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,...

John 12:20-33 Dear Partner in Preaching, I’ll just confess it: I’ve never known quite what to do with this passage. It is, like so many passages in the Fourth Gospel, so symbolically and theologically rich (or, if you’re feeling as I am right now, dense). One thing I do notice however, is a series of interesting inversions. The scene starts with some Greeks wanting to see Jesus. Just what the Greeks represent is not entirely clear, but I tend to think it means that word of Jesus, and simultaneously Jesus’ word of grace, has reached far and wide enough for him to feel confident that this part of his mission is complete and he can now...