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The Crowd and The Twelve | Mark 3.7-19
Posted by Curtis in First, the Word on March 9, 2010
Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. When they heard all he was doing, many people came to him from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, and the regions across the Jordan and around Tyre and Sidon. Because of the crowd he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him, to keep the people from crowding him. For he had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch him. Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.
Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve – designating them apostles – that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder); Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Another Time | After Words
Posted by Curtis in After Words on March 7, 2010
N.T. Wright offers some helpful after words for Sunday’s gathering:
Three questions emerge for today’s church. First have we fully appreciated the way in which God’s kingdom burst in, through the work of Jesus, bringing a whole new domain in which new creation, and true redemption, had already arrived? Jesus wasn’t just challenging one or two residual bits of ‘legalism’; he was at the cutting edge of God’s new world.
Second, are there ways in which the church today can get so blinded by its commitment to what appear necessary rules that it fails to see God’s healing and restorative work breaking through?
And third, can we in any sense recapture the true spirit of the sabbath in a world where economic forces are frequently far more dehumanizing than the abused sabbath law ever was? How can we learn again what it means to living in a rhythm of work and rest, and to help one another in our wider society to do the same, without becoming legalists in the process?
- Mark for Everyone, 31-32
Another Time | A Cartoon
Posted by Curtis in More Fore Words on March 5, 2010
Commenting on this Sunday’s text, N.T. Wright states,
It’s difficult to remember what life was like when I was a boy. It’s even harder for young people today to imagine what it was like in their own country 50 years ago. Almost everything has changed drastically. In England, one change is particularly noticeable. When I was young, everybody kept Sunday as a very special day. Just a few decades ago, in the average English town, there were no shops open on Sundays; there was no professional sport – yes, no football, no racing; everything was very, very quiet. Nothing like today.
A cartoon of the time sums up the attitude, and the problem. An axious father, worried about what the neighbours may say, tells his little girl she mustn’t play with her hoop in the street on Sunday. She should go into the back garden. ‘Isn’t it Sunday in the back garden?’ asks the girl.
- Mark for Everyone, 29
Another Time | Dear God
Posted by Curtis in How Great Thou Art on March 3, 2010
As we look ahead to our text for Sunday, this song came to mind. It’s entitled Dear God, by the band Monsters of Folk. I feel like it really honestly and gracefully asks a very difficult question.
Make it full screen, if you can. And lyrics are below, if you’re interested.
Dear God, I’m trying hard to reach you
Dear God, I see your face in all I do
Sometimes it’s so hard to believe in
Good God, I know you have your reasons
Dear God, I see you move the mountains
Dear God, I see you moving trees
Sometimes it’s nothing to believe in
Sometimes it’s everything I see
Well I’ve been thinking it out
And I’ve been breaking it down without an answer
I know I’m thinking aloud, but if your love’s still around why do we suffer?
Why do we suffer?
Dear God, I wish that I could touch you
How strange sometimes I feel I almost do
And then I’m back behind the glass again
Oh God what keeps you out? It keeps me in
Well I’ve been thinking it out
And I’ve been breaking it down without an answer
I know I’m thinking aloud, but if your love’s still around why do we suffer?
Why do we suffer?
Another Time | Mark 3.1-6
Posted by Curtis in First, the Word on March 3, 2010
Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”
Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
I Fought the Law | After Words
Posted by Curtis in After Words on March 3, 2010
How could you best practice Sabbath?
What are ways we could work for God’s justice (even if it’s against “the law”)?
The “Floor” of Presbytery
Hi friends,
If you’re at all interested in what it was like Thursday night at the Presbytery meeting, our friend Tim Gilmore recorded my “examination.”
Oh yeah, don’t forget… Sunday, March 21st will be the ordination party in Zirbel Hall. We’ll be celebrating with the gifts of food, music, film and friends. I’d be honored if you were able to be there to celebrate God’s call on our lives to be a part of His mission.
Curtis
I Fought the Law | Exodus 20.8-11
Posted by Curtis in More Fore Words on February 27, 2010
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
I Fought the Law | Matthew 5.17-20
Posted by Curtis in More Fore Words on February 26, 2010
In his epic Sermon on the Mount, Jesus states:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
I Fought the Law | You Give Love a Bad Name
Posted by Curtis in How Great Thou Art on February 26, 2010