Author: jgarrison

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Two Book Reviews

Cover shot of both books

Tim Alberta, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism 

Book cover

(New York: Harper, 2023), 493 pages including index and notes. No photos. 

Tim Alberta is a journalist and the son of a preacher. His father grew his congregation in southeast Michigan to a megachurch status. Having spent his formative years in this church, Alberta had always appreciated coming home and visiting. But during his father’s funeral, in which he spoke, he realized the church was in trouble. Many of the leaders and members disliked his reporting on the American political scene. He was attacked while at the funeral. He wondered what had happened to the people he had known and loved and who had nurtured him.

Those who attacked Alberta after his father’s funeral were the same people who questioned Bill Clinton’s suitability for the Presidency. Yet, they ignore or overlook the obvious and blatant sinfulness of Donald Trump. Alberta wonders what happened to them and the church. Both seem to have abandoned the teachings of Jesus for the political rhetoric of the nation.  Alberta set out to explore American evangelical Christianity. Much of what he found was troubling. 

In this book, Alberta visits numerous churches, along with colleges and conferences, around the country. He starts with Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. When possible, he speaks to the pastors and leaders of movements along with those involved or formerly involved. He attends churches who messages are mostly political, who flaunt COVID guidelines, glorify guns, and speak of owning the libs. He questions what happened to Jesus’ teachings about loving one’s enemies. 

Alberta also visits with those who found themselves pushed out of churches because of their loyalty to Christ alone. These include Russell Moore, who had been one of the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, along with the new pastor at his father’s former church. He discusses the “hidden” evangelical issues around sexual abuse, introducing his readers to Beth Moore and Rachel Denhollander. He even looked at how other countries are drawn toward totalitarian dictators, drawing on the work of Miroslav Volf and Cyril Hovorun. Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that the church is under attack, not just in America, but around the world. 

Alberta doesn’t provide easy answers for how the church can stop being enamored with political idols. Perhaps this is best. The church, as he points out, isn’t in our hands. We belong to Christ’s church, and he controls it, not us. The only hope found in this book was in Alberta’s description of a few churches, such as the one his father had served, which had once been a megachurch. After losing significant members to other churches on the political right, they have found a stronger and more vibrant ministry even with fewer people. 

I would make one minor correction. Alberta speaks of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church being further to the right, theologically and otherwise, to the Presbyterian Church in America (page 438). I disagree. The PCA doesn’t even have an option for women leadership, compared to the EPC which does allow women to be in ordinated positions.  

This is a long book, but I recommend it for understanding how today’s church is caught up in the political sphere. It may be considered a companion to Katherine Stewart’s The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.  May we remember that the church doesn’t exist to serve political causes. We serve Christ, who is the King of King. 

Tim Kaine, Walk, Ride, Paddle: A Life Outside 

(Harper Horizon, 2024), 367 pages plus an insert of color photos.

Having recently turned 60 years old, Tim Kaine, a Senator from Virginia, who ran as the Vice-Presidential candidate with Hillary Clinton in 2016, set out to explore his adopted Virginia from the ground. 2019 also marked his 25th year in public service. He had served as the mayor of Richmond, as lieutenant governor and governor of the state, as well as a United States Senator. His goal was to hike the Appalachian Trail in the state, ride a bicycle along the state’s portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway along with the Skyland Drive, and paddle a canoe the length of the James River, which runs across the middle of the state. 

Walking

While the Senate was in recess in 2019, Kaine spent his free time hiking the 559 miles of the Appalachian Trail in the state. Beginning in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, he heads south to the North Carolina border, just south of Damascus, Virginia. A quarter of the “AT” is in Virginia, a state which has more miles than any other.  Having hiked this trail from the other direction, I found myself reliving my own experiences.  Many of the shelters were familiar as were places like Woods Hole Hostel, which I stayed at before it was even open. The owners who had purchased the farm shared with me their dream of having a hostel along the trail. Like him, I also had some less than fond memories such as the thick growth of poison ivy along the trail south of I-77. 

I also realized the differences between his hike in 2019 and my hikes in the mid-1980s. There are far more people hiking the trail these days and more hostels. Furthermore, there is a whole network of people willing to pick up hikers. When I hiked the trail, if you needed to get somewhere, you hitchhiked.

Kaine hikes the trail with a variety of people. There are friends from Richmond, classmates, along with his wife and kids, who join him for sections of the trail. As he walked south, we learn about Kaine’s life and his great love for the outdoors. Kaine is from Kansas City and fell in love with camping as a child in the Midwest. He jokes that while he never edited the Harvard Law Review as a student, he set the record for the most nights outdoors.

While at Harvard, he met his wife, Anne. Interestingly, she spent part of her years growing up in the Governor’s mansion. Her father was the first Republican governor of Virginia since Reconstruction. He was also the governor who stopped Virginia’s fight against school integration, a decision which ended his political career. With family roots in Roanoke, Anne shared her love of the Virginia Mountains with Kaine.  

Throughout the book, the reader catches a glimpse of Kaine’s faith. He often sings hymns, recalls portion of scripture, and has an abiding faith in Jesus Christ.  In addition, the book allows him to share what is happening politically in the nation, as the times he must run back to D.C., to take care of business. 

As I have always said, backpacking is a great equalizer of people.  It doesn’t matter how much money is in the bank when you are hiking. There’s no place to spend it. The reader learns how Kaine, as a senator, had to struggle to find water or to stay dry, issues all hikers endure. 

Bicycling

The second portion of Kaine’s odyssey involves riding the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyland Drive on a bicycle. Here, in 2020, he joins several of his college and law school classmates for the ride. A few years earlier, another of the group had hosted them for a ride across Iowa. The group hires a guide who drives a van with a trailer. And they stay in hotels and lodges along with the way, with their guide setting up their lunch at overlooks on the road. They enjoy good breakfasts (as opposed to the oatmeal along the AT) and nice dinners. This is the quickest section of the three-prong journey and is completed in seven days.

2020 is also the first year with COVID. Kaine spends much time discussing the problems with the disease (he and his wife both suffer from it and later, he finds himself dealing with long-COVID).  In addition, he discusses the problems in the nation with the rioting after the unprovoked killings of African Americans. 

Paddling

In 2021, after the turmoil of the election and the attack on the capitol, Kaine sets out on his last leg, paddling the length of the James, from the edge of the mountains to where it flows into the Chesapeake Bay. Like his AT hike, this is portion of the trail is done in sections. Kaine mostly camps in state parks along the river, or stays in hotels and B&Bs, while paddling a section each day.  His canoe is an Old Town, which his in-laws hand given him and his wife shortly after they married. 

As he travels, the reader learns the history of the river and about Kaine’s work as governor with many river projects that enhanced the waterway. The upper parts including portaging around dams and running rapids. Drawing on Earl Swift’s, Journey on the James, which describes his paddle in the 1990s, we see how the river has both been cleaned over the past quarter century. Cities and towns have transformed the river from an industrial wasteland to a pleasant park and riverwalks. The most difficult rapids are at the fall line in Richmond. This section, Kaine runs in a raft.  After Richmond, the river widens. Kaine continued paddling the Old Town open canoe until the last day, when he transferred to a sit-on-top sea kayak which he and his son paddled to the end of the river at Fort Monroe. 

Along the way, Kaine informs his readers about Native Americans in Virginia, as well as the role African Americans played in the state. The river’s dark history includes bringing many enslaved Africans up its waters to be sold into slavery. Kaine trip ends in the waters of Civil War battles and the site of the United States’ largest naval base. 

Recommendation 

I really enjoyed this book. As a Vice-Presidential candidate, Kaine seemed to me to lack pep. Reading this, I understand he’s probably more of an introvert. Yet, he gets things done. I wish this book had been available earlier, as I am now impressed with him and his grasp of the state which he serves. I would recommend this to Virginians and to those interested in the outdoors or the more personal side of politicians. 

