Consider the Word, September 23, 2021

Consider the Word, September 23, 2021
18^th Sunday after Pentecost – Season of Creation
 
Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/92395423097
Meeting ID: 923 9542 3097
 
Readings for September 25:

• Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22
• Psalm 124
• James 5:13-20
• Mark 9:38-50

 
Collect

Grant, O merciful God,

that your Church,

being gathered by your Holy Spirit into one,

may show forth your power among all peoples,

to the glory of your name;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever. Amen

 
Readings: Mark 9:38-50

John said to Jesus, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward. If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched. For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

 
Reflection Questions

1. Why does Jesus speak so grotesquely (as drownings, amputations, plucking eyes, thrown into the fire)?
2. Are these metaphorical sayings?
3. What does it mean to have salt in yourself?

 
Closing Prayer

Raise us up, O Lord,

for it is you alone who restores life and health

to the suffering

and to those who wander from the truth.

By your grace,

may we offer powerful and effective prayers

for one another and the world,

in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 
The Message:

³⁸ John spoke up, “Teacher, we saw a man using your name to expel demons and we stopped him because he wasn’t in our group.”

^39-41 Jesus wasn’t pleased. “Don’t stop him. No one can use my name to do something good and powerful, and in the next breath slam me. If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally. Why, anyone by just giving you a cup of water in my name is on our side. Count on it that God will notice.

⁴² “On the other hand, if you give one of these simple, childlike believers a hard time, bullying or taking advantage of their simple trust, you’ll soon wish you hadn’t. You’d be better off dropped in the middle of the lake with a millstone around your neck.

^43-48 “If your hand or your foot gets in God’s way, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owner of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell.

^49-50 “Everyone’s going through a refining fire sooner or later, but you’ll be well-preserved, protected from the eternal flames. Be preservatives yourselves. Preserve the peace.”

The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson