[Propertalk] Sermon Quotes Proper 19B (Gospel) - 9/13/09 - Part 4

[Joe Parrish]

As Mark's story builds towards the final act in Jerusalem, he depicts Jesus warning that there will be no escapes from a tragic end. Obviously this warning was selected from the tradition to warn Mark's audience that tragedy is part of the human condition and that faith in Jesus required that one face it with courage and honesty. We can do so because, as Isaiah tells us, God will hold our hand, as we walk finally into the valley of death.

http://www.agreeley.com/homilies00/sept17.htm

Andrew M. Greeley, 2000
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It is vital that we twenty-first century Christians take the pulse of our cultural context to understand who those outside the church think Christ is and who they perceive Christians to be. If, as some studies suggest, the view outside looking in, is that Christians are judgmental and unloving, then the Church needs to ask itself, what can we do about the aspersion this casts on the identity of Jesus whom we allege that we follow? 

http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=9/13/2009&tab=4

Alyce M. McKenzie, 2009
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The phrases "hold on to life" (????? ?????) and "lose life" (???????? ?????) are difficult to translate in a way that conveys their simultaneous literal and figurative senses in this paradoxical statement. "Hold on to life" means something like "attempt to elude death" while "lose life" means "waste, squander, make fruitless"; in the second sense, "lose life"-for Jesus' sake and the gospel's-means "accept martyrdom, one's death as a testimony to commitment to Jesus and the gospel," while "hold on to life" means "keep one's selfhood intact so as to preserve one's integrity and also to gain resurrection with Jesus.

http://artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/Mark/mk8notes.html#anchor882918

Carl W. Conrad
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v30: this is the only place in the whole Gospel where the title "Messiah" is joined to an injunction to silence. 
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v31: Koester (2004) points out that Jesus switches titles at this point: it is not the Messiah who will die, but the Son of Man. 
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Mary Tolbert's (1989) analysis of the Parable of Sower explains why Jesus condemns Peter as Satan. Returning to Mark 4:1-20, where Satan is mentioned for the only other time in the Gospel of Mark: 


     15: And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown; when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word which is sown in them.  


http://www.michaelturton.com/Mark/GMark08.html#8.p.27.33

Michael A. Turton
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Bob Dylan, 20th century
Jesus tapped me on the shoulder and said, Bob, why are you resisting me? I said, I'm not resisting you! He said, You gonna follow me? I said, I've never thought about that before! He said, When you're not following me, you're resisting me.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 20th century
Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.

http://i.ucc.org/StretchYourMind/OpeningtheBible/WeeklySeeds/tabid/81/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/228/Who-Are-You-Jesus-Sep-713.aspx

Kate Huey
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...this text, sandwiched between a blind man receiving sight and the Transfiguration, the sign of spiritual sight for all, is an opportunity for us to make a choice to see or not to see in a spiritual sense.

http://www.goodpreacher.com/shareit/readreviews.php?cat=12

Alyce M. McKenzie, 2009
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