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Faith requires understanding

Title slide with photos of Mayberry and Bluemont Churches

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry and Bluemont Churches
August 11, 2024
Mark 8:11-21

Sermon recorded at Bluemont on Friday, August 9, 2024

At the beginning of worship: 

When I worked in the bakery, Sunday was a day of production. We made the bread, starting right after midnight Saturday and throughout the day. This was so the bread could be delivered to our trucks on Sunday night and then into the stores first thing on Monday. 

When I was a young supervisor, we had a problem one Sunday afternoon. The bread rose nicely in the proof box, where some 4,000 loaves waited for the oven. But then, as the pans left the proof box and moved across a conveyor to the oven, the dough dropped. This wasn’t good. I started checking everything and having my mixer operator test and record even more frequently than normal. My first thought was something happened to a brew, which would mean we’d lose 3,000 loaves of bread.

But nothing seemed out of normal. At first, I assumed the mixer operator left out something. I watched the clock, waiting for things to return to normal. After 45 minutes, I stood by the proof box, waiting. But things didn’t improve. At this point, I called the plant manager and the maintenance engineer in on their days off. They came in and alerted the general manager and the bakery owners. Soon, we were having a pow-wow, trying to figure out what was going on. Hour after hour, we produced loaves barely an inch tall. It all ended up wasted. 

We tried everything and nothing worked. Finally, we tried setting up new brews in the fermentation tanks and pulled all new ingredients from a different batch of materials. After tossing roughly six hours of production out the door, 24,000 loaves, things returned to normal. I was scared that I might be fired, as I had no idea what was wrong. But then, neither did anyone else. 

We collected samples to be sent to a lab. A few days later, we got the report back. I and the mixer operator were vindicated. The salt we used, which included the enrichment for the flour, had three times the amount of iron than required.[1] The overly machined bread couldn’t handle the excess iron. The enrichment, which we went back to adding ourselves, was to blame. 

When we added the enrichment ourselves, the mixer operator took a half dozen capsules and dissolve them in a two-cup container of water. Then he poured it into the brew base that went into 3,000 loaves. Think about how small of an amount—six capsules, weighing maybe 2 ounces, could ruin so much dough. [2]

Jesus warns us to watch out for evil. It doesn’t take much (like a bit of yeast to make a loaf or a little too much enrichment to flatten one), to send us down the wrong road. We must be careful. 

Before reading the Scripture: 

In our passage today, Mark doesn’t provide us much context except that it occurs at the stop after the feeding of the 4,000 which we explored last Sunday. And the conversation with the disciples builds upon the topic of bread. But first, there’s an exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees.

We have already seen conflicts between Jesus and the Pharisees. Our passage begins with another one. But we’re not just shown how those in opposition to Jesus are on the other side, they also include those following Jesus. No one seems to “understand” who Jesus is. Mark builds up to the climax of his book, which-God willing-I plan for us to explore in two weeks.[3]


Let me say a bit about yeast. It comes up in this story and is essential for bread. Yeast in a Biblical sense was mostly used as a metaphor for evil. That is certainly seen in the Old Testament, but also in Jesus’ teachings.[4] However, Jesus also refers to yeast in a positive manner—as an example of the kingdom—in Matthew’s gospel.[5] But here, Jesus speaks of the corruption effect of yeast. 

Read Mark 8:11-21

Our text begins with the Pharisees again trying to test Jesus. The word used for test isn’t about discovering Jesus’ competency. This isn’t an IQ test or the SAT. Instead, it means they’re trying to trip Jesus up, to get him to say something they can use against him. 

Today, this seems to be the strategy of politicians on both sides of the aisle. If you can get a sound clip of your opponent saying something you can use against them, you have a winning strategy. 

The word used here for “test” implies a stumbling block or an obstacle that they are laying down before Jesus. Mark uses this same word to describe the devil tempting Jesus in the wilderness.[6]

As a part of their test, or their attempt to trick Jesus, they demand a sign from heaven. Essentially, they want insight into Jesus’ authority.[7] It’s not a miracle they’re asking for. There’s been plenty of miracles and it would be odd that they wouldn’t have heard about the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000. In addition, most likely they have heard the reports of Jesus’ healings and other miracles. Is Jesus’ power from God or from a more sinister source?

In a way, this passage picks up the argument Jesus had with the scribes from Jerusalem back in Mark 3, where they accused his powers to be from Beelzebul or the ruler of the demons.[8] If you remember back that far, Jesus speaks of the one plundering the “strong man’s house,” must first “tie him up.” By confronting evil powers in the world, that’s what Jesus is doing. He binds the “strong man,” Satan, so that he can rescue us. 

But Jesus, who comes in weakness, requires those who desire freedom to accept him by faith. But that’s hard. The Pharisees can’t seem to accept it, nor can the disciples as we’ll see in a minute. I also suggest that we, too, have a problem with accepting such grace. We want to be in control of our destinies, and along comes Jesus who says, “Follow me,” “Trust me,” “Believe in me.” It all goes against our grain. 


I am looking forward to reading a book that has just been published this past week. Daniel Silliman has written a religious biography of Richard Nixon, titled One Lost Soul: Richard Nixon’s Search for Salvation. I have read several reviews of the book, which sounds interesting.[9]

My friend, Robert, in Utah, who’s read almost every biography of Nixon, is also interested. We have agreed to read the book at the same time and discuss it. I’m still waiting on my copy to arrive. Robert lives in Salt Lake City. His copy arrived this past week, the day the book was released. Living in a rural setting, my copy won’t arrive until the middle of next week. But it’ll get here.  

From the reviews I’ve read, Silliman interprets Nixon as a man who tries to justify himself. Nixon is unable to accept grace. He feels he must earn approval. This idea of just trusting Jesus is hard. The Pharisees had a difficult time with it, as did the disciples, as did Nixon, and as do most of us. As I said, such trust goes against our grain. We feel we should be able to do whatever required to save ourselves, but that’s not the case. 

Jesus cuts the Pharisees off by saying that his generation will not be given any signs. Then he gets in the boat with the disciples, and they sail away, leaving the Pharisees to ponder what it all means. 

On the boat, and if you have noticed, sailing and rowing seems to be a major way of transportation in Mark’s gospel, we get into the second half of our story. The disciples now realize someone forgot to pack lunch! There’s only one loaf (and back then loaves weren’t that large). They’re blaming each other when Jesus steps in an warns them about the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod. 

As we’ve seen throughout Mark’s gospel, the disciples are clueless. Jesus obviously refers to his recent encounter with the Pharisee’s, warning the disciples about how they and Herod could corrupt them. But they think Jesus mentioning yeast because of their comments on the lack of bread. 

The disciples are a lot like us. They think everything is about them. Jesus speaks of yeast, they immediately think “it’s because we’re talking about bread!” Jesus nips this conversation in the bud, as he asks if they still don’t understand despite all they’ve seen. Jesus recalls the two feeding stories and asks them how much food was left over. The disciples remember correctly, but still don’t seem to get Jesus. 

I don’t think the point of this passage is that Jesus can divide the bread and feed everyone, which obviously he could do. Instead, it’s more about their trust of Jesus. Do they know who he is, what he can do. Or are they still lost. Or, as Jesus asks at the end of this passage, do they still not understand? Faith, as we see here, isn’t done blindly. It requires understanding.

There is a parallel between this sailing trip up the lake and the Hebrew people in the Wilderness. Despite all God did for them, they Israelites had a hard time trusting God. It’s why they spent so much of the time in the wilderness.[10] God wanted to teach them to trust in his providence, but they kept forgetting about God’s gracious care. 

When difficulties arise in our lives, are we not the same way? Do we not worry, thinking that we’re in over our head, not trusting God’s presence to get us through? If we can control things, we don’t have a need for faith. But we also don’t have a need for God. However, Jesus came to show the Father and invites us to trust him, through the good and the bad. Such faith requires us to have our eyes opened, which will be further explored in next week’s sermon. 

Jesus is the Savior. We should place our faith in him. He is the one we should trust. If you don’t know him, ask him to open your eyes and ears, that you might believe. Amen.

[1] This is because most bakeries figure one pound of salt for every hundred pounds of flour. Adding the enrichment with the salt was supposed to be easier on the operators.

