Fourth Sunday After Epiphany.
The Gospel and Epistle lessons are progressing in numerical order and continue to do so for the next couple weeks.
The writer of Mark uses remarkable word economy. In just under 30 verses he has covered 30 years of Jesus' life. The Good News is what is important to him and in the Town of Capernaum Jesus begins preaching it and performs his first miracle healing:
Mar 1:27 Everyone was completely surprised and kept saying to each other, "What is this? It must be some new kind of powerful teaching! Even the evil spirits obey him."
Mar 1:28 News about Jesus quickly spread all over Galilee.
The OT Lesson from Deut 18 appears to predict the coming of Jesus and the prophets who preceded him including John. Is it implied that the writer is Moses? Since this text was recorded from the Oral Tradition in the time of King David the writer was already aware of the lineage of prophets that followed Moses.
God the Son brought the Good News; God the Father Creator nourishes and cares for his universe and all the creatures in it. Psalm 111 acknowledges this and declares that such bounty and love demands our praise.
Today's Epistle in 1 Cor 8 deals with a specific situation and Paul's response to that concern. Not everyone is at the same point in their growth in the faith and we must use wisdom lest our understanding become a stumbling block to those whose faith is more rudimentary. Our love for one another, no matter what stage our brethren are at in their faith journey should trump whatever insights we think we may have accomplished.
Today's lessons seem to have little connection. The passage in Mark records only that Christ began his preaching ministry and it was well received. We are given no indication of the content of that message. We do know that in another time and place his audience was not ready to receive his message and threatened to throw him off a cliff or stone him.
The Gospel and Epistle lessons are progressing in numerical order and continue to do so for the next couple weeks.
The writer of Mark uses remarkable word economy. In just under 30 verses he has covered 30 years of Jesus' life. The Good News is what is important to him and in the Town of Capernaum Jesus begins preaching it and performs his first miracle healing:
Mar 1:27 Everyone was completely surprised and kept saying to each other, "What is this? It must be some new kind of powerful teaching! Even the evil spirits obey him."
Mar 1:28 News about Jesus quickly spread all over Galilee.
The OT Lesson from Deut 18 appears to predict the coming of Jesus and the prophets who preceded him including John. Is it implied that the writer is Moses? Since this text was recorded from the Oral Tradition in the time of King David the writer was already aware of the lineage of prophets that followed Moses.
God the Son brought the Good News; God the Father Creator nourishes and cares for his universe and all the creatures in it. Psalm 111 acknowledges this and declares that such bounty and love demands our praise.
Today's Epistle in 1 Cor 8 deals with a specific situation and Paul's response to that concern. Not everyone is at the same point in their growth in the faith and we must use wisdom lest our understanding become a stumbling block to those whose faith is more rudimentary. Our love for one another, no matter what stage our brethren are at in their faith journey should trump whatever insights we think we may have accomplished.
Today's lessons seem to have little connection. The passage in Mark records only that Christ began his preaching ministry and it was well received. We are given no indication of the content of that message. We do know that in another time and place his audience was not ready to receive his message and threatened to throw him off a cliff or stone him.
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