Reformation Sunday is celebrated next Sunday, October 27, 2024 at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. Wear red to celebrate the day! Check out Ponderings this week (below) to learn morn about Martin Luther whose Ninety-Five Theses are an important marker in the Protestant Reformation.
Between Sundays for Week of October 21, 2024
Mark 10:32-45 comes near the end of a stretch of three chapters in Mark’s gospel where Jesus has been telling his disciples of his coming trial; three times the disciples misunderstand what he’s talking about; and three times Jesus teaches them.
As he leads the way in this gospel passage, Jesus gives his most clear-eyed and descriptive prediction of what is about to take place: “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise again.”
Jesus is marching head-first into the chaos, violence and suffering that lies ahead. James and John, who along with Peter, have been with him from the very beginning seize the opportunity: “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you . . . Grant us to sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your glory.”
Faced with the chaos, violence and suffering that lies ahead, here are James and John scheming for their own privileged positions alongside Jesus.
In the previous three chapters, Jesus has made it abundantly clear that power and privilege is not the prize for those who follow him. But when faced with James’ and John’s self-serving request, Jesus does something that might surprise us, he gets curious and asks a question: What is it you want me to do for you?
Faced with chaos, violence and suffering in our own lives and in the world around us, Jesus gives us the same freedom he gives to James and John in that moment. He gives us the freedom to speak our truth in response to his question: what do you want me to do for you? Jesus invites our honest and unvarnished response, just as he invites James’ and John’s response to that question.
Through his own curious question that models service, through his own journey to the cross where he will give his life, Jesus reveals that God’s glory is found in places of humility and service; not in seats of privilege and power. In the places where mercy is made visible; in the moments when justice is accomplished; in the times when those captive to the forces of evil are made more free – these are the moments where God’s glory is revealed!
In our world where chaos, violence and suffering are all around us. In a world where the quest for power and domination is the order for the day. In a world where the uncertainty of what tomorrow will bring feels ever more precarious, maybe Be Curious. Ask Questions is exactly how we are called to live! What if following Jesus begins with curiosity and finding the courage to make Jesus’ question our own: What is it you want me to do for you?
P.S. Watch Sunday’s worship service to view Pastor Amy’s sermon (beginning at 21:05). View past services on the Share in Worship page of BLC’s website!
P.P.S. Recovery and rebuilding after the devastation of recent hurricanes requires partnership. Learn about Lutheran Disaster Response and support those affected.
Faith Connection at Home – Encore!
Patty Chaffee
Family Faith Formation Coordinator
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Ponderings
October 21 is the date Martin Luther joined the faculty of the University of Wittenberg in 1512. After a frustrating period in a monastery and a disillusioning visit to a church conference in Rome, he decided to pursue a doctorate at Wittenberg — and did so well that he was asked to join the faculty. Preparing lessons for his students gave him an occasion to work out his thoughts about the monastery and his trip to Rome, and his thinking crystallized when, in 1517, Pope Leo X announced the sale of indulgences (monetary gifts to the church said to lessen the donors’ ultimate punishment for their sins) to help finance the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica. Outraged, Luther wrote a treatise called “Disputation on the Power of Indulgences” — commonly known today as “The Ninety-five Theses” — arguing against the sale of indulgences as both corrupt and theologically mistaken. The (probably apocryphal) story goes that he nailed his theses to the door of the university chapel; in any case, his ideas circulated swiftly and widely, stirring controversy and helping to spark what later became known as the Protestant reformations in Western Europe.
