Year B, Ordinary 29 (Proper 24, Pentecost +22), 2018 – I Feel Your Pain

October 19, 2018 / Molly Douthett / Ordinary Time

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Greetings!! We’re glad you are with us! We must confess that while we have good intentions for this podcast, our schedules do not always come through for us. Which is to say, we have illustrations and special effects for two of the three passages for this week. If you are hoping to find help illustrating Melchizedek, we are sorry. The one and only thing we had to offer for Hebrews is a poem written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer called Christians and Pagans, which may help illustrate MUSIC, PEOPLE, or SELF depending on your emphasis. Otherwise, our suggestions today focus on God speaking to Job out of a whirlwind and Jesus asking James and John if they really think they are up to drinking from the cup of suffering he will experience. God tells Job that reality is so much larger than his current circumstances and Jesus knows the destination at the end of the road he’s traveling. In both passages, we see that God is not indifferent to suffering.

This week’s texts are:

Job 38:1-7, (34-41)[01:59]

Anna Grant Henderson at Old Testament Lectionary has a fantastic idea we offer for a WORD smart special effect. She takes verses from Job and  Psalm 104 – the psalm of the day – and blends them as a reading done either as two voices or antiphonally in the congregation. As God asks Job questions, the psalm answers them! Check it out! Last week, we suggested using wide angle and telephoto lenses in EYE smart to illustrate how Jesus looked at people in Mark. Today, we think you could do the same thing; begin with Job focusing in on his life and then zoom out when God starts asking questions about things Job probably never even considered. For special effects, we have links to artwork below.  The MATH smart illustration comes from an essay by Todd Weir describing himself as a “Newtonian man in an Einstein world.” In BODY smart, read up on how to gird one’s loins and then demonstrate it! MUSIC smart has both a poem and a song, and in NATURE smart, David uses illustrations and a special effect based on how our perception of heaven and earth is stuck in time. We finish with a quote from Teresa of Avila for SELF smart.

 

Mark 10:35-45 [19:54]

We begin in WORD smart wondering if Jesus could have responded to James and John more directly. Drinking from his cup and being baptized like him doesn’t really address their request to be seated in Jesus’ glory. WE know what Jesus means, though. At the end of the passage, Jesus the greatest is the slave of all so ask people what comes to mind as they see themselves as a “slave”. For an EYE smart special effect, we have a link to some artwork showing who has been portrayed being at Jesus’ left and right. We have some logical exercises for MATH smart and a thought about being ransomed. Did the cup Jesus mentioned have any connection to Roman centurions getting ready for battle? Follow the link for BODY smart. Animals and their struggle for dominance is a good NATURE smart illustration of Gentile masters’ tyrannical lordship and quest for power. We continue into PEOPLE smart with this image and offer some thoughts that are pertinent to the United States as we head into the midterm elections next month. For SELF smart, follow the link below to the website At the Edge of the Enclosure for some compelling meditations about suffering and God’s presence in and through it. 

  • Smarts – Word [21:28], Eye [23:39], Math [25:07], Body [27:40], Nature [28:47], People [30:40], Self [33:08]
  • Mark 10 worksheet
  • Links in Mark

 

Image Credit: Photo by Lily Banse on Unsplash

 

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