On Sunday a small group of us met at Starbucks (on 106th – Bellevue, WA) to read a little more of Mark.  I even bring bibles so you don’t have to cart  yours in if you don’t want.  AND – we aren’t doing hardcore bible study here – just show up, get a drink if you want, we read and talk about anything that popped up. 

In chapter 2 we discovered “Controvery Stories.”  In teaching us about God Jesus kept bumping into established religious traditions and met with the disapproval of the religious authorities.   I like this quote from Mike Raschko’s book (A Companion to the Gospel of Mark, p. 28) about how God works in human history: “… is God’s work encapsulated in established religious traditions as the opponents of Jesus think, or does God break into human history and upset even traditions that are rooted in God’s earlier deeds?” 

When we think about what it means to be a follower of Christ in today’s world – we might ask if past traditions hold all the answers.  Can we be open to letting God move in new ways in our lives?

One word of caution: Mark has been called pretty liberal minded.  We might benefit from comparing his spin on the stories of Jesus to Matthew’s (more of a traditionalist) for instance.  But – maybe we’ll get to that if we do a “Reading Matthew” group in the future!!!

Holiday Blessings, all – and join us next Sunday to read Mark 3:7-35.  (A full schedule of the readings can be found under the Spiritual Growth link).