{"id":32,"date":"2018-06-29T17:30:02","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T17:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/?p=32"},"modified":"2018-06-29T23:16:34","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T23:16:34","slug":"reading-gospel-mark-320-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/hearthegospel\/2018\/06\/reading-gospel-mark-320-35.html","title":{"rendered":"Reading the Gospel of Mark 3:20-35"},"content":{"rendered":"

This passage from the Gospel of Mark is found in the revised common lectionary provided by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library. The text is from the NRSV. <\/em><\/p>\n

You can hear a recording of the reading here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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When reading the Gospels aloud, we invite the audience to encounter the human experience of the divine as recounted in the Gospels. We can leave interpretation and meaning to members of the clergy and other scholars. What we are most interested in is this experience.<\/em><\/p>\n

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In this reading, I think it\u2019s clear that Jesus experiences the world in way that\u2019s different from the way everyone else experiences the world. He behaves differently.\u00a0 He touches and heals the sick, embraces those who\u2019ve been marginalized, and challenges earthly authority with difficult questions.) He speaks differently (in parables) and reacts differently to the hostility. He responds to threats with invitations.<\/p>\n

Jesus is often imagined and portrayed as beatifically disengaged. Unearthly. But in this reading, he\u2019s clearly engaged. He invites everyone to see and experience the world in a new way; to see and recognize the power of the holy spirit at work in the world. He asks the scribes to think about what it is they are really saying \u2013 and the jeopardy they are placing themselves in — when they attempt to dismiss this power as the unclean work of demons.<\/p>\n

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Text Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

As readers, we begin with text analysis. Read the text aloud to yourself. We\u2019re not attempting an exegesis of the text. We\u2019re allowing ourselves, and inviting the audience, to hear and see through and beyond the printed words on a page to the events and experiences suggested by those words.\u00a0 Here are some things that stand out to me:<\/p>\n