1. Mark 8:27-38

2. Proverbs 1:20-33

3. James 3:1-12

4. Psalm 19

• Psalm 19, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan (Psalmimmersion.com, @pomopsalmist, Patreon)

Mark 8:27-38

Initial Thoughts

• Next week's reading is Mark 9:30-37. 9:1-9:29, the Transfiguration and coming down the mountain, is not covered.

• RCL breaks this reading into two parts - Transfiguration and Lent 2B; 9:1 is left out. Here we have the two scenes in the proper order.

• Also - look back to Proper 10B, Mark 6:14-29 when Herod is asking the same question about who Jesus is. Herod is convinced it is John the Baptist raised which then leads to the story about the death of John the Baptist.

Bible Study

• Mark 8:27-38

  • Literary Context

    • Come immediately after Jesus asking, “Who do you say that I am?” and Peter proclaims “You are the Christ.” The part about Peter’s name being changed is not here. That already happened, without any fanfare, in Mark 3:16.

    • Begins a new phase of Mark. Up until now, things were going relatively smoothly. There were miracles, healings, feedings. There has been some conflict, but nothing too serious. From here on, things turn darker. After Transfiguration, there are conflicts, arguments, and Jesus predicts his death two more times.

    • In all the Gospels, this is a part of a much larger story that is a transition. By Jesus’ own words, the story from here leads to the Cross.

    • All three synoptic Gospels tie these events together:

      • Peter says “You are the Christ.”

      • Jesus predicts his death, Peter rebukes Jesus. Jesus rebukes Peter (not in Luke)

      • Jesus teaches about saving and losing your life - All must “take up their cross,” 

      • Transfiguration

      • Jesus heals a boy.

      • Prediction about death/arrest

  • Alternating Private/Public words

    • Public: Prediction of death and resurrection

    • Private: Exchange with Peter.

    • Public: Lose life to gain it.

  • Prediction of death and resurrection

    • Begs questions: “How much did Jesus know?” or “Was it Jesus’ mission to die?”

      • High Christology: Jesus knew from start exactly what was happening, and death on the cross was his mission from day one.

      • Low Christology: Jesus knew that the things he was teaching were not going to be tolerated. He knew, even provoked, conflict that led to his death, but the teaching and community he built was the mission, not his death.

      • Answering this determines much about the rest of Lent, and the way we see Resurrection.

      • If mission was to die, then it could be argued that resurrection is superfluous.

    • Failure of the disciples

      • Three first of three passion predictions 

      • Each is followed by a failure of the disciples

        • Peter's rebuke

        • Who is the greatest

        • James and John arguing who sits at the right hand

      • Reveals the difficult of the church to accept a crucified Christ

  • Exchange with Peter

    • Peter just made the declaration that Jesus is the Christ.

    • He’s about to tag along on Transfiguration

    • In between, he’s Satan.

    • “Get behind me” is in direct opposition to “Come after me,” which is what Jesus told Peter to do when they first met. 

    • Peter’s mistake is in stepping out of order. Jesus demands that he “get back in line,” or simply, “let me lead.”

    • Satan, or ‘tempter,’ is briefly mentioned in Mark 1. Peter here is tempting Jesus to let up, to do less than what he was called to do.

  • Lose life to gain it

    • Not a suicide mission, but he wants followers to understand his life is about more than leftover bread and calmed storms.

    • Also a reminder that the only way to fully live, is to live for others. This is a story that has been told many times, and has even been tested. Check out this story that reminds us that the only way to feel good about money is to give it away.

James 3:1-12

Initial Thoughts

• Continues from last week -  “faith without works is dead”

• September James - 3 more weeks in James

  • 9/16 - James 3:1-12

  • 9/23 - James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a

  • 9/30 - James 5:13-20

  • Check out Amy K Butler’s A Preacher’s Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C

Bible Study

• Double standard of teachers/leaders/pastors

  • Everyone makes mistakes (cf. Romans 3:23)

  • The mistakes of teachers have greater consequences because they lead/impact a larger community/classroom/congregation

  • There is and should be a double standard for those who teach/lead/shepherd/pastor. To either deny it or exploit the double standard is unfaithful - instead we should acknowledge the power and responsibility of our calling.

