This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to reflect on Mark 6:14-29. The English Standard Version supplies the passage with the title “The Death of John the Baptist.” Mark puts this passage right after his account of the twelve apostles, the twelve members of Jesus’ inner circle, returning victorious, happy, from their mission trip. He puts […]

This week, the lectionary invites us to consider Mark 6:1-13. It’s in two parts. The English Standard Version titles the first part “Jesus Rejected at Nazareth.” It titles the second part “Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles.” Lately, I’ve been reading about Jack Ma, founder of Ali Baba. Ali Baba is an online shopping platform,

This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to feed on Mark 5:21-43. The English Standard Version supplies the passage with the heading “Jesus Heals a Woman and Jairus’s Daughter.” The passage is about two healings, just as the title indicates. But why does Mark place it in this position in his gospel? Why does he choose

This Sunday the lectionary invites us to ponder the gospel according to Mark 4:35-41. The English Standard Version supplies the passage with the heading “Jesus calms a storm.” The gospels are stories chosen and assembled to show who Jesus is. The gospels were designed to comfort and embolden Christians, church members, persecuted for their commitment

This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder Mark 4:26-34. The English Standard Version divides the selection into two parts. It supplies each part with a heading. The heading for the first part, verses 26-29, is “The Parable of the Seed Growing;” the heading for the second part, verses 30-34, is “The Parable of the

This Sunday, the lectionary calls us to ponder Mark 2:23-3:6. The English Standard Version breaks the selection into two parts. To the first, it assigns the title “Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath,” and to the second, the title “A Man with a Withered Hand.” In the first part, we read that Jesus and his

This Sunday, the lectionary invites us to ponder John 3:1-21. The English Standard Version supplies the heading “You must be born again” to verses 1-15, and the heading “For God so loved the world” to verses 16-21. In my column titled “The Serpent, the Son, and Nicodemus,” I explained the background to verses 14 and

“In our view, a Christian who is not charismatic – in the full sense of the word, that is to say, open to the Spirit and docile to his promptings – is a Christian forgetful of his baptism. On the other hand, a Christian who is not ‘socially committed’ is a truncated Christian who disregards

This Sunday the lectionary invites churches to reflect on Acts 2:1-21. J B Phillips, in his paraphrase, divides the chapter under five headings: (1) “The first Pentecost for the young Church (1-4),” (2) “The Church’s first impact on devout Jews (5-13),” (3) “Peter explains the fulfilment of God’s promise (14-36),” (4) “The reaction to Peter’s