Moment Of Clarity With Rev. Lorrie Daly-price

The reading this week comes from the gospel of Mark. It begins with a dialogue on divorce but then the focus is on the children in Jesus’ time. The children were expendable in the first century. To some they were just nuisances and nobodies. In this encounter Jesus’ companions want to silence them. Instead though Jesus blesses them. It appears that Jesus was trying to point out that welcoming the children, that is the vulnerable, those at risk and those in need is what matters most in God’s kingdom. This whole passage is about community.

Today’s reading from Mark’s gospel reminds us to expand our circle of healing and inspiration beyond our own communities. The disciples have been quite pleased with themselves for preserving the purity and practices of Jesus’ movement by silencing the healing done by an outsider from their group. They are surprised however when Jesus rebukes them for their narrow-mindedness and limited understanding of what his mission was truly about. Anyone who promotes life is on God’s side, regardless of their own ancestry. Where can we see God’s healing touch?  

The reading we hear this week from Mark’s gospel is said to be one of those great moments where the disciples struggle to understand who Jesus is and what following him means. Such a human moment and a reminder to  each of us that even those who walked with him on a daily basis didn’t get it right all the time.   Jesus begins by telling the disciples about his fate and how he will be betrayed, killed and rise again but, of course, the disciples have no idea what Jesus is going on about.   The next scene is quite comical. Jesus and the disciples are traveling and it seems that Jesus may have been out in front of the group, not necessarily engaging in their conversations but still attentive enough to hear what they are saying. When he asks them what they are arguing about.   The disciples are like children caught whispering about something in a classroom by the teacher. They fall silent. It is interesting that Mark never says that they actually told Jesus what they were arguing about. They must know in th

In the reading we hear today from Mark’s gospel, Jesus and the disciples are in the district  around Caesarea Philippi, where Herod the Great had built a temple and renamed the town after the emperor. It is during this time that the disciples’ assumptions and hopes about what Jesus would accomplish begin to collapse around them. Jesus’ announcement about what would happen to him was the beginning of the end. Up to this point, Jesus seemed unstoppable as a healer, a teacher and a miracle worker. Things seemed to be looking up!    This is the pivotal chapter of the gospel, where there is a shift in the journey now heading toward Jerusalem. Jesus and the disciples are “on the way,” when Jesus asks them (and us, the readers) “Who do you say that I am?”  

Our reading this week from John’s gospel comes right after Jesus fed 5000 people and now they are hungry again. Since they were fed by him the day before why not again today? Having enough to eat in Jesus’ time was a challenge for many so it would be understandable that they wouldn’t want to lose sight of what they have just experienced.    After the feeding Jesus and the disciples got in their boat and crossed the lake and many decided to follow them. When they meet up, the original question is asked again - what signs are you going to give us so that we will believe in you? How about a regular diet of manna raining from heaven like our ancestors enjoyed? Jesus seizes on their opening to explain who he is and why he's here: I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.   To the disappointment of the idlers, Jesus is not promising an endless buffet of material goodies. He is offering himself as the spiritual food that will fill our deepest needs.

In our reading this week from John’s Gospel Jesus is followed by a large crowd. As the day comes to an end and it is growing dark, Jesus asks Philip where they will find food to feed them, but Philip expresses that it would be far too costly to try and feed them all. Then Andrew points out one youth’s five loaves and two fish. Jesus blesses the food and has it distributed to the crowd, and everyone is fed.   When the values of God’s role are brought into play, we can truly believe in a different way, which often leads to surprising solutions to our problems. Like when a crowd is hungry, faith means that a boy’s lunch can be the catalyst that ensures that everyone is fed – most likely through the simple miracle of sharing. Hunger, a natural part of the day, finds itself fed by fragments: fragments from us, fragments of generosity, fragments of goodwill.

It’s summertime and we are in one of the warmest months of the year here in Canada. For many  that means vacation time. Time to get away from our usual routines, schedules and to do lists for even just a short break. Our passage this week from Mark’s gospel shows us that even Jesus and his friends needed to get away from it all once in a while. It didn’t work so well for them though. There is very little rest for the weary in ministry, it seems. There is almost nowhere that Jesus and the guys could go that there were not needy people waiting for them, hoping for a touch from Jesus. 

