Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year 2, NL)

The Gospel of Mark tells the story of a precarious moment.

The Ghanaian theologian has long insisted that the experiences of African women are the experiences of the church.

Throughout scripture, human bodies are not an obstacle to righteousness; they are its location.

I’ve stopped trying to climb over it or knock it down. Now I just sit there.

Read Tamar or Dinah's story with your church. Listen together for their cries.

Jairus knows the weight of justice delayed as justice denied. But he keeps moving.

The woman's presence in a crowd is an act of civil disobedience.

Until Christians can all share the Lord’s Supper, the rift continues. But there is no denying how massively the ground has shifted.

In Mark 5, a hemorrhaging woman meets a permeable savior.

Not everything urgent is important. The difficulty is distinguishing between the two. In ministry, people's pressing needs seldom come before us in neat, conveniently timed packages. Instead, the minister is bombarded with legitimate requests and pleas from every side.

Two people in great distress do what a third, the Gerasene demoniac, has already done: they interrupt and rearrange Jesus’ day.

Paul isn’t asking us to avoid the world. But if the form of the world is passing away, the everyday is becoming a step into promise.

As wildfires raged nearby, the lectionary readings spoke to the uncertainty and fear of being displaced.

Fred Gaiser offers a sober, accessible review of the biblical materials pertinent to our thinking about healing.

God is concerned with the health of women. God cares about teenagers who end up in a lifetime of poverty. Jesus healed the bleeding woman 2,000 years ago, and I think if he walked the streets today, he just might hand her a packet of pink pills. 

This week's texts are great stewardship texts. Why not use them that way? We can ask for money more than once a year.

Apparently some people are determined to get rid of Jesus—and some are willing to push through any barrier to get near him.