Living by the Word

Reflections on the lectionary readings by pastors, preachers and biblical scholars

Photo by Mary Harrsch

Uncommon sense

Sunday, September 17

Mark 8:27-38

Aug 30, 2000 by Joel Marcus

Often Jesus’s words seem perversely contrary to sense. Take, for example, his central bit of advice in our Gospel passage for today: “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him renounce himself and take up his cross, and follow me.

Matters of the heart

Sunday, September 3

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Aug 16, 2000 by Heidi Husted

"There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile a person.” Or as Eugene Peterson translates it, “It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life.” I’m tempted to disagree. A few months ago I visited Senegal, West Africa. I spent the entire six-hour return flight from Dakar to Paris in the airplane bathroom.

When the gospel goes to the dogs

Sunday, September 10

Mark 7:24-30

Aug 16, 2000 by Heidi Husted

In the first half of Mark 7 Jesus says that you can’t judge a book by its cover; you must look beyond external factors like nationality or religious heritage or social position to get the real story on someone’s faith.

Decisions

Sunday, August 27

Joshua 24:1-2, 14-18; John 6:56-69

Aug 02, 2000 by Heidi Husted

Woody Allen once remarked that humanity is at a crossroads: “One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.”

Wisdom famine

Sunday, August 20

Proverbs 9:1-6; Ephesians 5:15-20

Aug 02, 2000 by Heidi Husted

In this information age, a steady stream of input is bombarding us. Like water from a fire hose, information overwhelms and numbs us. But are we any wiser? Are we any closer to God, or to God’s design or intentions for life? Are we humbler? Are we learning anything about the way life really works? I fear the subtitle of a book by C.