Mark 13:1-8 It had been so long since I logged into the admin page of Dancing with the Word, I was afraid I would have to reset a password to have access to this space once more! Some of you know that I retired from active parish ministry in the spring. There were a number …
Tag: Mark
The Prophets’ Urging: Preparing the Way
Mark 1:1-8 “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:2) “Righteousness shall go before the Lord and shall prepare for God a pathway.” (Psalm 85:13) “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” (Mark 1:8) Here is what strikes me …
Keeping Awake
Mark 13:24-37 “And what I say to you, I say to all: Keep awake.” I knew it as soon as I smelled it burning from the stove top. I had failed the one job I was given on Thanksgiving Day: to watch the cranberry sauce. In a very real sense, I had fallen asleep! For …
‘All the Stones will be Thrown Down…’
Mark 13:1-8 This time through I find myself wondering why these words from Mark’s ‘little apocalypse’ do not strike stir up the same kind of terror or at least discomfort in me as they once did. For while I know that what I have seen and heard and experienced until now is but a glimpse …
“My Teacher, Let Me See Again…”
Mark 10:46-52 “My teacher, let me see again.” And then he did. Here is what I know of being blind, for I have seen it to be so in those I have known and loved. When the gift of sight is taken away, other senses compensate as much as they can so that the one …
Where the Old Measures Don’t Matter…
Mark 10:35-45 The other disciples don’t really ‘get it’ either, of course. If they did, they wouldn’t be angry with these two brothers now. Indeed, if they had any deep sense of what mattered most, it seems to me they would instead be puzzled by the request to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand …
An Invitation to Taste Eternity
Mark 10:17-31 It is theoretically possible, I suppose, to live a ‘flawless’ life and still miss the point of it all. Or to think one has, as seems to be the case in the conversation that plays out between Jesus and the one who catches up with him here at this point in Mark’s Gospel. …
Wondering about Divorce and Welcoming Children and the Kingdom of God…
Mark 10:2-16 Even after all these years of going around and around with the cycles of Gospel readings, I am still and always drawn up short by this one. Oh, one cannot argue with the truth of what is spoken here. Without a doubt, God does not intend that what is meant to be such …
Cutting Off or Tearing Out and the Wholeness God Intends
Mark 9:38-50 Truth be told, I struggle to follow Jesus in his teaching now. Perhaps this is because it is just so much to take in, for we begin with someone casting out demons who is not a follower of Jesus, we move to the acknowledgement that something as simple as a cup of cold …
Welcoming Jesus…
Mark 9:30-37 I attended a community meeting last Wednesday night. The purpose was to introduce the city’s and the university’s new chiefs of police. The purpose was also to continue a dialogue about the apparent rise of violence in the community — much of it centered near the university. More than 350 people crowded into …