[2] I told this story earlier in my blog. See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2021/07/01/another-bakery-story-the-perils-of-working-on-the-christian-sabbath/

[3] Mark’s climax is generally understood to be Peter’s Confession in Mark 8:29.

[4] Morna D. Hooker, The Gospel According to Saint Mark (1991, Hendrickson Publishing, 1997), 194.

[5] Matthew 13:33. 

[6] Mark 1:13. See James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 235. 

[7] Hooker, 191.

[8] Mark 3:20-27.  See also https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/04/07/the-unpardonable-sin-baseball-doing-the-will-of-god/

[9] See https://currentpub.com/2024/08/08/review-richard-nixons-graceless-religion/ or https://chartable.com/podcasts/signposts-with-russell-moore/episodes/174677472-nixons-politics-as-a-substitute-for-god   

[10] In addition to the Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy passages, see Psalm 95:8-11. 

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Another Scouting Memory: Ron Carroll

title slide showing Cape Fear Council Staff 1982

With our plates overloaded with barbeque, coleslaw, baked beans and hushpuppies, Ron and I searched for empty seats at the makeshift tables filling Clarkton’s tobacco warehouse. It was a month or so after the tobacco market, but the sweet smell of Brightleaf tobacco lingered. We nudged our way to a couple empty seats. Ron turned to the man and his wife sitting next to them and asked if these seats were available.

“Ya’ll good Democrats, aren’t you?” the man asked in a strong southern dialect.

“Hell yeah, wouldn’t vote no other way,” Ron shot back.

I about dropped my plate as I knew Ron had never voted for a Democrat in his life.

It was homecoming day for Jimmy Green, North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor. Green had just been acquitted for corruption. I was a young district scout executive and since many of Green’s supporters were also scout volunteers, they’d arranged from him to give a sizable gift to our camp construction campaign. I was at the homecoming to present Green with a plaque in front of his friends and neighbors on this day of celebration. Ron was my boss, the council executive. I had told him about the program, and he asked if he could tag along. Waiting for the program to begin, we ate our barbeque and drank glasses of iced tea. Ron, with his Mississippi accent, fit right in.

Cape Fear Council Staff, 1982
Ron is in the back row, second to the left. Back row John, Ron, Ray, Andy (camp ranger), Parker, me. Front row: ?, Teresa, Lisa?, Pam, Lillian.



Ron was a salesman, and a good one. He’d recruited me to work for the Boy Scouts, taking a significant pay cut when I left the bakery. He was also a good teacher and mentor and to this day I am indebted to him. Under Ron’s tutelage, I learned to run successful fundraising campaigns which not only raised money, but empowered people to feel a part of the organization. Although on this day in Clarkton, we honored someone who’d given a five figure gift to the scouting program, Ron continually emphasized to his staff to go after every gift, regardless of size. 

Emphasizing the importance of grass root gifts, Ron told and retold the story of Big Jim Folsom, a populist governor from Alabama in the mid-20th Century. Whenever Folsom spoke, he passed the hat and encouraged people to put in what they could. “Even if you don’t have any folding money, he quipped, “drop in a little change. Every gift is important, and we will use your gifts to fight for you.” Folsom’s advisors questioned this policy, reminding him he had plenty of fat-cats backing him and didn’t need to nickel and dime the poor folk. But Folsom knew better. “People make their commitment with money,” he told them, “If they give me a quarter, I don’t have to worry when the next candidate comes around seeking their support; they’ve already sealed their commitment to me.

Starting in February 1981, I worked with Ron for three years with the Cape Fear Council. I moved to the Piedmont Council in February 1984, but we kept in touch. A few months after I left, Rom moved south to become the Scout Executive for the council in Orlando, Florida. It was a big promotion. I remember talking to Ron as I was considering leaving the Scouting organization to attend Seminary. It was in the spring of 1986. As he’d done in Wilmington, Ron had been working to kicking off a major building fund campaign. They were building it around the Space Shuttle Challenger. Ron had the staff to design letterhead and logos and just a week or two before they were to kick off the campaign, the Challenger Space Shuttle blew up on take-off. They postponed the campaign. 

Over the next twenty years, Ron and I mainly stayed in contact through Christmas cards. His cards often included an ointment from the council where he was serving. A few of these still remain on my Christmas trees.

After Orlando, Rom became the Scout Executive for the Council in Washington, DC. There, he got to rub shoulders with politicians of all stripes, Democrats and Republicans. He was even considered for the Chief Scouting Executive position for the whole nation. But Ron’s health began to fail. Always a workaholic, he began to realize he couldn’t concentrate on the work he’d bring home to read in the evening. He started to forget things. A physical indicated a growth in his brain. Ron consulted some of the best medical minds through the National Institute of Health, but the cancer couldn’t be contained. In late 2004, at the age of 62, Ron took a medical retirement and he and Pam moved back to Wilmington, NC. 

The last time I saw Ron, it was a few days after Christmas in 2004. I had flown down to Wilmington to see my parents and Ron. We saw each other a couple of times over the few days I was home. On the day I arrived, I met with Ron and his wife Pam for ice cream at Salt Works near Bradley Creek. Ron could no longer drive. We met again for dinner. Then, before I headed home to Michigan, I allowed Pam the day to do some errands, while I sat with Ron at their home. 

That morning, I asked Ron about Big Jim Folsom. We talked for a few minutes about the former governor. Ron, who had later in his career worked with many in Clinton’s administration, told me that Bill Clinton could have learned from Folsom’s straightforward approach. According to Ron, Big Jim had once been caught going into a hotel room with a beautiful young woman who wasn’t his wife. He admitted to his constituents that he’d made a mistake, but went on to say that his opponents were out to get him and that girl had been the bait they’d used and anytime they use bait that appealing, they’re going to catch Big Jim.

“Ron,” I said, “Willie wasn’t set up.”

Ron laughed and told me another story. A rumor circulated that Folsom was known to have cocktails with the Kennedy clan. “That’s a damn lie,” Folsom retorted. “Everyone knows I don’t drink cocktails, I drink my whiskey straight, just like you folks.”

Although Ron had learned the skills of motivating people from a populist governor who was also a racist, Ron worked hard to overcome the prejudices instilled in those who grew up in the South. That last day I’d spent with Ron, I reminded him of an incident that occurred one day, not long after I’d started working with the Boy Scouts. 

Ron and I made a call on a Baptist pastor in Evergreen, a small community in Columbus County which did not have a scout troop at this time. Several parents and kids in the community, most of whom were black, had requested that a unit be started. We just needed to find a chartering organization. 

We had pleasant chat with this pastor. But he insisted that although he’d love to see a scout program, his deacons wouldn’t allow black boys to run around in their church. I began arguing, pointing out that this wasn’t a Christian attitude. But Ron cut me off. He politely and told the pastor if things changed, to contact us. We quickly left. 

As we drove away, Ron muttered, “that lying son-of-a-bitch.” “Don’t you believe he really wanted the troop,” I asked. Ron said he felt the pastor and the deacons were of the same mind. Then I asked why he didn’t want to confront the man. He said we weren’t going to change the preacher’s mind; it was best to leave with him thinking better of us than we did of him.

Ron chuckled, as I recalled the incident that had happened nearly a quarter century earlier. Ron wasn’t doing very well, having had numerous surgeries and bouts of chemotherapy to fight an aggressive brain cancer. The drugs bloated his face. He often forgot what he was saying. At about 11 that morning, Ron insisted we have ice cream. An hour later, he decided we needed a sandwich and a beer. 

Ron was the only boss I had in my life who would treat his staff to drinks at lunch! And even here, a quarter century later, and just a few months before his own death, Ron treated me to a beer. Over lunch, he spoke about how he hoped to have a chance to write his memoirs. Sadly, that chance never came. 

I first wrote this post about 15 years ago. I have added to it and edited it for this post.

