February 5

[media presentation below]

GospelThink

Thursday, February 5

MARK 6:7-13

I instruct the Apostles and you.

Prayerthoughts
a. Jesus went around teaching. What is the most important teaching of Jesus that I should listen to?

b. Jesus had helpers, in this case the Apostles or here called “the Twelve.” He gave them the power to cast out demons. What demons in our world are most destructive? How have they influenced me?

c. Jesus wanted them to travel “light” because he did not want material things to hold back the message that they were to preach. As I live in the world, are there material things that are holding me back from God’s presence?

d. Jesus’s thought was to work with a problem for a time—remaining in the “house.” What are the problems in my life right now, and how can the Lord help me with them?

e. Jesus realizes that the Apostles would face rejection, and rather than talk against them or threaten them, he tells them simply to shake the dust from their feet, or in other words, just leave and go to the next situation. Often I cannot do that—I would rather seek out some type of revenge. What is the area in my life where I am most prone to revenge?

f. I need to pray for repentance. What are the areas in my life in which I need to beg for forgiveness?

g. Am I concerned about those who are sick in my acquaintance? Should I show more concern for them?

h. My prayerthoughts…

Today, I will read 1 Kings 2: 1-4,10-12, and write an important thought from it.

Some Thoughts on the Liturgy

PERSONAL CHRISTIAN PATTERNS

+ One of the things that most people agree on when it comes to begging from others on behalf of some cause or institution or project

- is that it had better be evident that we believe in what we are begging for first

- that some sacrifice has been made by the person who is begging

- that we have done something to our personal patterns that can be seen

+ For Jesus, it was a basic principle for the people who were to preach about his Kingdom—the Twelve as he called them

- he wanted them to preach repentance—as Mark describes here in the Gospel

- but before they did that, Jesus gave them the preparations

- he says that you can preach only after you have practiced repentance yourselves, repentance as defined by Jesus in a particular way:

He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts.

+ This has obvious application to a Christian minister, of course

- but I think it has application to all of us

- because we are all Christians, followers of Jesus

- and therefore called to preach, in a way, to the people of our world

+ What we are called to preach comes in a general English word from Jesus called “repentance”

- and before we do that, Jesus calls us to reformed behavior very similar to what he called for in the Twelve

- namely our personal patterns that are specifically Christian

- which involves what we do with our time, with our money, with our family, with our lives in general

- it involves addressing our selfishness, addressing the fact that we talk others down, watching our language; it involves donating our time and talent to people in need

- which is the 21^st century way of speaking of walking sticks and food and money in our belts

+ We can have the greatest message in the world—and a Christian does—

- in terms of the 10^th century BCE King Solomon in the first reading, his father David had told him that as king he would rule the world

- but before he could do that well, he had to follow the ways of the Lord

- as we live out the message of Christianity, we are called to follow the Lord’s ways, that is, adopt our own personal patterns of repentance.

MEDIA PRESENTATION

Movie: "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, part 2" --
beginning session

RESPECT FOR LIFE DURING WAR

The Gospel

MATTHEW 24:6-8

Jesus said: "You will hear of wars and reports of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for these things must happen, but it will not yet be the end. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be famines and earthquakes from place to place. All these are the beginning of the labor pains.”

Gospelthink: I want you to know that there will be bad times in the future. Right now am I a person that brings peace wherever I go?

This session of the movie "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, part 2" continues where the last movie left off. Peeta has been re-programmed by the Capitol and is imprisoned by the rebel force. Having devised a plan to capture President Snow and bring forced peace to the people of Panem, the rebel force commanded by President Coin, set about killing some people of the Capitol in order to achieve their goal. But Katniss s, known among the rebel force as the Mockingjay and the inspiration behind the rebellion, did not agree with the killing. As the Mockingjay, she and a number of rebels including her friend Gale and Peeta now released from prison, set out to make propaganda reports on behalf of the rebellion. They gradually approach the Capitol.

Jesus was very clear concerning his teaching on war. There was to be none because everyone, even an enemy must be loved. At the same time, he was very aware of war. He encountered it in his own lifetime as can be seen from the Gospels, and he spoke of the presence of war in the future as well. War was like the pains of a woman in labor at childbirth--they would come, only to be reconciled in the end. Therefore, In the process of war, even if there would be peace, there would be casualties.

Katniss Everdeen, the Mockingjay, realized that the war which the rebellion was about to cause in the movie "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, part 2" would bring about death and destruction. But her desire, based perhaps on an understanding of a higher belief, was to cause as little damage as possible. In her mind, the rebellion of which she was a symbol, should not cause useless killing.

Among the lessons of the Hunger Games trilogy, this may prove to be one of the most intriguing. Given the circumstances of war, perhaps one of the important guidelines must be that there should be as little actual killing as possible. It is a directive that humankind at war has not learned very well.

Jesus wanted peace. It is a guideline that every Christian must be aware of, even as he/she is involved in what might be called "self-defense." Our path of action must be governed by a sincere love of people, and even when there are "enemies" involved in our lives, we must always be directed to love as best we can.

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, we live in a very complicated world, one in which Your Son's doctrine of love is often not a preferred guide. Allow us to have the grace to learn a true love of others so that we can follow the path of love as best we can in our circumstances. Be with us, we pray.

+++++

GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT

Theme: Even in a war, there must always be respect for life.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
(session: approximately 64 minutes)
1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking and why?
2. In what way can we bring about peace?
3. Why has the Christian understanding of "peace" failed?
4. Is it even possible to have "as little actual killing as possible" in war? Yes or no and why?
5. How would you define "respect for life" in our present twenty-first century?