Mark 1:29

As soon as they had left the synagogue, they went to the house of Simon and Andrew, along with James and John.


holy places are no more
they leak like a sieve
boundaries are broached
seeds of life sprout
in the midst of certainty
revealing unpatchable cracks

abandon hope sanctuary-naughts
never will you be safe
sanctification regularly fails
in a next moment of choice
no amount of past propping
will keep brokenness at bay

think not that retreat
from communal constructions
are any less vulnerable
than family values or your own
for illness breaks every part
revealing failed faith fantasies

apart happens
public and private
disjunctures happen
unvalued others
reveal aloneness
re-orderable


We need to remember that this is not just a mosey to Simon’s home. This is another BANG. Imagine a quick cut from the interior of the synagogue to the interior of the house.

Imagine, also, the conversations and interruptions back and forth as Simon, Andrew, James, and John try to make sense of what they had just experienced in the synagogue. There would likely be the piecing together of events. When did you notice the man? What did he say? Are you sure? I’m sure that’s not it. These four are part of the news story that will be further spread through the night.

How long do you think this debriefing went on and what role did Jesus play? Was he quietly letting folks talk it through? Giving hints about what to make of it? Also involved in the wondering? Exhausted?

Whatever you imagine, the raw energy of an exorcism would take awhile to settle.

Nothing takes place in isolation. This conversation is going on in other homes. Ideas about individual needs for healing bubble up. Scribes and Pharisees attempt to fit this into current understandings of how G*D works in the world. Sadducees begin to suspect this will further jeopardize their work with the Romans who in turn have omens of something let loose by the arrest of Baptizer John.

Quick cuts to many rooms finds a chaotic mix through which a crack, a fault, has opened. Multiple responses begin to vibrate—agitating hope and fear to an even higher degree of tension.