Ever wonder why Nicodemus can't seem to understand the teachings of Jesus? Today, Peter Walsh, Elizabeth Garnsey, and John Kennedy come to his defense and explain why he is one of the most underrated men in the Bible. Plus, they discuss what it's like to encounter different beliefs that challenge our black and white thinking, why John 3:16 is more than "stadium theology", and how this story reminds us to walk alongside those who are wrestling with their faith.

Questions for Further Discussion:

Themes and Application

1. Why do you think Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night? Is it fear, curiosity, spiritual darkness, rabbinical custom, or all of the above?
2. How does this passage challenge “stadium theology” readings of John 3:16?
3. How might this passage reshape how we think about conversion as a process rather than a one-time event?

Personal Reflection

1. When have you felt like Nicodemus—curious but confused, drawn but uncertain?
2. What beliefs or frameworks have you had to release in order to deepen your faith?
3. What would it mean for you to “persist in your folly” long enough to grow wise?

Broader Spiritual Considerations

1. John’s Gospel moves Nicodemus from night (chapter 3), to public defense (chapter 7), to courageous devotion at the cross (chapter 19). What does this progression teach us about spiritual maturation?
2. How do different traditions interpret “born again”? Where have interpretations become weaponized?
3. If, as Karl Rahner suggested, “the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not exist at all,” what might that mean for clergy and congregations today?

Learn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

This week's lesson finds Jesus tempted in the wilderness. Peter Walsh, Elizabeth Garnsey, and John Kennedy discuss what things in the world tempt us to veer off the path Jesus laid out, what idols we're tempted by, and why we should unlearn what we've traditionally thought about the Devil.

Questions for Further Discussion:

Themes and Application

1. What does “one does not live by bread alone” reveal about spiritual hunger in a culture that appears materially full?
2. What does it mean to say there is a force opposed to God’s purposes in the world? How do we understand evil without excusing human responsibility?
3. How does this story prepare us for Lent as a season of testing, clarity, and spiritual realignment?

Personal Reflection

1. Where in your life do you hear the whisper, “If you are…”? What identity questions are you wrestling with?
2. Have you experienced a wilderness season—illness, recovery, grief, loneliness, pilgrimage, transition? What did it reveal about you?
3. What distracts you most easily? Where do small deviations slowly move you off course?

Broader Spiritual Considerations

1. How might Lent be an invitation to reclaim attention in an age of technological distraction?
2. How does the baptismal renunciation of “Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness” frame the Christian life as ongoing resistance?
3. If evil is often seductive rather than grotesque, how do we cultivate discernment?

Learn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

On Ash Wednesday, we're forced to confront our mortality in a culture that is afraid to talk about death. Peter Walsh, Elizabeth Garnsey, and John Kennedy discuss why this seemingly gloomy occasion is actually one of the most uplifting. Plus, they contemplate what we're attached to and detached from, what giving looks like despite our means, what kind of masks we wear, and how we can reclaim/rethink our reasons for fasting.

Questions for Further Discussion:

Themes and Application

1. Jesus warns against practicing righteousness “to be seen.” In what ways does our culture train us to live performatively?
2. Fasting was described as “detachment that leads to attachment.” What might fasting free you from? What might it open you toward?
3. What does it mean that “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”? How does that statement function as both invitation and warning?

Personal Reflection

1. What reward are you secretly hoping for in your spiritual practices: recognition, reassurance, control, belonging?
2. Is there a form of fasting (from food, criticism, noise, distraction, self-judgment) that might deepen your attention to God?
3. If Lent is a season of spiritual medicine, what might God be inviting you to examine or release this year?

Broader Spiritual Considerations

1. Fasting, prayer, and almsgiving were historically communal practices. What would collective fasting look like in a modern parish or society?
2. Ash Wednesday paradoxically brings relief and joy. Why might naming mortality feel freeing rather than depressing?
3. What role does humility play in spiritual awakening? How does remembering we are dust clarify our priorities?

Learn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

This week's reading features a mountaintop experience that's hard to come down from! Peter Walsh, Elizabeth Garnsey, and John Kennedy explore the Transfiguration and how it's both similar and different from Moses and Elijah's experiences. How do we learn to engage the world after profound spiritual experiences and what brings about transformation?

Questions for Further Discussion:

Themes and Application

1. Why do you think this moment of radiant glory comes immediately after Jesus predicts suffering and the cross? What does that pairing suggest about the nature of faith?
2. What do you make of the disciples’ desire to stay on the mountain? Where do you recognize that same instinct in your own spiritual life?
3. How does this story invite us to think about spiritual experiences not as endpoints, but as sources of strength for life lived “down the mountain”?

Personal Reflection

1. When have you experienced a “mountaintop” moment of clarity, peace, or deep connection with God? What helps you carry those moments with you when life moves back into uncertainty or struggle?
2. Where do you notice fear showing up in your spiritual life, and what might it mean to be met with compassion rather than correction?
3. How do spiritual practices (prayer, silence, journaling, worship) help you notice God’s presence without fireworks or spectacle?

