The Good Word

As noted in Mark24 Mark has brought his reader to the point where he can put the question Who do you say I am The first 8 chapters of the Gospel its sayings and deeds are the basis for any judgment by Jesus friends enemies and followers We never forget that Mark s reader in Rome alre

1 Thessalonians is the earliest letter of Paul the Apostle of which we are aware and so the earliest written document of the Church Last Sunday s second reading began with the short salutation from Paul Silvanus and Timothy to the Church in Thessalonica ending with the simple grace 1

After the stories about the cures of gentiles and the feeding of gentiles Mark has Jesus return to Israel and Galilee by boat Jesus sudden remark that his disciples must guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod is totally misunderstood by Jesus companions They t

In the gospel reading for this Sunday Jesus is asked to identify which is the greatest commandment He responds You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart with your whole soul and with all your mind And second You shall love your neighbor as yourself Matt 22 34-40 Usu

One might wonder why there is a second story about the multiplication of loaves no fish this time The answer begins with the fact that we are being offered a third story about Jesus working outside Israel At the end of this story about loaves Mark notes that Jesus got into a boat with his dis

Paul brings Galatians to an end with notes of exhortation and encouragement and yes warnings and challenges As a good parent he also manages to tell them in no uncertain terms not to make any trouble for him any longer the parental Enough Let s begin with exhortation and encouragement In

A most interesting story in Mark s Gospel is the account in which Jesus cures a daughter who had an unclean spirit Unlike the bulk of the Gospel this cure takes place outside the recognized boundaries of Israel and is performed for a Greek at the request of a Greek Indeed the story tells us

Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ you have fallen away from grace 5 3-4 Again Paul makes a charged statement about the role of the law – You w

Paul begins this next section by comparing the Galatians interest in the law of Moses to the stoicheia the natural elements which were sometimes treated as gods see A A Long and D N Sedley The Hellenistic Philosophers Vol 1 Cambridge 1987 280-89 The comparison is clear enough but h

Following the marvelous miracles of multiplication of food and walking on water and a host of still other wonders Mark again interjects a conflict story Here Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem want to know why Jews followers of Jesus do not obey the Tradition of the Elders but instead eat