[From the version for families with children]

Can you imagine being in a race and wanting to take last place?  It doesn’t make too much sense, does it! But Jesus says that the last place in his Kingdom is really the first. 

The world says that getting ahead is the thing to do. Being promoted in a company often makes people proud, for they have lots of people under them that they can tell what to do. Jesus’s disciples get caught in this type of thinking, wondering who is the most important among them in Jesus’s kingdom.  Jesus notices his friends talking quietly among themselves on the road about who is the greatest; they are trying to keep their voice down so that Jesus can’t hear.  

Listen to the strong words of Jesus about all that competition going on—all that selfish thinking that his disciples got into.  What is it about being in the last place in his Kingdom that makes it so important to Jesus?  Who does Jesus use as an example to show what he means? Will you do something this day and this week that will show that you’re catching on to Jesus’s teaching in this reading?

Mark 9:30-37

What are “Bible Breaths”? Learn More…

Sundays are dedicated to the Gospels from the Revised Common Lectionary.
In year B, we read from the Gospel of Mark

For all the Firestarters I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information.

[From the original version]

Autumn has always been a nostalgic time for me—smells, sounds of crunching leaves, fresh pencils and books for a new year of school. This sober, inward season is the setting when our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrate Rosh Hashana (September 7 and 8, 2021). It is a solemn beginning of a new year. Autumn is a season to meditate upon life and to discover the sacredness of time.

We have come to that place in Mark’s Gospel, which is the “autumn,” of Jesus’ earthly life. Jesus will be speaking about the End Times. It is the beginning of the end, which turns out to be a new beginning.

Today we flash back to Palm Sunday as Jesus, your King, rides into the heart of Jerusalem to take possession of God’s Kingdom. Walk beside the donkey.

[Paragraph from the version for families with children]

Jesus enters into Jerusalem in a flurry of glory—not unlike the colors that break out on the leaves before they fall and die.  Think of the branches of leaves that are placed beneath Jesus’s feet.  The crunching of leaves beneath our feet in this season can have us recall that moment of glory as Jesus enters into Jerusalem.  He will be crowned king there–not with a crown of gold, but one of thorns!  And there’ll be a different kind of throne too—the cross! 

Mark 11:1–14

Create your own Bible Breaths Learn More…

Fridays are dedicated to the Gospels. This year, we generally read
from the Gospel of Mark, this season, chapters 10 to 16.

For all the Firestarters in the original version I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information.

[From the original version]

St. Paul’s greatness may have us envision him as a wondrous “Lone Ranger.” Today’s reading will change that. “Now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord,” says Paul. Is he co-dependent to others’ faith? No, but he is intimately inter-dependent to them, with bonds of faith and love that are the sinews of the Body of Christ. We belong to each other in Christ.

Do not go it alone, gritting your teeth, faking a smile that everything is just fine when it is not. The Lord wants you to trust in him with bonds extending into a community of faith, hope, and love that is immensely real to you. What are you doing to be sure that you have friends in the Lord?

[Paragraph from the version for families with children]

…There are lots of young people and adults too, who are praying this same passage with you today.  That’s the power in this way of reading the Bible; you are not alone!  Read Paul’s words as though you are drinking in your favorite soda or juice and be refreshed by the energy of God that you’ll find all over this passage.

  1 Thessalonians 3

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More

Thursdays are dedicated to the letters of Paul, other letters,
the Book of Acts, and the Book of Revelation.
In season of Kingdomtide this year,
we read 1 and 2 Thessalonians; Revelation 4—11.

For all the Firestarters in the original version I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information