Mark 12:1-12 Here at Church of Peace, we’ve named Twenty Twenty the Year of Caring and Service. On Sundays and Wednesdays during Lent, we’re following Jesus on a tour of caring and serving through the Gospel of Mark. So far, we’ve considered how Jesus notices people...

Mark 10:32-52 Philip from Bethsaida He said, “Sell everything you own and give the money to the poor.” He said, “Leave everything behind and follow me because there’s no way to do this half-way.” Being a disciple of Jesus is not a part-time job; it’s not a...

Mark 10:17-31 You’ve got to wonder how long he had been waiting for Jesus to come by. Here he was carrying a question that was burning inside his soul, so you know he didn’t happen to bump into Jesus, he must’ve been waiting. Now here’s his chance. Now he hears his...

Mark 8:27-9:8 Last year on Ash Wednesday, the brilliant Christian writer, Rachel Held Evans, posted a word of encouragement on her blog. She wrote this: “Whether you are a Christian, or an atheist, or an agnostic, or a so-called ‘none,’ you know this truth deep in...

Mark 7:1-23 You might have a story like this… One evening when I was thirteen, I found myself sitting across the table from one of the youth leaders at my church. I was excited to share with her that I had come to a decision about what I believed. At the time, my...

Mark 5:1-20 Imagine what it is like to be welcomed into somebody’s home. Imagine if they opened the door smiling then took your coat. Come in and sit down, it’s cold outside! You smell some kind of cheesy goodness wafting in from the kitchen, and here let me get you...

Mark 2:1-22 Eight years ago in January, I was serving as the associate pastor of a church in Ohio, and it was the night of the Confirmation lock-in. (A lock-in is when you spend the night in a church on purpose. Everybody brings a sleeping bag. Nobody gets any sleep.)...

Mark 1:21-45 There could be people in this room who remember. Back in the nineteen seventies, the neighborhood was changing. We were feeling all the fears, and prejudices, and questions that come with being a white church in a black neighborhood. Church membership...

Luke 1:57-80 If you had been in the room that day… If you had been in the room crowded with neighbors, you would have felt the spirit of unreasonable joy. This was not any old bris! If you had been there you would know you were beholding a miracle. See Elizabeth...

Isaiah 40:1-11 I recently came upon the testimony of a man named Jim Zenner who is veteran from the war in Iraq. He was writing about something called moral injury. This occurs when a person experiences an internal conflict between his core values and his behavior;...