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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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It Is Not About You! (Eating Scripture)
This week, we dive into Mark 9:30-37, the second time Jesus foretells his death…and the second time the disciples step in it. Don’t worry; third time’s a charm. In this second bite at the apple, the disciples are shamed by the fact that they are being complete idiots when Jesus makes his second declaration. They are arguing…
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On Spelling It Out
It is normal today to say we live in an abnormal time. We think everything is damn confusing. Or not at all. We speak out of one side of our mouths that this is a time of all this conflicting data, but ideologues speak with such consistency and confidence. We recognize complex problems and we…
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Who do you say that Jesus is?
In Sunday’s gospel story, we had the famous pair of questions Jesus asks: Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am? As I was writing about this idea for our parish newsletter, I realized something important. These two questions have two more hidden questions, or more precisely, two hidden…
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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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Dude, Stop Being Satan! (Eating Scripture)
In this week’s piece, we explore the nature of Mark 8:27-38, the story with that great line: “get behind me, Satan!” Ouch! Peter got burned! The big thing about this story is that it is that turning point. The point where everything really does change because its game day. Yesterday was practice, today we play. If we dwell…
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Why do comedians defend what’s unfunny?
It’s old news now, but an idea has been nipping at me for some time. There was a surprising dust up involving the comedian Daniel Tosh and a blogger that responded to a joke about rape. There are many details about the two that are almost irrelevant to the story because it became a story…
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