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Mark 12:38-44

Jesus Keeps It Real

November 7, 2021

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Lectionary Year B

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ASK (a.k.a The On-Ramp)

Good morning!
Did you know that Halloween recently happened (last Sunday)?
Did you by any chance dress up / wear a costume?
And what was your costume?
So…since you wore that costume of [say a couple of names of the costumes that the kids just told you ] were you really that person or thing? (expect a lot of yeses here)
Oh yeah? You were? Are you sure you weren’t just pretending? Even just a teeny, tiny, little bit?

TELL (a.k.a. The Freeway)

That’s one of the fun things about Halloween, isn’t it?
You get to pretend that you are someone else, someone that you usually are not.
In today’s scripture story, Jesus tells his disciples that the Pharisees are pretending to be people that they are not…except they are pretending ALL OF THE TIME!
This is not a good thing.
Jesus says that the Pharisees are religious leaders who only pretend to want to know God better.
And one of the things they do in their pretending is wear a costume of long robes that make them seem like they are paying attention to God even though they are not.
In other words, the Pharisees did not do what their costume would make you think they would be doing.

This is like what we learned about our own Halloween costumes, right? Just because we wear certain clothes that does not mean we are actually Superman or Wonder woman or a cat.

SHARE the Good News (a.k.a. The Destination)

Now, it just so happened that there was another teacher for the disciples to learn from – someone who was not a Pharisee.
There was a teacher who did not pretend to pay attention to God, but actually did the things that he told others about God.
And he didn’t wear a fancy costume or uniform to try and convince the disciples to pay attention to him.
This person was, of course, Jesus.
Since Jesus wasn’t pretending, his disciples could trust his teachings and actions as authentic.
And, just like the disciples learned from Jesus, we can too.
We can do this by reading and talking about the Jesus stories in the Bible – just like we’re doing today.
And the more we learn from Jesus, the more we learn to pay attention to God just like Jesus did, which allows us to do the same things Jesus did – without having to pretend.
That’s the good news for today. Let’s pray.

CLOSING Prayer

This is a repeat-after-me prayer.

Dear God,
Dear God,

Thank you for Jesus…

…who does not pretend about you…

…but keeps it real…

…in all that he says and does.

Thank you and amen

Originally posted October 25, 2015

Updated on October 11, 2021

Written and edited by Nathanael Vissia

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