What is this?

 

Arial Rounded, largest. It's a matter of perspective, isn't it! Some of the blogs I read have appealing, artistic, sometimes delicate, fonts that are difficult for elder eyes to read. Some physical features of, like, church buildings, are threatening to older parishioners because the younger folks in charge don't, even cannot, see the dangers of older members tripping and falling. Some church bulletins have print too small for elder eyes. 

It's no "pat on the back" but ever since, it would have been 2004 or so, a church member asked what I might do to help her daughter, who loved to sing, but whose vision was too weak to read lyrics in the hymnal, and I started printing hymn lyrics in the worship bulletin, in very large type size for her.

Why am I on this trail this morning? IDK, it just come to me, nomesane? Aging has helped my awareness of other people's needs. I guess you have to be there/here, or very deliberate about others, otherwise you are blind to them/us, eh?

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Living right on St Andrews Bay is such a joy and blessing, and one of innumerable things I love about it is watching what the clouds do and how fickle they are! Ten minutes before I snapped that shot (above) the sky was clear and blue, with just a thin line of low, black clouds beyond Shell Island, way out over the Gulf of Mexico. The next Time I glanced up and out, the sky looked ominously like a storm brewing. Ten minutes later the "threat" had passed on, and now we have the promise of a nice Sunday.

Speaking of which, here's this morning's gospel reading:

Mark 1:21-28

Jesus and his disciples went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 

Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 

They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

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From a Bible study point of view, just a couple of things. One, is sort-of, but not exactly (in fact, not really well at all) fits the prophecy of our OT lesson from Deuteronomy in which Moses and God promise that Israel's future will bring another prophet as gifted as Moses. (Matthew and Gospel John do a better job of making that clear). But "What is this? A new teaching" - - in some cases they are astonished and impressed by him, in others they are offended and enraged at him. 

Anyway ...

The other thing is that this is early in Mark's gospel, the appearance of what Bible scholars call "the Markan secret" or "the messianic secret" with Mark enticing us that nobody recognizes who and what Jesus is - - the Son of God, the Messiah. There's been centuries of speculation about why Mark has Jesus shush demons and others about revealing his, Jesus', identity, the "secret" that is a major feature of Mark's gospel. 

Why does Mark do this? It's Mark's agenda, the major literary feature of his gospel: all the way through the gospel, nobody realizes who Jesus is until at Calvary, when the gentile Roman centurion who is in charge of the crucifixion declares, "Truly this man was/is the Son of God" - - but even then, on the Third Day the women come to the tomb, see that Jesus' body is missing, hear the angel proclaim "he is risen!" and yet the women flee, they don't say nothing to nobody, because they are so terrified. Mark thus ends his gospel leaving us readers so frustrated that the people inside the story fail to "get it" about Jesus, that we readers are inspired to jump up and dash out to proclaim Christ. Mark is an imaginative genius at exploiting his Markan Secret to accomplish his own proclamation.

Whoever made the additions after the end of Mark's gospel was an idiot, but Mark himself is an inspired genius. 

Hope to see you in church!

RSF&PTL

T88&c