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...

Mark 5:21-43 Dear Partner in Preaching, Mark doesn’t begin these two inter-connected stories by saying, “The kingdom of God is like…”, but he might have. Indeed, compared with his Synoptic cousins, Mark doesn’t share all that many of Jesus’ parables (and most of the few he does we’ve already touched on), and yet weaving together of these two stories feels rather parabolic, as it offers one picture of Jesus’ ministry and God’s reign that we preachers might “throw alongside” (the literal meaning of παραβολή) the picture of our life in the world. Central to this parable is the vulnerability of the characters and,...

Mark 4:35-41 Dear Partner in Preaching, What moves us from fear to faith? Hold that question for a moment; we’ll come back to it. For now, though, notice with me how similar what we perceive as very distinct responses actually are. Or at least their roots. Think about it. Both fear and faith make sense only in relation to something that is unknown, challenging, difficult, or threatening. I mean, it’s just those kinds of things that make us afraid. And, when you stop to think about it, it’s just those same kinds of things that summon faith to face them. Indeed, in the face of things that are unknown, challenging, difficult, or...