Posted by hlewis |
I love that our youth are leading worship this Sunday with this scripture from Mark 9:37: “Whomever welcomes one of these children in my name welcomes me … and the One who sent me.”
Our church works hard at being welcoming, and if you want to see that in action, come on Sunday and watch our youth joyfully lead worship. They have been encouraged since they were little to stay in…
Posted by dwhetter |
Three weeks ago we heard John’s Gospel’s version of Peter’s confession of faith. This week we hear Mark’s version, when Peter says, “You are the Messiah.” If you remember in John, Jesus’ words about eating his flesh and his blood offended many of his followers, and so many of them left, but when Jesus asked the twelve if they, too, wanted to leave, “Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord,…
There is an old story about a wealthy man who owned his own business. Each year at the annual company picnic the man would spend most of the day going around and talking with his employees and their families. One year, as the day was coming to an end, the man finally wandered into the food tent to get some food. As he went through the line, he was handed a plate with a chicken leg, potato…
Posted by dwhetter |
As I noted at the start of my sermon last week, there are going to be several times this fall that we are going to have to directly address some language issues in our stories if we are going to make sense about what is being said, and today is one of those days. To begin our story, Mark tells us that Jesus heads to the region of Tyre and then Decapolis. In other words, Jesus left the Jewish territories…
Mark 7:24-30 Common English Bible (CEB)
Jesus left that place and went into the region of Tyre. He didn’t want anyone to know that he had entered a house, but he couldn’t hide. In fact, a woman whose young daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard about him right away. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was Greek, Syrophoenician by birth. She begged Jesus to throw the…
Posted by dwhetter |
It is important that we begin today with a little lesson on what is not happening in our text. Jesus is not condemning the faithfulness of the Pharisaic system of Judaism. Unfortunately, for those of us who have been raised in the Christian tradition, most of us have been taught to view the Pharisees and scribes as self-righteous hypocrites and that somehow we are better, and passages like this…
Posted by hlewis |
I know we have a lot of writers in our congregation, and I think what they do is amazing. Words have so much power in helping us interpret and navigate our lives — they can confuse or make clear the intent of the message. The Bible is a great example, with its many different languages and interpretations of scripture.
Here’s an example from this week’s scripture, Mark 7:15, from…
“[Jesus said,] ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.’ He said these things while he was teaching…
This Sunday, August 26, we will finish reading through the 6th Chapter of the Gospel of John. For the past five weeks, we have been hearing Jesus speak of being the bread of life. Now, as glad as I am to be just about finished with preaching about bread, I do have to say I am going to miss it because, even though the teachings Jesus offers in…
Posted by dwhetter |
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (6:51).
Let me just start by saying, YUCK! I mean, truth be told, if you were listening to what I just read you most likely had the same reaction as the “Jews” that were listening to Jesus some 2,000 years ago. In six…