Mark 9:30-37 Dear Partner in Preaching, I don’t think that the question of greatness has gone away since Jesus’ day. From Muhammad Ali’s signature boast a generation ago about being “the greatest” to the best-known slogan of the 2016 election – “Make America great again” – we continue to discuss and debate what constitutes greatness. And that question is at the heart of the passage chosen for this Sunday. The scene has a familiar ring to it. Having just heard Mark’s account of Jesus’ prediction of his passion at Ceasarea Philippi, and Peter’s rejection of that mission, our hearers will likely note the similarity of...

Dear Partner in Preaching, I’m going to take a brief hiatus over the next five weeks as we traverse the 6th chapter of the Gospel of John. The last time I took a break from writing this weekly column was six years ago and at the time I wrote a column at Working Preacher suggesting a sermon series on the Bread of Life passages and offering a few thoughts and a question each week to help with that, which is linked here. I’ll also put links to the letters I wrote to you on these texts in this space three years ago. While I don’t like offering up previous work, I will admit – which is not easy for me to do – that I...

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Dear Partner in Preaching, So late in the week, I know (and apologize), so just a few thoughts for those who have been procrastinating. 🙂 “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while” (Mk 6:31) – one of my favorite verses as it offers such a gracious invitation. I can almost imagine Jesus’ voice saying these words and always start to relax the moment I hear or read this verse. And yet… And yet the get no rest. Crowds see where they are going and get there ahead of them. Or, I should say, crowds in need get there ahead of them and Jesus can’t refuse them. Not here, and not a...

Mark 6:14-29 Dear Partner in Preaching, I’ll be honest, when this story comes along once every three years, my first response is to scratch my head in bewilderment. I mean, what is going on? Or, more particularly, what is going on with Mark? Usually the soul of brevity whose favorite word, if not middle name, is “immediately,” Mark luxuriates over this gruesome scene for sixteen whole verses – a veritable novella in relation to the rest of his Gospel! Not only that, but it is the only story Mark tells in which Jesus makes no appearance. And it’s told in flashback, the only time Mark employs this particular literary device. So,...

Mark 6:1-13 Dear Partner in Preaching, I don’t know about you, but I think it was rather gutsy of Mark to share this story. I mean, he didn’t have to tell his readers about a time when Jesus seems nearly powerless. Some writers might have omitted this story for fear it undermined their larger portrait of Jesus. Not only that, but it stands in such sharp contrast to the previous chapters where Jesus’ power – over illness and evil spirits and even over death itself – seems nearly limitless. No, he didn’t have to tell this story. Or did he? This week we have, on the one hand, two rather discreet stories from Jesus’ ministry that...