Mark 1:21-28 Dear Partner in Preaching, I find it amazing that we’re already drawing to the close of the first month of 2021! And, I have to say, thus far it hasn’t been quite the year many of us anticipated: violent insurrection, a second impeachment, and a muted if hopeful inauguration (oh my!), not to mention virus variants and a slower-than-anticipated vaccination rollout. All of this and more has contributed to a bit of a sense of disappointment thus far in the new year. Yes, I know, “the new year” is just an arbitrary designation, but most of us still place some stock in it, if even just emotionally, a phenomenon that...

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...

Dear Partner in Preaching, I suspect there are days when you wonder if what you do makes much of a difference. Days when you worry about attendance, struggle to find a Sunday School teacher, look ahead to the prospect of an uninspiring committee meeting, or wonder if any of the kids in confirmation even want to be there. Days that drain the body, wear on the spirit, and cause you to question, not so much your vocation in general, but the usefulness of it in particular. And then comes a passage like this one. A passage on an exorcism, of all things, using words like “rebuke” and “unclean spirit,” and you fear that if your people ever...