sermon notes June 28

June 28 Mark 5, 2 Cor. 8

I don't like to talk about money in church.. I am always amazed at Christians who downplay the Old Testament requirements but love to resurrect tithing as a sign of spiritual maturity, as the saying seems to go. One of the standard complaints about church is that we always have our hand out for donations. Many of us resist the pressure to give to the needs of the church as structure. Indeed some use gifts as a tool of protest or even a weapon if they do not get their way.Nothing shows the power of money as a symbol, but I would like to fouc son the virtue of generosity today, more in terms of time and spirit. That leads to financial generosity, I think. notice how Paul refuses to command a collection, but sets it before them.

Gift giving is important in relationships. Some regard the price of the gift as crucial Paul is pushing a new view of economics, let’s call it christian economics. the very word refers to managing the household. Men sometimes neglect gifts, or have to be told what to do. Paul is telling the folks to make up their own minds about generosity, but to do so in the light of the abundant love of god shown in Jesus Christ.David shows immense generosity of spirit to Saul as well as his friend Jonathan.Saul tried to kill him as an enemy of the state, pushed him into exile, but here he honors him in death. I do wish we were generous in our comments and relations with others before they died, instead of sharing stories and events at the visitation.

Few days go by when the phone does not ring in the office or the buzzer sounds. It rarely seems a good time. When i am spinning my wheels, silence. When I am in a flow, bam, an interruption.It seems to me an interruption in spiritual pathways. Then I read this passage where the interruption seems to be the key item. A core element in Christian spiritual practice is the linkage of the everyday to the spiritual. the spiritual infuses the everyday, a smuch as it offers relief from its burdens.Interruptions are always irritants, but they may be a signal to us.

The teen is around 12, and the woman has suffered for 12 years. jairus face jesus directly,but the woman doesn't even speak. One is the daughter of Jairus, but jesus called this woman his daughter Neither gets excluded, but Jesus has a sense of what needs attention and in what order.The kingdom of God is shown to be wide open and not competitive. Recall that the word made well here is the same word as save..

Jesus is generous with time in our passage. Jesus is on an emergency mission to save the life of a little girl. Her father is a prominent person. On the way, jesus spends time with a woman who has suffered for as long as the little girl has been alive. Jesus could come back to her, but he spends time with her, as the seconds are ebbing away for the little girl.This technique of sandwiching a story is called intercalcation by some. which is the more important, the bread or the meat? do they have to be viewed together to get the point?

I don’t buy the idea that we multi-task well, as I think it is a way guaranteed to do a number of things poorly. On the other hand, intercalcation pushes us to recall that life does not come in discrete bit as much as it hits all with differing demands at the same time.