Passion Prediction
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Jesus Keeps Walking
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9 min read
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
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9 min read
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
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6 min read
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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It is not so among you
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8 min read
Jesus shares with them what the Kingdom of GOD is like, GOD’s Great Economy, not so they have something to look forward to later, but so that they would live in it now. Right here. On the road to Jerusalem. The Great Sort has already begun Proper 24B | Mark 10:35-45 The Approach Before we…
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Embody faith
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7 min read
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…