It’s practically impossible to live life without establishing traditions. They add richness, connection, and meaning to our lives. When, however, they become more important to us than the deep ways of God, or more important to us than the welfare of our fellow humans, we’ve crossed a line. In today's passage in Mark 7, Jesus addresses some of His harshest words at those who value tradition more than anything else, and ini doing so, He reminds us of the need for a new heart that only He can give us.

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In today’s episode of Mark’s Gospel (Mark 6:45-56), a crescendo of displays of power on Jesus’ part - healings, exorcisms, raising from the dead, multiplying loaves & fishes - climaxes with His walking on water. The 12 are straining at the oars in the boat - a symbol of our doing life in our own strength - when Jesus surprises them, to say the least. Because of their hard hearts, they have focused on the “what” of Jesus’ actions instead of the WHO they point to. We are in the same boat, called past our fears to trust in the One Who is Lord of Heaven and Earth: and the wind, waves, and worries.

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As we continue our journey through the Gospel of Mark (Mark 6:30-44), the 12 apostles are just returning from their own journeys on mission from Jesus, sent two by two with no resources but His provision. In their efforts to get away and get some rest, Jesus has become so popular in the area that a crowd of over 5,000 beats feet around the lake and meets Jesus’ entourage at their arrival on the opposite shore. A well-known story - the only in all four gospels excepting Jesus’ baptism and passion - ensues as Jesus sees them as “sheep without a shepherd” and “teaches them many things.” By the time He wraps things up, the sun is low in the sky and it’s suppertime. As Jesus takes the meager supplies offered by a boy (a humble resource on both levels) and multiplies them to meet the needs of 5,000 men (plus their families as Matthew tells us), we are schooled in Jesus’ provision for our multiple hungers: physical and spiritual. He satisfies both. He shows that if we put whatever He’s given us into His hands, He can work wonders that bless those among us and empower their being fed on every level too.

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In today’s stories from the Gospel of Mark (Mar 6:1-13, 30-32), we see how Jesus’ hometown, Nazareth, doesn’t appreciate their “local boy done good” at all. So unimpressed are they by the son of Joseph and Mary that Jesus does very few miracles among them, as all the stories we’ve seen thus far are of people asking Jesus - even literally reaching out to Him - while seeking healing. This cold reception is contrasted with the next story where the 12 are sent out to preach, cast out demons, and heal while relying on the hospitality of (UNKNOWN) strangers. We are called to trust in the same faith that Jesus will supply our needs as we step into our new identities as heralds of the Kingdom of God.

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In our journey through the Gospel of Mark (5:21-43) we today come upon a “sandwich” story in which we first encounter Jairus requesting Jesus’ presence in his home in order to heal his sick daughter. On the way, though, another story is begun by a woman who’s suffered a bleeding illness for 12 years (the age of Jairus’ daughter BTW). In spite of being interrupted in the midst of a very important mission, Jesus stops to engage the woman whose been healed just by touching the hem of his outer robe. He calls her “daughter,” the only time he uses this term in Mark. In the arc of this series of stories, including 2 previous, we find that there is NOTHING Jesus can’t handle: storms, demons, illness, even death itself. Whatever you’ve got, He can handle it. Reach out to Jesus, and He will send you forth as He does the woman: “Go in peace!”

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We continue our journey through the Gospel of Mark and today come upon one of the most dramatic stories in Jesus’ ministry in Mark 5:1-20. A man possessed by a “legion” of demons is freed from his bondage, cleansed and made whole, and then commissioned by Jesus to tell the news of “what the Lord has done for you.” We find in this man a pattern for our own lives, as Jesus’ kingdom (on earth as it is in heaven) overcomes that of darkness; as we are made new by His steadfast love with a fresh start; and as we are commissioned to bear witness to others of what the Lord has done for us.

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Using Job 38 as her text, Elder Brenda Wilusz shares a sermon entitled "Questions God Asks."

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Elder Max Banaszynski shares a message centered on 2 Peter 1:1-11 entitled "The Work of God."

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