Month: June 2021

Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” [2 Corinthians 12:7b-8]. A great deal of ink has been spilled over the years in essays, sermons, and reflections upon Paul’s so-called “thorn in the flesh.” That thorn is described—well, not so much “described” as “mentioned”—in the Epistle reading for this upcoming Sunday, the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost…

He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” [Mark 5:34]. She had lived with her condition for twelve years. She had likely often wondered, however, how anyone could characterize her current state as “life.” Indeed, because of strict religious and social rules [see Leviticus 15:25-30], the woman about whom I speak—the woman described in the middle of this week’s Gospel lesson [Mark 5:21-43, the fifth Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year B]—was considered ritually unclean because of her twelve-year hemorrhage. Moreover, it wasn’t just that she was considered unclean; anyone she touched was rendered unclean as well. By now,…

He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade” [Mark 4:30-32, NRSV, a portion of the Gospel lesson assigned for this Sunday, the Third Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year B]. When Todd and I were perhaps fifteen or so, the Reverend William Leist, the well-liked…

A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” [Mark 3:32-35, a portion of the Gospel lesson assigned for this Sunday, the Second Sunday after Pentecost, RCL, Year B]. As most of you have no doubt noticed in your New Testament studies, Mark’s is the fast-paced Gospel. In fact, the gospel writer is so intent upon…