Today, we are still in Chapter three of Mark, but the people who put the lectionary together- the ones who decided what to read and when- they skipped a good part of this chapter. They probably did it because the two paragraphs that they left out are a bit dry and full of lists, but those twelve verses set the scene for…
The Light on the Ridge
The Light on the Ridge
Sermons on Mark (Page 3)
It’s the time of the year when our gospel texts turn away from the narrative of Jesus’ life and look to the teachings of Jesus from a particular gospel.
Sometimes I think that we have lost track of how incredible the story of Easter really is. We celebrate it every year. It comes right on schedule. Its date is carefully connected to the cycle of the Moon. And so we make our preparations. We set the decorations. But are we truly mindful of the story of Easter?
Even stranger are the thoughts that God reveals in the gospel for today. Jesus predicts his own suffering and death. And resurrection, too, although the crowd gathered doesn’t seem to hear that – they are so distressed by the thought of Jesus suffering and dying. Then Peter, the self-appointed leader of the disciples, took that as his cue to disagree with Jesus. …
In some things I am “all in.” Our lessons today let us know what causes God to go “all in.” Under what circumstances will God jump in.
This season of Epiphany has been about revealing who Jesus is. Revealing God’s desires, God’s plans. Like putting together a 1,000 piece puzzle, we have seen little bits of the picture of God’s desires revealed.
Illness meant you were not whole. You could be only part of what it meant to be human. But Jesus came to bring change. Jesus came to bring God to the world. Jesus came to bring wholeness wherever wholeness was absent. That is where the word “healing” comes from, to be made whole.
God doesn’t need to fish for a compliment. God doesn’t need our “toadying,” as the British put it, nor our flattery. God exists and has existed and will exist without our constant praise. Or even our occasional praise. Yet God looks for our response. God waits for it.
In today’s gospel, John baptizes Jesus in the river Jordan. It was probably a baptism of immersion. With Jesus going all the way under the water.
The gospel writer Mark identifies John as the messenger going before Jesus, one who cries out in the wilderness and prepares the way of the Lord, as Isaiah described it in chapter 40. When the people who came to see John confessed their sins, and repented of them, it was part of making “straight in…