July 29, 2018 10th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 6:53-56  (The Message)

53 They beached the boat at Gennesaret and tied up at the landing. 54 As soon as they got out of the boat, word got around fast. 55 People ran this way and that, bringing their sick on stretchers to where they heard he was. 56 Wherever he went, village or town or country crossroads, they brought their sick to the marketplace and begged him to let them touch the edge of his coat - that's all. And whoever touched him became well.

Jesus did heal.  Miracles did and do happen.  But they are not always obvious, because some times they happen in a different way.

“A miraculous healing of a physical illness is wonderful. But even more impressive … is the way God's grace gives some people the courage to live creatively, and even joyously, within their suffering. The profound faith of those who live with crippling affliction or disease-ridden bodies does not look spectacular to many. But their confidence in God and love for others are as beautiful a miracle as any physical one you're apt to ever see.”
Peter W. Marty







"There are two ways to live:
you can live as if nothing is
a miracle; you can live as if
everything is a miracle."
            Albert Einstein









Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, sometimes it seems that miracles never happen.  Help me to see the miracles that do happen, even though they seem hidden.”

July 22, 2018 9
th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 6:30-32  (The Message)

30 The apostles then rendezvoused with Jesus and reported on all that they had done and taught. 31 Jesus said, "Come off by yourselves; let's take a break and get a little rest." For there was constant coming and going. They didn't even have time to eat. 32 So they got in the boat and went off to a remote place by themselves.

We need to spend time alone so we can truly be with others in compassion.
Alone time feeds our souls; energizes us; fills us; renews us.
If I don’t take time for myself; I don’t have much to give you either.

For as Henri Nouwen writes in “The Way Of The Heart”,

“Compassion is the fruit of solitude and the basis of all ministry. …(for)
solitude molds self-righteous persons into gentle, caring, forgiving persons who are so deeply convinced of their own sinfulness and so fully aware of God's even greater mercy that their whole lives become ministry.”
pp. 20,22




“Compassion is the fruit of
solitude…”  Henri  Nouwen








Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, help me to find some “time alone” in my busy week,  so I can hear your “still small voice” and be more loving when busy.”

July 15, 2018  8th Sunday After Pentecost
Mark 6:14-29

(Because of the length of this message I ask you to dig out your Bible and read this story - it is the beheading of John the Baptist.  And because I have never preached on it in 35 years, I turn to a current Associate Professor of Preaching at Luther Seminary Karoline Lewis for her take on this powerful text. )

“It would be all too easy to pass over this incident as simply an historical marker in the life of Jesus. This is what happened to John the Baptist. That’s unfortunate. But we act out such dismissal at our own peril. In doing so, we pardon ourselves from our own culpability in brushing under the table the risks of the Gospel. Risks that challenge the powers that be are certain to result in risks to your own survival.

Because here is a story that reveals just how dysfunctional and distorted perceived power can be. It’s an important warning at this point in the Gospel. … that what Jesus has come to challenge, upend, question, is those persons and those empires who rule by and uphold values completely antithetical to the in-breaking of God’s kingdom in Jesus.

It’s a critical warning.

And yet, we are witnesses to a daily unfolding of excuses for distortions and misappropriations of power. Propping up potentates for the sake of preserving supremacy. Overlooking the most observable, most obvious fallacies and fallacious acts as acceptable and as actual acts of accountability for the sake of…of…what? A crucial element of John’s beheading is the way in which it calls out an utter void of responsibility. Power, institutions, systems, including the church, that do not acknowledge accountability and responsibility for their actions, that are incapable of justifying and validating theologically and biblically their decisions, should expect to be notified by someone like Mark.

Do not let this pericope pass you by without asking yourself, … does my ministry (faith) ever warrant my head on a platter? Or, do I avoid any kind of proclamation that might lead to my own beheading, metaphorical or otherwise?”

Karoline Lewis

Pope Benedict XVI












Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, forgive me my fear of having to pay a price for following you.  Give me strength to speak the truth in love.”

July 8, 2018 7th Sunday After Pentecost

Mark 6:1-6  (The Message)

1 He left there and returned to his hometown. His disciples came along. 2 On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. "We had no idea he was this good!" they said. "How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?" 3 But in the next breath they were cutting him down: "He's just a carpenter - Mary's boy. We've known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. (And they took offense at him.)  Who does he think he is?" They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell, sprawling. And they never got any further. 4 Jesus told them, "A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child." 5 Jesus wasn't able to do much of anything there - he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that's all. 6 He couldn't get over their stubbornness.”


When God comes to us in too human a way (Jesus) and challenges us to change our ways, we too “take offense at Him”.
We like to keep God boxed up in our rituals where we are in control.
But God will not let us do that.  God is not a rabbits foot, a good luck charm, an easy way out of the difficulties of life.
God desires to enter into the changes and chances of life with us, and there make a difference,
not by offering new power or easy answers which eliminates all the bad and protects us from suffering, but offering a power make perfect in weakness - the power of love…of grace which is sufficient for all our needs.





                                                                                                                             
“God desires to enter into the changes
and chances of life and make a difference”









Prayer thought for the week:  “Lord, be with me in the ‘changes and chances’ of this week and
help me make a difference in someone’s life.”