2025 Lenten series spending time with Jesus by going through the Gospel of Mark.

Video Message	Resources
Week 1: The Beginning of the Good News	Monday Memo notes More this Week 1. This week, live the “gospel” as the “beginning” of new creation by… – Speak up about the deficient norms of your little part of our world – Reaffirm your chief or top allegiance to Jesus as Lord of your life, to which all other allegiances pale in comparison – Point others to the better alternative way of God we see in Jesus – Take notice of the small, simple, often hidden ways God’s new creation is already taking shape in our world and among us. Thank God for those reminders.  – Find a few, small concrete actions to take that move your little part of the world further toward God’s new creation aims.  2. Some great devotional reflections on “the gospel”:  – The Gospel and the Kingdom of God – N.T. Wright Online – Asking for Help – United Church of Christ – Shoes – United Church of Christ 3. Some reflections on God’s new creation work launched by God in Christ and how you can be a part of it…all from renowned biblical scholar N. T. Wright:  – Beginning to Think About the New Creation – N.T. Wright Online – Jesus Is Coming – Plant a Tree! by N.T. Wright – The Road to New Creation – NTWrightPage
Week 2: When The Problem is Religion	Monday Memo notes Explore More – A great and easy read on the contrast between “religious Christianity” and the grace of “messy spirituality”: Messy Spirituality: God’s Annoying Love for Imperfect People: Yaconelli, Mike, Karla Yaconelli – These problems with religion, if embraced and lived for too long, create unsafe people and churches. You can read about that in this book excerpt: 9780310210849_content – Some good devotionals about “religion” to sprinkle throughout your week:  – Why We Don’t, and Do, Need Religion – United Church of Christ – A Flaming Arrow – United Church of Christ – Religion Liberates – United Church of Christ Religion Liberates
Week 3: The I-Don’t-Know-How Kingdom	Monday Memo notes More This Week – Where can you cast Kingdom “seed” this week? By your actions or your words? Perhaps make this a matter of prayer this week, asking God to show you? And as you plant your seeds, leave the outcome and results entirely in God’s hands.  – Reflect on how your own life is the result of many others planting “seeds” into you in the past that have in time produced an abundant harvest.  – Take solace and find rest in prayer by remembering and verbalizing that God’s Kingdom is chiefly God’s work, not ours. The Kingdom doesn’t rest entirely, or even mostly, on our shoulders.  – Mark 4.26-29 is the 2nd of three parables in Mark that use the seed metaphor. Those three parables are meant to be taken together, and only together paint a clear picture of what Jesus means. You can find the other in Mark 4.3-9 and 4.30-32.  – And here are a few good, short devotional entries on Jesus’ use of the seed metaphor:  It’s Not About the Soil Word and words Small but Spicy
Week 4: Sent Out	Monday Memo notes This Week – You too are sent by God to speak Christ’s truth and do His work. Ask God to help you know when, how, and to whom. – Do you have at least one partner for the way(s) you are serving Christ’s mission? – What would you do or try if you didn’t wait to know the whole plan/story or see God’s provision fully first?  – Who are the people in your life who are ready to welcome Christ, what He has to say, and what He asks us to do in the world?  – Who or what might you need to leave behind for a time simply because they’re closed to Christ, His perspective, and His work?  – You’re ordinary – like everyone else. Don’t let that hold you back from speaking up, speaking out, loving, or taking a risk in Christ’s name. There are only ordinary people to participate in God’s mission. People just like you.
Week 5: One Desperate Father	Monday Memo notes For This Week – Make the father’s cry your prayer every day this week: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”  – Who can you bring to Jesus this week? Identify a person in need, like the son in Mark 9, who can just bring to Jesus. On whose account or behalf can you exercise faith this week?  – Express dependence through prayer this week, and through that find great strength to take a big swing for Jesus in your world: have a hard conversation, try to heal a broken relationship, reach out to a stranger, be a dissenting voice, etc.  – And here are a couple of devotionals about faith…and doubt:  – Missing Jesus – No Doubts? I Doubt It!
Week 6: Following in Fear is Still Following	Monday Memo notes Explore More – Much of the language of Mark 10.32-34 is actually drawn one specific text in the Old Testament, which lays out the experience of Israel’s prophets as they were rebuffed by God’s own people and the suffering of Israel at the hands of outside nations: Isaiah 50.6-8.  – On Jesus as a holy troublemaker, check this out: The Troublemaker [Jesus story #8] – Thinking Pacifism – Martin Luther King Jr.’s short reflection on how his own suffering for the cause of Christ had also proven to be profoundly transformative for him spiritually – not unlike the simultaneous fear and amazement of the disciples in Mark 10.32-34: “Suffering and Faith” | The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute – And here’s a devotional written about Mark 10.32-34: Memory Omission – United Church of Christ Memory Omission