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Thank you to those who have visited and left comments.

I would appreciate any “review” of this verse-by-verse approach to Mark. There is the possibility of this being turned into a self-published paperback book several months down the way. It obviously needs some editing.

There is also the reality that my next three months will have a primary focus on a Special General Conference of The United Methodist Church as it wrestles with how close to grace it will come regarding its own LGBTQ+ members and LGBTQ+ persons in discriminatory settings. I work with Love Prevails and would appreciate your support of our work through your prayers/intentions/meditation and donations.

One of the outcomes of this work is a new translation of Mark—
Slow-Reading the Gospel of Mark. Any reviews of this book on Amazon would be appreciated.

May you be awed enough in life that you will leave an empty tomb of the past and proceed to the yet-to-be-seen.

Wesley White
wwhite (at) wesleyspace (dot) net

Afterword

Marking Time

betwixt and between
be and ing
continuous
fits and starts
we begin and end
with a provisional
transitional
beginning and ending

never a definite article
a the beginning
a the end
consistently
flowing again
remembering anticipating
are ing and tomorrow ing
our each is ing

wilderness at core
tempts and restores
within each boundary
contemptuous
unsettling every settled
feeding off certainty
to retreat deeper
until urgency pauses

a living heart
pushing onward
repenting again
compassionate
with wounds near and dear
and Johnny AppleEater far
betwixt and between

There is no posting today as I am out-of-town to speak at a District UMW gathering on “Sacred Spaces: Encounters with G*D and Neighb*r”.

This gives an opportunity to announce that I have just self-published a translation of Mark that is available on Amazon—Slow-Reading the Gospel of Mark.

The format invites a reflection on some of the smaller connective words in Mark’s telling his Jesus story. The text pushes back at our desire to scan and rely on a familiar story. Hopefully, there will be a new opening to this old story as a Reader faces an awkward style not smoothed with familiar language choices.

Should you take a look at it, I would appreciate your posting a Review on Amazon (negative as well as positive, so we don’t get too far away from reality). Reviews help me as an author to see how to improve and assist potential readers to dive in or move on.

Thanks for your traveling with me through these long months—with a couple more to go.

Wesley

Hopefully the pause just taken was fruitful enough.

One outcome was the development of a draft of a paraphrase of Mark. I’m willing to send a PDF of this draft to anyone who is willing to give some feedback on it. As in any draft I have already found both errors and things I would now phrase differently. Additional eyes would catch more such as well as react to the format.

If this might have your name on it, write to me at wesley@wildernessurgency.org

Thank you for reading here.

I am taking 11 days off from this part of my Mark project. I have been offered an opportunity to present a narrative approach to reading the Bible, using Mark as a focal point. To prepare for this I need to finish a draft of a companion piece—a paraphrase of Mark based on my last reading of Mark. This time will also coincide with participation in a multi-day, denominational annual meeting.

As every reading also entails a concurrent re-writing of the material read, if only in one’s head, this paraphrase is an intriguing task. I will be using a variant of sense-lines (phrase lines) instead of a prose format. A larger explanation of sense-lines can be found in this out-of-print book (use your library) by James A. Kleist—The Memoirs of St. Peter or The Gospel According to St. Mark, Translated into English Sense-Lines.

I would appreciate your thought/prayers/comments/suggestions about this paraphrase over the next week plus, as well as general preparation work for a 6-session, participative exploration of Mark.

The current plan is return with verse-by-verse comments on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. With some luck these comments on Mark will conclude before the end of this calendar year.

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The initial blurb about this adult group:

READING AND BEING READ BY MARK’S EXCELLENT, VERY GOOD NEWS will use the Gospel of Mark to teach you how to read the Bible narratively–that is, how to place yourself into the stories of Jesus to experience them in a whole new way. 6 sessions. Meets Mondays at 6:00p, beginning June 26, downstairs in the Youth Room at Onalaska United Methodist Church.

Yesterday, Halloween, was the eve of a hallowed time. November is going to be a hallowed time for me. If all goes well this blog will return in December.

Between now and then, I invite you to attend to one small detail per day. That’s the way habits are established and mystery revealed.

Blessings on your November.

Wesley

The correct links for Moral Injury links referred to yesterday should be:

https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/4602-moralinjuryshayexcerpt.pdf

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/rita-nakashima-brock-ph-d/moral-injury-the-crucial-missing-piece-in-understanding-soldier-suicides_b_1686674.html

It has been a couple of busy weeks here with out-of-town events: Presenting on “Community and Covenant”, Celebrating an award by a friend, Attending a Westar seminar. Also assisting on a major paper for a Colloquy on “Missio Dei” (I’m agin it), reading in “Putting God Second: Saving Religion from Itself” by Donniel Hartman (recommend it), and the usual surprises found in life.

Right now it looks like a restart of comments here will begin on October 16. That will give me time to cache a few comments so next busy times (already known at the end of October/beginning of November) can co-exist with these stanzas and comments on Mark. This is fair warning that there may be another hiatus that comes along unannounced.

Thank you for your comments, corrections, and questions along the way—they will make a difference when these beginning thoughts are more strictly edited after the end of Chapter 16.

Blessings on whatever busyness you have been experiencing.

Wesley

Dear Readers,

After 298 postings I have no more in the queue. This means taking a brief hiatus to bank some more. In theory, when restarting, you will again receive the postings on a daily basis.

I am aware of the irony of the last posting ending with “Leaving” and “Abandoning”. It is not my intent to do either with this little conceit of mine. Nonetheless, a pause is in order after having too many irons in too many fires and a seasonal lull in energy.

If you are interested in your own study of Mark, here are three resources that have triggered the most additional thoughts per page in me.

The Gospel According to Mark, Marie Noonan Sabin, part of the New Collegeville Bible Commentary

Reopening the Word: Reading Mark as Theology in the Context of Early Judaism, Marie Noonan Sabin (priced for academia, get a used copy)

Provoking the Gospel of Mark: A Storyteller’s Commentary, Richard W. Swanson (don’t forget to watch the included DVD)

Thank you for reading along to this point and making comments on this blog and directly to me — wwhite (at) wesleyspace.net. In anticipation of picking this up on another shore….

Wesley