For many people, it can seem odd to think of Jesus as a character in the Gospels, but when we reflect on it, we realize, of course, he's a character, just as the subject of a biography is a character within the written biography...

Preaching Mark in Lectionary Year B: Episode 1 - The Character of Jesus in Mark

In an age of "alternate facts," and algorithms that deliver exactly what we want to see and hear, this question about whether or not we have the courage to see what is actually going on around us remains very important in our context...

Preaching Mark in Lectionary Year B: Episode 2 - Sight & Insight

Palm Sunday is a very complex liturgy.
Every year, it seems that someone in the congregation comes up and tells me that the liturgy feels like whiplash – one minute you’re out in the park waving palms in the spring air, and the next minute you’re in the middle of the terror of Jesus’s arrest, betrayal, abandonment, mocking, torture, death.
How does anyone preach in the midst of that kind of a liturgy?

Preaching Mark in Lectionary Year B: Episode 3 - Preaching the Passion

The women who go to the tomb to anoint Jesus’s body are devastated not to find it there. But the strange young man in the white robe who greets them points them outward, to where they can actually encounter the deepest Good News of the Gospel. This audio teaching will engage the young man’s message to the women, and the Good News he brings, even though, in their traumatized state, they cannot take it in yet.

Preaching Mark in Lectionary Year B: Episode 4 - There You Will See Him

The focal text for this week will be the entwined stories of the woman with the hemorrhage and Jairus’s daughter in Mark 5:21-43. Faith is central to both stories. Jesus affirms the active role of the woman in her own healing when he says, “Your faith has made you well.”

Preaching Mark in Lectionary Year B: Episode 5 - "Faith" in Mark's Gospel

The story of the death of John the Baptist is a complex and fascinating window into power gone wrong, and everyone in the story suffers. But elsewhere in chapter six are beautiful stories of how God is moving in and through Jesus and his disciples to repair and restore the creatures of God.

Preaching Mark in Lectionary Year B: Episode 6 - True Power, According to Mark

This week, Jesus and a group of Pharisees and some scribes from Jerusalem are ostensibly engaging in a disputation over the issue of handwashing, while they are actually comparing their views of how to weigh the importance of the strict text of the Torah vs. later expansions upon practice by various rabbis, called here the “elders.”...

Preaching Mark in Lectionary Year B: Episode 7 - Countering Anti-Jewish Interpretations

Today we are opening up a space to stop and consider issues that the healing stories in Mark present in general. How do they bear meaning – or can they bear life-giving meaning - for people who are blind or deaf or have a mental or physical disability that is permanent? What kind of faithfulness is asked of the Church by these stories?

Preaching Mark in Lectionary Year B: Episode 8 - Jesus & Healer: Disability & Preaching

This week, as we focus on Proper 28, Mark 13:1-8, we’re going to get a feeling for what apocalyptic texts are all about, and what their purpose is – since so few people seem to understand them. As the liturgical year comes to a close, we often have apocalyptic texts that can seem dizzying in their intensity. So let’s see what they’re all about.

Preaching Mark in Lectionary Year B: Episode 9 - Preaching An Apocalyptic Text

"Getting the Exegetical and Homiletical to Kiss" - Prologue on Biblical Exegesis and Homiletics

"Under the Boot" or "In the Belly?" Mark and Luke vs. Empire - Episode 1

"Nothing New Under the Sun:" Overcoming Exegetical Heresies to Reading the Gospels

"Under the Boot" or "In the Belly?" Mark and Luke vs. Empire - Episode 2

The Logic of Adam and Babel as the Sin of Israel and Empire

"Under the Boot" or "In the Belly?" Mark and Luke vs. Empire - Episode 3

Introduction to the Gospel of Mark: Approach, Setting, and Themes

"Under the Boot" or "In the Belly?" Mark and Luke vs. Empire - Episode 4

Exegetical Exercise: Finding Comfort and Challenge in Mark

"Under the Boot" or "In the Belly?" Mark and Luke vs. Empire - Episode 6

Introduction to the Gospel of Luke: Setting and Themes

"Under the Boot" or "In the Belly?" Mark and Luke vs. Empire - Episode 7

The Gospel of Luke: The Community of the True "Son" of the "Empire" of God's Spirit

"Under the Boot" or "In the Belly?" Mark and Luke vs. Empire - Episode 8

The Gospel of Mark: The Community of the Suffering Servant Messiah

"Under the Boot" or "In the Belly?" Mark and Luke vs. Empire - Episode 5

Join Dr. John Gotta and members of the Center for Deep Green Faith for discussions on the invitation to creation care and how this informs and inspires a life of faith.

Gospel Roots of a Green, All-Encompassing Faith: Episode 1 - God, Nature, and Our Place in Creation

Join host,  Dr. John Gotta and members of the Center for Deep Green Faith for discussions on the invitation to creation care and how this informs and inspires a life of faith.

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