Mark 6:1-13 I woke up early on Friday morning. I had checked email and poked around on Facebook. While awake, it had been a long and full week, and I did not yet feel like moving much, so I scrolled across the screen, taking in the other options on my IPad. I had forgotten that …
Tag: Mark
On Charleston and the Gaping Wound of Racism and the Cloak of Jesus
Mark 5:21-43 Along with many of you, I have found myself devastated in these last days at the news of the murders of the nine who had gathered for prayer and study last Wednesday night at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston. As Presiding Bishop Eaton of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America …
Power over a Storm
Mark 4:35-41 I have been a pastor nearly half my life now and for the first time in these last weeks I have found myself in conversation about safety plans in the event of extreme weather. Of course, this has been prompted by a recent tornado whose path missed us by mere miles as well as …
The Reign of God: Something New Under the Sun!
Mark 4:26-34 For the first time, I planted a garden this spring. Oh, I grew up watching my dad tend a huge plot in our back yard. During late summer and fall we always enjoyed the fruits of his labor. Tomatoes and zucchini and peppers and potatoes were ours in abundance to eat and give …
Picking Up My Cross: How Shall I Die?
Mark 8:31-38There has been this ‘opportunity’ floating around Face Book lately. If you follow the provided link and insert your name and the year of your birth, you will be given a photograph of a gravestone like this: I’ve done it a couple of times and while the year is always the same, the cause …
More Than Enough in Wilderness Times
Mark 1:9-15 On my day off this week I installed a new toilet paper holder. Now you should know I’m not the handiest person around. While I can accomplish some simple household tasks, it always takes an extra measure of effort and concentration. I was prompted to do this only because my old toilet paper …
Listen to Him!
Mark 9:2-9 My mother got hearing aids last month. By her own admission, it has been a wonderful enhancement of her life — making it possible for her to interact in social situations which were becoming increasingly difficult. Unlike for some, the adjustment has been an easy one for her, although she is still sometimes …
Simon’s Mother-in-Law: An Exquisite Awareness
Mark 1:29-39 I find I get stuck in the first half of the lesson before us now… wondering at Simon’s Mother-in-Law and her immediate response to Jesus’ healing. I get stuck there, I suppose, because in some small way it is familiar to me even across this expanse of time and space and culture. For …
As One Possessed: Recognizing Jesus
Mark 1:21-28 Very often when we listen to a story like the one before us now, we find ourselves wondering who we would have been within it had we been there. At least that’s what I find myself doing today as I imagine the events relayed in Mark’s Gospel: Would I be among the crowd — …
Gone Fishing
Mark 1:14-20 Or not… I know I’m not alone in this, but to tell you the truth, this has long struck me as a metaphor which breaks down pretty quickly. On the one hand, Jesus’ invitation to Simon and Andrew, James and John is simply brilliant. Without skipping a beat, he ties into the world …