Broader Spiritual Considerations

1. The episode explores the idea that true mysticism always bears fruit in love, service, and self-giving. What does that suggest about the relationship between prayer and action?
2. Jesus stands between Moses and Elijah, fulfilling the law and the prophets while reshaping power away from violence and domination. Where do we still expect God to act through force instead of love?
3. What might it look like for communities of faith to live as “bearers of light” without trying to stay permanently on the mountain?

Learn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

This week, Jesus gives a lesson on salt, light, and fulfillment. Peter Walsh, Elizabeth Garnsey, and John Kennedy expand on what it means to be the salt of the earth and a light of the world, how we live into being God's image-bearers, and how Jesus isn't presenting a conflict with the Torah but an evolution of it.

Questions for Further Discussion:

Themes and Application

1. Jesus declares, “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world.” What stands out to you about Jesus using identity language (“you are”) rather than commands (“you must”)?
2. Salt and light were precious and not easily replaced in Jesus’ time. How does that historical context change the way you hear these metaphors today?
3. Light is meant to be visible, yet later in Matthew Jesus warns against public displays of piety. How do you navigate the tension between letting your light shine and practicing humility?

Personal Reflection

1. Where do you feel most “salty” right now—adding flavor, preservation, or wisdom to the world around you? Where do you feel you’ve gone a bit bland or blended in?
2. The conversation emphasizes that salt and light exist for others, not for themselves. Who benefits from your faith when you’re living it well?
3. Jesus raises the bar beyond rule-following to heart transformation. Where do you notice Jesus inviting you beyond mere “compliance” toward deeper love, mercy, or reconciliation?

Broader Spiritual Considerations

1. Matthew emphasizes earth as the arena of God’s mission, not something to escape. How does this shape a Christian response to creation care, justice, and embodied faith?
2. The clergy frame Jesus’ teaching as part of an inner Jewish conversation about the law. How might this awareness deepen Christian humility and resist anti-Jewish readings of Scripture?
3. The discussion highlights both encouragement and judgment in Jesus’ words. How do you hear this passage as both promise and challenge?

Learn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

This week, we open the Sermon on the Mount by lingering with the Beatitudes, not as a checklist or virtue chart, but as an immersion into the inner life of Jesus and the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven. Peter Walsh and John Kennedy explore Jesus as the new Moses and the radical reorientation of values that disciples are invited to inhabit. Plus, how does this teaching challenge our concept of happiness?

Questions for Further Discussion:

Themes and Application

1. The Beatitudes are presented as a description of Jesus himself. How does that change the way you hear or read them?
2. Which Beatitude feels most countercultural in our current climate?
3. How does viewing the Beatitudes as an “initiation guide for new residents of the Kingdom” affect how you imagine Christian identity?

Personal Reflection

1. Which Beatitude feels most unsettling or challenging to you right now, and why?
2. Can you recall a moment when an experience of God changed how you saw the world or cared about it?
3. How do you respond to the idea that discipleship shapes who you are before what you do?

Broader Spiritual Considerations

1. How might the Church lose its witness when it blesses the culture instead of embodying the Kingdom Jesus describes? 
2. In what ways do the Beatitudes redefine happiness, success, and strength?
3. What practices might help individuals and congregations “live from the inside” of Jesus’ teaching rather than analyzing it from the outside?

Learn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

This week, we find Jesus calling his first disciples. Peter Walsh, Elizabeth Garnsey, and John Kennedy dive into just how much these fishermen were leaving behind, why they would follow Jesus, and what life they were taking on by putting aside another.

Questions for Further Discussion:

Themes and Application

1. The clergy describe this passage as a “hinge” in Matthew’s Gospel. What feels like it is turning or shifting here in Jesus’ story, and why might that matter for how we read what comes next?
2. The episode spends time unpacking the idea that “geography is theology.” Where Jesus goes carries meaning. Where do you notice God showing up in unexpected or overlooked places today?
3. The call of the disciples is immediate and costly. What do you think Matthew wants his original audience to hear in the disciples’ willingness to leave work, family, and stability?

Personal Reflection

1. The fishermen are ordinary people, not religious elites. How does that shape your understanding of who Jesus calls and equips for meaningful work?
2. “Follow me” is not just an invitation to believe, but to reorient one’s entire life. What would following Jesus look like as a concrete reorientation in your current season?
3. The discussion explores Jesus as deeply rooted in vocation rather than driven by self-protection. How do you discern the difference between vocation and self-preservation in your own decisions?

Broader Spiritual Considerations

1. Fish and fishing are explored as rich, layered symbols, connected to chaos, depth, and drawing hidden life into the light. How does this imagery expand your understanding of what it means to be “fishers of people”?
2. Jesus proclaims the kingdom as already near and then demonstrates it through healing, teaching, and compassion. Why might lived mercy be essential before deep transformation can take root?
3. If Matthew’s Gospel is helping people rebuild their faith without a physical temple, what practices today help us recognize God dwelling among us and within us?

