One Man's Web

This is a very early draft of an ongoing book.  Enjoy and use as you will.

Jesus comes home. They really like him, and they really hate him, and this all happens so quickly that we scarcely notice it. Six skilful verses move us from the defeat of empire's legions to the "small things" in our own home town which undo so much of the life of the church: Simple envy and resentment blind us and separate us from the life of the culture of God as effectively as the military power of empire! Envy and resentment are key elements within the culture of empire, so much so that where there is envy and resentment, empire is at hand. In Chapter 6, we see the resentment in Nazareth mirrored by the resentment in Herod's family and palace. There is no qualitative difference between them.... Read on >>>>

I knew one of the saints. They were strong, resourceful, brave, full of persistence. Something terrible had happened in their life, I think, and they carried that with them, as we often do. They carried it by imagining a view of the world, and of God, which helped them survive, but which had set hard like concrete. I fear it meant they died longing to be loved, not able accept the love being offered them, isolated and trapped. I mourn for them still.

Their final and lasting gift to me was to wake me up to my own predicament. I was thinking of them one day when it occurred to me that I was precisely the same. Different issues perhaps, but just as trapped in now reflexive responses which I learned in order to survive as a child and teenager, and which now invade everything like couch that's got loose in your garden, and which seems even less eradicable... Read on >>>>

After the parables of Mark 4, Jesus embarks upon a series of works of power. Already there have been healings of individual people. Now, we have the stilling of a storm, and the death of thousands of pigs. After raising a child from the dead, and miraculously feeding thousands of people, Jesus will again aid the disciples out on the sea as a storm is building, this time walking out to them on the water, and climbing into their boat so that the wind ceases.

These stories have always had those who doubt them. But for our age they are not implausible; they are simply impossible. How, then, do we read them? The reductive materialism of our age sees them as nonsense. Their presence calls all of Mark into question. Most of us ignore the hard edge of reductive materialism; we accept the reality of morals and values, beauty, and love even though such things theoretically have no real meaning. But we know that storms are not quelled with a word. This is a reality which has no wriggle room... Read on >>>>