Mark 1:9-15 Dear Partner in Preaching, There is a whole lot going on in this Sunday’s Gospel reading from Mark. That may be easy to miss, because we’ve touched on various parts of Mark’s first chapters several times already in Advent and Epiphany. But where Matthew and Luke, by contrast, give distinct and rich descriptions of Jesus’ baptism, his temptation, and the beginning of his ministry, Mark compresses all these events into just a few short verses. And while we may simply assume this is Mark’s Dragnet-like style – “Just the facts, Ma’am, just the facts.” – I think there may be more at work. Perhaps, that is, baptism,...

Mark 9:2-9 Dear Partner in Preaching, Of late, I’ve been thinking about the creeds. Actually more than just thinking; in fact, of late I have been somewhat preoccupied with the creeds. Don’t worry, I know why. It’s because I am teaching confirmation and we are exploring the creed and what it means today. Which is of course the problem, because sometimes it’s hard to make sense of the creeds, and that’s particularly true of the Nicene Creed. Fourth-century language and philosophy applied to making sense to one of the central mysteries of the Christian faith: how can Jesus be both divine and human, two natures in one person, let...

Mark 1:29-39 Isaiah 40:21-31 Dear Partner in Preaching, Most of the time, I tend to focus on one passage when I preach because I enjoy exploring a passage on its own in greater depth rather than worry about connecting two or three passages and risk treating them more superficially. This isn’t a “right or wrong” kind of thing, of course, just my own preference. Most of the time. But not this week. Because the first reading from Isaiah and the Gospel passage from Mark work together to help me make sense of a question I’ve been mulling over of late: how do we mark God’s activity in our lives? The passage from Isaiah offers something...

Mark 1:21-28 Dear Partner in Preaching, How long has it been since you’ve told your folks that God stands steadfastly against all those forces that are keeping them down? That God is opposed to anything and everything that robs them of abundant life? That God is prepared to do battle with those who seek to rob them of lives of joy, meaning, and purpose? I ask this question because I think that’s the promise latent in this week’s reading. Notice that the very first thing Jesus does in Mark’s Gospel is cast out an unclean spirit. We don’t always know exactly how to process “unclean spirit” in modern terms (and certainly want to...

Mark 1:14-20 Dear Partner in Preaching, I don’t know about you, but I suspect it didn’t look like God’s kingdom had come near to any of the persons Jesus first called to be disciples. I mean, they still had to work, long hard hours to scrape out a living as fishermen. Whatever challenges they had at home were still there. Whatever unfulfilled dreams they entertained were no closer to being realized. Moreover, Rome was still in power. They were still living in an occupied nation. Herod was the brutal puppet leader of their region and Pontius Pilate still governed Judea with an iron fist from Jerusalem. No, I doubt that it looked very...

The Vikings should not be in the playoffs. No way. No one expected it. Even through most of the season, people hardly mentioned them, except perhaps for noting that head coach Mike Zimmer (for most of his career a defensive coordinator) put together a really good defense. Why shouldn’t they be in the playoffs? Last year’s record was mediocre (8-8), and you don’t often improve that much in one year, particularly when your starting quarterback (Teddy Bridgewater) isn’t expected to play much and you trade away your franchise running back (Adrian Peterson). Moreover, even when they got off to a decent start, the QB brought in to replace...

John 1:43-51 Dear Partner in Preaching, What struck me in this week’s passage is the degree to which Nathaniel’s first reaction to Jesus feels rather tinged by sarcasm. I say “feels” only because sarcasm seems more frequent in our media than in our Scriptures. We are used to talk radio hosts, media pundits, cultural commentators, or sports analysts employing sarcasm from time to time to make a point. (And lately, perhaps, more than “from time to time”!) But rarely do you hear something sarcastic in Scripture, and that caught my attention. While I first found Nathaniel’s reaction – and John’s reporting of it, for that matter...

Mark 1:4-11 Dear Partner in Preaching, I don’t know about you, but from time to time – okay, so maybe a little more often than from time to time – I find myself wondering whether my preaching makes a difference. That’s not to say I doubt that it should make a difference – we’re talking about proclaiming the Gospel, after all! – but whether it actually does. On a Sunday like this, that question feels both more persistent and more urgent. It is, after all, one of those “minor” feasts, the Baptism of our Lord, and I can’t help but wonder how many people understand why Jesus’ baptism matters. Or why Jesus was baptized in...