Psalm 23 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 I only have glimpses of what it is to see as Jesus did — harried as I often am even as those disciples must have been “with many coming and going and no leisure even to eat.” It is far too occasional that I am able to look at the …
Tag: Mark
The Beheading of John: Why Is This Story Even Told?
Mark 6:14-29 This has been a dark place to ‘live’ this week, with the fateful, gruesome end of John before us now. In fact, I have found myself wondering why Mark and Matthew chose to include this story at all, with all of its awful detail. Perhaps it is simply to ‘close the loop’ on …
Sending of The Twelve: “Nothing” for the Journey
Mark 6:1-13 I have paused in this portion of Mark’s Gospel or Luke’s parallel countless times by now. In fact, this has been the case so many times that by now nothing much surprises me — except for the ways in which it comes alive just outside my door from time to time: I was …
Twelve Years: Pointing to the Fullness of God
Mark 5:21-43 There is so much richness in the stories before us now. There is courage and fear, despair and hope. There is power and generosity and joy in the healing we witness. And there is, as always, our wonderment at all of its meaning for us. I found myself returning again and again to …
In the Storm: Who Is This One?
Mark 4:35-41 I cannot help but believe that all of us have experienced something of ‘storms’ in these last many months in a way perhaps we never did before. And no, not only the sort of midwestern squall which passed through here the other day, bringing much needed rain to the drought which is already …
Meeting Jesus in Galilee…
Mark 16:1-8 Many of you will know that for most of the years I have been a pastor, I have started Easter Day in a cemetery. Anymore I rather delight in the shocked looks which sometimes cross the faces of others when they hear this. But the truth is, I have always heard the Easter …
The Easter Mystery
Mark 16: 1-8 I was visiting with a friend a few days ago. She asked how I felt about the week ahead. I replied that Maundy Thursday and Good Friday seemed to be well in hand. However, I had not yet begun to think about what to offer on Easter. And she replied, “Well, Easter …
Whispering Hosanna…
Mark 11:1-11 We will have missed two Palm Sundays all together in one place now. Many of you are ahead of us in terms of coming together in person for worship, I know. If things keep moving forward in the best way, soon we will join you in that. We are not there yet, however, …
Dying and Living with Arms Open Wide…
Mark 8:31-38 It’s a small memory, this one, and fleeting, to be sure. I remember it being when I was 6 or 7 when I would be playing with my sisters and neighborhood children in the side yard of our house on South 3rd Street. And this surely is a sign of our sheltered life …
God’s Presence In This Wilderness Now…
Mark 1:9-14 Many a February on the first Sunday in Lent, I have found myself speaking of ‘wilderness.’ And while there have certainly been other seasons which deepened my understanding of ‘untamed places’ and ‘wild beasts which threaten,’ I can think of no other season quite like this where the experience of ‘wilderness’ has been …