BibleWorm

On this special Ash Wednesday episode BibleWorm reads Mark 9:30-37, the story of the disciples arguing about who is greatest. We talk about the specter of death that hangs over this text and the way that death anxiety may push the disciples—and us—toward cultural constructions of our their own value. Yet Jesus redirects them, first by insisting that the last will be first and the first last, and then by instructing them to embrace those with no status in the social hierarchy at all. We also wrestle with Jesus’s insistence on explaining his suffering and death to the disciples when they just can’t seem to get it. Sometimes we just need to hear the words even if we don’t have the life experience to understand them yet. Someday we’ll need those words, and what a gift it is to have received them.

This week BibleWorm reads Mark 8:27-9:8 - best known for the story of the transfiguration, but there is so much in this text before we even get to the mountain! Finally in this week’s text, the disciples have “the talk” with Jesus – the talk about who Jesus actually is, about what their relationship actually is. But just because they’ve talked about it doesn’t mean the disciples really understand. How can they - or we - wrap our heads around both the humanness and the cosmic-ness of Jesus? What do we imagine it is like for Jesus to be surrounded by people who, faithful as they are and try as they might, just can't quite get there? We sure do love Peter’s courage as he tries, though. 

This week BibleWorm reads a series of texts in Mark 6:1-30, beginning with the story of Jesus being unable to perform miracles in his hometown, which leads us to think about the ways we sometimes struggle to hear truth from those most familiar to us and the possibility that we must sometimes let go of comfortable places to grow into our true potential. We then read the story of Jesus sending out his disciples, empowering them to carry on his work when he can’t do it. We pay special attention to Jesus’s instructions to his disciples, who are to travel without food or money, relying on the hospitality of strangers and ministering from a position of vulnerability and trust in the community. Finally, we read the strange story of John the Baptist being beheaded by King Herod, which we take as a warning about the fickleness of Empire, which recognizes the truth of John’s ministry and yet ultimately executes him anyway.

This week BibleWorm reads Mark 5:21-43, two very different stories of miraculous healing that are intertwined in the way maybe all of our lives are. One, a girl at the threshold of womanhood, and at the threshold of death. The other, a woman who has been hemorrhaging for 12 years - the entirety of the girl’s life.  The stories made us wonder about the flow of faith in the world, in us and between us. They made us question our sense of what is truly urgent, and reflect on the factors in our minds as we make that determination over and over again in our own lives. And at the end of the day, they reminded us that the miracle of these stories is a restoration to everyday life in our bodies and in our communities. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that these things alone are a miracle.

This week BibleWorm reads the story of Jesus casting a legion of unclean spirits into a herd of pigs as told in Mark 5:1-20. We struggle with how to think of demon-possession in the modern world, ultimately concluding that demons represent those forces, both spiritual and societal, that intend harm to humans and especially to those living at the margins of society. We notice that when the demons see Jesus they immediately know they are going to be cast out, and we wonder whether the demons of this world likewise tremble when they see us. And we notice that rather than celebrating the restoration of their neighbor, the townspeople demand that Jesus leave their region, raising the question of whether we, too, are more concerned about the healing of our neighbors or worried about the costs of their restoration.

This week, BibleWorm wades into parables with Mark 4:1-34. How striking it is that the chapter starts out telling us that Jesus creates some physical distance between himself and his followers, by going out in a boat before trying to teach the crowds that have gathered on the land. Similarly, he teaches here in a way that slows us down, and creates a little distance between the words we read and the meaning to be conveyed. The parables he tells in this chapter made us wonder: Which truths from our everyday economy will serve us well if we reorient toward God, and which ones do we need to relearn? When you are entrusted with something precious, when is it right to be careful with it, and when is it better to be generous with it? And how big or small is our role in God’s system, anyway? 

This week BibleWorm reads Mark 2:1-22, beginning with the story of a man whose friends dig a hole through the roof so they can lower him down to Jesus. We discuss the relative importance of forgiveness and healing, with this text suggesting that the most urgent matter is being set right with God whatever the abilities and limitations of our particular bodies might be. We notice, too, that Jesus heals him based on their faith, and we ponder whether our faith, too, can have effects for others, whether our faith in God or our faith in people themselves. And we discuss a series of stories in which Jesus contrasts a new community of radical welcome with an older structure of righteousness, concluding that God values both the old way and the new way, desiring only that each makes space for the other to thrive.

This week, BibleWorm begins the Gospel of Mark - we’ll read Mark 1:1-20. Mark sets the stage by telling his readers that this is good news – though we will see even in these first 20 verses, that we’re not talking about a puppies and cotton candy kind of “good” – we’re talking about a deeper good, a harder one that involves significant struggle for everyone who pursues it, all the way up to the proverbial C-suite. But, oh, it’s such an empowering good. When we read how the heaven’s respond to Jesus’s baptism, we have to wonder - what if we took seriously the possibility that the events here on earth can reverberate in the heavens, maybe even change the course of things? What if we took seriously the invitations that we ourselves encounter to re-orient our actions toward a horizon other than whatever the empire has laid before us? What would be possible? 

On this special Christmas Eve episode we’re discussing the birth of Jesus as told in Luke 2:1-20. We talk about the imperial setting of this story, which takes place during the reigns of Augustus, Herod, and Quirinius but announces the good news of a different lord and savior who brings peace to all rather than to the few. We ponder the way that the message makes its way into the world—through an unwed mother, a band of shepherds, and an assortment of people who happen to be awake in the middle of the night—leaving the official power structures unaware of the fact that the world has been fundamentally changed. And we talk about how this story challenges us to pay attention to who we listen to, where we look for good news, and what divine announcements we might sleep through because we’ve gotten too comfortable. Merry Christmas, y’all.

This week, BibleWorm begins a new testament – THE New Testament, in fact! We are reading today from Luke 1:5-25 and 57-80 – the story of the birth of John. We see and affirm Luke’s desire to offer us an “orderly account” of things, but y’all, there is something decidedly un-orderly about the heavenly kingdom breaking through. This reading made us wonder - What if we could live into a world where ye olde power structures are put aside, and parents orient toward children, and children orient toward wisdom itself? How can we raise up all the ways that we may come to know what God wants us to know - both the shiny angelophanies and the quieter moments of deep knowing, deep in our bones? And what is it that we need – that YOU need – to feel saved, to feel safe, to live the life you are called to?