  • Can be a difficult message as schools are beginning - instead of undermining the work of teachers, James illuminates the gravity and importance of what teachers and leaders do.

• The tongue

  • A bit of a call back to James 1 - be slow to speak and anger and quick to listen

  • The tongue/speech is small yet mighty:

    • Bridle controlling the body

    • Rudder controlling the ship

    • Spark igniting the forest fire

  • Spiderman - with great power comes great responsibility - the tongue is a tool of great power and responsibility. It can do great good and immense evil.

  • The malignant power of gossip, misinformation, assumption. Words matter - whether they are said in the pulpit, parking lot or in prayer - how we speak reveals who we are.

• For James speech is a powerful action

  • Faith without works is dead - speaking is an act of faith, a work, a “doing” of the word

  • Just as actions but be judged by their fruits so too must faith

  • v. 7 recalls the creation narrative from Genesis 1 - the creation of the beasts, birds, reptiles and sea creatures. Only humans are made in the image of God and are given the gift of speak to name the animals. The power and responsibility of speech is not something new, but it part of the fabric of creation. Connection this story with Creation may be a nice bridge with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year 9/9-11, which celebrates the creation of Adam and Eve.

• Back to the practical

  • What I (Eric) love about James - he always brings it back to the practical - how  we treat one another

  • v.10 - a person of faith cannot bless God can curse the the image of God with the same tongue

    • The tongue is a reflection of the soul - its fruit reveals the source (water revealing the spring, the fruit revealing the tree) cf. Matt. 7:16–20; 12:33–35; Luke 6:43–45.

    • “Dietrich Bonhoeffer had one rule for the community of his underground seminary students in Finkenwalde. It was that no one should speak about another student in his absence or tell that student if he did.” quoted from Described by Eberhard Bethge, former student of Bonhoeffer, in Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), 428 in Feasting on the Word – Year B, Volume 4: Season After Pentecost 2 (Propers 17-Reign of Christ).

    • “Stick and stones may not break bones but evil speech “stains the body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. This is a global, even cosmic indictment of wrong teaching.” E. Elizabeth Johnson. Feasting on the Word – Year B, Volume 4: Season After Pentecost 2 (Propers 17-Reign of Christ).

    • See also Matthew 15:9; 12:33-37; Sirach 5:13-14; 28:12

  • How do your words reflect who you are? How do the words of others reveal who they are?

  • How is this heard in a time of misinformation, fake news and social media? Our words also include our Facebook posts, our tweets and the email we choose to share.

  • What about self talk- what about our inner monologue- what we say to ourselves about who we are? We must be a blessing to ourselves as much as to others, for we cannot love others unless we love ourself

  • Is your tongue a blessing or a curse to you and others?

• Is silence the answer?

  • No. We will make mistakes but speech is an act of faith. We must accept grace for the mistakes we make and be diligent that our speech - as much as our other actions - are reflection of our faith in the love of God in Christ

Thoughts and Questions

• There is and should be a double standard for those who teach/lead/shepherd/pastor. To either deny it or exploit the double standard is unfaithful - instead we should acknowledge the power and responsibility of our calling.

  • Can be a difficult message as schools are beginning - instead of undermining the work of teachers, James illuminates the gravity and importance of what teachers and leaders do.

• The malignant power of gossip, misinformation, assumption. Words matter - whether they are said in the pulpit, parking lot or in prayer - how we speak reveals who we are.

• How do your words reflect who you are? How do the words of others reveal who they are?

• How is this heard in a time of misinformation, fake news and social media? Our words also include our Facebook posts, our tweets and the email we choose to share.

• What about self talk- what about our inner monologue- what we say to ourselves about who we are? We must be a blessing to ourselves as much as to others, for we cannot love others unless we love ourself

• Is your tongue a blessing or a curse to you and others?

