over leadership and kept the group on track, he realized how much he was driven by task and completing what's assigned.
As each person shared, the group exclaimed together. There were shouts, laughter and awe at the ways this parable had come alive for us. When the seed was sown in us, what did we do with it?
And, what's the secret of the kingdom? Well, the group decided, the secret is to ask Jesus.
Amen.
What to read more on manuscript study? Helpful resource from BibleGateway.com
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