Mark

Kids Korner: Being important (October 20th)

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Read Mark 10:32-35 with your family.

So often when people are important they are celebrated. We are important at our birthdays when friends or family celebrate us becoming a year older. In school the important students are usually brought up front and nice things are said about them. In church the people at the front are known as the leaders and are given respect.

James and John wanted to be special to Jesus. They wanted to be in front with Jesus and get the respect that he was getting. However, being special in Jesus’ world did not mean being up front or having nice places to sit. Jesus knew that whomever was closest to him were the ones who would suffer the most.

God’s world is different than the one most of us live in. In our world we are taught that being the first is almost always the best. But in God’s world we are reminded that the leaders help others and don’t worry about being the first or the best or the richest. We are here to make life better for each other, not just ourselves.

Sunday Reflection – October 13, 2024

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Giving away wealth

Mark 10 17 As Jesus was walking down a road, a man ran up to him. He knelt down, and asked, “Good teacher, what can I do to have eternal life?”

18 Jesus replied, “Why do you call me good? Only God is good. 19  You know the commandments. ‘Do not murder. Be faithful in marriage. Do not steal. Do not tell lies about others. Do not cheat. Respect your father and mother.’ ”

20 The man answered, “Teacher, I have obeyed all these commandments since I was a young man.”

21 Jesus looked closely at the man. He liked him and said, “There’s one thing you still need to do. Go sell everything you own. Give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come with me.”

22 When the man heard Jesus say this, he went away gloomy and sad because he was very rich.

23 Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “It’s hard for rich people to get into God’s kingdom!” 24 The disciples were shocked to hear this. So Jesus told them again, “It’s terribly hard to get into God’s kingdom! 25 In fact, it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into God’s kingdom.”

26 Jesus’ disciples were even more amazed. They asked each other, “How can anyone ever be saved?”

27 Jesus looked at them and said, “There are some things that people cannot do, but God can do anything.”

28 Peter replied, “Remember, we left everything to be your followers!”

29 Jesus told him:

You can be sure that anyone who gives up home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or land for me and for the good news 30 will be rewarded. In this world they will be given 100 times as many houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and pieces of land, though they will also be mistreated. And in the world to come, they will have eternal life. 31  But many who are now first will be last, and many who are now last will be first.

Kids Korner: More love, less stuff (October 13th)

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Read Mark 10:17-31 with your family.

Today a lot of people try to tell us what Jesus was most interested in. They try to convince us that it is the words we use, or the people we love, or the choices we make.

But Jesus spent a great deal of time telling the rich and the powerful that they had missed the point, and that their power and money was standing in the way of a relationship with God. Jesus told them that they had to give away their power and stuff if they really wanted to know God.

The rich and powerful don’t like hearing that today any more than they liked hearing that when Jesus was teaching 2000 years ago.

Everywhere we look someone is trying to tell us that spending money and buying more things will make us happy, but that is not true. The more we have, the less we enjoy those things. Jesus showed us a different way.

To truly know God, we have to focus on loving others, not on making money or owning stuff. The more we give away, the more we understand the joy of giving and sharing, and that’s the world God wants us to build together.

Sunday Reflection – October 6, 2024

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Divorce, and being like children

Mark 10 2 Some Pharisees wanted to test Jesus. So they came up to him and asked if it was right for a man to divorce his wife. 3 Jesus asked them, “What does the Law of Moses say about this?”

4  They answered, “Moses allows a man to write out divorce papers and send his wife away.”

5 Jesus replied, “Moses gave you this law because you are so heartless. 6  But in the beginning God made a man and a woman. 7  That’s why a man leaves his father and mother and gets married. 8 He becomes like one person with his wife. Then they are no longer two people, but one. 9 And no one should separate a couple that God has joined together.”

10 When Jesus and his disciples were back in the house, they asked him about what he had said. 11  He told them, “A man who divorces his wife and marries someone else is unfaithful to his wife. 12 A woman who divorces her husband and marries again is also unfaithful.”

13 Some people brought their children to Jesus so he could bless them by placing his hands on them. But his disciples told the people to stop bothering him.

14 When Jesus saw this, he became angry and said, “Let the children come to me! Don’t try to stop them. People who are like these little children belong to the kingdom of God. 15  I promise you that you cannot get into God’s kingdom, unless you accept it the way a child does.” 16 Then Jesus took the children in his arms and blessed them by placing his hands on them.

39 Jesus said to his disciples:

Kids Korner: Being vulnerable (October 6th)

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Read Mark 10:2-16 with your family.

There are two stories in the scripture today, one talking about divorce and one talking about children understanding God’s world.

The conversation on divorce is hard to understand when we are little because it is between two adults and the whole household changing. It can be sad, and that’s one of the things Jesus recognized. When two grownups wanted to be together and then don’t anymore, everyone around them has to change how they behave and how they treat each other. God wanted harmony for everyone, but God also knows sometimes people have to separate and divorce. Being sad doesn’t mean it isn’t the right thing.

