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,…
The Rev. Geoffrey Little is a lifelong Anglican and New Englander. After coming to Christ in college, he served for ten years with the South American Missionary Society (SAMS), first as a lay missionary in southern Peru and then on their staff in Ambridge, PA. While there he completed his divinity degree at Trinity School for Ministry. Ordained in 1992 in the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, he moved with his young family to New Haven, CT, where he has lived and worked ever since as a pastor in intercultural urban ministry. In 2010, Geoff and his wife, Blanca, joined the ACNA Anglican Diocese in New England and established All Nations Church and All Nations Christian Academy in New Haven. All Nations Church brings together Spanish- and English-speaking people in bilingual worship and fellowship. All Nations Academy is a K-4 Christian elementary school dedicated to offering children from the city an opportunity to hear the Good News while acquiring a first-rate education. As a pastor, Geoff is a firm believer in the Anglican Sunday lectionary as an effective tool of evangelism and discipleship, and over thirty years of ministry has studied its presentation in the Book of Common Prayer. Geoff is the proud father of two adult children and the grandfather of four.
Today in the Spirit: Proper 19B
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…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 18B
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,…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 17B
At the end of the series of Gospel readings from John 6 just completed, we received the hint that Jesus had returned to Capernaum (see Jn. 6:59). This week at Proper 17B, we return to the Gospel of Mark, where the assigned Gospel reading from Mark 7:1-23 records Jesus’ address to Pharisees and teachers of…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 16B
At Proper 16B, still following Jesus in his ministry in Galilee, we come to the assigned Gospel reading from John 6:60-69, where Jesus delivers a rebuke to his disciples (not the Twelve) concerning their stubborn hearts. Having finished with the unbelieving Jews, our Lord finds many of his supposed followers also grumbling about the expectations…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 15B
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…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 14B
In this next week of the Pentecost season, following the Proper 14B schedule of readings, we dig deeper into our meditation on Jesus as the bread of life. The assigned Gospel reading out of John 6:37-51 takes us to the next phase of our Lord’s conversation with the Jews who refuse to believe what he…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 13B
After taking us in our worship through Mark’s account of Jesus feeding the multitude and walking on water, the church now assigns readings on what happens next from the Gospel of John, Chapter 6, for the next four weeks. The Gospel reading John 6:24-35 relates the beginning of a tense dialogue between Jesus and some…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 12B
We come to Proper 12B, and, following Mark’s Gospel, we come to the narrative immediately following last week’s account of Jesus feeding the five thousand. Mark 6:45-52 contains that Gospel’s briefer (compared with Matthew) but detail-rich account of our Lord’s walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee. My commentary below seeks to demonstrate…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 11B
This Sunday, in Proper 11B, we continue our liturgical walk with Jesus in Mark’s account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. This is one of the few pre-Crucifixion incidents in Jesus’ ministry that appears in all four Gospels, and in Year B of the lectionary, it is scheduled so that we hear it twice…
