This two-part healing story begins Mark's teaching section on discipleship. You will not find it in the lectionary and you will see many pastors twist in knots trying to say Jesus did not fail the first time to heal this man. This is a powerful story and placed where it is intentionally. How many of us are guilty of treating people like trees?

Our difficult saying suggests we need to hate our parents, children, and life itself to be disciple of Jesus. What does Jesus mean?

Two women, two problems, one solution. The Gospel of Mark tells their story together. We are connected in more ways than we realize.

Today, we are looking at various stories in the Gospel of Mark and Jesus' call to keep his identity quiet until after his resurrection even though his disciples do not know exactly what that means.

Ellen takes on difficult words of Jesus: "Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect." How are we to be perfect, and are we really expected to love our enemies?

The Gospel of Mark contain four exorcism stories and the one in Chapter 5 is the most extensive. Oh, you do not believe in demons? Hmmm... seen too big news stories where people are not acting human. Let's take a look.

Are there difficult sayings of Jesus? Ellen looks at that question and at whether we can or should wrestle with Biblical texts.

Mark is both the first gospel but also the shortest gospel. You could predict that when he summed up the entire story in the first two verses. Today we explore what Mark believes is Good news even when it does not fit within our expectations.

This Sunday we look at the 10th commandment. How and why do we covet, and what's wrong with coveting anyway?

Today, we leave the Hebrew Bible and start an introduction to the Gospels. Before we do an extensive look at the Gospel of Mark, let's explore why the early church leaders decided to stick with four unique Gospels rather than go with a gospel that combines all four. What did they know that we need to know?