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Possessing the Kingdom
He’s not mincing words. The Kingdom belongs to them. Not the disciples. Not the Pharisees. Not the Romans. The children. We need to hear these words. How our focus on law and politics misses the real revelation Proper 22B | Mark 10:2-16 The Long Walk is Almost Over The walk from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem is…
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Embody faith
We must read this in the context of Jesus teaching about the children. About the poor, the disadvantaged, the disempowered, those stripped of full humanity and equality in the world. The physical, living faith of following Jesus Proper 21B | Mark 9:38-50 Following Jesus The big theme of the last two weeks continues: identity. Jesus’s…
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The purpose of a priest
We often get this confused. The purpose of a priest is not to be Jesus for you. Or play Jesus in the front of the room or to imitate Jesus so that you can be healed. The purpose of a priest is to share the love of Jesus and teach you how to share the love…
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Learning Love
It seems that they don’t want the world that Jesus is offering: the upside down economy of GOD’s divine fellowship of faith. They want to rule. Following Jesus into a different understanding of love Proper 20B | Mark 9:30-37 Returning to the Passion We remember from last week that Jesus and the disciples had gone…
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Getting behind Jesus
This is the first movement in the turning point, the turning away from the early life of Jesus and toward his destiny. The turning away from safety and toward the danger of the cross. The turning away from home and toward Jerusalem. Jesus turns toward Jerusalem before his followers are ready Proper 19B | Mark…
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My deeply held religious belief
I’ve grown quite tired of the phrases “deeply held belief” and “sincerely held religious belief”. They’ve been coming up a lot lately, especially with that interesting woman from Kentucky. Or those people with the restaurant or the one with the bakery. But we know it from the Hobby Lobby decision. Deeply held, sincerely held belief. We…
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Breaking the rules with Jesus
We are so much like the Pharisees. We really are. We focus on the rules, not their purpose or how they encourage us to build strong relationships with GOD, one another, and the wider community. That is their purpose: those relationships. The rules are supposed to lead us to GOD. But we rather stay where we’re at…
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Afflicting the comfortable
For all the struggle and confusion and offense we take, with one another, we aren’t called to perfection or to be a church that makes everybody feel good all the time. We’re called to be at least a little uncomfortable because we need it to build the Kingdom of GOD, bring it closer, make it…