Other Scouting Stories:

Harold Bellamy

Delano

Camp Bangladesh

Cape Fear Council Staff 1982
A copy of another photo of the council staff, I think this was taken in front of City Hall on 3rd Street in Wilmington
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Feeding the 4,000 East of Galilee

Sermon title slide showing the two rock churches along the Parkway

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches
August 4, 2024
Mark 8:1-10

Sermon recorded at Mayberry on Friday, August 2, 2024

At the Beginning of Worship:

cover of "White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Brought Loaf"

About a month ago, I read an article where the author referred to this book: White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Brought Loaf.[1] I’m sure most of you might not have found it interesting, but I immediately ordered the book. Of course, I spent three of my college years and about a year and a half afterwards working in a wholesale bakery.[2]

Bread has been the foundation of life for humans in the western world. In the eastern world, it’s rice, of which there are some similarities especially when comparing white rice and white bread. In the west, there have been times in our history where we have received up to half of our calories from bread.

I was shocked to learn that for years white bread was considered the bread of the elite. Not everyone could afford the bleaching and extra processing it took to produce such flour. And, while doing such processing, much of the nutrition found in the wheat grain was lost. But the refined flour was easier to work on an industrial scale.  

To dominate the market for bread, industrial bakers had to both compete with homemade bread and bread made, often by immigrants, in dirty hovels within cities. The bakers attacked mom’s homemade bread as not being as soft and fresh as the heavily conditioned dough used in factories. And they were able to create the impression that their bread was more sanitary than that produced in small bakeries.  

Drawing on American’s distrust of immigrants, the battle against small bakeries was easily won. It’s ironic to think about how bread was used as a weapon in the anti-immigrant wars of the early 20thCentury.[3] Bread divided people!

Jesus uses bread to bring people together. In our passage today, Jesus draws people of different backgrounds together to be fed as he ministers to them. In communion, the common table represents a coming together of those who love him. 

Before the Reading of Scriptures

Ever had a feeling of Déjà vu? As if you’ve heard or experienced something before? Well today, when I read the passage, you might wonder if I’m repeating a sermon from five weeks ago. After all, didn’t Jesus just feed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes? Well, yes, he did. And he’s back at it today. And I admit, I wish Mark hadn’t placed these two stories so close together, because I must come up with something fresh to say… 

In the first story, Jesus fed five thousand. Today’s its four thousand. At this time, as we saw last week, Jesus is on the side of the Sea of Galilee which has a lot of Gentiles. Some scholars want us to think this is the same story.[4] But there are minor differences to the story, including locations[5] which indicate that these are different stories. 

But before I read and get into the sermon, let me tell you an interpretation of the passage popular in the early church. Theologians back then interpreted these events in this manner. The 5,000 were Jews, with five loaves representing the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. This passage speaks of 4,000 being fed with seven loaves. This could represent either the seven nations in Deuteronomy,[6] or the four of 4000 representing the four corners of the earth. By this, Jesus foreshadows what will happen to the church. 

In the earlier story, they collect 12 baskets of leftovers, one for each tribe of Israel. In today’s story, they collect 7 baskets which point to the seventy nations thought to exist in the world at this time, or the seven nations mentioned in Deuteronomy.[7] While using numeric symbolism in interpretation of scripture is valid in some books, it doesn’t go with the rest of Mark’s gospel. Mark isn’t writing Revelation, or Daniel.[8]

Also, numeric symbolism has often been abused. Think of all those who someone has found a way to make their name to equal 666, the number of the beast. I’ve seen it worked out to represent Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, a handful of Popes, along with several lesser-known folks. 

I don’t necessarily agree with trying to interpret passages by the symbolism of numbers. However, I do think Jesus makes a point by feeding both those Jewish Galilee and in the mixed religious areas of the Decapolis. Jesus is for all people. 

Let’s listen to God’s word. 

Read Mark 8:1-10

The disciples in Mark’s gospel are always clueless. They’ve already seen Jesus take care of the needs of the crowd. Yet, a few weeks later, they ask their Master where they are going to get bread in the desert, in the wilderness. They don’t learn.

While bread was the staff of life for those in the western world for thousands of years before Jesus, it requires civilization to produce. It’s not something that an individual can whip up on their own in any great quantity. Perhaps a homesteader could grow a little wheat or barley and grind it and bake it to feed a family. But to make enough bread for 4,000 people requires a lot more effort. Someone needs to grow the grain, someone else needs to mill it. Another group needs to collect firewood. Then there are those who knead the dough while another tends the fire in the oven. 

In the 1970s, when I was working in the bakery, to make enough bread to satisfy 4000 people would have still taken a team of eight, six hours. Yet, that would only be half hour of production, but the production process takes longer. And that’s with all kinds of modern machinery running on three phase electrical power and supported by a large natural gas line. On top of this, it involved buying flour, shortening, and sweetener by the truck or railcar load. 

So, they are in the desert with a bunch of hungry people. In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus was so into teaching that he didn’t notice the sun dropping and stomachs growling. The disciples had to clue Jesus in. Here, Jesus realizes the problem. Not only that, but he also has compassion on the people. The word for compassion implies a gut-wrenching turn of one’s stomach.[9]Jesus identifies their hunger, which can be gut-wrenching. And since they’ve come from such distances (the Decapolis wasn’t highly populated), he’s afraid they’ll faint as they make their way home. 

Notice that Jesus’ indicates that many have traveled a great distance to be here. If this is a mostly Gentile crowd (which I think it was), this means that even though they have far to travel, even the Gentiles are not beyond God’s grace. Of course, this is good news to us. 

The disciples immediately ask Jesus what he wants them to do, reminding Jesus there’s no Food Lions or bakeries in sight. 

As he’d done before, Jesus asks how many loaves of bread they have.

Seven, they said. Taking the bread, he asks the crowd to sit down.[10] Then, using language like the words of institution during Communion, he breaks the bread and has the disciples to distribute it. And everyone is filled. 

In this story, unlike the first feeding of a multitude, the fish almost becomes an afterthought. Also, the word here for fish imply small fish such as sardines.[11] They were truly a snack, with the bread serving as the main course. 

After they were fed, we’re told there were 4,000 of them. In the previous story, Mark said there were 5,000 men (as in male) fed. Here, the word implies “people.”[12] We can assume these included men and women, which again points to the early church welcoming all into the fellowship of believers.  As Paul reminds us, we’re all one in Christ whether man or woman, Jew or Greek, slave or free.

Jesus has the disciples collect the leftovers, which results in seven baskets. Then he sends the crowd away, and they headed to a boat and goes to the district of Dalmanutha. We are not sure of its location, and it seems to have been a town lost in history, as even the early church writers debated over its location.[13]

What lesson might we take from this passage? First, we see an example of Jesus’ compassion. He is concerned that some within the crowd had travelled long distances and wanted to make sure they were able to make it home. Jesus is concerned for those who seek him out, and that includes us. We can rest assured that Jesus wants what is best for us. As the 23rd Psalm reminds us, God is with us even when we must walk the valley of the shadow of death.[14]

We also learn of Jesus’ concern for us is more than for the eternal welfare of our soul. Jesus wanted to assure the crowd had enough food to eat. We can assume this is the case even for us. Jesus wants us to have our daily bread. He wants us to succeed in life. 

Because of the image we have of Jesus in scripture, we should we at peace. We may face difficulties in this world, but we know we’re watched over by a loving God. Amen. 

[1] Aaron Bobrow-Strain, White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Brought Loaf (Boston: Beacon Press, 2012). For my review of the book, see https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/07/31/baking-memories-and-a-book-review/

[2] To read my baking stories, begin here: https://fromarockyhillside.com/2021/04/08/coming-of-age-at-the-bakery/

[3] The author goes into detail about the role bread played in World War II and in the Cold War. 

[4] For a review and critique of this idea, see James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 227.

[5] It is pointed out that we are not sure where this feeding took place. However, since Jesus has been in the Decapolis, and we’re not told of Jesus leaving at this point (and Mark has been giving us a rough travelogue, I think it is fair to assume he’s still on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. For another opinion, see Morna D. Hooker, The Gospel According to Saint Mark, (1991, Hendrickson Publishing, 1997), 187-188.  See also Edwards, 229. 

[6] Deuteronomy 7:1. See Edwards, 231. 

