BibleWorm

BibleWorm continues our Narrative Lectionary series with Mark 10:32-52, the third and final time Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, the request of James and John to sit at Jesus’s right and left hand when he comes in glory, and the story of a blind man named Bartimaeus, who asks Jesus for mercy. We talk about the human struggle to imagine power structures different from those of the empire, Jesus’s invitation to the disciples to share in his suffering if not in his glory, and the need to discern when to cry out for mercy and when to fall in line without drawing attention to ourselves.

BibleWorm continues our Narrative Lectionary series with Mark 10:17-31, the story of a man seeking eternal life but unable to give up his possessions. We talk about the communal nature of the coming age as a community of mutual vulnerability and interdependence, the challenges of giving up our reliance on wealth and other modes of independence, and the unfathomable grace of God, who covers over the impossibility of eternal life with the abundance of undeserved grace.

 Also, Bobby does his impression of a camel trying to squeeze through the eye of a needle. It is not good.

This week BibleWorm continues our Narrative Lectionary series with Mark 9:30-37, in which the disciples argue about who is the greatest and Jesus welcomes a little child. We talk about the urgency Jesus faces in getting his disciples to understand his mission in the short time he has left with them, the challenge of giving up power to welcome the most vulnerable and marginal in society, and the danger of our well-meaning welcome turning people into props for our own sense of accomplishment.

 Also, we argue about which of us is, in fact, the greatest. Amy wins.

This week in our Narrative Lectionary Series, BibleWorm looks at Mark 8:22-9:8, the stories of the double-healing of a blind man, Peter's confession of Jesus as messiah, and the Mount of transfiguration. We witness Peter's very human struggle to understand what Jesus is saying to him, think about what it means to live lives of integrity and the risks that may pose to our physical comfort and safety, and long for the fanatsy world of the mountaintop, where you're above the fray and your whites are Oxy-Clean clean. Our theme song this week is sung by Tom Harris of Govans Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.

BibleWorm continues our Narrative Lectionary Series with Mark 7:1-23, the story of Jesus arguing with the Pharisees over proper ritual observance. We talk about what it means that nothing from outside us can make us unclean, how to disagree constructively with people who have different sources of authority, and how the only thing that really matters is what we put out into the world.

Dr. Amy Robertson and Dr. Robert Williamson explore Mark 6:1-29, the stories of Jesus returning his hometown and sending out the twelve as well as John's beheading by King Herod. They discuss the relationship between human faith and God's power, the challenge of seeing people in our communities as they are and not as they were, and the transfer of God's power to human communities. Also, they invoke Meatloaf--the rocker, not the hot dish.

Dr. Amy Robertson and Dr. Robert Williamson discuss Mark 5:21-43, the story of a synagogue leader’s daughter and a woman with a twelve-year flow of blood. They wrestle with Jesus countering the expectation that a privileged person’s needs should be addressed first, what it means that a woman receives healing from Jesus without him knowing it, and whether faith is really enough in a world marked by suffering and pain. Also, they wonder whether Jesus might have made a good fifth Beatle.

Dr. Amy Robertson and Dr. Robert Williamson discuss Mark 5:1-20, the story of Jesus casting out unclean spirits from a man in Gerasa. They consider the theological and political implications of the story, ask who might be considered outcast from our own societies, and discuss why the townspeople ask Jesus to leave them alone. Also, a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! 

Dr. Amy Robertson and Dr. Robert Williamson interpret Mark 4:1-34 in which Jesus teaches about the kingdom of heaven in a series of parables. They discuss the promise and problems of interpreting parables, what it means that Jesus says he teaches in parables so that people will not understand, and how the seed parables depict the kingdom of heaven taking root in the world in unexpected and uncontrolled ways. Also, they explain why you shouldn't keep Jesus under the bed.

Dr. Amy Robertson and Dr. Robert Williamson discuss Mark 2:1-22, the healing of a paralytic, eating with tax collectors and sinners, and picking grain on the sabbath. They talk about sin and forgiveness, Jesus's mission to those excluded from community, and the painful rending that sometimes happens when we try to do something new within old institutional structures.