Mark 13:1-8

[The sermon begins by shattering a glass vase with a hammer. The vase is held in a clear plastic sheet to contain the shards]]

Jesus loved the teachable moment. Sometimes he created a teachable moment, and sometimes he capitalized on one that happened along. For example, Jesus seized on a teachable moment that ‘just came along’ one day when he was packed into a house full of disciples. His mother and his brothers, who were worried about him, came to the edge of the crowd standing at the doorway and shouted to him, “Jesus, come out here!” The interruption shocked everyone. Spotting a teachable moment, Jesus looked into the faces of the crowd around him and asked, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And he spread out his arms to them and answered, “You all are my mother and my brothers….” Was he denying his biological mother or brothers? Not at all. They were just as dear to him as ever. But they gave him a perfect opening, a teachable moment. He used it to say, in effect, “You who are sitting here, you are not simply the self-contained individuals you take yourselves to be. You also have a vastly larger life; you are a part of me.” And as they would come to discover, being part of the Christ meant being part of all creation.

Proverbs 22; Mark 7:24-37

Don’t we tend to see life falling along two lines: getting ready for action and then doing the action – cleaning the counter, then making the cake; clearing the runway, then flying the plane? Scripture is no different. Part of it shows how to clear the way to spiritual growth, and part of it shows that growth in action. Take the reading from Proverbs. Today’s passage selects out a particular obstacle to spiritual growth and warns us against it: “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity.” We are so used to this we take it for granted: the Bible helps us see where certain things we do work against us.

Song of Songs 2:8-13

Preparing for today’s sermon, I made an exciting discovery: there is such a thing as evolution. What is more, it is happening within the church. Rather than telling you what is evolving, though; let me share with you my process of discovery. Then let’s see if some of us don’t leave here this morning, powdered all over with a new pollen of hope.

Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:56-69

The readings from Joshua and John share a common setting. In both, people are being tested. Whom will they follow? Joshua puts the choice to the people of Israel bluntly, saying, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” Jesus does not demand a choice in so many words, but his teaching has reached a point where his disciples can no longer follow with their rational minds. What should they do? Go ahead with Jesus on faith, or leave him and turn back to familiar ground? This morning I want to focus on the issue of testing, because I want to clear up a common misunderstanding in the Lord’s Prayer; that is, the final supplication which says, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Proverbs 9:1-6; John 6:51-58

In a college psychology class our professor once quipped, “We all know the mind and the body are one. The question is, which one?” I’m recalling this humorous quip now, because it leads into the topic of today’s sermon. That is, “How does the Bible work?” And, “How can I make it work for me?”

John 6:24-35

If we were part of this group that is peppering Jesus with questions, we could be pardoned if we felt frustration. Does he never answer a question straight? We ask about time: “When did you come here?” He replies, in effect, “You are here for the wrong reason.” Then we ask, “What shall we do?” Jesus replies enigmatically, “Believe.” Next, we ask for a sign. He replies with a little dissertation on bread. Finally, we ask for bread; and he replies, “I am the bread.” If I read this passage out of a psychology textbook, you would say, “Right! That must be the chapter on dysfunctional communication.”

John 6:1-21

This morning I simply want to tell you a true story. It arises out of today’s Gospel reading of the feeding of the 5,000. This is perhaps Jesus’ greatest miracle.  Some try to explain it away, saying the Gospel writers wrote symbolically, to foreshadow the Eucharist. Others say that Jesus’ act of generosity with the five loaves and two fish inspired all the rest to pull out their own hidden stores of food. Others accept it at face value. In any case, Jesus said of this and his other miraculous deeds, “Truly, truly, I say to you, those who believe in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will they do, because I go to the Father.” I used to think, “Who has ever healed people with the consistency of Jesus? Or fed multitudes? Or driven out demons?” Then I thought, “Yes, but he worked at the end point, so to speak, like the Good Samaritan. Since then we, Jesus’ followers, have worked our way up stream to cut off the flow of wounded people at the source, before they are wounded, or sick or needy. This story is an instance of “doing the works that I do and greater works than these will they do….”

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

These are sobering readings for a person in my position.  Anyone who aspires to be a spiritual leader gets fair warning in today’s first reading.  God expects us to nourish his flock and keep it together.  I can’t help but ask myself, am I doing that?  When I first went to Hawaii I marveled at the lush green pastures, and commented on the cattle, how well fed they were.  “If the cattle had only this grass,” I was told, “they would starve to death.”  It turned out, that grass was all water.  So I worry: am I preaching truth or am I watering it down to where God’s flock is being starved?  This morning I want to share my thinking about being a faithful shepherd.

Mark 6: 1-13

Does prayer have the power to heal?  I believe it does; but I have lots of questions.  For instance, did Jesus heal every person, every condition, that came to him – I mean apart from this group of skeptics in his home town?  Did no one have Type I diabetes in his day?  Or pancreatic cancer?  Or clinical depression?  Even today’s reading suggests that, except for their doubt, he could have cured any disease they brought to him.  In his home town, where everyone thought they knew him, he could not overcome the power of their negative expectations.  In every other case, however, the Gospels report uniform success.  Are we meant to take that at face value, or is there perhaps something deeper going on here?

Mark 5:21-43

Mark 5:21-43

For the past two weeks Stuart and I have been on a trip through Russia with an alumnae group from my college.  Our leader was a retired professor of economics, Marshall Goldman, whose special field of interest has been the USSR and now Russia.  In addition to his lectures he introduced us to several Russian leaders along the way, including Gregory Yavlinsky, the leader of one of the opposition parties.  If you asked me what made the deepest impression on me, though, I would have to say the people – not the special people, such as Yavlinsky, but the ordinary people we passed on the street.  I thought to myself: they look like victims; not a glimmer of joy.