Mark, my words: Kind of what this Christianity thing is all about.

If you are genuinely trying to follow Jesus, then there will be times when it gets confusing or difficult or a little overwhelming and this passage for me – Mark 12 vs 28-34 – is a good place to head back to and be reminded of the foundations that everything else is built on.

There is some great stuff in this reflection on focus and judging others [or not] and how centering our life on this Love thing might just inform the way you live the rest of your life… so this feels like one worth taking a watch of…

[To watch the next part which deals with Jesus and your offering, click here]

Mark, my words: Marriage after death?

So you’re married and happily reading your bible and you come across this passage where Jesus seems to say, ‘Once we get to the new heaven and the new earth, no-one is going to be married any more or even getting married.’ Oh. How do you explain that one?

Well join me as I walk through Mark 12. 18-27 where I very clearly don’t:

[For the next passage which deals with what this Christianity is kinda all about, click here]

Mark, my words: Jesus turning questions on their head

Continuing on with the book  of  Mark this time looking at 11.27-33 and some lessons we can learn from watching how Jesus responded to questions aimed to trap Him, especially in the age of social network arguments where people try to have ‘deep theological arguments’ on Twitter or dive into attacks on Facebook walls and so on… and also the idea of how us living the life well will do so much in terms of speaking into the lives of those around us. Take a listen:

[To continue to the next passage and see The Vineyard owner’s response, click here]

a parable to slap you in the face.

i just picked up Peter Rollins book, ‘The Orthodox Heretic and other impossible tales’ today, am three stories in and already want to sit and type all three of them out.

but that’s probably illegal or something and so i’ll just share the one for now as an encouragement to get hold of this book and have your mind blown away a little bit.

and in fact it is the one story i heard him tell before, live at the Wild Goose festival, two years ago…

‘Jesus and the Five Thousand [A first world translation]

Jesus withdrew privately by boat to a solitary place, but the crowds continued to follow Him. Evening was now approaching and the people, many of whom had traveled a great distance , were growing hungry.

Seeing this, Jesus sent His disciples out to gather food, but all they could find were five loaves of bread and two fishes. Then Jesus asked that they go out again and gather p the provisions that the crowds had brought to sustain them in their travels. Once this was accomplished, a vast mountain of fish and bread stood before Jesus. Upon seeing this He directed the people to sit down on the grass.

Standing before the food and looking up to heaven, He gave thanks to God and broke the bread. Then He passed the food among the twelve disciples. Jesus and His friends ate like kings in full view of the starving people. But what was truly amazing, what was miraculous about this meal, was that when they had finished the massive banquet there was not even enough crumbs left to fill a starving person’s hand.’

Commentary: The initial shock of this story relates to the way that it inscribes selfish and inhumane actions onto Christ Himself by twisting the story we all know of Jesus feeding the multitude. While it would seem perfectly acceptable to attack governments, corporations, and individuals for failing to distribute goods appropriately and turning away from the poorest among us who suffer as a direct result of our greed, it would seem inappropriate to read such inhumanity into the actions of Christ Himself. If anything, Christ was one  who demonstrated a life of joyful simplicity, radical healing, and unimaginable love. Christ challenges us to look outward, and thus He should not be the One whom we condemn.

Yet in the Bible we read that those who follow Christ are nothing less than the manifestation of His body in the world today (Colossians 1.24, 1 Corinthians 12.27, and Ephesians 5.30]. The presence of Christ in the world is said to be directly encountered in the presence of those who gather together in His name. In very concrete terms, people learn of Christ through those who claim to live out the way of Christ. However, if Christ is proclaimed in the life of His followers, if the body of believers is thought to manifest  the body of Christ in the world, then we must stop, draw breath, and ask ourselves whether the above tale reflects how Christ is presented in the world today, at least in the minds of those who witness the lifestyle of Christians in the West.’

So yes, that is just one story out of three i have read so far, each one as equally powerful… you should seriously check it out.

 

Mark, my words: King of the Donkey

Once again Jesus does not stick with convention as He illustrates the kingdom through a metaphor that would have seemed pretty crazy to all those looking on.

Join us as we take a look at Mark 11 from 1-11 and witness the Creator of the Universe and King of this World riding into town on a lowly colt…

[For the next passage looking at Jesus gone Wild? click here]

Mark, my words: What do you want from me, blind man?

This is a rather interesting interaction between Jesus and the blind man known as Bartimaeus as Jesus when faced with the obvious, still takes time to ask the blind man what he wants Jesus to do for him. Join us as we read through Mark 10-46-52…

[For the next passage looking at Jesus riding into town on a donkey. click here]

a maze in grace

there is a well-known story of a woman who is brought before Jesus for committing adultery.

the crowd and the religious leaders are bloodthirsty and ready to stone her [they have even selected their weapons of choice] when Jesus intervenes and turns the whole circus court on its head and the crowd melts away until it is just Jesus and the woman.

“Has anyone condemned you?”

“No? Well then neither do I.”

And we love this story. We drink it up. We preach great sermons on grace and forgiveness and ask the pointed questions of, “Well where was the man cos surely it takes two people to…”

 

i was thinking this evening about ‘obedience’ – it’s a much harder sell, isn’t it?

it feels like ‘obedience’ has been locked away with all the negative manipulationary ways of ‘getting people to follow Jesus’ like the warning about hell and damnation if you don’t… no, today we have to invite people into a relationship. and there needs to be a strong emphasis on grace.

“Has anyone condemned you?”

“No? Well then neither do I.”

 

the idea of obedience has been bouncing around in my mind over the last few years, never too seriously to do too much about in terms of speaking or writing about it, but just from time to time it raises its head as something we should perhaps be taking more seriously.

we call Jesus King don’t we? or Lord? Lord of our lives. Master… teacher… rabbi… the one we follow.

‘If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.’ [Luke 9.23]

it’s kinda there in the contract.

which too many people have watered down in the name of a badly defined grace at times.

because while there is the lack of condemnation exchange between Jesus and the woman, that is not where it ends.

there is also the call to ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’

which in essence is the call to obedience.

to God-following-ness.

to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me.

 

you see, it IS about grace – the gift is absolutely free, so that no one can boast.

but the acceptance of the gift initiates the call to obedience, which costs absolutely everything.

and ‘complete surrender to God’ [His ways, His plan for our lives, His kingdom] is something that we just don’t talk about enough these days

maybe [we’re all too busy fighting about the definition of ‘a real man’?]

so we can get tripped up by our incessant grasping of this idea of grace as we’ve imagined it to be, as opposed to what it actually is

 

a free gift into a life of obedience, following a holy and awesome God who is completely worthy of that type of commitment

what are your thoughts on obedience? and what it means in the life of one who follows Jesus?