Thursday exploring
As the weather moves through and on off to the east, my phone keeps doing its cute little ring-a-ling notification of lightning strikes in the area. Glad this rainy, stormy weather is today and not yesterday when Norm was driving over from Opelika. We had a great visit and sea stories. Lunch at Harrison's on the downtown marina, wasn't crowded, perfect for sitting and talking, the shrimp bangers were just right, and the fish sandwich was too once smeared with extra mayonnaise. I'd at first decided to take him up to Steam on 5, the open air fifth floor rooftop restaurant at the Indigo Hotel, but the heat index was over 100°F so no.
At any age a get together is always a possible Last Time, but "my friends, life is short and we haven't much Time" is Captain Obvious when, friends for more than fifty years, two long-retired Navy officer octogenarians reminisce and it is to laugh.
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Announcement yesterday that our Interim Rector is scheduled to arrive the beginning of July, and have his first Sunday with us July 7th. He is the Rev John Tober,
So, what today? It's Thursday already. Earlier in the week I posted the upcoming Sunday's first reading, don't remember whether I looked at the gospel reading:
Mark 5:21-43
21 And Jesus having crossed-over again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd was gathered to Him. And He was beside the sea. 22 And one of the synagogue-officials comes, Jairus by name. And having seen Him, he falls at His feet 23 and begs Him greatly, saying that “My little-daughter is at the point of death. I beg that having come, You lay Your hands on her in order that she may be restored and live”. 24 And He departed with him. And a large crowd was following Him, and they were pressing-upon Him.
25 And a woman— being in a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and having suffered many things by many physicians, and having spent everything of hers and not having been benefitted at all, but rather having come to the worse, 27 having heard about Jesus, having come in the crowd from behind— touched His garment. 28 For she was saying that “If I touch even His garments, I will be restored”. 29 And immediately the fountain of her blood was dried-up, and she knew in her body that she had been healed from the scourge. 30 And immediately Jesus— having known in Himself the power having gone forth from Him, having turned around in the crowd— was saying “Who touched My garments?” 31 And His disciples were saying to Him, “You see the crowd pressing-upon You and You say ‘Who touched Me?’” 32 And He was looking around to see the one having done this. 33 And the woman— having become afraid, and while trembling, knowing what had happened to her— came and fell-before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And the One said to her, “Daughter, your faith has restored you. Go in peace and be healthy from your scourge”.
35 While He is still speaking, they come from [the house of] the synagogue-official, saying that “Your daughter died. Why are you troubling the Teacher further?” 36 But Jesus, having ignored the statement being spoken, says to the synagogue-official, “Do not be fearing, only be believing”. 37 And He did not permit anyone to follow with Him except Peter and James and John (the brother of James). 38 And they come to the house of the synagogue official, and He sees a commotion and ones weeping and wailing loudly. 39 And having gone in, He says to them, “Why are you being thrown-into-a-commotion, and weeping? The child did not die, but is sleeping”. 40 And they were laughing-scornfully at Him. But He, having put everyone out, takes along the father of the child and the mother and the ones with Him, and proceeds in where the child was. 41 And having taken hold of the hand of the child, He says to her, “Talitha koum” (which being translated is “Little-girl, I say to you, arise”). 42 And immediately the little girl stood-up and was walking around (for she was twelve years old). And immediately they were astonished with great astonishment. 43 And He gave-orders to them strictly that no one should know this. And He said that something should be given to her to eat.
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A preacher will do great things with this good old familiar reading, but it's even better for discussion in Sunday school or midweek Bible study. In fact, I've changed the translation above from the NRSV that will be read in most Episcopal churches to the DLNT, a translation that is even better than the KJV for literal word for word from Mark's NT Greek.
The reading shows lots of noteworthy things about Mark. For one, Mark's use of the "historical present" which tells a past event in present tense, making it more vivid - - a technique that most English translations miss entirely, which is a shame and diminishes Bible study possibilities.
Mark seems to be in a great hurry to get his story told. He begins almost every sentence with the word "And" to keep the story moving breathlessly; scholars have a technical term for that repeated connectedness, but I don't remember it. Jesus' constant use of the word "immediately" adds even more urgency.
Several Times, Mark uses, as above, an intercalation, that at least one scholar has called a "sandwich" to insert an apparently unrelated episode between two parts of another story. A German word for it is Ineinanderschachtelungen, which my translator says means "nesting" or "one inserted into another".
It's a clever literary technique, because Mark is the most clever of writers. In this case, the "sandwich" serves multiple purposes of showing the passage of Time to give the little girl Time to worsen and die while Jesus tarries, and also of pumping up the reader's adrenalin as we think "hurry up, Jesus, hurry up, for chrissakes, a little girl is dying!!" and also of showing that Time is no obstacle to Jesus' power and authority over creation. In another story Jesus calmly quiets a storm at sea, a nature miracle (NT Greek dynamis, work of power). In another story Jesus feeds a crowd of five thousand with just a bit of bread and fish, which can't be done except by the power of God. In this case, with the power of God, Jesus raises a little girl from death. And the woman with the flow of blood is healed simply because she believes Jesus can heal her. All great stuff for preaching about God's power in Jesus.
There is also something to explore about the woman being in her distress for twelve years and the little girl being twelve years old. And there is something significant about an official of the local synagogue having faith in Jesus' power to do whatever needs to be done - - contrasting with the blindness of the Temple officials in Jerusalem.
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Anyway, this is one of my favorites of all three years' gospel readings, and I think I'll leave it at that.
RSF&PTL
T88&c
DLNT: Disciples Literal New Testament