Exodus 34:29-32 | Mark 9:2-9
On Tuesday night at Nooma we had what I call a ‘help Chris to write his sermon’ study. Essentially this consists of listening to a passage of the Bible being read, and then reflecting on a few simple questions.

Last Tuesday we looked at our gospel reading for today, and essentially the concensus we came to was that none of us in the room could see how this story has anything to do with our lives today.

So what’s it about? Why does Mark choose to include this story in his gospel? What role does it play in his narrative, what is it about Jesus that we are supposed to read through, in, or behind these words?

2 Kings 5:1-14
Naaman was a powerful and influential man, commander of the army of the king of Aram, a successful military leader who had won the favour of his king through his victories on the battlefield. And to put that into context; Aram was the dominant power in the region at the time of Elisha – Naaman’s defeated opponents had, on numerous occasions, included the people of Israel (as we read in the passage, Naaman’s wife was served by a slave girl who was an Israelite, taken in one of their raids on the land).

A powerful man, used to winning, used to getting his own way.

But he has a problem. For all his military success, all his armies, all his influence with the king cannot cure him of a disfiguring skin condition (normally translated in English versions of the Bible as leprosy, although lacking modern medical categories the word probably included a wide range of skin diseases). None of his power or influence can help him – but help comes, from the most unexpected of sources.

The Miracle of the Marmalade Cat
A Meditation on John 3:16 – Rob Ferguson

The graciousness of being
so inspired
the all-encompassing love of Jesus,
that whosoever shares his passion
in their hearts,
shall not suffer
the confining limitations
of shallow existence,
but shall know
the ever-expanding
eternal wonder
of abundant life
in all its fullness.
Thanks be to God.

Jonah 3:1-5,10 | Mark 1:14-20
It’s well know that Jonah was a reluctant prophet, but he was also a prophet whose words didn’t come true. He came with a simple message – “In forty days, Nineveh will be destroyed”. No ifs, no buts, no explanation (unusual in itself – the Old Testament prophets normally seem to spend a great deal of time and energy listing the sins of the nation they are speaking against). Just “in forty days, boom”.

But it didn’t happen.

Because the people of Nineveh took the message seriously. They believed Jonah. And they also believed that they could do something about it. The message from God might not have had any loopholes, any get out clauses, but they were convinced that God might yet be persuaded.

And they gave up their wicked ways, and God saw, and God changed God’s mind.

Psalm 89:1-4 | Luke 1:26-38
Did she have any idea just what she was letting herself in for?

Mary is one of the most fascinating figures in the nativity story, at least in part because we know so little about her. As with so many women in the Bible who must have had a profound influence on events, her part is mentioned almost in passing. Matthew barely even mentions her, Mark and John don’t bother with a nativity story at all, and even Luke, the most radical of the gospel writers in his inclusion of women just gives us the Magnificat that we read last week, and this little exchange with Gabriel.

Yet even those two little snippets give us insight into a remarkable woman.

But I wonder again, did she know what she was letting herself in for? Surely not. The angel greeted her as one who has found favour with God – surely Mary did not realise that that favour would mean a long journey while pregnant, a baby born far from home, a flight to Egypt. Nor, surely, that it would mean her first born child would leave home and village to become a wandering preacher, or that he would be taken from her and killed.

No, all of that was an unknown and unrevealed future.