lectionary

Late in Year B, we follow Mark’s account of Jesus traveling with his disciples toward Jerusalem for the last time.

Late in Year B, we follow Mark’s account of Jesus traveling with his disciples toward Jerusalem for the last time.

Late in Year B, we follow Mark’s account of Jesus traveling with his disciples toward Jerusalem for the last time.

Late in Year B, we follow Mark’s account of Jesus traveling with his disciples toward Jerusalem for the last time.

Late in Year B, we follow Mark’s account of Jesus traveling with his disciples toward Jerusalem for the last time.

When it comes to assigning accounts of Jesus’ ministry that appear in all three Gospels, as a rule, we find that the church most often chooses Mark’s version for placement in Year B. This is probably because so much of the rich material unique to Matthew or Luke must be included in the Year A…

In Mark 10:2-16, the assigned Gospel reading for Proper 22B, Mark (and Matthew) has placed back-to-back Jesus’ teachings on marriage and divorce and receiving the kingdom of God like a child as the first teachings he delivers on the road to Jerusalem. In the region of Perea, east of the Jordan, we find Jesus responding…

The readings in Proper 21B come around Mark’s recording of Jesus’ final teachings to his disciples in Galilee prior to his departure for Jerusalem. The appointed Gospel reading out of Mark 9:38-48 begins with our Lord’s response to John, who had reported the twelve attempted to stop a man from casting out demons in Jesus’…

At Proper 20B, we continue following Jesus (in Mark) in the last year of his ministry. It is obvious by Mark’s ordering of events and dialogue that Jesus is communicating his hardest teaching to his disciples in preparation for his departure. The Church assigns Mark 9:30-37, the narrative following last week’s Gospel reading. In it,…

At Proper 19B, the church moves forward the last year of Jesus’ ministry (two chapters ahead in the Gospel of Mark) to an incident immediately following the Transfiguration. Mark 9:14-29 tells the story of Jesus’ healing a boy with an evil spirit, a deed his disciples (those who did not climb the mountain) could not…

Coming to Proper 18B in the lectionary, we find Jesus and his disciples (in Mark’s Gospel) at the beginning of an eventful trek away from Galilee in the region of Decapolis, east of the Jordan River. There, according to the assigned Gospel reading from Mark 7:31-37, Jesus heals a deaf and mute man. In response,…

The basis for the readings selected for Proper 15B (except for the NT reading from Ephesians, which continues its own course) is the forceful determination with which Jesus of Nazareth speaks into the teeth of opposition by those John the Evangelist calls the Jews. The appointed Gospel reading from John 6:53-59 gives us the last…