~ Mark 1:9-15 ~ On this First Sunday in Lent the purpose of the gospel reading is to help us focus on the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the Wilderness. This temptation theme crops up every year in Lent because it supposedly helps us get into the issues of … Read More
~ Mark 9:2-10 ~ You might be surprised to learn that on the liturgical church calendar Mardi Gras Sunday does not show up. I guess we could say that we made that up just so we could hear some New Orleans jazz by our friends over here. On the liturgical … Read More
~ Mark 1:29-39/Isaiah 40:28-31 ~ Right up front one may question the veracity of this account of Jesus going to Simon and Andrew’s house for lunch. For everyone knows that a little bit of fever is not going to keep the matriarch of the house from doing what has to … Read More
~ Mark 1:21-28 ~ By what authority did Jesus speak? If you just saw Jesus out and about in Galilee you would assume with everybody else that he didn’t have any authority. Simply, he did not have the required honor to have authority. It wasn’t as though he was a … Read More
Mark 1:14-20/Jeremiah 16:16-20/Amos 4:1-2 Very simply, the Gospel of Mark is a story about Jesus. But it is more than just a story. The primary purpose of the gospel is a call to discipleship. Mark hits the “call” theme right at the start. Following a brief, yet packed, prologue, Mark … Read More
~ I Samuel 3:1-10/John 1:43-51 ~ The spring of 1968 found me in my first year of Bible school. I had come from a small town in Colorado, so I was just beginning to comprehend the complexity and diversity of the city of Chicago. Unlike many of my classmates, I … Read More