[7] Douglas R. A. Hare, Westminster Bible Companion: Mark (Louisville, KY: Westminster, 1996), 89.  Also see Hooker, 188. 

[8] Edwards, 231. 

[9] Andrew Purves, The Search for Compassion: Spirituality and Ministry (1989). See also Edwards, 230.

[10] In the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus has the disciples to order the crowd to sit down into groups of 50 to 100. Here, Jesus does the directing of the crowds. 

[11] Edwards, 228.

[12] Edwards, 231. 

[13] This place must have been renamed or deserted for it wasn’t known even in early Christian history. Hooker, 190. Edwards, 234 makes the case that it could be the fishing village of “Magadan.” 

[14] Psalm 23:4.

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Baking memories and a book review

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Aaron Bobrow-Strain, White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Brought Loaf (Boston: Beacon Press, 2012), 252 pages include an index and extensive notes. 

A story from my bakery days

from the internet, a photo of a pound and a half loaf of Holsum white bread

In a supervisor meeting sometime in 1979 or 1980, Jerry Hendrix, the General Manager of Fox Holsum Bakery, berated us for not being able to produce uniformed loaf bread. “I don’t care if it’s crap,” he said. “It needs to be consistent. If it’s consistent, I can sell it.”

It was a tough time for bakeries. To start with, our government sold an excessive amount of wheat to Russia, who were dealing with poor harvests. The price of flour had doubled, cutting deeply into our profit margins. Furthermore, the price of sugar had gone up as had the cost and availability of natural gas. We were being squeezed from all directions. And now, our number one product, a pound and a half loaf of white bread was becoming unmanageable. Most of us felt that the problem came from the yeast. A few months earlier, we have left behind Fleishmann’s Yeast” for a new company’s product, “Dixie Yeast.”  At first, things ran fine. The yeast still worked fine on our variety bread and on the roll line, which used traditional mixing equipment with chilled jackets. 

 The white bread line was different. This bread was mixed in a do-maker. This machine that mixed the ingredients at a very high rate of speed and a high temperature. The fermentation was first done in large vats that consisted of water, sugar, yeast, and other dough conditioners. Flour, along with shortening and sugar (corn syrup) were added straight into the mixer, along with the brew from the vats. The bread was cut into a piece of dough and dropped into a pan. Such rough treatment of the dough required not only chemical treatment, but also demanded ingredients to be constant. We produced 4200 loaves an hour of this bread. But each vat of bread rose differently. Sometimes the bread was too large, making it hard to slice and bag. Other times, the loaf was too small, and looked sick. 

The General Manager and the company’s owners didn’t want to hear our excuses about the yeast. Sometime around this point, we learned the owners of the bakery had, with other industrial bakers, invested in the yeast company. A host of specialists were brought in. They tried new kinds of chemical dough conditioners, but nothing works. The decision was made to go back to Fleishmann’s yeast. Things returned to normal. After a lot of checking, we learned that the yeast was being mixed in fiberglass tanks instead of stainless steel. The fiberglass tanks were harder to clean (but they were cheaper). Eventually they had to change out their production tanks. A few months later, we went back to Dixie yeast, and it worked fine.

My review of White Bread

White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Brought Loaf book cover.

I tell the above story to illustrates a lot of what Aaron Bobrow-Strain writes about in his social history of white bread. Bleached, chemically enhanced bread has always been suspect. But by the 1950s, Americans ate an average of eight slices a day of the stuff. By the late 70s, when I worked in an industrial bakery, the decline of such bread was on the horizon. In another production meeting, at a time of high inflation, we heard warnings that if a loaf of bread rose to cost more than a dollar, it would doom our industry. People, we were told, would never pay so much for bread. I often think of this when I spend four dollars on a loaf today. 

While bread might seem to be an odd research topic for a social history, but Bobrow-Strain provides an interesting insight into the rise of the loaf, and its decline. He also provides insight into other issues going on in America (and to lesser extent Europe and the rest of the world) during the rise of industrial baking. In 1890, 90% of the bread consumed in the United States was baked in a home kitchen. By 1930, during the depression, this completely reversed. 90% of the bread was baked in industrial factories. 

The rise of factory produced bread is a compelling story that often reflects American prejudices and biases. Prior to the rise of industrial baking, most of the commercially available bread were baked in basement shops in cities like New York City. Here, in these bakeries, immigrants lived and worked in less than sanitary conditions. The first industrial bakeries jumped on American nativism feelings to promote their product as wholesome and clean. In addition, as technology changed, they were able to purchase ingredients much cheaper than the small local bakeries or even housewives. With the increase of transportation options, industrial bakers were in the position to seize the bread markets. 

White bread ruled the day, but there were some who questioned this including blaming the fall of France to Germany in 1940 on white bread. French bread is white (but not necessarily industrially produced), while the Germans preferred a darker bread. Later, in the Cold War, American’s felt their “white bread” was superior to Russian dark loaves. 

Advertising encouraged consumers to equate the softness of the new industrial bread with freshness, overlooking the use of chemicals to condition the dough.  Interestingly, at the dawn of America’s entry into World War II, a significant number of American men did not meet the physical demands for military service. Processing of the flour to produce the whitest loaves robbed the wheat of essential vitamins. But such enrichments could be added back chemically. The first national food order during the war required such enrichments. By the end of the war, no one wanted anything less that “enriched” bread. 

Throughout the fifties’, people considered enriched bread a superfood. It even caught on in places like Japan.  When I visited Japan in 1979, it was shocking to see on the shelves white bread void of crust!  By the 60’s, the hippie counter cultural laid groundwork for a rediscovery of bread baked at home or in small shops. Newspapers ran recipes about home baking and cookbooks sprang up included the Tassajara Bread Book. I discovered this book while working at the bakery and used (and still use) the recipes in the book to make heartier loaves of bread.  

Bakers began to respond by adding more bran and even adding cellulous (wood pulp) to increase the fiber within bread. One of our variety breads was “VIM” in which we added a couple 50 pounds of bags of cellulous to each mixer. I recall it making the dough sticky and almost as hard to machine as rye bread.  Another trick was to add sourdough flavoring to the mix to make the bread taste a little more like sourdough bread, which required a two-step mixing process and allowing the “starter” to proof, which took up space and equipment. 

Bobrow-Strain ends his story with how white bread, once seen as food for the wealthy and royalty, became equated with “white-trash” and even soul food. Unlike the 70s, today’s bread aisles in supermarkets carry a variety of bread. We now eat bread with more grains or whole wheat that the industrial white bread which I made during my baking years. 

Toward the end of the book, Bobrow-Stain takes us inside Grupo Bimbo, the largest baking company in the world today. Oddly enough, it is a Mexican company who has taken over many of American top bakery labels. I still remember the first time I saw “Bimbo Bread,” which was in Honduras in 2004. Why would anyone use such a label for product, I wondered. Of course, I thought of the word in its negative American slang connotation. In Latin America, Bimbo is the name of a bear mascot.  

Conclusion

 While I enjoyed this book, I know it appealed to me because of my background in a wholesale bakery.  But there is much to learn here, so I recommend it to others. Bobrow-Strain even moves outside of bread to discuss our attempts to “eat healthier” and how Americans (since Sylvester Graham in the early 19th Century) have followed food gurus who promised great things but often failed to deliver. The book is worthwhile for this, alone, in a day in which we seem more susceptible to all kinds of claims that may have little scientific backing. The author also has a love of baking and eating good loaves of bread, so he’s writing about something for which he cares. 

More of my Bakery Stories:

Coming of Age in a Bakery: Linda and the Summer of ’76

A College Boy in the Bakery

Harvey and Ernest

Frank and Roosevelt

The Perils of Working on the Christian Sabbath

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Open our ears, that we might hear…

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches
July 28, 2024
Mark 7:31-37

At the beginning of worship:  

This Wednesday, at Bluemont, there will be a revival service. It’s at 7 PM, followed by a time of fellowship with cobbler and ice cream. We invite you to come and to bring friends. I promise, we won’t draw-out the hymns while we encourage people to come forward during an altar call or any such emotional string pulling. Emotional string pulling isn’t for us to do, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit.