Jesus’ life has been a continuous flurry of activity as he moves from one event to the next. All are amazed at his miracles and the wisdom of his preaching. Jesus has selected his team of disciples and the ministry is making great headway. That is until the reading we hear this week from Mark’s gospel. Jesus has gone home to Nazareth where he is met with a combination of amazement, resentment and open hostility.   This was obviously not a social visit where Jesus came to see friends and family. He came as a teacher and a rabbi, with his disciples in tow. Those who heard him became critical of his wisdom and power. They took offence at.   So, Jesus packs up his campaign and for the first time he empowers the twelve disciples and sends them off to other lands to share the good news.

The famous opening words of the Bible in the Old Testament, set the scene for all that is to come: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. All that was, all that is, all that will be, all this comes from God. The opening chapter goes on to describe the scale, the diversity,  the goodness of God’s creation. Basil of Caesarea, a Bishop in the fourth century compared God the creator to a potter who, after painstakingly crafting a series of beautiful pots, ‘has not exhausted either his art or his talent’. The creation of the world was not a one time burst of energy that left God exhausted, rather it was a pouring out of something deep within God—a desire to create, to bring about beauty and order and all that is good. God created because God is creative and God’s creativity does not run dry.    This creative heart has left its fingerprints throughout the creation: in the wild evolution of nature, in the instinctive desire of our earliest ancestors to make art on the walls of their caves, in the

   Our gospel reading this week is a story of two women who are healed. Both are anonymous, one named by a condition and the other by a relationship. There is a bleeding woman who is cut off from her community because of her condition and has been impoverished by physicians whose skills have failed her. She would have been invisible to those who did not know her and those who did would have shrunk back for fear of contact contamination. In her desperation she doesn’t care. “If I but touch the hem of his robe…” Her faith in this moment has everything to do with the one in whom she places it. After being made well, free to walk away, steps forward and admits to touching a man in public while she is bleeding and that Jesus did what no one else had been able to.    Then we will hear about the 12 year old daughter of Jairus. Her father shows the same sort of courage born of desperation that the woman did. No doubt members of the synagogue have heard of this Galilean preacher and wonder if their leader has lost hi

The readings this morning have a thing or two to say about family. Who do we consider to be family? Who do we turn to when we need help? In ancient times family had a different meaning than it does today. Many of us see our families consisting of ourselves, parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, special aunts and uncles or cousins. In biblical times families consisted of many, many people that also included great aunts and uncles, all first cousins and second cousins were all considered a central part of the family. Family get togethers could almost be seen as an  encampment as there were so many people gathered together in one place.    In today’s Gospel reading Jesus looks around him, he takes in everyone seated and says, “Right here right in front of you - my mother and my brothers.” This idea of family greatly impacted the beginning of the church because it was inclusive of all people. All are part of God’s family.

This week we hear a reading from the gospel of John about a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was one of Israel’s teachers and leaders. People respected and admired him. In our  reading we find him going to see Jesus under the cover of darkness.   But Nicodemus had no idea whom he was dealing with. Nicodemus may have come to Jesus intending to push him on his theology, but he found himself being pushed instead. Jesus told Nicodemus that, given his status as a teacher of Israel, he really should be able to handle Jesus’ statements better than he did. But to be fair, they were (and are) difficult statements. We kid ourselves if we claim to understand them fully.

This week get ready for an adventure! Put on your helmet, strap on your seat belt and get ready for mighty wind or a persistent calling! This is the day that we celebrate the lively Spirit of God, blowing freely and wherever God wills. This is a gentle and sometimes wild presence that  transforms lives and communities, breaks down barriers and gives life to weary and uncertain persons and communities.    This week we celebrate Pentecost, the third great festival of the Christian year. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church and so much more. Scripture tells us that 3000 people came to believe in God's Spirit on that first day. It was the beginning of a movement of a new way calling us to be open to the possibility that God is calling us to do something specific and wonderful things for the sake of the Kingdom of God right now.

