Holy Textures

Mark 9:2-9

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

This passage requires reading the First Testament passages about the prophet Elijah, 2 Kings 2:1-12: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). 

Just as he later does when he goes to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33), Jesus selects Peter, James, and John to accompany him. He leads them up a high mountain. Although unnamed and unstated, a "high mountain" is a "thin place," a place that is close to the spiritual realm, a place for sacred encounters.

Elijah and Moses represent the Prophets and the Law. Their talking with Jesus would signify the high spiritual status of Jesus.

Mark 1:29-39

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

The fact that Simon's mother-in-law is living in her daughter's home suggests she has no husband or sons to care for her. Her healing is accomplished with a gesture - a personal touch. The visible sign of her healing is that she is able to return to her customary role. (That is, don't read this as an ode to housewifery. Though, one might want to observe that she is the first example of a person serving Jesus.) This healing on the Sabbath happens in the privacy of Simon's home.

Mark 1:21-28

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

Having recruited some disciples, Jesus now begins teaching in public places.

Malina points out that verses 21-27 are the first of a "Mark sandwich." That is, a set of verses that begin and end with similar material, with a different material in the middle. (See also: 3:20-35, 5:21-43, 6:7-31, and 11:12-25.) And just as a sandwich is eaten in a bite of the whole, and not first the top piece of bread, then the filling, then the bottom slice; so too the passage must be understood as a whole and not just the individual parts. In this case the parts are:

1. Jesus teaches with authority; the crowd is amazed.
2. An unclean spirit cries out and Jesus shows his authority over the spirit.
3. The crowd is amazed and comments on his teaching with authority.

Those are the pieces. The sandwich that must be chewed over is the authority of Jesus.

Mark 1:14-20

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

Verse 14. Scholars speculate that Jesus was a disciple of John the Baptist based on this reference that Jesus begins his public ministry after John is arrested.

Verse 15. Mark began his gospel with "the good news of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God," and now we hear Jesus' "sound bite" of just what that good news is:

The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.

John 1:43-51

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

By way of background, it may be helpful to note that this passage is the third that begins with, "The next day." (See John 1:29 and 1:35) The first of these gives John the Baptist's testimony that Jesus is the Lamb of God on whom John saw the Holy Spirit descend like a dove. (Note that there is no reference to Jesus being baptized by John.) In the second, John again says of Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God." Two of John's disciples then leave him and follow Jesus. One of them, Andrew, then goes and fetches his brother Simon Peter who also goes to meet Jesus.

It cannot be overemphasized to pay attention to the frequency of the verbs "behold / see," and "come / follow." The whole purpose of the Gospel of John is that we should SEE who Jesus really is so that we might truly trust and abide in him and thereby have true life. (See John 20:31) For more information, see my Introduction to John.

Mark 1:4-11

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

This text begins our Epiphany, Year B, readings. For the next several weeks, we will read through Chapter 1, verse by verse (with one exception next week).

The Gospel according to Mark is fast paced, and action oriented. It is the shortest of the Gospels, and believed to be the first written. Both Matthew and Luke include - sometimes word for word - most of Mark. But whereas Luke was written to present Jesus to a non-Jewish gentile; and Matthew was written for Jewish new converts or those considering becoming followers of Jesus, Mark reads like an early family history - the writing down of already familiar and often spoken stories that are told at family gatherings: "Remember when ... and then ...and then ..."

Matthew 2:1-12

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

Verse  1 - "In the time of King Herod" This King Herod died in 4 BC.

             - "wise men from the East" They were astrologers, probably not kings.

Verse  2 - "observed his star at its rising" probably refers to a comet. "At its rising" could also be translated as "at the place of the rising of the sun, i.e., the east." Celestial events such as this were understood to be omens of the future. That this comet is understood to be a sign of the birth of a "child who has been born King of the Jews" is particularly frightening to Herod since HE is King of the Jews and this unknown child is a threat to him and his heirs.

2 Peter 1:16-21

I was away for Transfiguration Sunday. But I had the good fortune to hear an excellent sermon preached by a colleague which I have posted here.

Until the Day Dawns

Transfiguration Sunday
February 3, 2008
Ryerson United Church
Vancouver, BC

The Rev. Debra Bowman

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

Matthew 4:12-23

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

Having interrupted readings from Matthew for Epiphany and Baptism by skipping over to John last Sunday, we are back at Matthew this week. But the skipping has omitted the story of Jesus' trial / tempting (this will be told in a few more weeks on the first Sunday of Lent). Instead, we repeat the calling of the first disciples.

John 1:29-42

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

Click here for an easy to print or email Adobe PDF version of this note.

Click here to read my quick introduction to how to read the Gospel of John.

This text is John's introduction to Jesus.

When reading the New Testament, it is crucial to remember that in his own time, and in the lifetimes of the writers of the Bible, Jesus was a complete unknown outside of his circle of followers.