WJDA? (What Did Jesus Ask?), VII: Why are you afraid?

Kenilworth Union Church

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WJDA? (What Did Jesus Ask?), VII: Why are you afraid?

2024 Fall

October 20, 2024 • William A. Evertsberg • Mark 4:35–41

The disciples complain “Jesus, we’re dying here! Don’t you care?” And Jesus responds with one of the 307 questions he asks in the four Gospels: “Why are you afraid?” It’s a question he’s been asking all of us ever since: “Why are you afraid?”

WDJA (What Did Jesus Ask?), IX: If it were not so, would I have told you?

November 3, 2024 • William A. Evertsberg • John 14:1–3

It’s not an accident that Halloween and All Saints’ Day are adjacent to each other on consecutive days. As you know, the word “Halloween” is a contraction of “All Hallow’s Eve,” the Eve of All Saints’ Day. Both holidays are trying to answer the same question: What happens to us when we die? or What are the dead doing? Ghosts and souls are adjacent concepts. What do you make of the way Halloween has exploded in prominence in the last ten years or so? All of my neighbors are trying to scare me to death. Americans will spend almost $12 billion on Halloween this year; that’s a tiny fraction of the $900 billion we’ll spend on Christmas, but still…

WJDA? (What Did Jesus Ask) VIII: Whose image is on this coin?

October 27, 2024 • William A. Evertsberg • Mark 12:13–17

You see why it’s so much fun to be a Christian: Jesus is just so good. With one slick move, he manages to elude the Pharisees’ trap like Lamar Jackson with one of his patented scrambles in the backfield. There’s the long heave! Bam! Touchdown Jesus! Not only does he manage to escape the Pharisees’ clutches, he also says enough about government and God in one sentence to fill a whole bookshelf full of esoteric volumes.

WJDA (What Did Jesus Ask?), VI: Who touched me?

October 13, 2024 • William A. Evertsberg • Mark 5:21–34

And then she hears about Jesus, this Miracle Man, this Wonder Worker, and she says to herself, “What the hell? Why Not? I’ll give it a whirl.” She worms her way aggressively and rudely through the masses, thinking to her herself, “If I can just touch the sleeve of his hoodie, if I can just glaze the hem of his robe, if I can just glance the fringe of his power, maybe I can be made whole; maybe I will be welcomed back into the human community.” And I love the way Mark talks about Jesus’ miracle-making machine. The instant she touches the fringe of his power, she can feel in her body that she is suddenly well. The bleeding stops just like that. Likewise, Jesus feels the power exit his body.