5th Sunday after Epiphany - B (Mark 1:29-39)

I try to avoid reading commentaries in advance of my writing of these reflections because I want to focus on my heart’s response to the text.  If I were actually writing a homily I would then go on to the commentaries.  In a sense, this week’s reflection is an exception.  Having just finished reading Gordon Lathrop’s recent book, The Four Gospels on Sunday:  the New Testament and Reform of Christian Worship, I cannot help but immediately read the word “house” in this Sunday’s text as “church” or “assembly”.  Lathrop proposes that the use of the term “house” in Mark is always in some way a directive for the reform of the church’s worship.  In this particular instance, Lathrop might suggest that Mark is reminded the Christian community that their gatherings are not just Greco-Roman supper clubs but, in a very real sense, hospitals.  Further, this healing is not just for insiders, e.g. Peter’s mother-in-law, but for “the whole city.”

Who are the sick and possessed in our cities?  Are they welcome in our churches?  What would we do if they started showing up?  Is our worship community centered on itself or on the other?  These are the kinds of questions Lathrop suggests this Marcan text is asking of our churches. 

4th Sunday After Epiphany - Year B (Mark1: 21-28)

Anyone attempting to preach on this text has to contend with the question of authority, both in terms of what it means in the case of Jesus and what it means for those who have come after and preach in Jesus’ name.  I think there are a few things we can say based on the text.

1.  The authority Jesus exercises is not about rhetorical skill but comes directly from God.  It is also not about what we sometimes call “book learning”.  Neither of these things is bad.  On the contrary, they are necessary tools for the preacher.  Ultimately, however, the efficaciousness of our preaching, our authority, is God’s doing.

2.  This authority is not focused on the control of the hearers but rather on their healing and wholeness.  It is also not exercised for the benefit of the preacher.  We preach the good news, not to direct the behavior of the listener but to proclaim the good things God is doing in and through Jesus.

3.  Being recognized for the power and authority of your preaching is not always a good thing.  The powers of sin and death are the first to recognize the authority of Jesus.  It’s ultimately not about the preacher.  It is about God and the hearers. 

3rd Sunday after Epiphany - Year B (Mark 1:14-20)

The focus of preaching on this text is generally the call issued by Jesus and the prompt response of these first disciples to that call – immediately leaving everything to follow Jesus.  What sometimes gets overlooked is that it is John the Baptist’s arrest that sets the tone for the call story that follows.  From the very beginning, the call to discipleship is a call to the cross.  Secondly, the disciples are called in pairs.  The Christian vocation is not about me and Jesus but involves community from the outset.  Finally, ‘traditional family values” as well as the economic system are overturned as these two sets of brothers abandon their families and their livelihoods in order to create a new “family” living in God’s economy of abundance. 

2nd Sunday after Epiphany - Year B (John 1:43-51)

The call to follow Jesus is neither generic nor arbitrary.  The call each of us receives is issued in the context of being fully known and, while Nathaniel seems to be “a good guy”, the call is not dependent on our worthiness.  No sooner does Jesus acknowledge Nathaniel’s good qualities than he has an opportunity to question the motivation of his faith.   The only thing required is a willingness to “come and see.”    The temptation is, of course, to write either Jesus or ourselves off. 

The call of Jesus is also rooted in community.  While specific, it is not individualistic.  Nathaniel comes to his vocation in the context of his relationship with Phillip.  Philip is noted as being connected to Andrew and Peter, being from the same town.  No matter the details of our Christian vocation (the way we are called to live our baptism in our daily lives), that vocation is essentially ecclesial in nature.

Baptism of Our Lord – Year B (Mark 1:4-11)

I remember that one of the first things I heard about the Gospel of Mark when I started studying theology was that Mark is a passion narrative with a long introduction. The implication of that hyperbolic statement is that everything in Mark is about the cross, including Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan. From that perspective, the Father’s statement of love and pleasure in the Son is not so much about the act of baptism per se, but rather about Jesus’ immersion into the way of the cross.

And so then we quickly move to what it means to be a follower of Jesus, to be one of those who has been baptized with the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the disciple is also into the cross. In this sense, the theory that Mark is primarily an interpreter of Paul for a post-pauline community rings true. True power is found here in the Jordan and, ultimately on the cross, far from the centers of wealth and power in the Roman Empire.