The conversation on children is easier to understand. Children have to depend on the adults in their world for everything from food to housing to love and care. Jesus said in order to understand God’s world, God’s kingdom, we have to rely on each other in the same way. We have to be vulnerable and not think we can do it all ourselves.

Sunday Reflection – September 29, 2024

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Salt and fire

Mark 9 38 John said, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to force demons out of people. But he wasn’t one of us, and we told him to stop.”

39 Jesus said to his disciples:

Don’t stop him! No one who works miracles in my name will soon turn and say something bad about me. 40  Anyone who isn’t against us is for us. 41  And anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name, just because you belong to me, will surely be rewarded.

42 It will be terrible for people who cause even one of my little followers to sin. Those people would be better off thrown into the ocean with a heavy stone tied around their necks. 43-44  So if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! You would be better off to go into life paralyzed than to have two hands and be thrown into the fires of hell that never go out. 45-46 If your foot causes you to sin, chop it off. You would be better off to go into life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47  If your eye causes you to sin, get rid of it. You would be better off to go into God’s kingdom with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. 48  The worms there never die, and the fire never stops burning.

49 Everyone must be salted with fire.

50  Salt is good. But if it no longer tastes like salt, how can it be made salty again? Have salt among you and live at peace with each other.

Kids Korner: Knowing God (September 29th)

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Read Mark 9:38-50 with your family.

One of the things churches find hard to remember is Jesus never asked anyone to follow a belief system. Jesus never asked anyone to sign a faith statement. Jesus never told anyone to memorize a bunch of theories about God and then repeat them to prove someone ‘believes’.

No… all Jesus did was ask us to love each other, and follow him.

Today’s story reminds us that other people can share the love of God too, they don’t have to all come from the same church or even the same belief system. God doesn’t put those kinds of boundaries on us.

This lesson also reminds us that it is a ‘sin’ (which means: turning away from God) to try to interfere with anyone’s relationship with God. Our ‘sin’ is stoping others from showing God’s love.

We only get to intervene when people are being hurt. We don’t have the responsibility or the right to interfere with the ways others are trying to make it better for others.

Sunday Reflection – September 22, 2024

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First and last

Mark 9 30 Jesus left with his disciples and started through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know about it, 31 because he was teaching the disciples that the Son of Man would be handed over to people who would kill him. But three days later he would rise to life. 32 The disciples did not understand what Jesus meant, and they were afraid to ask.

33 Jesus and his disciples went to his home in Capernaum. After they were inside the house, Jesus asked them, “What were you arguing about along the way?” 34 They had been arguing about which one of them was the greatest, and so they did not answer.

35  After Jesus sat down and told the twelve disciples to gather around him, he said, “If you want the place of honor, you must become a slave and serve others!”

36 Then Jesus asked a child to stand near him. He put his arm around the child and said, 37  “When you welcome even a child because of me, you welcome me. And when you welcome me, you welcome the one who sent me.”

Kids Korner: Accepting children (September 22nd)

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Read Mark 9:30-37 with your family.

Adults don’t always understand children, but Jesus did. Jesus showed children being an important part of his community.

Children in Jesus’ day were almost always at home being taught how to read and write and do math by their mothers and the other people in the household. They were taught about God by people who loved them. And they were taught how to ask questions about God and other spiritual things.

Jesus wanted all of his followers, not just parents and grandparents, to see how special it was to see God through the eyes of a child. They understood far better than the adults often did, and Jesus told the adults that accepting a child and listening to a child was like accepting God into their lives.

Sunday Reflection – September 15, 2024

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Who do you say Jesus is?

Mark 8 27 Jesus and his disciples went to the villages near the town of Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, “What do people say about me?”

28  The disciples answered, “Some say you are John the Baptist or maybe Elijah.Others say you are one of the prophets.”

29  Then Jesus asked, “But who do you say I am?”

“You are the Messiah!” Peter replied.

30 Jesus warned the disciples not to tell anyone about him.

31 Jesus began telling his disciples what would happen to him. He said, “The nation’s leaders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law of Moses will make the Son of Man suffer terribly. He will be rejected and killed, but three days later he will rise to life.” 32 Then Jesus explained clearly what he meant.

Peter took Jesus aside and told him to stop talking like that. 33 But when Jesus turned and saw the disciples, he corrected Peter. He said to him, “Satan, get away from me! You are thinking like everyone else and not like God.”

34  Jesus then told the crowd and the disciples to come closer, and he said: If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me. 35  If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me and for the good news, you will save it. 36 What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself? 37 What could you give to get back your soul?

38 Don’t be ashamed of me and my message among these unfaithful and sinful people! If you are, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.