Once upon a time there lived a little girl named Mary. She lived many, many years ago in a small town called Bethany in a very special, and she would come to find out, a very holy land.
From the very earliest times in her life, Mary felt she was surrounded by kind and loving people. There were her parents, who worked very hard to provide a good, clean and happy home. She also had an older sister, Marta…
Hearing today’s gospel – this old familiar story – is like hearing from a long-time friend. We are eager to resume conversation with a familiar voice.
And on my end of the conversation, I find myself of late, looking at parables through a series of lenses, all of which are formed by Jesus’ own words: “The Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to…”
Indeed, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last. This is the verse that directly precedes today’s gospel passage. It comes at the end of a series of parables all having to do with repentance. This may help us to understand what Jesus is getting at in his reply to the Pharisees who, supposedly with compassion, want him to know that Herod wants him dead. But as we consider what’s contained in today’s gospel lesson, let’s step back and recall…
How does one capture, in words, a life in love with God? That’s a great part of what I love about our faith experience. I like to think of religion as a framework upon which we have relationship with God. And, as in any relationship, how we express ourselves – the words we use and how they shape what we mean – bear the potential for great excitement. Words are vessels of creation. Take our gospel lesson for today.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume 1 tells us that, “Water is the element naturally used for cleansing the body, and its symbolical use entered into almost every cult, and into none more completely than the Jewish, whose ceremonial washings were proverbial.” The Dead Sea Scrolls also depict different kinds of baptism ritual as something practiced by much of Jewry. To this day in Judaism…
And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” The meaning of the original word used by Luke to describe Elizabeth’s exclamation loses some of its impact in the modern English translation. “A loud cry”, according to scholars, should be understood to be an exaggerated loud cry – as if Elizabeth was using a megaphone!
When it comes to engaging scripture in meaningful ways, there’s no shortage of advisors ready to help. This can be both comforting and confounding. A fair number of voices suggest that, when reading a text, one might always look for promises. Others invite us to read the bible like a love letter. And more to the point today…
Mark’s gospel is not strictly an historical or biographical account. Instead, Mark’s purpose is to provide a theological record of Jesus as the Christ who is the mighty worker of miracles rather than the great teacher. And yet in this chapter – chapter 12 – Mark offers challenge and opportunity as we met Jesus the teacher – Jesus, who…
This account of the healing of Bartimaeus concludes a central section in Mark’s gospel that began in chapter 8 with the healing of a nameless blind man in Bethsaida. When these literary bookends appear in scripture, they can act as an invitation, of sorts, to deeper study; for example, how blindness may be a unifying theme.
When I was a little boy my family lost a pet. He was a small terrier-mix named Porgy. My parents had adopted Porgy and his adopted sister Bess one Christmas, and my six siblings and I were very excited. Bess, however, was a shepherd mix – bigger and more rambunctious – and when she came close to knocking down my grandmother who lived next door and visited pretty much daily, we sadly had to place her elsewhere, which was done with great solemnity.