Mark 10:46-52 In our session meeting last week we talked about inclusivity, about bringing people in from the margins. Which isn’t always easy. Sometimes we just don’t know how to approach them. Usually it requires making some changes to how we do things, to accommodate the needs or comfort level of the ones we want to include. We haven’t always thought about things this way; there was a time, not that long ago, when we didn’t worry too much about who was being excluded from our activities. When I was young there was no such thing as mainstreaming children with disabilities. They went to school somewhere else, if they went to school at all. Back in Jesus’ day, if folks thought at all about disabilities, such as blindness, they were disturbed by it. So much that people like Bartimaeus were shunned. They believed blindness was a punishment dealt by God […]
Continue readingMonth: October 2021
Coming Home to You, Part 4: To Cultivate a Servant Heart
Mark 10:35-45 I have been listening to a podcast for the past few weeks about a church that fell apart. It rose to great heights and then came crashing down almost overnight. It was started in the spring of 1996 by three men. They began meeting in homes, and then graduated to borrowing space in a local church. by fall of that year they were up to about 160 people. The next year they began holding two weekly services. Two years later they were averaging about 350 in worship, and in a few more years they transitioned to a multi-site church, with video hook-up at each campus streaming in the sermons of Lead Pastor Mark Driscoll. Of the three men who started up Mars Hill Church, Mark Driscoll soon emerged as the front man. He was a very gifted speaker, had a strong vision for the church and natural leadership […]
Continue readingComing Home to You, Part 3: All In
Mark10:17-31 One of the favorite films in our family is The Princess Bride. We can watch it together over and over and always enjoy. It’s a story about a princess who has been kidnapped by some bad guys who hope to set off a war in the kingdom. Either that or it’s a story about true love. Or else it’s a story about a grandfather reading a fairy tale to his grandson. Whatever it is, it’s funny and sweet. The character Vizzini, a Sicilian mastermind criminal played by the actor Wallace Shawn, has kidnapped the princess Buttercup. Inigo Montoya, a Spanish swordsman and Fezzik, a giant, assist him in his criminal endeavors. They are all being pursued by a mysterious man in black. Vizzini tries to outwit the man in black, but every time they look back they discover he is still on their trail and gaining on them. Each […]
Continue readingComing Home to You, Part 2: Measuring Value
Mark 10:13-16 Patience is a virtue, without doubt. But in these verses, we have the evidence that even Jesus could lose his patience. As I have said before, we sometimes forget that he was fully human. And humans sometimes run out of patience. The evidence here is in the word indignant. Jesus was indignant. He’s in the middle of teaching, and he looks over to his leadership team and sees them standing in front of the little children blocking their way to the Lord. They seem to think they are the bouncers at the door of Jesus’ club. And he’s like, What part of “whoever welcomes a child in my name welcomes me” did you not understand? What part of “if you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you to have a millstone hung around your neck and […]
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