Bekah led us this week in a reflection on Mark 10:46-51, the story of Bartimaeus. Delving deeply into her own story of hurt and healing, Bekah speaks of Jesus’s healing and the road that we walk that is a journey through the cross to resurrection. Along the way, Bartimaeus takes his own voice, is named, has agency, and is involved deeply in his own healing, engaging with Jesus as he is coming through Jericho, and choosing to follow Jesus on the journey.

This week, we continued our theme of space in Mark with a discussion of The Sea. Sam led us in a discussion of the Sea of Galilee and specifically the story of Jesus calming the storm (Mark 4:35-41). Sam encouraged us to find the peace among the storms blowing around us as we make this journey together.

This week we continued our Lenten series reflecting on different spaces in which we encounter Jesus in Mark. Jennifer offered us her thoughts on Jesus’s healing of the paralytic in Mark 2:1-11, the conception of home represented there, and what home means for her and what it might mean for us.

This week we began our Lenten journey through Mark. We are traveling with Jesus as he works his way to Jerusalem, seeking to find our way behind him. This journey begins in the wilderness, and this wilderness offers a stark contrast to the end of Jesus’s journey in Jerusalem, the city.

This week’s discussion of Sabbath ends our time of Epiphany while also preparing us for our spiritual practice of Lent by having us engage with the practice of Sabbath. In this Elvins asks us to think about Sabbath as rest as well as risk, and to imagine Sabbath as something we do, rather than something an individual does on their own. It is a practice that does not comport well with out surrounding culture’s obsession with work and efficiency, but perhaps precisely for that reason, it is a practice that is so necessary for us.

This past Sunday, PMC celebrated Consecration Sunday. Consecration Sunday is the day that we set aside at the beginning of every year to come together as a congregation with our “first fruits,” committing to our specific engagement with the community for the year.

We often think of prayer as simply asking God for our needs, and it certainly can be that, but in many ways, prayer is the very heart of our existence because it teaches us to attune ourselves to the heart of all existence, God. Prayer is practicing God’s presence. Prayer can be difficult, silent, overflowing, or any other number of different things (and not always easy and warm feeling), but prayer is turning our ears to the Word that God is speaking, and opening ourselves to that attunement more and more.