But we do have work to do when it comes to making converts for Jesus. We tell his story. And we set the stage by making people feel welcomed and loved, which sets the stage for the Holy Spirit to move in our midst. Borrowing from another pastor, this morning I offer four suggestions on how we might do this: 

The Ten Feet Rule:  If you come within ten feet of another person, make eye contact, smile, and say “hello” (whether you know the person or not).

The Three Minute Rule: Immediately following the worship service, use the first three minutes to seek out someone you do not know and introduce yourself. 

The Two Person Rule:  No one should be left standing or sitting alone. If you see someone like this, sit on the same aisle or stand and talk with them. 

And then, item #4, probably the hardest suggestion to adopt. 

The Front and Center Rule: Regular long-term members should sit in the center of a pew and toward the front. This leaves room at the ends of the pews and in the back for our guest. Instead of things being what makes us most comfortable, it should be what makes our guest feels comfortable.[1]

It all boils’ downs to this; it’s not about us. Church is not about us. We are here because we are followers of Jesus. As in our story today, Jesus has opened our ears to his word and our tongues to praise him. We’re to do is for his glory and to draw other people to him. So instead of focusing on ourselves, Jesus calls us to focus on others. What do they want and need? What will make them comfortable enough to seek Jesus? 

Before Reading the Scriptures:

Last week we saw that Jesus had left the area around the Sea of Galilee, which is after all just a big lake. He traveled overland to a real sea, the Mediterranean. This territory is beyond the traditional boundaries of Israel. The people are Gentiles and pagans. But even here, Jesus’ reputation precedes his arrival. People want to see him such as the woman we met last week. 

In this section of Mark, Jesus wears his walking sandals. After having walked from Galilee to the Mediterranean Sea, in our reading today, he heads to the Decapolis, the region of the ten cities which is on the Gentile side of the Sea of Galilee. But instead of taking the direct route, which would have cut across Galilee, Jesus travels a circular route, heading north and then across the land, before heading south. It’s approximately 120 miles.[2]

Mark doesn’t give us a reason why Jesus took this route. But we can speculate. Maybe Jesus was still looking for a break from the crowds who had hounded him in Galilee. Or maybe he wanted to avoid a premature encounter with Herod, the ruler of the region whom we learned a couple weeks ago, has Jesus on his radar.[3]

Whatever the reason, in our reading today, we find Jesus back in the territory in which he’d been shooed away from after giving release to the man with a legion of demons.[4] While he helped the man, allowing him to live a normal life, most people were frightened by his power and wanted nothing to do with him. This time, however, Jesus seems to be welcomed for they bring a man who has lost the ability to hear and speak. Let’s listen: 

Read Mark 7:31-37

This is one of two miracle stories found in Mark’s gospel that’s not found in either Matthew or Luke.  The second miracle story is in the next chapter, so we’ll look at it in a few weeks. There, Jesus heals a blind man. Mark has told us stories of Jesus healing and freeing people from demons, as well as raising the dead and controlling the weather. While I have suggested over and over in our journey through his gospel that Mark wants to establish the divinity of Jesus, here he establishes key criteria of Jesus’ Messiahship.  

In Matthew’s gospel, we’re told that when John the Baptist was in prison, he began to wonder and doubt. Maybe he became discouraged. So, he sends his disciples to Jesus to see if Jesus is the Messiah. Drawing on the prophets, Jesus tells John’s disciples: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”[5] Jesus fulfills part of that call in this passage. 

We also should ponder if those who have brought this man to Jesus thought he’d be healed. Instead of asking for a healing, they ask Jesus to lay his hands on the man. While laying on of hands may resort in healing, it was also something done as a blessing.[6]

After all, there have been many times when everyone knew someone was about to die that I would anoint them with oil and then have elders and family lay hands on them as we pray. In other words, you lift them up and place them into God’s hands. 

Instead of oil, Jesus uses spit. For us, that might seem nasty or weird. I’ve certainly never used spit. Even in the Old Testament, such fluids were to be avoided. But in Jesus’ day, it appears to have been common for some healers to use such bodily fluids. It seems odd that Jesus, who in the previous story freed the young girl from a demon without even saying something or seeing her, employs such theoretics. However, as we’re told in the text, Jesus doesn’t do this in front of the crowd, but in private.[7] Also, here, Jesus appears to call upon heaven for help. And the man’s ears open and his tongue is freed. He can communicate again. 

While Jesus tells them to tell no one, they proclaim Jesus’ greatness. That last line is a winner. “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. 

This passage is one that we can all place ourselves into, at least metaphorically.[8] We need our ears opened, so that we might hear and understand the words of Jesus. For unless the Holy Spirit, often through another person, opens scripture for us, we are lost. 

We need to have our ears opened (or maybe the wax cleaned from them, so that we might hear what Jesus has to say to the world. And once we hear, our tongues need to be freed so that we might be a witness to Christ. 

No longer does Jesus have to worry about keeping himself secret. The powers of this world have done all they can to him, and he still lives and reigns in power. We, his church, are to follow him, showing his love and proclaiming his grace. Like the man in the story, pray that we might hear what Jesus wants us to hear and that our tongues might be freed so we can share with others what Jesus has done for us. Amen. 

[1] This came from the Reverend James Gerling. I don’t remember where I found it. 

[2] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 223-224.

[3] Mark 6:14-15, see https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/06/23/the-death-of-john-the-baptist/

[4] Mark 5:1-20. See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/06/02/jesus-and-the-man-living-in-the-tombs/

[5] Matthew 11:4-5. 

[6] William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974), 266.

[7] Jesus may have done this privately in order not to be seen as a miracle worker in front of the crowds. Lane, 268. 

[8] See Douglas R. A. Hare, Westminster Bible Companion: Mark (Louisville, KY: WJKKP, 1996), 88. 

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Scouting Memories: Harold

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Last week, I introduced you to Delano. Today, I’m introducing you to Harold, an unlikely Scoutmaster from Tabor City during my time working for the Boy Scouts in Columbus and Bladen County, North Carolina in the early 1980s.

It was probably a cruel joke. Harold volunteered to spend a week with his scout troop at Camp Bowers. He asked me for book recommendations. I lent him a couple of books, one of which was James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. I knew he’d read it. It shocked him to learn of a book by Baldwin he hadn’t read. After all, he taught social studies. Furthermore, like Baldwin, he was an African American, both products of the Black Pentecostal church. And I was a white boy and the Boy Scout’s hired hand. 

Cover photo of the copy of Giovanni's Room that I lent Harold

Giovanni’s Room isn’t your typical Baldwin book. Unlike Baldwin’s better-known writings, Giovanni’s Room has nothing to do with the African American experience. Set in Paris, the story features a unique triangle relationship between an American couple and an Italian (Giovanni). But it’s not the American girl, who’s interested in Giovanni; it’s David, the boy. I read the book in college. I found the book eye-opening and unnerving. Baldwin draws on his readers emotions by making them feel affection for all the characters. And he doesn’t touch on race. In addition to bisexuality, the story also involves capital punishment. After a fight with his former employer at a bar, Giovanni kills the man. The book ends with Giovanni’s execution for the murder.

When I lent him the book, I had a suspicion Harold was unaware of Baldwin’s sexuality. I should add that in addition to teaching Junior High, Harold was also a preacher in an Apostolic Pentecostal Church. But he dug right into the book. 

Harold didn’t exactly fit the Norman Rockwell’s view of a scoutmaster. He ended up with the job by default. A coach at the high school had been recruited to be the scoutmaster. He asked Harold to be his assistant. That next school year, the coach accepted a high school position in South Carolina. When no one else stepped forward, Harold who wanted his troop to do well, took over as Scoutmaster. I don’t think Harold had ever camped before becoming an assistant scoutmaster. I’m not even sure he’d built a campfire and I’m pretty sure he never used a compass. Harold was much more comfortable sitting inside with his head in a book than outside swatting mosquitoes and gnats. 

