A Group Reading of Mark 8:27-9:32 (July 3-9)

[Davidnic]

Posting this early because many of us will be off and on until July 4th. So getting it started now.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

I don't understand the significance of the story about the men with demons who are healed at the expense of a herd of pigs. or that is the way I read it.

 

[Paidiske]

Paul, I did a lot of reading about that recently (had to preach on it), and it seems it was very common in exorcisms of the time for the demons to be sent to a specific other place/item (often a body of water - it's maybe not insignificant that the pigs then rushed into the water). A way of binding it from returning to the original person, perhaps?

But why the demons would beg for the pigs I'm really not sure. Maybe they thought Jesus might destroy them utterly?

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

thanks Paidiske

 

[Davidnic]

In many parts of the world there is folklore about running water and fresh water purifying evil spirits. And Pigs were also unclean so putting Demons into them has a kind of symmetry.

Side note, traveling a bit for the 4th of July so I will be limited in the thread for a few days.

 

[Fantine]

Mark 9:1-9 The Transfiguration

Reading this today, I thought about Mother Teresa and others who have had extraordinary experiences of God's presence followed by "dark nights of the soul."

Like most of you, I have had powerful experiences of God's presence in my life, not quite as extraordinary as Mother Teresa's or of the transfigurataion, of course. What I have found is that they are unforgettable. They give me roots, and even during times where God's presence is less visible, I am sustained by them.

I think that the transfiguration was meant to sustain the apostles for the hard times, like our experiences of God do for us.

If God's touch forever changes you, you will carry on in difficult times.

 

[Davidnic]

Bumping up so I remember to post later as I get on schedule after the holiday.

 

[Mountain_Girl406]

One of my favorite quotes in the Bible is here: I believe, help me in my unbelief.

 

[Davidnic]

The Transfiguration...the foretelling of glory is one of the most amazing moments in all of Scripture. And it comes after Peter's declaration of Christ as Messiah. We see Mark moving things into revealing the mystery of Christ.

The reading for this part of the discussion is fairly small compared to next week but what we see is it is jam packed with foreshadowing the revelations to come.

 

[Fish and Bread]

Just bumping this so I can find it again and post some thoughts over the weekend. I am slowly but surely catching up (See the lengthy series of posts added to the previous thread the last few days).

 

[Fish and Bread]

8:34-38- People take a lot of different meanings from this, and read into it heavily, but if we look at it as St. Mark, living in a time when many Christians were brought before the Roman authorities and told to recant or die, and some recanted, it seems to be a very literal condemnation of recanters and telling people that their relationship with God is more important than their actual mortal lives- not some specific aspect of their mortal lives, but actually more important that preventing their own deaths. Now, were we to read something like this in the Koran, some would immediately point to it and say “Look at Islam and how extremist it is in even it’s most fundamental texts. It’s not a religion that is compatible with a peaceful modern progressive culture.”. I think it would help to keep in mind that when we look at other religions, perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to condemn them based on passages like this, because we have our passages like this. Yet, Christianity has gotten beyond it’s more extreme side in many respects, and as has Islam in it’s more progressive and mainstream forms. So, when we see these horrible terrorists, it’s important to keep in mind that they are not simply followers of Islam, they are following a specific extremist misinterpretation of Islam that has been condemned by many Muslim religious scholars and that many Muslims have moved beyond, and that eventually all Muslims might move beyond. Fundamentalism from any religion and rigid literalist interpretations are usually not a good thing. But good things can come of all the world’s major religions when they are understood through an interpretative lens focused on values like peace, love, and inclusion.

9:28- Often the subject of faith versus works is a topic of discussion and a point of differentiation between Protestants and Catholics. Protestants will often put forward that we are saved by faith through grace, and not by our works. Catholics will say that faith without works is dead. Both of these are paraphrases of epistles, one of St. Paul and the other of St. James. And, of course, most serious churches and denominations have a way of explaining when their own understanding is compatible with both angles, even while the ordering or emphasis may change. However, either way, here we have an indication that sometimes you can only overcome the evil in your own heart by prayer, and in some ancient sources, depending from where the translation is drawn, fasting. God doesn’t always simply cast out the evil in your heart the second you ask her. Sometimes you have to work for it.