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About Getting Mad
James and John expose how confusing the way of love is. They ignore the teaching, but so do the other disciples.
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Jesus Keeps Teaching
Jesus teaches about God’s dream for creation, even as those closest to him misunderstand. Even as we misunderstand.
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Not the Worst News
The thing about Jesus’s rebuke of Peter is that we don’t see it coming. But we should. We’re often in Peter’s shoes.
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Beyond the Right Answer
Peter mistakes Jesus’s talk about who he is as a question of identity. But Jesus is always talking about relationship.
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Jesus Keeps Walking
After Jesus makes his third passion prediction, his followers still don’t understand what it means to follow Jesus. And most of us don’t either. For Jesus, it isn’t just confronting power — it’s rejecting glory. Proper 24B | Mark 10:35-45 A few weeks ago, when we hosted our neighbors for our annual big blow-out communion…
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Out of Line
In Mark 9, we get a vision of the flipped script, the powerless raised up and the powerful brought low. And still, we struggle to see ourselves in it. Jesus warns that being a stumbling block deprives us all Proper 21B | Mark 9:38-50 Is the second time ever the charm? At this point in…
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Becoming Holy
There’s a weirdness on that mountain. If we’ve learned anything from our scripture, it might be to not go up mountains. Don’t seek those mountaintop experiences. Don’t do it. Weird stuff happens there. There: anything. Bushes burn, laws given, messiah’s transfigured, and voices come from nowhere to tell you stuff. Bright lights change our appearances…
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How a blind beggar became the greatest disciple
This final moment has a blind man in front of them, but can they see him? He is shouting for Jesus, but can they hear him? Is the man like a tree, walking to them? Are his shouts like the buzz of a mosquito? Do they not understand yet, even now, at the end of…