Mark 10:35-45 “Can I give you a call? Do you have time to talk?” How often do you cringe, at least a bit, when you hear that? Chances are, somebody wants to ask something of you. Not always. Sometimes it’s all about [...]

Amos 5:6-7,10-15; Mark 10:17-31 Our readings this week are all about generosity and social justice. It may be news to many Americans, but putting the urgent needs of the poor ahead of the wishes of the rich is one of the most [...]

Mark 10:2-16  In this week’s reading Jesus talks about marriage and divorce. His words  are controversial. I was in a group of seminary colleagues a few years ago, working on a lectionary commentary for the Human Rights Campaign, and this was one [...]

Mark 9:38-50  Jesus is talking to his inner circle and continuing to challenge their assumptions about leadership and its privileges. We heard some of that last week. This week he says some pretty harsh sounding, frightening things, but we need to remember [...]

Mark 9:30-37 “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” This is the second time, according to Mark, that Jesus said something like this. [...]

Mark 8:27-38 In this week’s Gospel Jesus gives his disciples a pop-quiz. “You’ve heard what people think of me. Now … what do you think of me?” And Peter tries out an answer he hopes with all his heart is true: “You’re [...]

Mark 7:24-30 If you grew up thinking that Jesus was God dressed up as a human being, only pretending to be human, this story might be troublesome. From this non-Jewish woman Jesus seems to have learned something about his own ministry, something [...]

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 This is not Jesus versus Judaism. Despite what Mark says, not “all Jews” were preoccupied with handwashing or with what looks to us like washing the dishes. There were indeed some Jews who regarded these symbolic acts of [...]

John 6:24-69 While the lectionary splits this passage into four separate lessons to be covered on four successive weeks, it’s really important to take this passage as a whole. First, some reminders about John’s Gospel. 1) The Gospel itself does not say [...]

John 6:1-21 As miracle stories go, this one has to be one of the most popular. Maybe that’s because it’s about food. In any case, there are six versions of it told in the Gospels. The numbers fed vary. Sometimes it’s 4,000, [...]