BibleWorm

This week BibleWorm reads Mark 12:28-44, a collection of texts that begins with the greatest commandment to love both God and neighbor. We think about what it means to love in this context, concluding that fidelity to one’s neighbors is the prerequisite for loving God. But what really interests us is that Jesus and one of the scribes, who have been antagonists throughout the book of Mark, find common ground in this commandment. We wonder whether we, too, could find common ground with our opponents by taking a step back to focus on love of God and love of neighbor. Finally, we discuss the story of a widow putting her last two coins in the temple treasury. Here is the measure of faithfulness that Jesus has been seeking—someone willing to relinquish control and trust her life to God and the community of faith. Now, we wonder, will the community return her faithfulness by sustaining her in her time of need?

Today BibleWorm reads Mark 12:1-17. Jesus is in Jerusalem, in the last week of his life, when he pulls upon Isaiah’s well-known image of Israel as a vineyard to offer another parable - one in which those sent on behalf of the landowner are rejected over and over again by the proverbial management. What does it mean in this context to say that the one that was rejected will be the cornerstone - or does he mean foundation stone? And how does all of this tie into Jesus’s famously clever instruction to pay to the emperor the things that are his, and to God the things that are God’s? Oh – and we also announce our summer series!

This week BibleWorm reads Mark 10:32-52, the last of Jesus’s three predictions of his suffering and death that began back in Mark 8. Once again, we see that the disciples have not quite understood, as James and John respond by asking Jesus to sit at his right and left hand when he comes in his glory. We talk about Jesus’s invitation to James and John to drink his cup and receive his baptism, indicating that they—and all followers of Jesus—must be willing to share in his suffering, becoming slave and servant of all. We also discuss the story of blind Bartimaeus, who asks for mercy and receives his sight. Unlike the disciples, who have been jostling for first place, Bartimaeus becomes a model for Christians, falling in place behind Jesus on the way. What else could he do—and what else should Christians do— but live his life in gratitude for the mercy Jesus showed him?

This week, BibleWorm eads Mark 10:17-31, sometimes referred to in our biblical headings as “A Rich Man’s question”, but that word “Rich” can sometimes let us hide from the tug of this passage on each of us. What is it about our attachment to our possessions, however many or few – about the things that help us feel secure and self-sufficient in this world – that makes it so difficult to really dwell in the kingdom of God? We wonder if this text is more of a call into a life of vulnerability and interdependence, and the ways in which possessions are a barrier to that, than a statement about wealth on its own. But either way, it is a mind-bendingly hard ask for us humans – as hard as getting a camel through the eye of a needle.

On this special Ash Wednesday episode BibleWorm reads Mark 9:30-37, the story of the disciples arguing about who is greatest. We talk about the specter of death that hangs over this text and the way that death anxiety may push the disciples—and us—toward cultural constructions of our their own value. Yet Jesus redirects them, first by insisting that the last will be first and the first last, and then by instructing them to embrace those with no status in the social hierarchy at all. We also wrestle with Jesus’s insistence on explaining his suffering and death to the disciples when they just can’t seem to get it. Sometimes we just need to hear the words even if we don’t have the life experience to understand them yet. Someday we’ll need those words, and what a gift it is to have received them.

This week BibleWorm reads Mark 8:27-9:8 - best known for the story of the transfiguration, but there is so much in this text before we even get to the mountain! Finally in this week’s text, the disciples have “the talk” with Jesus – the talk about who Jesus actually is, about what their relationship actually is. But just because they’ve talked about it doesn’t mean the disciples really understand. How can they - or we - wrap our heads around both the humanness and the cosmic-ness of Jesus? What do we imagine it is like for Jesus to be surrounded by people who, faithful as they are and try as they might, just can't quite get there? We sure do love Peter’s courage as he tries, though. 

This week BibleWorm reads a series of texts in Mark 6:1-30, beginning with the story of Jesus being unable to perform miracles in his hometown, which leads us to think about the ways we sometimes struggle to hear truth from those most familiar to us and the possibility that we must sometimes let go of comfortable places to grow into our true potential. We then read the story of Jesus sending out his disciples, empowering them to carry on his work when he can’t do it. We pay special attention to Jesus’s instructions to his disciples, who are to travel without food or money, relying on the hospitality of strangers and ministering from a position of vulnerability and trust in the community. Finally, we read the strange story of John the Baptist being beheaded by King Herod, which we take as a warning about the fickleness of Empire, which recognizes the truth of John’s ministry and yet ultimately executes him anyway.

This week BibleWorm reads Mark 5:21-43, two very different stories of miraculous healing that are intertwined in the way maybe all of our lives are. One, a girl at the threshold of womanhood, and at the threshold of death. The other, a woman who has been hemorrhaging for 12 years - the entirety of the girl’s life.  The stories made us wonder about the flow of faith in the world, in us and between us. They made us question our sense of what is truly urgent, and reflect on the factors in our minds as we make that determination over and over again in our own lives. And at the end of the day, they reminded us that the miracle of these stories is a restoration to everyday life in our bodies and in our communities. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that these things alone are a miracle.

This week BibleWorm reads the story of Jesus casting a legion of unclean spirits into a herd of pigs as told in Mark 5:1-20. We struggle with how to think of demon-possession in the modern world, ultimately concluding that demons represent those forces, both spiritual and societal, that intend harm to humans and especially to those living at the margins of society. We notice that when the demons see Jesus they immediately know they are going to be cast out, and we wonder whether the demons of this world likewise tremble when they see us. And we notice that rather than celebrating the restoration of their neighbor, the townspeople demand that Jesus leave their region, raising the question of whether we, too, are more concerned about the healing of our neighbors or worried about the costs of their restoration.

This week, BibleWorm wades into parables with Mark 4:1-34. How striking it is that the chapter starts out telling us that Jesus creates some physical distance between himself and his followers, by going out in a boat before trying to teach the crowds that have gathered on the land. Similarly, he teaches here in a way that slows us down, and creates a little distance between the words we read and the meaning to be conveyed. The parables he tells in this chapter made us wonder: Which truths from our everyday economy will serve us well if we reorient toward God, and which ones do we need to relearn? When you are entrusted with something precious, when is it right to be careful with it, and when is it better to be generous with it? And how big or small is our role in God’s system, anyway?