The Gospel of Mark Part Two
PART TWO
locus imperium.
Any text is produced in a particular time, place, and context. In the case of the Bible, that context is always very different from ours as readers. “White North American Christians, especially those of us from the privileged strata of society, must come to terms with the fact that our reading site for the Gospel of Mark is empire, locus imperium” (Ched Meyers, Binding The Strong Man).
This location means that we have to do the work, as best we can, to separate ourselves from our assumptions to hear what the text is saying to its intended audience.
Lent provides an opportune moment to do just that. To let go of our privileged assumptions and to read from the place of surrender. This Lent, we will pick up where we left off in the fall to work through the second half of Mark’s Gospel.
This week, we celebrate Easter and wrap up our series on the Gospel of Mark. We look at the forces at play in Jesus's trial and crucifixion, the women who needed to find their voice to proclaim the good news, and the invitational, circular way the gospel of Mark is structured to help us discover Jesus and meet him in the places we already know.
Here we ask our whys, and remember that God spared nothing to make all things new. That Jesus gave himself over to death to lead us into life. That in his final words Jesus revealed how God knows the language of our doubt and fear. Showing us the road to resurrection, dark as it may be. And we that we don’t have to walk it alone.
Today we look at how on the road to Jerusalem Jesus predicts his death twice more, and twice more his closest friends will miss the point. And hopefully spending time in that story will help us see what we often miss about the way of peace.
This week, we talk about Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ predictions of his own death, and how Jesus corrects the disciples’ misconceptions about the Messiah and encourages us to let go of our ideas and ideologies that prevent us from following his way.
This week we dive deeper into the Messianic secret to uncover that Jesus didn’t want to just tell his disciples who he was and what to believe, he wanted them to go through a slow process of coming to understand.
Today we settle into the realm of conflict, new perspectives, and what it means to defile one’s heart.
Today we talk about the miracle of Jesus walking on water as a continuation of the miracle of feeding the 5,000. The main point is that Mark wants to open our eyes to see the Divine presence with us not only in the miraculous but also in the mundane.
We’re diving back into Mark this Lent. In this first sermon of Mark Part 2, we looked at the feeding of the five thousand and reflected on what it means to participate in the kingdom of God with what we’ve got to share right now.