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 …
Tag: Mark
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 …
Who is the Greatest?
Mark 9:30-37 The disciples are thick-headed, of course. Or at least that seems to be the impression Mark wants to leave with us as he portrays their conversation with Jesus now. I mean, can there be any other reasonable explanation for the content of their conversation immediately in the wake of Jesus’ harrowing description of …
Then and Now: Picking Up Our Crosses
Mark 8:27-38 When I was in my first year of seminary, it was ours to translate these powerful, oh-so-familiar words from Greek to English. Indeed, by now these words from Mark’s Gospel have been part of me for so long it is hard sometimes to find anything new to say about what it is to …
What to make of Jesus and the Syrophoenician Woman?
Mark 7:24-37 First, this: I have struggled with my writing now for like many, I hardly know what to make of the scene we witness in Mark’s Gospel today. What you have here are my first thoughts on a difficult passage. I would welcome your thoughts as well. I know the woman Jesus meets in …
Orphans and Widows in Their Distress…Seeing the Invisible
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 James 1:17-27 As a pastor raised in the Lutheran tradition, I long ago learned to be cautious of the letter of James. Perhaps too much so, it seems to me know. Especially as the urging in his letter so perfectly brings home what seems to be the intent of the episode …
Called to Reflect God’s Kingdom Economy…
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Now it is so that on a first read through there may not appear to be much that actually ‘preaches’ in this week’s Gospel. Indeed, the folks who put together our lectionary selections completely skipped over the vivid scene of Jesus feeding the five thousand (not counting the women and children) with …