Showing posts with label Mark 1:21-28. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark 1:21-28. Show all posts
1/29/2024
What is This? - Mark 1:21-28 - Epiphany 4 - 1-28-24
1/31/2021
What is This? - Mark 1:21-28 - Epiphany 4 - 1-31-21
Sermon podcast from the Sunday, 1-31-21 online worship service - St. Paul's UCC in Downers Grove, IL. Mark 1:21-28
1/29/2018
What is This?
Sermon podcast from this past Sunday at St. Paul's UCC in Downers Grove, IL. Mark 1:21-28
Restoration -- not disdain.
"What is This?" podcast
Restoration -- not disdain.
"What is This?" podcast
1/29/2015
Demon
The ‘unclean spirit’ or 'demon' places in the Bible make me more than uncomfortable. In the time of Jesus, folks with brain disorders/mental illnesses were thought to be possessed by unclean spirits - demons.. That idea has carried through in religious circles long after medicine has identified brain disorders/mental illness and has found ways, in many instances, to treat it. The “pray away the demon” theology is harmful to folks who suffer from brain disorders/mental illness. But ignoring medicine in favor or a "prayer only" solution to a medical problem ignores the healing ability of medicine as well as prayer.
What doesn’t make me uncomfortable about this instance of Jesus casting out an unclean spirit is that he did it without any fancy rituals – as the healers of the day would have done – and that when the man was healed the folks “got” that Jesus was something way outside what they’d ever experienced – he was the real thing while others were just pretenders.
- Jesus' way is one of restoration – not disdain. Have you ever treated someone with a brain disorder/mental illness, or any disability, as an outcast who just needed to “snap out of it?”
- Jesus' way of restoration is also one that has everything to do with justice for those who are outcast.
1/28/2012
What is This?
This week's Bible reflection (Unclean Spirit) provides the challenging beginning to what is now Sunday's sermon at Union Congregational United Church of Christ in Somonauk, IL.
"What is This?" text
"What is This?" podcast
"What is This?" text
"What is This?" podcast
1/25/2012
Unclean Spirit
Jesus cast out an unclean spirit from a man who interrupted him.
The ‘unclean spirit’ places in the Bible make me uncomfortable. In the time of Jesus, folks with brain disorders/mental illnesses were thought to be possessed by unclean spirits. That idea has carried through in religious circles long after medicine has identified brain disorders/mental illness and has found ways, in many instances, to treat it. The “pray away the demon” theology is harmful to folks who suffer from brain disorders/mental illness. I believe that God is capable of healing any illness – and that God has given us the ability to continually find more effective treatments to disease. Merely “praying away the demon” ignores God’s presence in medicine as well as prayer.
What doesn’t make me uncomfortable about this instance of Jesus casting out an unclean spirit is that he did it without any fancy rituals – as the healers of the day would have done – and that when the man was healed the folks “got” that Jesus was something way outside what they’d ever experienced – he was the real thing while others were just pretenders.
What are you doing individually – How are you involved in community to bring restoration and justice to those who are outcast?
The ‘unclean spirit’ places in the Bible make me uncomfortable. In the time of Jesus, folks with brain disorders/mental illnesses were thought to be possessed by unclean spirits. That idea has carried through in religious circles long after medicine has identified brain disorders/mental illness and has found ways, in many instances, to treat it. The “pray away the demon” theology is harmful to folks who suffer from brain disorders/mental illness. I believe that God is capable of healing any illness – and that God has given us the ability to continually find more effective treatments to disease. Merely “praying away the demon” ignores God’s presence in medicine as well as prayer.
What doesn’t make me uncomfortable about this instance of Jesus casting out an unclean spirit is that he did it without any fancy rituals – as the healers of the day would have done – and that when the man was healed the folks “got” that Jesus was something way outside what they’d ever experienced – he was the real thing while others were just pretenders.
- Jesus' way is one of restoration – not disdain. Have you ever treated someone with a brain disorder/mental illness, or any disability, as an outcast who just needed to “snap out of it?”
- Jesus' way of restoration is also one that has everything to do with justice for those who are outcast.
What are you doing individually – How are you involved in community to bring restoration and justice to those who are outcast?
1/31/2009
A New Teaching
Monday's i.ucc Bible study blog entry (On Tour) was apparently the only blog thoughts I had this week. That post still grew a little (maybe a lot!) as it became tomorrow's sermon at Union Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in Somonauk.
1/26/2009
On tour
Here's this week's Bible study blog entry for i.ucc:
Every so often I play a concert for a group of children or a group of youth. It’s wonderful fun for me, and, I hope, the audience. And whenever I have a “gig” booked, I update my Facebook music calendar and the ‘iLike’ application that lists me as an ‘artist.” When I list an upcoming concert, the iLike calendar shows that I am “on tour.” Though I perform very few times in a year, it’s fun to see that I’m ‘on tour’ every so often.
But me being “on tour” isn’t anything, I don’t believe, like it is for ‘real’ recording artists on tour. I think I’d be pretty out of sorts if I had to take off each night and be in a new place most every morning.
I wonder if the first disciples were out of sorts as they were called, immediately followed, and then were out ‘on tour’ with Jesus. In this week's Bible reading from Mark 1:21-28, they saw him teaching with authority, astounding those listening. They saw him rebuking unclean spirits and casting them out. And more and more they saw that this rabbi they were following was gaining fame every moment.
I think that any measure of fame goes to our heads. I imagine that following Jesus and his growing ‘rock star’ status in the region went, at least a little bit, to the disciples’ heads.
Every so often I play a concert for a group of children or a group of youth. It’s wonderful fun for me, and, I hope, the audience. And whenever I have a “gig” booked, I update my Facebook music calendar and the ‘iLike’ application that lists me as an ‘artist.” When I list an upcoming concert, the iLike calendar shows that I am “on tour.” Though I perform very few times in a year, it’s fun to see that I’m ‘on tour’ every so often.
But me being “on tour” isn’t anything, I don’t believe, like it is for ‘real’ recording artists on tour. I think I’d be pretty out of sorts if I had to take off each night and be in a new place most every morning.
I wonder if the first disciples were out of sorts as they were called, immediately followed, and then were out ‘on tour’ with Jesus. In this week's Bible reading from Mark 1:21-28, they saw him teaching with authority, astounding those listening. They saw him rebuking unclean spirits and casting them out. And more and more they saw that this rabbi they were following was gaining fame every moment.
I think that any measure of fame goes to our heads. I imagine that following Jesus and his growing ‘rock star’ status in the region went, at least a little bit, to the disciples’ heads.
- How do you think the disciples felt about this new fame?
- How do you think Jesus felt about it?
- What else does Jesus’ fame make you think about?
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