Looking into the lectionary - Feb. 18 worship resources ⛪

February 18, 2024 First Sunday of Lent Mark 1:9-15 In Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” two rural neighbors meet in the spring to repair a stone wall between their properties, damaged by weather and local hunters. One of the neighbors, the poem’s speaker, doubts that their wall is necessary. All he has are apple trees. But the man on the other side is insistent, quoting the proverb: “Good walls make good neighbors.” On this first Sunday of Lent, we are reminded of a God who not only can’t be contained or kept away by walls, but also of a God who actively breaks these barriers down. In Preaching Mark in Two Voices, co-written by Gary Charles and Brian Blount, Blount describes Jesus’ baptism as the moment when “a wild, untamed God” is set loose in the world, like a tiger released from the zoo. In the Bible, Blount reminds us, heaven is a buffer zone, a wall that “one great power uses to separate itself from another great power.” Like the tiger’s cage, the heavens provide a way for us to be in contact with God but not fear God’s power. “The ancient Hebrews believed that no human could look upon God and live,” Blount writes. “God was too holy, too bright, too powerful. Thank heavens, then, for the heavens. It was the heavens that kept us separate from God, kept us from seeing God face to face.” All this changes in Mark 1:10. Here Mark uses the Greek word schizo (meaning “tear” “rip” or “rend”) to describe how the heavens are torn apart as Jesus rises from the water of his baptism. Matthew and Luke choose the less intense, less violent Greek verb for “to open.” Not Mark. According to Blount, “This is no quiet, gentle breeze … this is the language of slashing and slicing, shredding and clawing until something once locked up safe … knifes its way free” through the heavens, through the safety buffer, to our human side. If this isn’t dramatic enough, then Blount describes the Spirit’s “possession” of Jesus. English translators of Mark 1:10 timidly describe the Spirit as descending “on” Jesus, but Blount says the more accurate preposition is “into.” “Even the buffer of Jesus’ human being, his skin and bone, his human spirit and consciousness cannot stop God from moving into him in a way that makes the power that belongs to God the power that is going to be revealed in Jesus.”  ... Read the rest of the commentary on the website. Order of worship for February 18, 2024. These liturgies are free to use. In praise of Messy Church by Jenny McDevitt Belief and action in Daniel (February 18, 2024) by Naomi McQuiller Sacred promises — Weekly Christian ed lesson by Joelle Brummit-Yale Want the worship resources for February 11, 2024? You can find them here. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT... Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems and Meditations for Staying Human For anyone feeling hollowed out by the litany of grief that envelops our news cycles, family systems and church communities, there is plenty of grace to be gained from her bodily prayers ... invitations to contemplation ... and calls to an undivided life. — Emily McGinley Taking a stand on unity "I held the conviction that if anything could unite us amidst our differences, it had to be Jesus," writes Doug Basler. Religious but not spiritual? Meet the skeptics favoring ritual over the supernatural Ten percent of Americans can be categorized as religious but not spiritual, according to a December 2023 study from Pew Research Center. — RNS The laying on of (other) hands Andrew Taylor-Troutman offers a glimpse into worship: how faith is passed on not with words but with actions, how we are held as we hold, how we might elevate our spirits as we tenderly reach for others. My love letter to pastors Bobbi Kaye Jones writes the letter that she wishes someone had written to her. Embracing change: College ministry lessons for the larger church College ministry completely changes every four years. Perhaps there's a lesson here for the larger church to learn, writes Maggie Alsup.