Letting Go

18th Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 26), Year B
Texts: Num 11.4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Mk 9.38-50

Pastor Rob Bell begins his book Love Wins with a story about an art show at his church. Bell explains, “I had been giving a series of teachings on peacemaking, and we invited artists to display their paintings, poems, and sculptures that reflected their understanding of what it means to be a peacemaker. One woman included in her work a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, which a number of people found quite compelling. But not everyone. Someone attached a piece of paper to it. On the piece of paper was written: ‘Reality check: He’s in hell.’”

Bell asks “Really? He is? And we have confirmation of this?” There is no confirmation, of course, but we all know why the assumption was made: Ghandi wasn’t “one of us,” wasn’t a Christian, and so hadn’t been “saved.” It’s what we’ve always been taught: those who don’t “believe in Jesus” are destined for Hell.

The God Who Doesn’t Do Ladders

17th Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 25), Year B
Texts: Jas 3.13-4.8; Mk 9.30-37

It just really seems like the disciples aren’t paying attention at all, doesn’t it? It’s almost like they can’t even see themselves, can’t see the total irony in the situation. Here’s Jesus teaching about his own suffering and death, and then there’s them, arguing about which one is the greatest.

There’s a good reason we get this story back-to-back with the one we read last week, the story of Peter first confessing Jesus as the Messiah, and then getting chewed out for setting his mind “not on divine things, but on human things.” Mark wants us to see the irony. He wants us to see the obvious dissonance that the disciples are arguing about something so inane in the context of Jesus’ prediction of his Passion. Even so, there’s some context we’re missing.

Dying to Save Ourselves

16th Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 24), Year B
Texts: Mk 8.27-38

What Jesus says today makes me think of what I’ve been reading from Thomas Merton. Merton was one of the sources of guidance to which I turned during my sabbatical last year, and the way he reads and interprets Scripture has helped me to think of things on a whole new level.

Healing Jesus

15th Sunday after Pentecost (Lectionary 23), Year B
Texts: Jas 2.1-17; Mk 7.24-37

Remember that last week, Jesus was castigating the Pharisees for the way they placed human traditions above God’s commandments. He told them, “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” In the house, Jesus explains this more fully to his disciples, and after that, they leave so Jesus can take a little break.

From the story, we can tell that he’s trying to get away. By away, in this case, he means away from Jewish territory, away from work. He heads north, to the city of Tyre, and that is where he stops, just outside of Galilee.