From Rich Dixon this week. +++ I like Jon’s way of walking us through a chunk of scripture. For many of us Mark’s Gospel is familiar territory. I appreciate this slow, unhurried journey with time to look around and see stuff we never noticed. I’m not reading a story. He invites me into the house […]

I’ve read Matthew and Mark and Luke and John. I know where the story they are telling goes. I live in the implications of ways that story informs Paul’s story informs the next centuries. It’s easy to leap from the guys opening a hole in a roof to “and that’s why we need four friends” […]

Sunday was a confusing day at the hospital. We were paged in the morning to visit with a wife who wanted to talk with us before her husband was moved to DNR. Do not resuscitate. At some point in the course of some illnesses, making the choice to not attempt to restart a heart with […]

“It was, of course, by our standards, a small house.” That’s what I wrote the other day, reflecting on the place where people packed around Jesus. I read those words again, getting ready to start writing this next piece. I was struck by the arrogance of my assumption of your standards of the size of […]

The man with the four friends. It’s the perfect story to tell in Sunday school. Bringing friends to Jesus is what I always taught about. Whatever it takes, get your friends to Jesus. Even if you have to rip the roof up. Scandalous damage. Perfect for five-year-olds. But that wasn’t what anyone in the house […]