Proverbs 1:20-33

Initial Thoughts

• First poem about the Woman Wisdom or the feminine wisdom

• This is the feminine Spirit of wisdom that Jesus refers to (Matthew 11:19, Luke 7:35)

• Four major sections

  • Introduction to wisdom

  • Speech to the simple

  • Warning to the simple to listen

  • Contrasting the wise and the foolish

Bible Study

• Introduction v. 20-21

  • Wisdom is in the streets, crying out - Wisdom is a street preacher, not confined to lofty temples and silent wilderness retreats. Wisdom in the midst of the messiness of life- calling out to the foolish and inviting them to listen to her

  • Wisdom is also available to all people - there are no barriers or pre-requisites to wisdom

  • The gates would have been a place of commerce and courts

• Speech to the Simple

  • This is one of three groups (Perdue, L. G. Proverbs: Interpretation. p. 82)

    • The Simple - “youth who have yet to take up the sages’ course of study”

    • The Scoffers “who are unteachable (Prov. 13:1) because of their arrogance and contentiousness (Prov. 21:24; 22:10),” and 

    • Fools “who do not restrain either their emotions (Prov. 12:16; 21:24; 29:8, 11) or their speech (Prov. 10:18–21; 12:19; 14:7)”

  • The latter two groups threaten the first (the simple) - think of them as the ones who “cause the little ones to stumble” (Matthew 8:16)

• Wisdom’s Diatribe

  • Harsh rebuke/warning to the simple if they choose to follow the ways of the scoffers and foolish instead of listening

  • There is an awkward delight that wisdom seems to take- a very ungrace-full acknowledgement that, should the simple reject wisdom’s invitation, not only will bad things happen, but wisdom will laugh at their calamity.

  • However compare this to the Gospel reading - Mark 8:38 where Jesus gives a similar warning about being ashamed of those who are ashamed of him

  • “Wisdom’s sympathy is always a free gift, and persistent scoffing and hatred for knowledge finally exhaust her patience (Prov. 1:22–23). When disaster comes, Wisdom’s contemptuous response (Prov. 1:24–27) proves that these fools have no standing before God—not even the recourse of sympathy that a wayward child might use as leverage over loving parents.” Work, T. (2009). “Theological Perspective on Proverbs 1:20–33” Feasting on the Word: Year B, Vol. 4, p. 52. 

• Contrast - the choice offered echoes those made by Moses and Jesus - choose the way of wisdom and it will lead to good things, choose the way of the scoffers and foolish and it will lead to death.

  • Those who reject wisdom will self-destruct, Wisdom will not destroy them, but their own waywardness and complacency will kill and destroy them. 

  • Not true to life or the biblical narrative - the wise and faithful or the most vulnerable are the ones who are  often hurt the worst when disaster strikes - but this passage is not directed to the poor and vulnerable but as a prophetic reminder to the privileged and wealthy. 

  • “Wisdom is speaking here to the most privileged in society - the ones who have responsibility for the vulnerable. Their poor choices and failure to listen to Wisdom will lead to disaster not just for themselves, but also for those in their care.” Ashley Wilcox, The Women’s Lectionary, p.89

Thoughts and Questions

• This passage really emphasizes the role of human agency - we are given the choice to be wise, scoffers, or foolish. This choice is not predetermined for us, rather God invites us through her divine wisdom to choose wisely, to be wise. 

• What an opportunity to lift up the feminine divine, point out that the spirit of God’s wisdom is feminine! We need more emphasis on God as other than an old white man.

• The issue is not that we don’t know what is wise- we hear wisdom’s call, we just refuse to follow her. He convince ourselves that we know what is best- that not loving, not forgiving, not caring for the least of these is better than loving God, other and self...and that arrogance is leading to our destruction

Thanks to our Psalms correspondent, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan (psalmimmersion.com,@pomopsalmist). Thank you to Scott Fletcher for our voice bumpers, Dick Dale and the Del Tones for our Theme music (“Misirlou”), Nicolai Heidlas (“Sunday Morning”,"Real Ride"and“Summertime”) and Bryan Odeen for our closing music.