Deep Calls to Deep 28th Sunday Ordinary Time – Does Jesus Hate the Rich?
Why is Jesus always making the rich feel guilty? feel bad about themselves? Why is he so down on those who have wealth? Let’s look closer. Mark’s gospel promotes the Two Paths understanding of being human, being Jewish, and following Jesus. There’s the Path to Life. Wisdom. There’s the Path to Death. Folly. Choose Life, […]
27th Sunday Ordinary Time – A Last Question – “Not Good for the man to be alone?”
Creation of Eve by William Blake Actually, the Hebrew can be better translated, “It is not good for humankind (adam) to be isolated, separate, apart.” I found this significant because the gospel was all about divorce. So, I asked the question: What are the conditions for the possibility that two persons could unite in marriage […]
27th Sunday Ordinary Time – Who’s in the Mirror?
In my celibate and humble opinion, here’s the issue with divorces that happen at any and every scale – between a married couple, siblings in a family, within a church congregation, between founders of some corporation, within a country or within a world, and so on – “Whom will I allow me to see? Whom […]
27th Sunday Ordinary Time – Divorce & the Hardness of Hearts
What’s at stake in the gospel of Mark in this encounter with the Pharisees concerning divorce is the hardness of the hearts of the scribes, the Pharisees, the chief priests and elders AS WELL AS Jesus’ disciples. (sklerokardia) Mark 6:49-52 …but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought […]
26th Sunday Ordinary Time – The EYES have it!
What is it about these “windows to the soul,” these “windows to the world” that should be cast out or be cast into Gehenna? Mark’s gospel puts ophthalmos, “eye,” to use in several key ways. Again, it’s not about sex. Let’s look. The NRSV renders ophthalmos poneros as “envy” or “evil eye.” (The Green Monster within.) Mark 7:20–23 […]
26th Sunday Ordinary Time – To Stumble & To Cut Off
PS: It’s not what we have heard before. It’s not about sex… Yet… I have become more and more convinced of the worth of studying the Greek text of the gospel of Mark (and the other gospels as well). In this 8 minute attempt at something resembling a podcast, I present both results of my study and […]
Deep Calls to Deep 