Sacred Space

I do not have to go
To Sacred Spaces
In far-off lands.
The ground I stand on
is holy...
- Mary de La Valette (excerpt)

This week we will reflect on "sacred space" and the importance of place and why place matters!

Why do we have church in a pub? How can it be our sacred space?

Aaah, come find out with us :-P

Conversational Sermon Text for July 26, 2008

Mark 1:35-45

And rising early, while it was still very dark, he went outside and stole away to an isolated place, where he started praying. Then Simon and those with him hunted him down. When they had found him they say to him, "They're all looking for you."

But he replies: "Let's go somewhere else, to the neighboring villages, so I can speak there too, since that's what I came for."

So he went all around Galilee speaking in their synagogues and driving out demons.

Then a leper comes up to him, pleads with him, falls down on his knees, and says to him, "If you want to, you can make me clean."

Although Jesus was indignant, he stretched our his hand, touched him, and says to him, "Okay - you're clean!"

And right away the leprosy disappeared, and he was made clean. And Jesus snapped at him, and dismissed him curtly with this warning: "See that you don't tell anyone anything, but go, have a priest examine . Then offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as evidence ."

But after he went out, he started telling everyone and spreading the story, so that could no longer enter a town openly, but had to stay out in the countryside. Yet they continued to come to him from everywhere.

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Where do you personally connect to the story in this text?
What questions does this text raise for you - either about the gospel so far, or personally?

Conversational Sermon Text for 7-19-08

Mark 1:29-34 – Scholars Version of the Gospels

They left the synagogue right away and entered the house of Simon and Andrew along with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her right away. He went up to her, took hold of her hand, raised her up, and the fever disappeared. Then she started looking after them.

In the evening, at sundown, they would bring all the sick and demon possessed to him. And the whole town would crowd around the door. On such occasions he cured many people afflicted with various diseases and drove out demons. He would never let the demons speak, because they realized who he was.

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Twice so far in Mark, Jesus has not wanted to be exposed for who he was...why?

Have we ever not wanted to be known - even when it was for a seemingly good thing?

What do you think about Jesus healing Simon's mother-in-law only so that she can "look after them"?

There is a pattern in Jesus' healing work that is both in this healing and in the exorcism from last week's text (and the pattern will continue throughout Mark) - what purpose does this healing pattern serve in Mark's gospel?