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Getting Good with GOD
a Homily for Proper 23B Text: Mark 10:17-31 Jesus and Money Following Jesus is hard. He told the disciples so when He recruited them. He told them that they would have to leave their families and their homes and their work and they went along with it. When He showed them what it would be…
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Redefining Marriage
a Homily for Proper 22B Text: Mark 10:2-16 Jesus condemns more than divorce Our story begins once again with the Pharisees asking Jesus a tricky question: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Before we go any further, hear the question itself: not the one we wish were asked. not Is it right/moral/ethical…
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Get Busy Dying
a Homily for Proper 20B Text: Mark 9:30-37 Location, location, location Three times Jesus foretells his death in the gospel we attribute to Mark. Three times. In chapters 8, 9, and 10. Each one has a similar impact: Jesus’s teaching is misheard, misunderstood, and ignored by the disciples. Last week, we had the first of…
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Two Questions About Jesus
a Homily for Proper 19B Text: Mark 8:27-38 Jesus has it rough You have got to feel for Jesus. It was so long ago that he was baptized by John in the Jordan and he took up GOD’s call. So long since he gathered His disciples two-by-two. He has been teaching them so very long…
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Of the soil
a Homily for Proper 18B Text: Mark 7:24-37 Is Jesus a Racist? The central figures of this pericope are Jesus and the Psyrophenician Woman. This woman comes to Jesus to heal her daughter who is possessed by a demon. The last time Jesus was over here, he dispelled a host of demons. Our lectionary skipped…
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Let the good stuff out
a Homily for Proper 17B Text: Mark 7:1-23 Those Dirty Hands You may have noticed that I read the whole gospel pericope, not the shortened version in the lectionary. The primary reason is because the full story makes more sense than the edited version. The second reason is because what was removed is the part…
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Faith Before Understanding
a Homily for Proper 16B Text: John 6:56-69 What is this? Jesus has brought the people here through a swirling storm of teachings about faith, understanding, and love. As they arrive to the safety of the synagogue, he takes all of that teaching and he mixes in their likely confusion about literal and metaphorical…
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Take a Bite Out of Jesus
a Homily for Proper 15B Text: John 6:51-58 The first thing we notice about the gospel pericope we read this morning is that Jesus is still talking about eating. It seems as if he is always talking about food, doesn’t it? The manna, the bread, the bread of life. I am the bread of life.…