In our gospel readings for the last few weeks, Jesus has done quite a bit of traveling. He went back and forth from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other. Two weeks ago he went to Tyre which is a city in Lebanon and then he went to the cities of the…
Today’s gospel has more than one memorable verse. More than one piece of this passage has been quoted, repeated and woven into our cultural understanding of Jesus, Christianity and the church. The phrases are a part of how we may define ourselves and most certainly have had an impact on the way our culture views…
When we last heard from Mark, he was reporting on Jesus’ conversation with the Judean mucky-mucks who wanted to know why the disciples were eating without washing their hands? Why were they not following “the tradition of the elders?” Why weren’t they following the rules for cleanliness?
We never think it can happen to us – until it does. Good people behaving badly.
At the start of the chapter, there were people following Jesus. They had seen him heal people who were sick and they wanted to see what else he could do. They wanted to experience more miracles and they were looking to Jesus to be the miracle maker. Unfortunately, when they started following him, they didn’t…
One of those ongoing debates had to do with the words of institution at communion. In most Lutheran congregations, the pastor presiding at communion uses the words of Jesus, “Take and eat, this is my body. Take and drink, this is my blood.” These words have been key to our understanding of the sacrament for…
For the next five Sundays we will be hearing about bread. Along with Jesus, bread will be the star of the show. Jesus will bless bread. People will eat bread. People will chase after Jesus to get more bread. And Jesus will also say that he himself is the Bread of Life.