What Is the Gospel According to You? Three Meanings of “Good News” in Mark 1 (A Progressive Christian Lectionary Commentary for January 22)

January 14, 2012 By Carl Gregg 2 Comments

Note: If you want to skip to the section specifically on Mark 1:14-20, scroll down to parts two and three, but the introduction and part one help set-up these later sections.

Introduction

We’re familiar with the Gospel According Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which are each quite distinct. Many of us are even familiar with the Gospel According to Thomas, Mary, and Q. But what is the Gospel According to You from the vantage point of twenty-first knowledge? What is the Gospel According to Your Church?

Since the word “gospel” is synonymous with “Good News,” I also invite you to consider your response to the related question, “What is the Good News According to You and According to Your Congregation?” What aspects of your church are good news: good news for you, good new for us, good news for the fellow citizens of your city or town, or good news for the world?

What good news do we have to share about who Jesus is, who God is, or what insights we are living into about how to live an abundant life according to the way of Jesus? These related questions seem appropriate as we reflect on these verses from the opening chapter of the Gospel — the “good news” — according to Mark.

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Filed Under: Empire-Critical, Gospel of Mark, Lectionary Commentary, Sermons 2 Comments

#OccupyChurch: Jesus Threw out the Moneylenders for a Reason

October 24, 2011 By Carl Gregg

Andy Lester was one of the most important professors I had in seminary. I took two classes from him: Introduction to Pastoral Care and Pastoral Care Confronts Anger and Conflict. As part of the latter class, we helped edit his book A Pastoral Theology of Anger, which cuts against the grain of the tradition that anger is always a sin. Perhaps the most important reading assignment in that class was an essay by Beverly Wildung Harrison titled, “The Power of Anger in the Work of Love.” She invites us to consider that the problem is not anger itself, even if anger is rated as one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Anger can be either positive or negative. Indeed, it is right to be angry at injustice, and problematic to be apathetic toward injustice. Thus, she challenges Christians to “harness the power of anger in the work of love.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Empire-Critical, Ethics, Nonviolent Activism, Occupy, Sermons