Proper 21B (RCL) – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Impediments

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 26 September 2021; Proper 21B (RCL); Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22; Psalm 124; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50.

I did my Clinical Pastoral Education as a chaplain intern at the Massachusetts General Hospital. I was assigned to the rehabilitation floor, so we dealt with patients who had longer stays than most. One of the young men I encountered was a teenager (maybe 16), who was having his hand reconstructed. He had taken this passage literally, and laid his hand on a railroad track, because he did what teenaged boys do. I have a hard time hearing this passage, without recalling that young man.

Stumbling blocks

30 September 2018
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 21B (RCL)
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
Psalm 124
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50

Let me start by saying that when I was doing my CPE on the rehab floor at Mass General Hospital in the mid-1980s, there was a young man on the floor who was having his hand reconstructed. On the basis of this passage, and feeling guilt about what teenage boys do, he laid his right hand on a railroad track. I’ll never hear this passage in Mark without remembering that young man and the horrible guilt and pain this caused him. We need to use care in reading. Continue reading “Stumbling blocks”