The day had gone on long enough.First the Pharisees and their questions,then the intruding children,then the camel and the needle’s eye,so that, when they cried out,”Who then can be saved?” it wasas much from the weariness of the day’s debates as the thought that riches could keep an earnest man from heaven.And so, right whenallContinue reading “The Gospel Reading”
Tag Archives: Gospel of Mark
Good Friday
Lent ends with a mirror: I am the mocker, the spitter, the thief. Like a child resenting their small role in the pageant, I greet grace with a petulant, What about me? This is me. My role is the soldier with the reed and the crown, the voice crying, Crucify! and, Messiah, come down. I’mContinue reading “Good Friday”
Lent: Humility 6
Teacher, they say, grant us whatever we ask of you. Assumptions rich in self, they see a throne, and seats on either side; surely theirs? For what other reason do they fight? Yet His kingdom is not of this world; its great ones do not presume, nor grasp. Losing and finding self, they serve, seeingContinue reading “Lent: Humility 6”
Lent: Emmaus 3
Too fast you walk down the mountainside; momentum gathers, yet of a false and fleeting kind. A fig tree full of leaves, but fruit sorely lacking, you see the glory but faint at the sight of blood. Slow down. It is a long road and your companion lingers; His death puts brakes on our downwardContinue reading “Lent: Emmaus 3”
Kingdom
The teachers of the law deceive, devour; The humble king is quizzed on His own law. The pure in heart see God; the kingdom’s poor Inherit what the rich lose with their power. Great David’s greater Son knows that His hour Is soon to come; He knows the loving score Composed and tuned by Father’sContinue reading “Kingdom”
Mark 11
No doubt if food was all that He required He could have made it bear for Him but leaves had presaged early fruit and nothing showed there yet. Not the season for figs, and yet He who made the fig tree sprout could change the seasons with His will. If curses worked, then why notContinue reading “Mark 11”
The Consolations of Writing 