Mark 9:2-9 Peter is so afraid that his first impulse is to start building things? Or is he so overwhelmed by what is before him that all he can think to do to try to regain some semblance of control is to keep busy? Or is actually a genuine impulse to be hospitable, or to …
Tag: Mark
Be Silent! … And Even the Unclean Spirits Were…
Mark 1:21-28 I am trying to imagine the scene before us now with Jesus fresh off his wilderness experience, still newly baptized by John, accompanied by a handful of his disciples, walking together into the synagogue in Capernaum today. Of course we do not hear the content of Jesus’ teaching in Mark’s telling of the …
The Father’s Voice
Since I am still on vacation, I offer this old reflection now. What was eighteen years in the past is now almost twenty four. Perhaps it is mere coincidence that my sister unearthed an old video cartridge a few days back and after digitizing it so we could view it, discovered our dad’s voice, narrating …
Turning Around…
Mark 1:1-8 It is a risky thing, and limiting, I know, to look for parallels between us and the natural world, for I expect the human mind and heart and soul tend to be a whole lot more complex than what can be observed outside my kitchen window. And yet, every time this happens, it …
End Times, Advent and Hope…
Mark 13:24-37 I remember it like it was yesterday, that summer’s day more than fifty years ago. They were rare and precious days, time spent with favorite cousins who lived at a distance. Only now it is not that which stays with me, but a sense of foreboding terror building in my 7 year old …
Looking in the Wrong Direction… Revisited and Revised
To my Companions in Dancing with the Word: I am to be taking some much needed vacation over the next couple of weeks, which will give me the sabbath time to rest and to reflect without needing to put ‘thoughts on paper” in this weekly reflection. In my absence, I wanted to share with you …
The Widow’s All: Revisited and Revised…
To my Companions in Dancing With the Word: I am to be taking some much needed vacation over the next couple of weeks, which will give me the sabbath time to rest and to reflect without needing to put ‘thoughts on paper” in this weekly reflection. In my absence, I wanted to share with you …
The Sons of Zebedee
Mark 10:35-45 Now it is so that I have a rather muddled relationship with these sons of Zebedee, with James and John. A whole lot of the time when I encounter them as we do today in all their ‘obvious lack of humility,’ I shake my head at them, for they are so unlike how …
The Rich Man and Jesus… and Me
Mark 10:17-31 It was decades ago by now when I picked up the phone to talk to a friend who was also a pastor. We were on the edge of the year of Matthew in preaching and I hadn’t spent much time with Matthew in Seminary. For that matter, I only had one commentary on my …
Jesus Gathers the Most Vulnerable Into His Arms: Then and Now
Mark 10:12-16 I find I struggle for words today in the midst of this national conversation which cannot help but stir us up, some more viscerally than others. Indeed, this is true. I have been shocked and yes, sickened, by much of what I have seen and heard played out on the national stage in …