“Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.” —Luke 23:34
Author Megan McKenna considers Jesus’ ability to forgive and how we are called to the same:
We were created to be the friends of Jesus, the friends of God, friends with one another…. And so, we begin this journey of becoming, this way of being in the world guided by Jesus’s own words and actions that we will repeat over and over again in all our relationships and in so many moments of our lives.
And the journey of becoming—of liberation—is the journey…
more“Peace be with you” was the greeting of Jesus to the apostles at his sudden appearance among them. They were in a locked room in Jerusalem (Luke 24:36; John 20:19), and behind them was the stupendous fact of the resurrection. Was this a ghost? To reassure them, Jesus showed them his pierced side and the marks of the nails on his hands and his feet. On this momentous meeting, he breathed on them the power of the Holy Spirit and commissioned them to preach in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
“Peace be with you”: What more beautiful greeting can…
more‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’ (Mark 1:15)
What some call “liminal space” or threshold space (in Latin, limen means a threshold) is a very good phrase for those special times, events, and places that open us up to the sacred. All Saints Day and All Souls Day (November 1–2) can be for us “thin times” where the veil between this world and the…
more16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ …
moreIn the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. —Mark 1:35
If the desert is a place of renewal, transformation, and freedom, and if the heat and isolation served as a nurturing incubator …, one wonders if a desert experience is necessary to reclaim this legacy.
One need not wonder long when there are so many deserts within reach. Today’s wilderness can be found in bustling suburban and urban centers, on death row, in homeless shelters in the middle of the night, in the eyes of a…
moreA leper came to him begging…, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” —Mark 1:40–41
Walter Brueggemann emphasizes that we are all in need of Jesus’ healing touch:
Jesus touched him. He put his strong hand into the sore skin. He risked touching the contagious skin and thereby making himself, as well, socially unacceptable and ritually impure. He risked all of that in his compassion. And the narrator says, “Immediately! The leprosy left him, and he was made…
moreHe said to the paralytic – ‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat, and go to your home.’ And he stood up and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’ Mark 2:10b–12
Supernatural stories of extraordinary miracles may discourage some people from taking the Bible seriously. There seems to be a disconnect between the world we inhabit, where the laws of nature reign supreme, and the world of the Bible, where things go whizz, pop, and bang.
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more35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’ 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. …
morehttps://www.thefuelcast.com/library/2025-09-22-jesus-in-the-boat-r25
35That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a…
moreJesus woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind ceased and there was a dead calm. He said to the disciples, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
—Mark 4:39–40In the midst of uncertainty and swift transition, in the midst of personal and institutional upheaval, and amid the “fightings within and fears without” that separate peoples, races, and nations, we desperately need to hear a little good news. And this passage from the fourth chapter of Mark’s Gospel, which relates how Jesus calmed the storm on the Sea of Galilee, is…
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