Even though Harold wasn’t created out of the scoutmaster’s mold, Harold was a great leader. Under his leadership, several of the boys in his troop earned their Eagle. These were the first Eagles earned in Tabor City in more than a decade. In fact, there had not been a troop in Tabor City for a decade before Harold and the coach got together. Harold served as Scoutmaster for four or five years. 

Tabor City had been a rough place. While the Chamber of Commerce crowned the town the “Sweet Potato Capital of the World;” informally it was known as Razor City. The city had a brutal past. In the 1950s, the Klan ruled. An intervention by the FBI destroyed the Klan. However, an uneasy truce existed. As an African American, Harold helped break down barriers which existed into the early 80s. He earned respected from the community, as shown by families allowing their white sons to join his troop. Several of the business leaders of the community thanked me for working with Harold and wanted him to succeed. 

Harold and I became friends, partly drawn together by our interest in history, social studies, literature and practical jokes. Later, as I felt drawn to seminary and to the ministry, we had some serious theological conversations. While I knew Harold to be a preacher at a Pentecostal Church in Tabor City, I just learned (see below) he ordained as a Bishop.

Harold finally forgave me for shattering his idyllic view of Baldwin. When my personal life became chaotic, Harold supported me. He even tried to set me up with another teacher at his school. I no longer remember her name, but husband had died in a work accident. We went out to lunch and her former mother-in-law was there. When we finished, we discovered that she’d paid for our meals! Harold, I think to care for both of us, attempted to bring us together. Later, after I left the area and moved across state, Harold and I occasionally met for lunch or dinner when I drove across state to see my parents in Wilmington. We wrote back and forth a few times after I left North Carolina for seminary in Pittsburgh, but with me having no reason to travel through Columbus County, and Harold no reason to head up north, we lost contact. 

A few years ago, as I was again occasionally driving through Columbus County (from Savannah to Wilmington), I tried to find him. I learned he retired from teaching after serving as a principal in Chadbourn.  In preparation for posting this, I learned of his death. Reading the comments posted on his obituary, I learned that after teaching in Tabor City, he taught at West Columbus High School and, as I had learned earlier, served as principal at Chadbourn Elementary. The secretary at the school could give me no more information about him. I also learned he become a Bishop. He suffered from a long-term illness and died in a Whiteville Nursing Home. He was 71 years old. 


Yet the key to my salvation, which cannot save my body, is hidden in my flesh.
-David imagining Giovanni’s execution in James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room)

Harold (left) and Delano with two scouts who were rewarded their Eagle award.
Harold (left) and Delano with two recent Eagle Scouts, 1983
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Crumbs for the Dogs

Title photo showing dogs begging for watermelon

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches
July 21, 2024
Mark 7:24:30

Sermon recorded at Mayberry on Friday, July 19, 2024

At the beginning of worship:

“How unsearchable are God’s judgments and how inscrutable God’s ways,” Paul wrote to the Romans.[1]

One of the hardest things for us to do as a Christian is to acknowledge God’s sovereignty. Furthermore, we can’t second guess God. God’s knowledge far surpasses our limited understanding. Yet, many think they know the mind of God. They don’t. The only thing we know about God is what God reveals to us. 

There are places in scripture, if we’re honest, we struggle to understand. Our passage today from the 7th chapter of Mark is one of those places. I have wrestled with this passage this past week. I have wrestled with it in the past. This may well be one of those passages of which I’ll ask for clarification in the life to come. 

Before the reading of scripture:

Let’s go back in time, to the first century, to a market in a town on the Mediterranean Sea. Spend a few minutes imaging… Listen for the roar of waves crashing against the shore. Feel the heat subside as the sun moves lower in the west. A late afternoon breeze picks up. After having been closed d heat of the day is over. As things cool, the marketplace opens for the evening. 

It almost seems customary for the first customer to be the same woman. She comes early, with eyes red from crying, beating the crowds. She doesn’t speak. Slowly, she picks out food for her and her daughter’s meal. While examining slabs of bacon at the butcher’s shop, she overhears a bit of gossip. The butcher, a baker and a fisherman are chatting. Let’s listen in.

“Did you hear that Jesus, you know, the guy who’s rumored to have fed 5,000 people with just a few loaves of bread and sardines, is in town?  Another stunt like that and I might have to sell out,” the baker jokes.

“I might be with you,” the fisherman nods in agreement. “The method he uses to catch fish over on the Galilee will put me out of business.”

The woman lingers, listening…

“Isn’t Jesus the guy who sent those demons into a herd of pigs causing them to run off the cliff?” the butcher asks. “It’s a shame, all that good pork washed out to sea. The price of bacon hasn’t recovered yet! It seems the only trade he’s helped has been the roofers.”

“Where’s he staying?” The baker asks.

She leans over the counter to hear…

“He had a hard time finding a place after that stunt in Capernaum where some people cut a hole in the roof of a house in order to get to him,” the butcher replies. “Finally, Mr. Jones rented his old place up on 2nd Street. I couldn’t believe he’d rent it to Jesus.  I asked him about it, but old man Jones’ wasn’t too worried. He said the place needs a new roof anyway.

For the first time in months, the woman’s face lights up. “Jesus,” she says. “I must find Jesus.” She drops her shopping bag, kicks off her heels and runs, without stopping, to the house on 2nd Street.  Barging in, she falls at Jesus’ feet and begs him to release the demon possessing her daughter. A hush comes over the room. Jesus and the disciples are at a loss for words. The only sound comes from the screen door squeaking shut. For the first time in weeks the disciples are alone with their master and now this woman, a gentile no less, interrupts.[2]

Let’s now listen to the scripture… 

Read Mark 7:24-30

Our story today takes place on the heels of Herod hearing of Jesus, and Jesus’ arguing with the Pharisees over handwashing. Jesus then leaves the predominately Jewish area of Galilee and heads for the coast, in the territory of Phoenicia. His location shows his shunning of the older Jewish traditions of avoiding gentiles at all costs.[3] But if Jesus wanted an escape to his challenges from Herod Antipas and the Pharisees, his respite was short lived.[4]

As I tried to recreate in my prologue to reading the scriptures, even outside the traditional borders of Israel, people have caught wind of Jesus. If Jesus planned to hang out incognito with his disciples in this foreign land, his plans failed. As our text reads, “he couldn’t escape notice.”[5] A woman enters. Mark doesn’t just say that she’s a Gentile but is of Syrophoenician origin. In other words, she is foreign to everything Jewish. 

Like others whom we’ve already seen in Mark’s gospel, the woman is at wit’s end.[6] We are left to assume she has done everything she could for her daughter, and nothing helped. But hearing of Jesus, she enters the house where he’s at and pleads for his help. 

At first, Jesus brushes the woman aside. Pointing to his disciples, he tells her he must first feed the children before feeding the dogs. Imagine her heart sinking, her head dropping in shame. I’ll come back to that comment.

One of the humble things about parenting is the helplessness you often feel when dealing with your children. Unless you have a perfect child who never has accidents, it’s a common feeling. I don’t know too many children like that. Whether it is accidents, disease, struggles in school, dealing with bullies, getting in with the wrong crowd, many issues of childhood overwhelm parents. Generally, there isn’t much we can do but offer advice and support. 

Thinking about this girl, maybe we should consider the parents of Thomas Matthew Crooks.[7] Imagine how they are feeling right now. Like the Syrophoenician woman, I’m sure they wonder if there’s any scraps left on the table for them. Yet, we know, Jesus loves them as much as he loves those wounded or killed last Saturday. And Jesus loves those killed and wounded as much as he loves parents whose children will grow up to be missionaries or find new cures for diseases.  

However, this passage is not just about disappointments and bad news. God, through Jesus Christ, is doing something incredible. It starts at the beginning of the chapter where we learn that food laws aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.[8] “It isn’t what you eat—what’s in your stomach—that defiles you,” Jesus says. “It’s what’s in your heart.” God’s creation is good. Since we are all created by God, there is a possibility for us to all claim a divine inheritance.