Learn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

In this week's Gospel text, Jesus is named "The Lamb of God" and Simon becomes Cephas/Peter. Elizabeth Garnsey and John Kennedy dive into these different names and the symbolism found in their stories. Plus, John offers a hot take on Anselm's theory of atonement and how it might've been misunderstood all along.

Questions for Further Discussion:

Themes and Application

1. Names matter deeply in this passage: Jesus is named, Simon is renamed Peter, and John the Baptizer points away from himself. How do names and labels shape identity, vocation, and calling in our own lives?
2. Jesus does not explain, persuade, or argue. He invites. How does “come and see” challenge modern expectations that faith should be fully explained or defended upfront?
3. Discipleship in John is deeply imitative. We become who we follow. Who or what do you notice shaping your habits, values, and imagination right now?

Personal Reflection

1. Which title for Jesus in this passage resonates most with you right now, and why? Lamb of God, Rabbi, Messiah, Son of God, Light, Word?
2. What does “abiding” mean in your daily life? Where do you sense yourself truly dwelling, spiritually or emotionally?
3. Can you recall a moment when being “seen” or “named” by someone changed how you understood yourself?

Broader Spiritual Considerations

1. How does rethinking sacrifice reshape our image of God? What might it mean to say God absorbs violence rather than demands it?
2. The discussion frames sin less as rule-breaking and more as separation, division, and “us vs. them.” How does this understanding change repentance or reconciliation?
3. If Jesus shows us what true humanity looks like, what habits, assumptions, or behaviors might need to be unlearned to follow him more fully?

Learn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

If John the Baptist was calling for a baptism of repentance, why did Jesus insist on being baptized? This week, Peter Walsh, Elizabeth Garnsey, and John Kennedy focus on the purpose of Jesus' baptism, the importance of it being in the Jordan River, and how this is a story about doing things outside of the establishment.

Questions for Further Discussion:

Themes and Application

1. The clergy describe Jesus’ baptism as both continuity with John’s movement and a decisive shift away from it. Where do you see that continuity, and where do you see the break?
2. In what ways does this baptism scene function as the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, vocation, or “handing over” of authority from John to Jesus?
3. How does the idea of baptism as participation in God’s larger salvific plan challenge more individualistic understandings of faith?

Personal Reflection

1. Which image from the episode resonates most with you right now: water, Spirit, voice, wilderness, or new creation? Why?
2. How do you respond to the idea that becoming faithful is an ongoing process of “becoming and becoming,” rather than a completed state?
3. When you hear the words “beloved” and “well pleased,” do they feel earned, aspirational, or freely given? How does that shape your understanding of God?

Broader Spiritual Considerations

1. Fr. John raises concerns about how religious movements can become institutionalized and lose their radical edge. Where do you see this risk in the church today?
2. What does Jesus’ baptism suggest about leadership, especially spiritual leadership, in contrast to power rooted in authority, violence, or control?
3. How might this passage challenge churches to rethink baptism not just as initiation, but as vocation, solidarity, and mission?

Learn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org

How could one small baby threaten a king? This week, Peter Walsh and John Kennedy read about the wise men, Herod, and the baby who changed their lives. What can we learn from Jesus' humble beginnings, how do scholars try to explain the Christmas star, and how does the beginning of Jesus' life foreshadow the end of it?

Questions for Further Discussion:

Themes and Application

1. Peter and John describe the story of the Magi as subversive and radical, not merely sweet or sentimental. What makes this story politically and spiritually disruptive rather than cozy or nostalgic?
2. The Magi are Gentiles who recognize Jesus before many of his own people do. Why might Matthew highlight outsiders as the first to honor Jesus, and what does this suggest about who “belongs” in God’s story?
3. Geography is described as theology. Bethlehem, Nazareth, Egypt, Jerusalem. How does place matter in this story, and what do these locations communicate about power, humility, and God’s purposes?

Personal Reflection

1. The Magi are attentive both to external signs (the star) and internal guidance (dreams). In your own life, which is easier for you to notice: outer signs or inner promptings? Why?
2. The phrase “they were overwhelmed with joy” stands out in a violent and fearful context. What does joy look like when the world is still dangerous or unjust?
3. The Magi literally change direction, returning home “by another road.” Have you ever experienced an encounter with God that sent you back into your life changed, even subtly?

Broader Spiritual Considerations

1. This story sets empire and kingdom in contrast. How does Matthew challenge conventional ideas of power, authority, and success?
2. The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh echo kingship, worship, and burial. How does holding Christmas and the cross together deepen or complicate Christian faith?
3. Epiphany is about revelation. What does this story suggest about where and how God chooses to be revealed in the world today?

Learn more about St. Mark's at https://www.stmarksnewcanaan.org