“If someone wants to follow after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” ~ Mark 8:34b (my translation) Among wounding scriptures, this one ranks pretty high.…
Category: Scripture Shorts
Between Trees and Chaff
Happy are thosewho do not follow the advice of the wicked,or take the path that sinners tread,or sit in the seat of scoffers;but their delight is in the law of the Lord,and…
Food and Demons
A woman comes to Jesus seeking deliverance for her daughter from an unclean spirit. Jesus responds by talking about food. Why? Why would Jesus turn the woman’s request for liberation for her…
The Kingdom of God Is Like a Woman Trusting Her Body and Gaining Liberation, or Like a Girl Counted as Least Rising
This is one of the most anti-sexist stories I have encountered in the gospels. Twenty-two verses concentrated on attending to the bodies of a woman and a girl in a patriarchal society…
When the Son of God Gets Called “Insane”
Jesus too has experienced the sting of social stigma attached to mental illness. He too understands the shame of neighbors who had known him for years now calling him crazy. He too…
A Story of Protest in the Wilderness
A meditation inspired by Acts 8:26–40, one of the Revised Common Lectionary readings for the fifth Sunday of Easter, May 2, 2021; the first in a series called Scripture Shorts On a…
