Mark

They All Come Tumbling Down

Waiting for the end or waiting for the end of the day?

November 12, 2012 By The Hardest Question Leave a Comment

by Jodi-Renee Giron

Gospel Reading: Mark 13:1-8

For Sunday, November 18, 2012, Year B − Ordinary 33

After a day spent talking about loving your neighbor and commending sacrificial widows, Jesus and the disciples walk away from the temple in Jerusalem. Seemingly buoyed-up from their theological one-up on the scribes, the disciples point out to their teacher the glorious architecture surrounding them.

Maybe it’s indicative that Jesus didn’t share their triumphant attitude because he tells the disciples that not one stone of this architectural grandeur will be left standing. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: 70 ce, apocalypse, denver civic center, evangelical, Jodi-Renee Giron, kingdom, little apocalypse, liturgy, Mark, Peace, religion, Temple

Blood from a Turnip

Does God really need every last bit of me? Everything I have to give?

November 5, 2012 By The Hardest Question Leave a Comment

by Mike Stavlund

Gospel Reading: Mark 12:38-44

For Sunday, November 11, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 32

Hanging out recently with a friend who grew up Baptist, I was asked if I had heard of the “Lottie Moon Offering”.

Apparently an annual part of his Baptist church life, the memory of the famous missionary was invoked. “Lottie Moon was a missionary to the Chinese. As a famine caused the population to starve, Lottie Moon was so touched by their suffering that she shared her own food with them until she herself also died from hunger.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: apocalypse, baptist, china, give, giving, lottie moon, Mike Stavlund, missionary, mite, offereing, widow, zombie

Say What?

The Greatest Commandment, yes, but not an easy beat to follow.

October 29, 2012 By The Hardest Question Leave a Comment

by Lia Scholl

Gospel Reading: Mark 12:28-34

For Sunday, November 4, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 31

When I really look very closely at my congregants, I see that we are a hippie church. Peace, love and justice are our themes. In celebration of my discovery, I planned a drum circle for Hippie Church.

Drum to Drum

But let me make this clear. I am not a hippie pastor. Pinko, yes. Pacifist, yes. But not hippie. I prefer the organ to guitar, hymns to choruses, and stoic quiet to profuse emotionality. When we were required to introduce ourselves with our drums, I sought to use silence as my introduction. Clearly, a drum circle is a stretch for a non-hippie pastor. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: drum circle, Greatest Commandment, Hippie Church, Lia Scholl

Searching for a Miracle

Why doesn’t faith always heal?

October 22, 2012 By The Hardest Question 1 Comment

by Carol Howard Merritt

Gospel Reading: Mark 10:46-52

For Sunday, October 28, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 30

My father and I entered a huge concrete block building, crowded with people. My dad didn’t use a cane but he needed to, so he held the back of my neck. I was about nine-years-old and just the right size to be a human crutch. I walked slowly, with the weight of him leaning on me.

My father had a neurological condition that grew worse over time. He had no control over his lower body and moved his feet by swinging his arms and chest. Eventually he acquiesced to a cane, a walker, and a wheelchair. He fought each digression with a hearty denial. But his body never cooperated with his strong will. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: Bartimaeus, blind, carol howard merritt, doubt, faith, faith healers, formula, healing, magic, prayer, sickness

The Curse of the Really Great Text

So much good stuff, so little time!

October 14, 2012 By The Hardest Question 2 Comments

by Mark Stenberg

Gospel Reading: Mark 10:35-45

For Sunday, October 21, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 29

So very often the hard questions come easy. But this text has so much beauty and subversive grace, so much mind-bending theology of the cross about it all. So much to sit back and receive. And so little to question.

James and John so painfully missing the point about everything Jesus has ever said to them.
the magical thinking of the buffoonish brothers “promise you’ll do whatever we ask, before we ask it.”
the ominous foreshadowing about the violent end that many of the disciples will meet. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, Uncategorized, YearB Tagged With: atonement, Gestalt, Mark Stenberg, ransom, rhetoric, slavery

Inheriting Eternal Life

Shrinking our camel-sized selves down to needle-eye size.

October 7, 2012 By The Hardest Question 2 Comments

by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Gospel Reading: Mark 10:17-31

For Sunday, October 14, 2012 Year B—Ordinary 28

What must I do to inherit eternal life? asks the rich man.

This text always makes me roll my eyes a little bit. Because isn’t that just like a spoiled rich kid to think that he’s entitled to an awesome inheritance? In this case, eternal life.

“What must I do to inherit eternal life,” he asks. Which is a little weird since in family, anyway, the big thing you have to do regarding inheritance is to basically try to still be alive when the other guy dies. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: conservative, daily bread, eternal life, inherit, Kingdom of God, nadia bolz-weber, possessions, progressive, rich

Jesus Questions the Text

Is the Biblical text set in stone?

October 1, 2012 By The Hardest Question 2 Comments

by Russell Rathbun

Gospel Reading: Mark 10:2-16

For Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012—Ordinary 27

When we started this blog, we set out with a clear resolve to take seriously the questions that came up as we read the weekly lectionary texts—that is, hard questions about the text, not life application questions that arise from the text, not the ethical/pastoral, semi-Pelagian, “how then shall I live?” questions.

We really want to nail the sometimes theological, sometimes contextual, text-critical kind of questions—questions about how, what, and why the text means. And in a sincere pseudo-midrashic spirit, to open ourselves to the possibility that often the real questions are found in the texts gaps and fissures. Did I mention the sometimes outrageous? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: divorce, Jesus, law, lectionary, midrash, Moses, question, russell rathbun, stone

Oh Look, Power Grabbing Again

How many times does Jesus have to tell us to mind our own business?

September 24, 2012 By The Hardest Question 2 Comments

by Danielle Shroyer

Gospel Reading: Mark 9:38-50

For Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 26

“John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not a member of our political party.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us.”

Alright, obviously the Gospel reading doesn’t exactly say that. But in a presidential election year, perhaps that’s how the Gospel is (or isn’t) being played out across our dinner tables and email chains and Facebook feeds.

Because the truth is, we all want to believe Jesus is on our side. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament Tagged With: Danielle Shroyer, disciples, Gender, inclusiveness, race, sexual preference

Children in the Center of the Assembly

Are we truly welcoming, or faux welcoming?

September 16, 2012 By The Hardest Question Leave a Comment

by Clint Schnekloth

Gospel Reading: Mark 9:30-37

For Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012: Year B – Ordinary 25

Chapter nine of Mark sits right at the center of the gospel. Since Mark is structured chiastically (see, for clear exegesis on this point, the late Donald Juel’s Shaping the Scriptural Imagination: Truth, Meaning, and the Theological Interpretation of the Bible), the very central texts are Christ’s healing of the epileptic child, and then immediately following it, this “true greatness” text where Christ physically places a child in the midst of the assembled disciples. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: Chiasm, children, children’s sermon, Clint Schnekloth, fake, welcome

Real World: Galilee

What happens Jesus stops being polite and starts getting real?

September 9, 2012 By The Hardest Question 2 Comments

by Mike Baughman

Epistle Reading: Mark 8:27-38

For Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012: Year B—Ordinary 24

Chances are at some point in your life, you found yourself sucked into an episode or two of The Real World. The lectionary today is a glimpse of Biblical reality vellum. So this week, we present:

The Real World: Galilee…the true story of twelve strangers, picked to follow a Rabbi, work together and have their lives recorded to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured, Mark, New Testament, YearB Tagged With: Jesus, Justin Bieber, Mike Baughman, peter, Real World, reality TV, Satan