The Christian narrative is a call to be dispossessed. The desire to possess is one of the greatest manifestations of fear in the world today. The desire to possess is what leads us to so much violence ... Daily newspapers (are full) of ample testimony to the gravity...
Dignity is not built on possessing honors, but on the awareness that you deserve them.
The moment we believe we are superior to another, possess a special knowledge of God that others cannot without us, or insist that a life outside of our beliefs and community is futile, we are not evangelizing, we are colonizing.
As the characters in the story maintain a safe distance from Jesus, speculating among themselves about this new powerful teacher, readers of Mark are invited to follow Jesus into a whole new world, says New Testament scholar Brian Blount, into "Mark's world of Jesus...