Author: Maggie Gillespie

John 6:56-69 Once I led a group study on the Parable of the Prodigal Son. This was a good group to work with – they were mature in their faith and devoted to studying the scriptures. We were moving right along at a good clip, but they knocked me right off my rhythm when one of them said, “I don’t like this parable. It’s not right.” and everyone in the room agreed. They resented this wayward son and rejected the notion that he should be given such lavish forgiveness. It’s not fair, they told me. It’s not right. It offended their sense of justice. I once had a conversation with a fellow church member about the Sunday sermon we had both just heard. He told me that even though he usually liked that preacher, he really disliked this particular sermon. He was offended by her interpretation of the Noah story […]

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1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 Ephesians 5:15-20 The story of Solomon begins well before the chapter we hear today. It begins with the part we heard a couple of weeks ago, when David saw Bathsheba bathing on her rooftop, and he sent for her. He ignored the fact that she was married to another man and he took her for his own. And from this sin, others followed, like dominoes tumbling down. David atoned for it all, but the words of the prophet Nathan rang true: the sword was a constant presence in David’s household from then on. The story of Solomon moves on to include deadly fights over the matter of succession. King David had many sons by numerous wives and, unsurprisingly, they were not all in agreement that Solomon should be crowned king of Israel. Even before David died, there were negotiations in the works. Solomon’s mother Bathsheba and […]

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Ephesians 1:3-14 In 1871 two archeologists found a piece of engraved stone from the Jerusalem temple – the one King Herod built; the one that was destroyed in the year 70 AD. The Greek letters carved on it spelled out a stern warning: “No foreigner is to enter the barriers surrounding the sanctuary. He who is caught will have himself to blame for his death which will follow.” This was one rule it appears they were strict about. No gentiles were permitted to enter the temple. But it was not the only rule. There were degrees of acceptability in the temple worship of the time. The outermost area of the temple was called the court of the gentiles, and it was a large, open, public area. Anyone could come into the outer court, and it was the place where pilgrims could exchange their currency and purchase animals for sacrifice. Within […]

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Psalm 85:8-13 Ephesians 1:3-14 Just last week I was remembering a sermon I once heard that left me feeling both angry and sad. The preacher began in a lighthearted manner, real folksy, telling lots of stories about this and that. Nothing, really. He told some jokes at other people’s expense, making them look foolish, which I didn’t like. But I waited him out, to see if he had a point. And eventually, I guess you could say, he did. Suddenly, his tone changed as if he flipped a switch. Now the folksy good humor was gone, and he was dead serious when he told the congregation that we had better get right with Jesus. “Because some of you,” he promised, “are going to hell.” If we wanted to be saved, he said, there was only one thing we could do, and we’d better do it. Or else. I don’t know […]

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Mark 6:1-13 I am making a trip to Chicago in a couple of weeks. It is a journey I try to make once a year, to see family members who are still there. I grew up in the Chicago area, so this is going home, in a way. Even though I have not lived there for 40 years. It is home also because I will be back with my people, the ones who have known me forever. And I feel pretty sure, based on my experience, that it will be a week full of love and joyful moments, and also some failures. Some amount of failure is baked into the cake when you go back home. I will have expectations of someone that won’t be met. I will hurt someone’s feelings, and someone will hurt my feelings. I will have a knee-jerk reaction to something someone says, because that’s the […]

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Mark 5:21-43 Today is another one of those “sandwich” stories Mark is so fond of. This is a technique Mark used frequently – breaking up one story by inserting another story within it. It’s a great literary trick. It can serve to increase the suspense in the story, leaving the reader hanging, biting their nails, wondering what will happen. In this case, we are holding our breath wondering if Jesus will get to Jairus’ house on time to save his daughter. This is very serious, we already know. Jairus fell on his knees before Jesus and begged him to come save his little daughter, who is at the point of death. This is a 911 moment. So Jesus went with him. The crowds are still ever-present, pressing in on him. Nonetheless, he makes his way through – no doubt, Jairus’ people and Jesus’ disciples are probably facilitating this, forming a […]

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2 Corinthians 6:1-13 Mark 4:35-41 We are continuing today with this fourth chapter of Mark, where Jesus is teaching a large crowd. Crowds of people have been growing and following him around desperately, hungrily. They need something from him, they want something. And this is, perhaps, a thing that resonates for you. You might be reading this today because you need something, want something from Jesus. There is a detail about this section of Mark’s gospel that seems kind of important. Jesus and his new disciples are beside a lake. And the swelling crowds of people have come again. This is the new normal for him. There is no place, evidently, that Jesus can go where the crowds are not. It is as though he has been backed up against the lakeshore with no place to go. Jesus looks at the mass of people. Then he turns and looks at […]

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2Corinthians 5:6-10,14-17 Mark 4:26-34 Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Mark 1:14-15 Back in the beginning of Mark’s gospel, these are the first words we hear from Jesus, himself. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news. And the rest of the gospel tells us what this means, tells us what this kingdom is like. In the fourth chapter we get the first lessons about the kingdom of God. And the lessons are given – naturally – in the form of parables. The word parable actually means “thrown alongside.” Jesus scattered these parables alongside our lives, inviting us to see where they might connect with our own paths. A parable doesn’t give us the answers; […]

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Mark 3:20-35 In the movie, Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner plays a man named Ray who is trying to learn how to be a successful farmer. He didn’t grow up on a farm, but he has a lot working in his favor. For one, he lives in Iowa, which is a place God made for growing food. He has a beautiful, fertile piece of acreage, and he lives in a community of farmers, from whom he can learn a lot. But one evening he is walking in his cornfield and he hears a voice. “If you build it, he will come.” After that, it’s one weird thing after another, and he ends up ploughing under his cornfield to build a baseball diamond so all the ghosts of ballplayers past can come out and play. And his wife Annie gets it. Somehow, she gets it. But their relatives and the community […]

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Mark 2:23-3:6 All four of the gospels tell us basically the same story, but each one bears certain unique marks that set it apart from the other three. Mark’s gospel is believed to be the first one written, probably around the year 70. It is short; it is blunt. Mark has two focuses: Jesus and his disciples. It is all about the relationship between them. Mark wants us to have a clear and correct understanding of Jesus, in order to have a clear and correct understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. But the understanding is not easy, nor is it simple. As you read Mark’s gospel, pay attention to his disciples and you will see a change happening. At the beginning, they seem promising. They are eager, enthusiastic, even brilliant at moments. But as we read on, we watch that change. Increasingly, they fail to […]

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