This week we hear about the Ascension of Jesus. Can you imagine what a spectacular sight it was? Exactly as promised, Jesus ascended into heaven. The scriptures were fulfilled.    In Luke’s account of the Ascension, Jesus chooses to leave from Bethany. It would have been a  beloved place of memory for Jesus. It was here that he found hospitality in the home of his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. It was also here he raised Lazarus from the dead and where here he received the gift of a woman’s anointing shortly before his death. Bethany had been a place of blessing for Jesus. And so, from this place of blessing, Jesus leaves, offering a blessing as he goes. While he was blessing them, Luke tells us, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.   As Jan Richardson, author of the Painted Prayerbook puts it, “Joyful, sorrowful, bittersweet; planned or unexpected; welcomed or resisted or grieved: no matter how a leave-taking happens, it always brings an invitation, and it makes a space for the Spiri

     This week’s reading comes from the Gospel of John. A reading that if you take the time to count the word love or loved you will find it nine times in these verses. The love, friendship and joy of these verses is what we all hope lies at the heart of our experience of Christian community. Our love for one another inspires faithful action and generous giving. The joy that we participate in and experience through various outreach projects doesn’t lead us away from suffering and struggle but towards it. When we choose to look pain in the eye, in the stories of drought, shortage and yes this year long pandemic, there we find possibilities for overcoming and transformation. Jesus goes on to explain to the disciples that even pain will turn to joy and that joy is one which no one can remove. 

Last week we reflected on the image of Jesus as the good shepherd and us as the wandering, stubborn sheep. This week the image used draws us even closer to Jesus with the image of the vine. We are extended from the vine as the branches. We are rooted in and draw strength and life from Jesus. We are intimately connected to Jesus. If we were cut off from Jesus, we would perish like a branch chopped off from Jesus, we would perish like a branch chopped off from its vine. How might we extend to others this life-giving, loving connection with Jesus?    (paraphrased from Gathering, Lent/Easter 2021, page 23.)

A mother was once asked by a census taker how many children she had. She replied, “Well  there’s Nathan, Daniel and Elisha and…” Never mind the names,’ the man interrupted, “Just give me the numbers.” The mother angrily replied, “They don’t have numbers, they all have names!”    This might be a funny story, but don’t you find that there is some truth to it in our modern world. We are often reduced to statistics and numbers, especially by the government. Here in Canada, our governments know us by our Social Insurance Numbers, and that identity is included in almost all of our lifetime records and transactions. Even our opinions are reflected in numbers in survey results, as is seen by the surveys conducted during a federal election campaign.    Thankfully, as we hear this morning in our gospel reading from John, Jesus is not like that. He knows each and every one of us by our names, just like a shepherd knows each and everyone of his sheep. After all, he is the Good Shepherd.

This week we hear about Cleopas and Simon who are heading to Emmaus from the gospel of Luke. Jesus walks along with them, his identity unbeknownst to them. At first the two fail to recognize him, even as Jesus interprets the scriptures for them.    We then move with Cleopas and his companion where they have just begun telling the eleven disciples about their encounter with Jesus on the road. The text tells us that “While they were talking about this,” Jesus himself appeared among them.” Yet despite having heard the women’s story of the tomb and Cleopas’ story of the road to Emmaus, the eleven cannot grasp that it is the resurrected Jesus who stands before them. Terrified, they think they are seeing a ghost. They cannot believe that the power of life has overcome the dark shadow of death.     Curiously, Jesus does not begin by explaining the scriptures to them, as he had done with the disciples on the road to Emmaus and as the angels had done with the women at the tomb. Instead, he begins by showing them h

Shalom aleichem. The days following Jesus persecution, death and resurrection were tumultuous. Jesus’ friends and devout followers must have been devastated and grieving. In our Gospel reading this week from John 20:19-31, we hear of the disciples locked in a room because they were afraid of the Temple authorities—so the local troubles continue. Suddenly appearing before them is Jesus in the room, and saying, “Peace be with you.” But Thomas doubts that Jesus has risen from the dead, because he was not with the disciples when Jesus first appeared. Jesus appears to the disciples again, and Thomas is present and now believes because he can see, and feel the wounds in Jesus’ hand, feet and side. These twelve short verses talk about doubt and faith, peace and blessings of shalom, as well as the gift of the Holy Spirit—a wondrous gift given to us, even to this day.  

Jesus Christ is risen today! The tomb where he lay is empty. On that first Easter morning Mary comes to the tomb while it is still dark. She sees that the stone has been rolled away and she draws the conclusion that Jesus has been taken. Running to Peter and that beloved disciple, she shares her concern.    Upon her return to the tomb Jesus appears to Mary as a gardener and will later appear to the disciples. She does not yet believe who she is standing with.    Things go no more smoothly for the others either. The risen Christ appearance is no simple thing. As we will hear this morning, the gospel story judges none of these people. For in their own time each will come to faith and believe in the risen Christ.