Thursday

"Hey lady, way to use your head!" I promise I did not shout that at this lady. I wanted to but exercised extreme discipline and self-control.

OK, here I am on Thursday morning pretty well clueless about how the sermon will go this week. My class last night was different. I didn't feel like I did a very good job of leading, eliciting, but we did have some interesting thoughts presented from time to time. I need to back off from the text, my study, and the class, and really look at what needs to happen with the passage. I did find that the discussion about the short/long ending of Mark's gospel is probably not going to get much time on Sunday. It's either uninteresting or disturbing.

I like the way Mark's gospel ends abruptly in verse 8. It's kind of the way his gospel begins - all of a sudden! We all have to wrestle with what it means to follow a risen Christ who is invisible. Frightening stuff when you think about it, and doesn't this push us right back to Faith?

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

The disciples were called to go back to Galilee, where it all began, and start over. This time they were to follow a Christ that was crucified (and risen), taking up their own cross, dying to self, believing/hoping in resurrection.