Faith. How do we describe it? The Gospel story is quite clear that faith is not the blind following of accepted social or religious practices. Mark tells us that Jesus is ignoring important cultural mores of the day. A bleeding woman would have been unclean, and unable to enter the temple or participate in society. Touching a person who is dead would also have been considered unclean, and yet Jesus took the hand of Jairus’ daughter.
An extemporaneous sermon for Mark 4.35-41.
We don’t always see the fruits of our labors. But rather than despair remember we walk by faith and not by sight.
Rather than be held back by family who thinks Jesus has lost his mind, Jesus expands who his family is. “Looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’”…When we’ve been rejected by our families, queer or not, Jesus has embraced us into his.
Patrick’s prayer affirms an ever-present, dynamic God, similar to the dynamic relational God of process theology. God is everywhere, sustaining everything, guiding our steps, and giving us wisdom to face the challenges of each day. God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.