I finally got around to listening to the National Lutheran’s Christmas concert at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Minneapolis.  Between the songs a person read a narrative.  At one point she said,

“This is the irrational season. If Mary had been a person of reason, there would have been no room for the Child.”

The Irrational season continued in the Gospel lesson for last Sunday (Mark 1:14-20).  While Jesus is walking along the Sea of Galilee proclaiming that the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel, he spots two brothers, Simon and Andrew washing their nets.  He said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Without hesitation they dropped everything and followed. Shortly after he called James and John and left their father Zebedee in the boat.

That just doesn’t make any sense.  Yet that is the demand and that is the pull of the Gospel.  Being a person of reason has its place in living in this world.  But God’s reign in our lives centers on the irrational trust in Jesus who died on the cross and spent three days in the belly of the earth, only to bust from the grave with eternal life for all.

Three cheers for being Irrational.