Intersections

  The blessing of home. We've been looking at home through different lenses the last four weeks, and Christmas is so close, I think most of us can even taste it now. What are your favorite flavors of the Christmas season? Mine are of pie - my grandma was a world-class baker. Every holiday - not just Christmas - there would always be four or five pies made, with the flavors rotating, depending on the time of year. Christmas would be apple, pecan (my grandpa's favorite), pumpkin, and mincemeat. As a kid, you hear mincemeat, and you kind of turn up your nose. I don't think I ever tried it while I had it available. It just... doesn't sound appealing. But your nose knows when there is a blessing of home.  The scripture today turns back the clock a little bit - we are reading now out of Luke, chapter 1. Our last couple of weeks we've been focusing on John the Baptist, and this week is no exception, but he's only a side character in our narrative today, since he...

       We are blessed to have teachers and former teachers in our congregation, so let’s try a quick experiment. Take a few deep breaths and close your eyes. Think about a time when you learned something new, whether a skill or subject. It could have been at home, here at church, or anywhere.      Now, I want you to imagine teaching someone whatever that was. How would you teach what you had learned?      Ok - let’s come back now.       Our scripture today comes from the gospel of Mark, and let’s set the scene quick. Our reading chronologically happens after Jesus’ final arrival into Jerusalem, so this is after Palm Sunday. Since we’re not in that Lenten headspace, I just wanted to frame the story up. He’s at the top of his popularity, riding the wave through the streets of the city. During the week this is happening, he’s been confronted by religious leaders, whether Pharisees or Sadducees, and GENERALLY, they ...