Finding Jesus in All the Normal Stuff

The audio for this sermon illustrates three things I try to do regularly in preaching on the gospel of Mark in these early months of the year.

1) I try to highlight some major themes that are going to keep popping throughout the year, such as the pacing and drama of the gospel, the immediacy of it, the focus on healing and casting out of demons and preaching the kingdom of God, the secrecy motif, and so on.

2) Map the text over our daily lives so as to illustrate in very concrete ways what Jesus then means for us as Jesus now. In this case, mapping the 24 hours described in the text over our next 24 hours.

3) The last three minutes of the sermon actually occur in real time immediately after praying the Lord's Prayer and before the distribution of communion. At this point in the liturgy, I often do an additional one or two minute tie in that connects with the sermon, so as to illustrate the deep connection between Word & Sacrament.

Thanks for listening. Here's the link:

http://goodshepherdnwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/02-05-12S.mp3