Mark

Jesus’ blessing of the children and re-centering them in the midst of the community serves as a sort of Pride parable.

We have become a society of people who cannot prevent our own children from being killed in their classrooms—and who do not much mind the killing of other people’s children by weapons of war.

Jesus seems to have an aversion to the kind of us-and-them boundary setting of his disciples.

Poor disciples. They rarely miss an opportunity to make a mess.

Rather than rebuke the disciples, Jesus takes a little child by the hand.

In Mark 7, a Syrophoenician woman is apparently able to win one with him.

Jesus warns that the real danger lies within our minds and hearts.

An exhausted Jesus responds to the crowd with compassion. I think that’s a miracle.

Who knows what took place in Herod’s guilty heart after John’s death?

The disciples want to know who Jesus is. The people from his hometown do not.

The Gospel of Mark tells the story of a precarious moment.

Seeds do not grow without soil, and soil is a factor of place.

Jesus is in alignment with many rabbis when he asks, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath?”

Jesus is in alignment with many rabbis when he asks, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath?”

If they had been the ones presiding over Jesus’ trial, says biblical scholar Israel Knohl, there wouldn’t have been a crucifixion.

If they had been the ones presiding over Jesus’ trial, says biblical scholar Israel Knohl, there wouldn’t have been a crucifixion.

For now, anyway. After our discernment together, I consider this a success.

Child advocate R. L. Stollar seeks to help people read the Bible in ways that protect and honor children.

Resurrection flies in the face of everything we know to be true.

Jesus moves in the same direction as other pilgrims but at a pace and purpose that is his own.