Read Luke 3:1-6 with your family. This is the first of our two weeks looking at John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin. He was an important person in the early church, teaching people to get ready for Jesus’ coming, and to get ready to learn a new way to live in God’s love.
Read Luke 21:25-36 with your family. Jesus talked about all sorts of terrible things happening, but he also said look up and stand up to all the bad things.
Christianity is about changing the world from what it is like today to what it would be like if everyone lived the way Jesus asked us to live: feed everyone, make sure everyone has good medical care including vaccines against Covid, give everyone somewhere safe to live, make sure all families and friends treat each other with respect. Imagine what that world would look like. That is what we are waiting for this Advent, for Jesus to come again as a baby full of hope and promise for the world he wants us to help build, and we are ready to be Jesus’ building helpers.
Read John 18:33-37 with your family. This week is a little bit different from normal because we aren’t organizing worship around the Bible story, but are picking a Bible story with the word “King” in it to talk about the Reign of Christ Sunday, which is always the last Sunday in the Christian year.
Pilate asks Jesus what he did that has made everyone angry, and Jesus says he was just doing what he was supposed to do by sharing the truth. Finally Pilate asks Jesus if he really is a King… because Pilate know the Roman government will be angry with anyone who tells the world he is the new King. Jesus doesn’t answer, he just tells Pilate that those are Pilate’s words, not the words of Jesus.
Sometimes old words make it confusing to understand what Jesus wants to teach us, so how about we change the word “kingdom” for Community, and “king” for Friend. Now what does that tell us about the world Jesus wants us to live in?
Read Mark 13:1-8 with your family. This story happens after Jesus and four of his closest friends walk to the hills outside of Jerusalem.
This is a message of hope. Don’t be upset with all the bad things happening in the world, they are not signs of anything. God doesn’t do that, and no one is given a special message about what God is doing. Jesus taught us everything we needed to know about God, so don’t believe anyone who says they know more or better about what God wants for the world. Sad things are going to happen, but God is not responsible for those sad things. God wants us to help make things better, not fear what we don’t know.
Read Mark 12:38-44 with your family. This story happens after Jesus is finished teaching in the temple in Jerusalem, and he is just sitting there with his friends.
Why would someone put everything they had in the temple collection box? That is an important question. Maybe they had complete faith that someone at the temple would take care of them now. Maybe they were convinced to do it by people at the temple that were not looking out for her best interests? We will never know the answer to this question.
The church has often told this story admiring the widow for her generosity while looking down at the scribes for giving only their extra money not all they had. However, only once does Jesus tell someone to give away all their money – and that is a wealthy young man who wants to do an action to get into God’s world without changing his attitude or trusting in the new vision (Mark 10:21). Jesus never told anyone to give away all their money when they didn’t have much to begin with. We are always to give from our abundance, and then a little bit more.
Read Mark 12:28-34 with your family. This story happens after Jesus has entered Jerusalem and everyone celebrated his arrival.
In this passage Jesus is quoting the Hebrew Scriptures:
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says “Israel, listen! Our God is the Lord! Only the Lord! Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength.”
Leviticus 19:18 says: “You must not take revenge nor hold a grudge against any of your people; instead, you must love your neighbour as yourself; I am the Lord.”
Jesus was able to prove to the scribes that he knew scripture and was not teaching anything against the teachings of God.
Read Mark 10:46-52 with your family. This is the last story in Mark before Jesus heads for Jerusalem, where he will meet people shouting Hosanna!
The really interesting thing about this story is that Bartimaeus is the first person to call Jesus “Son of David”, and Jesus doesn’t tell him to be quiet. Earlier in the Gospel of Mark, whenever Jesus would be called something special, Jesus would always tell them to be quiet. However, Jesus does not tell Bartimaeus to be quiet. That is probably because this is what Jesus’ ministry has been heading towards, with all the healings and teachings and predictions of his death. If you continue to read the story in Mark, you will read about the cross and the Resurrection, all of which will happen within eight days of this meeting with Bartimaeus.
So who is the Son of David? Many of the Hebrew people believe that a person would come along to free them from the Romans, the Messiah. Some thought that person would be a warrior. Some thought there would be more than one person. But everyone who believed in the Messiah believed he would restore the kingdom of David and the Hebrews would be free to run their own country and government. As we know, Jesus had a very different way of being the Messiah.
Read Mark 10:32-45 with your family. This is the third time Jesus tells his closest friends that he is going to die soon. And just like the last two times, the disciples don’t want to hear it and don’t understand what Jesus’ death means. In this story John and James go to Jesus privately and ask that they can sit on his left and right hands – the most important positions to a king or leader. They just don’t understand that Jesus is not going to be a king the way the world recognizes kings.
Again Jesus tries to explain to his friends what being a servant leader means, and he uses a new word to help them understand: Ransom. The way the Hebrew’s understood random with God is that God is making an exchange to get people free from the cultural ideas of power and greed, and bring them back into God’s world of equality. In that ransom exchange, people have to accept Jesus being offered as a replacement for their mistakes. If the people don’t accept it, the ransom doesn’t work.
Read Mark 10:17-31 with your family. Jesus was talking with a young man who had a lot of money and wanted to know what else he had to do to be part of God’s world. Jesus told him he had to give away his wealth – not all his money, just his extra money that he didn’t need. This made the young man sad and he left.
Sometimes people think Christian shouldn’t talk about money, but Jesus did talk about it. He talked a lot about the uneven distribution of money and how we should be helping the poor. Jesus also taught us that if all we think about is money and how to get more money, we won’t be able to understand what the Kingdom of God is all about. We won’t show God’s values that everyone is equal and worth having all their needs taken care of.
Read Mark 10:2-16 with your family. This story is in two parts. The first part talks about marriage and divorce. At that time in history, there was a big conversation about what reasons people could use to divorce. Jesus did not answer the question, just like he never answered any question the Pharisees used to trap Jesus into an answer. Instead Jesus talked about the ideal relationship, the way God wants people to behave. Only after did Jesus talk about divorce with his friends and he said people should honour their first marriages or they hurt those people when they have a second marriage.
After that Jesus talked about children again, and was angry when his closest followers were sending the kids away. Jesus said children should come to him, because children understand the kingdom of God better than anyone. They understand what it means to come with nothing and be accepted into God’s new world just because they exist.
The Barefoot Evangelist 