A Cross and a Manger?

Well hello there!  Sorry it has taken me so long to get this here post up.  Usually I will try to get something up by Monday mid-morning, but it will most likely vary from week to week.  I will, however, try to have something up on Monday for sure, so we can have a whole fun week’s worth of stimulating dialogue under our belts before we start again.

This last week we opened by talking about the story of Jesus’ birth from Mary’s perspective.  We noticed that her birth story was very different than Elizabeth’s. She didn’t have the joy-filled birth that Elizabeth enjoyed and, rather, found herself having to adjust to a new life situation that was less than what any young mother would want.  Who, after all, wants to have their child in a barn?  This story showed us:

1. This story of Jesus is not exactly the warm, Thomas Kincaid colored, lovely birth story we often think.  This was actually real life, which is often less that what we would hope.  Sometimes we have a tendency to inflate, or overly glorify, these biblical characters and these stories, it’s good to step back and notice that this wasn’t all so different from life as we know it.  Hopefully that will give us some hope…along those lines we noticed,
   
2. There is virtually no situation that God will not or cannot be born into. If he entered the world through a manger surely he can enter wherever we find ourselves.  God creeps into his world into the most unsuspecting of places.  Bringing his order into chaos in many different places and ways.

After an intriguing discussion about Mary and the birth of Jesus we switched gears hard-core and flipped back to the book of Mark, where we will spend much of our time these next few months, welcome home.  We looked at Mark 8:22-10:52.  A few highlights,

1.      We noticed that this section falls in the middle of Mark’s gospel, which gives it certain significance, especially when we take into account the Greek emphasis on the middle of a document.
   
2.       This important section is bracketed together by two stories of blind men receiving their sight.  The first blind man doesn’t receive the sight as quickly, or as fully the first go-around as the second man does.  This “sandwich” is echoing and underlining what is taking place in Mark’s gospel, the identity of Jesus, the Real Jesus, is being revealed. 
   
3.       The question “Who do people say that I am?” is central in Mark’s gospel.  The identity of Jesus is key, paramount, vital, and also important to why Mark is writing this gospel. 
   
4.       Who Jesus really is, a servant who suffers (Mark 8:31) is directly tied to discipleship (8:34-35).  Those who want to follow Jesus must become tied closely with his identity. 
   

I know we talked about some other things, but these are some highlights.  With all this in mind chew on and/or respond to some of these thoughts…

-What does reading the story of Jesus birth through a different lens, this was a very human sort of story, do to your understanding of God and how he might enter the world?  What does this story say about God?  What does it mean for you that there is no room so dark that God will not creep into it?

-What sorts of things do you hope to learn from looking deeply into the gospel of Mark?  Do you expect or hope to learn some new habits from looking at this powerful gospel? 

-Reflect on this passage, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lost it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.”  That’s a powerful passage and central one to Mark’s gospel.  How does this passage hit you?  What sorts of emotions does it stir? 

Alright dear friends, feel free to write, write, write away.  Or just sit back and bask in the powerful comments of others.  I am more than impressed with much of the depth that comes from you on Sunday mornings and am excited to see what you come up with during the week.

 

Peace to you all,

Aaron