Week 6 (Year 2, NL)

Ruth offers a striking contrast to the chaos and moral ambiguity of the judges era.

The story of two grieving and economically insecure women is the hinge of the entire covenant history.

Name calling is the last resort of the weak.

The Bible gives no sense that the family is an end in itself.

The roller coaster, the marathon, and the deep end

Facebook tells me I have 633 friends. Sirach tells me how few of those are faithful friends.

Yes, Jesus is possessed—by a new vision of what it means to live in community and in relationship with God.

When Jesus names the need for deep social change, people think he's possessed.

It's the "unforgivable" part that gets me. How can there be an unforgivable sin? 

In Jesus’ day—as in ours--redefining the family is a provocative act with far-reaching social, political, moral and spiritual implications. If we were to isolate Jesus in Mark 3 from the moments in the other gospels in which Jesus interacts with his family, we might conclude this story with George Aichele’s sharply worded assertion, “Mark’s Jesus is no supporter of family values!”

We might be tempted to adopt a vague notion of “faith” as the only criterion for inclusion in this family, but Jesus’ teaching will not allow us to separate faith from faithfulness or discipleship from submission.

If anything remains sacred in our culture, it’s the family. Yet Jesus challenged the family’s ultimacy.