July 7, 2024
TIME AFTER PENTECOST
EZEKIEL 2:1-5; PSALM 123; 2 CORINTHIANS 12:2-10; MARK 6:1-13
Jesus does great deeds of power and gives his disciples authority over demons. Yet none of this power is unilateral; it all must be received by faith. Jesus asks his disciples to go out without money or supplies so that they will be dependent on how others receive them. When we are sent from the assembly to witness and to heal, we are asked to be vulnerable, to be dependent on the reception of others. The Spirit always operates in the “between”: between Jesus and this Abba, between Jesus and us, between you and me, between us and those to whom we are sent.
July 14, 2024
TIME AFTER PENTECOST
AMOS 7:7-15; PSALM 85:8-13; EPHESIANS 1:3-14; MARK 6:14-29
When Amos reports his vision of God judging Israel for its mistreatment of the poor, he becomes a threat to the power of the priests and the king. John the Baptist also speaks truth to power, and Herod has him killed. In Herod’s fear that Jesus is John returned from the dead, we may hear hope for the oppressed: all the prophets killed through the ages are alive in Jesus. We are called to witness to justice in company with them and to proclaim God’s saving love.
July 21, 2024
TIME AFTER PENTECOST
JEREMIAH 23:1-6; PSALM 23; EPHESIANS 2:11-22; MARK 6:30-34, 53-56; 2 SAMUEL 7:1-14A; PSALM 89:20-37
Mark’s gospel makes clear how great is the press of the crowd, with its countless needs to be met, on Jesus and his disciples. Yet in today’s gospel Jesus advises his disciples to get away and rest, to take care of themselves. Sometimes we think that when others are in great need we shouldn’t think of ourselves at all; but Jesus also honors the caregivers’ need. We are sent from Christ’s table to care for others and for ourselves.
July 28, 2024
TIME AFTER PENTECOST
2 KINGS 4:42-44; PSALM 145:10-18; EPHESIANS 3:14-21; JOHN 6:1-21;
2 SAMUEL 11:1-15; PSALM 14
Today is the first of five Sundays with gospel readings from John 6, the first four of which focus on Jesus as bread of life. Today Jesus feeds thousands of people with five loaves and two fish. What we have, what we bring to Jesus’ table, seems like it is not nearly enough to meet all the needs we see around us. But it is not the adequacy of our supplies or our skills that finally makes the difference: it is the power of Jesus working in the littlest and least to transform this world into the world God desires, a world where all the hungry are satisfied.
