Marginal Christianity

Jesus proposes a retreat for his disciples to debrief and rest from their missions. The crowds, however, has other ideas and they chase him and the disciples on foot when they set out to sail to a deserted place. The crowd beats Jesus and friends to the spot and eagerly await him (vv.31-34). This story of Jesus’ feeding the crowd here is distinct from the other feeding story later in Mark or their parallels in the other gospel. Larry Hurtado finds these Markan emphases here (Hurtado, Mark , 154-155) : “It emphasizes being in a deserted area (3x, 6:31,32,35). The parallel with the manna narratives in the desert under Moses (Ex.16) seems clear. Mark’s description of the people as “sheep without a shepherd” (6:34) alludes to Moses’ prayer in Num.27:17) and God’s promise to feed his sheep in Ez.34:1-31. Even the note of the organization of the crowd into groups of hundreds and fifties (a military formation!) alludes to Moses similar organizing the Israelites in the wilderness (Ex....

Responding to the word and Dismissal (22:8-21) Responding to the Word Jesus’ sermon is over. Our hypothetical worship service turns to “Responding to the Word.”   The first move in this section is a reminder to worship only God. It’s usually a hymn or song in our services. Here it is a warning addressed to the Seer himself. And if John needs such admonition, we do all the more. This word must be published abroad “for the time is near” (v.10). The emphasis on “soon” (vv.12,20) and “near” (v.10) reminds us that we live in a time requiring urgency and readiness for God’s work in the world is ongoing (v.11) and our faithful response to him is necessary (vv.12-13). Next a Beatitude is pronounced on the hearers:   “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. 15  Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and pract...

Communion     Sharing the life of the triune God means sharing in the rich communion of Father, Son, and Spirit throughout eternity. Communion builds on the Communication we considered in the first post in this series. Otherwise this Communication would remain external to us - coming from the outside. But in Christ this Communication between God and us is rooted in a profound Communion shared between us. The great New Covenant prophecy of Jer.31:31-34, fulfilled in Christ, shows this well: “The days are surely coming, says the Lord , when I will make a new                     covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not                               be like the covenant that I made with thei...

The Sacraments are Boring and Irrelevant           The sacraments for us Protestants number two: Baptism and Eucharist or Communion or the Lord’s Supper. In all honesty, these rituals hold little purchase on our hearts and minds these days. Baptism, for those churches that baptism infants, is often little more than pious baby worship, and hence, idolatrous. And most of us have little idea of what the Eucharist is about. And often the little we do know is that it’s somber and sorrowful, with little scraps or cubes or wafers of bread and a thimble full of juice or wine passing for a “feast,” supposedly re-enacting the Last Supper, and it makes us late to the restaurant after worship for Sunday lunch.           There’s got to be more to them than that, though. Isn’t there? What happens when we celebrate them. Are they mere symbols of something else? That’s a common misconception needs to be deb...

My friend, Tony Jones , recently featured a guest post on his blog from someone who advocated altering the traditional serving words for the eucharist (The body of Christ broken for you. The blood of Christ shed for you.) to: ‘Christ is here, in your brokenness. Christ is here, bringing you to life.’ Or, ‘Christ broken, with us in our brokenness. Christ’s life, flowing through our lives.’ Such redactions just won’t do the heavy lifting if one is committed to taking seriously the language of scripture. While the traditional imagery of blood sacrifice may make some squeamish, Fleming Rutledge, in her new book The Crucifixion , insists it is ‘central to the story of salvation through Jesus Christ, and without this theme the Christian proclamation loses much of its power, becoming both theologically and ethically undernourished.’  Read more at http://tamedcynic.org/is-disdain-for-blood-sacrifice-a-kind-of-supercessionism/