The woman, like most gentiles who live near Galilee, is used to being called a dog. It’s common in 1st Century Palestine for the pious refer to the gentiles as dogs. There are commentators who try to soften this passage saying that Jesus was referring to a little house pet, not a stray dog on the street.[9] But does that make it any better, does it? 

I don’t know what to make of this passage. It disappoints me to see Jesus using such language. I’d prefer to have him say, “My dear child,” or something similar. Don’t call her a dog. Instead of getting hung up on this one word, let’s put it into context and see what Jesus is saying. By saying he must feed the children before the dogs, we’re reminded that Jesus’ mission focuses on Israelites.  But knowing this doesn’t help the woman solve her problem.  

Jesus is supposed to be a good man and we can imagine she’s hurt by his words. With her head bowed, maybe she moves toward the door. Then she pauses. She realizes Jesus hasn’t denied her request. When the disciples are fed, they may be leftovers. After all, there were plenty of leftovers when the 5,000 were fed, 12 baskets full.[10]  

The mother struggles for courage. Imagine her spinning around like a ballerina. She raises her head and looks Jesus in the eyes. “Sir,” she says, the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” This lady is no dummy. Jesus must deal with her, one way or the other.

“Even the dogs eat the crumbs off the children’s table,” what a great line.

“You’re right,” Jesus says. I imagine a big smile comes over his face as he continues, “Go home to your child, she is delivered!” 

There is, after all, good news in this passage. The woman’s racial heritage doesn’t keep her from experiencing the healing powers of Christ. Even her pagan background wasn’t a barrier. Notice Jesus doesn’t say anything about casting the demon out because she was good or religious or anything special. While the woman is foreign to everything Jewish, she has faith in our Savior. That’s what matters. And Jesus acts freely and shows compassion to her and her child.

Jesus extends his ministry of compassion to the gentiles while continuing to demonstrate his unlimited power. Although Jesus is tired and lacks stamina, he shows his power to cast out demons from a distance without saying a word!  

As we’ve already seen in Mark’s gospel, this story is another case of Jesus’ significant ministry not occurring in an organized fashion. Some of the most memorable events in Jesus’ life occur during interruptions.[11] The Syrophoenician woman, the bleeding woman who touched the hem of his garment, the raising of Lazarus, the calming of the waters. 

These events were not planned out except perhaps in Jesus’ mind. We’re not told Jesus noted in his calendar to, on a certain day, walk on water or heal a child. Instead, Jesus was in tune to the needs of those around him. Sometimes, we get glimpses of his humanism as in this story when he is tired and feels pressed upon by the woman, but he still ministers to her. I think ministry is often the same for us. Our best ministry doesn’t come from planning, but from responding to the needs of those around us.

The good news from this passage is that God’s faithfulness and grace extends to all people.  Kathleen Norris in one of her books says something like, “Fling the doors of the church wide open.” “Fling the doors of the church wide open!” Let’s welcome all people, especially those broken and hurting, into this new community. Amen.

[1] Romans 11:33. 

[2] I wrote this in 1999, imaging the woman hearing about Jesus based on Mark’s gospel to this point. I edited the piece for this sermon. 

[3] William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark [NICNT], (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974), 259.

[4] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 218.

[5] Mark 7:24c, NRSV. 

[6] Think of the craze Gerasene Demoniac, Jairus and his daughter along with the woman hemorrhaging for 12 years in Mark 5. 

[7] Crooks was the 20-year-old who shot at Trump last weekend and then killed by law enforcement.

[8] Mark 7:19.  See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/07/14/the-battle-over-tradition/.

[9] Lane, 262. 

[10] Mark 6:42-44. 

[11] See https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/06/09/7247/

Dogs begging for watermelon
Mia and Apple want more than bread crumbs. Here they are begging for watermelon.

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Scouting Memories: Delano

Title slide with photo of Delano

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the time I was a summer camp scoutmaster. In that post, I mentioned my time working for the scouts. Here is a story of one of the many unique characters I met during the time I worked for the Boy Scouts of America (and organization I left to go to seminary and pursue the ministry). 

Delano in a Boy Scout uniform, early 1980s
Delano, early 1980s

“What are those government fools thinking, offering classes to teach us how to distill alcohol? They ain’t a farmer in these parts that haven’t made liquor at one time or another,” Delano fumed. 

This was in the early 80s and after years of prosecuting farmers for turning corn into liquids, a lively discussion on how to do this legally arose. Not for internal consumption, but for internal combustion. If the farmers made their own fuel, they could reduce their dependence on gasoline and diesel fuel. The local community college offered a course on alternative fuels, but Delano didn’t think much of the idea. This was an example of the government meddling where it shouldn’t be meddling. 

Delano’s views weren’t a surprise; everyone in Columbus County complained about the government meddling. Of course, they didn’t see it as meddling when they were first at the hog trough. Otherwise, they classified most government initiatives as meddling. 

However, Delano’s admission on the moonshining activities of area farmers surprised me. Did he include himself in the bunch? After all, he was a Mormon. Mormons weren’t supposed to be drinking. But then, neither were Baptist and those in that area who weren’t Mormon were members of one the several off-brand Baptist Churches. A part of me always wanted to know what went on in the “Primitive, Fire-baptized, Fundamentalist Baptist Church” that I passed on my way to church on Sunday. They always had four or five cars there, but I never got up the nerve to stop and find out.

Even though he marched to his own drum, I loved Delano. There was never a dull moment when he was around. He was always smiling and joking. And he had a repertoire of stories to entertain us. Some involved living between Pireway and the Green Swamp, near the Waccamaw River.

Other stories involved his year in Korea during the war. He was a disabled veteran of that war. He found the country the most hostile place imaginable. Partly, I’m sure, this was because he sent so much time behind enemy lines. He and a group of soldiers found themselves lost and had to make their way through enemy territory, back to the UN lines. Struggling to make it back safely, they crossed minefields and dealt with frostbite and starvation.  His spent his entire time in Korea in the field except his last night before coming home. That night, the heat was unbearable; he wished he was back outside. Korea left him disabled. Although he could walk and get around, he wasn’t particularly fast and limited with the types of work he could do. 

Delano enjoyed helping others. One winter, the scouts helped provide firewood for needy families. We gathered at a recent clear cut area. The remaining wood was destined to be burned and had been pushed into wind rows. The paper company allowed us permission to glean from this site. Delano showed up with his chainsaw and splitting maul. While he had limited mobility, he could split wood. His son placed a piece of wood upright, then he split the log. His boy collected the wood and threw it into the back of waiting pickups. We delivered a dozen or so truckloads of wood to needy families that Saturday.  

Like his neighbors in the Green Swamp, Delano supplemented his livelihood from the bounty of the earth. He entertained us with stories about the tricks of the trade his neighbors employed to put food on the table. He never indicted himself, but one had to wonder. 

One favorite was dialing for fish. The fisherman used an old crack phone to create an electrical pulse in the water. This stunned the fish. The shocked fish floated to the surface and were scooped up in a net.  

To hear him tell the story, nobody in his neighborhood purchased canned dog food to feed canines. Dogs got scraps from the table. Canned dog food served as chum for fish. Holes were punched in a can which was then tossed into the water at a spot where you wanted to fish in a day or two. The dog food attracted fish so that when you came back for business, you didn’t have to spend much time finding them. You just had to hope the fish, fat on dog food, were ready to bite into a juicy worm. 

I first met Delano at a chicken bog for scout leaders held in Fair Bluff. Having been told he was a Mormon, I made sure we had alternatives to the coffee and tea which everyone else would be drinking. I picked up a couple bottles of apple juice and offered him one. He refused and poured himself a cup of coffee. At this same event, I became troubled when I learned a chicken bog contained not only fowl, but also sausage. Knowing we had several Jewish leaders, I apologized. What little training I’d had from the Scouts by this point in my career had stressed sensitive to such issues. But sausage wasn’t a problem, these guys assured me, if their wives weren’t around. The same applied to Delano. 

Even his scout troop enjoyed drinks that went against the Mormon Word of Wisdom. Making my rounds at the first camporee, I noticed his troop were all drinking Cokes and Mountain Dews with their breakfast. At camporees, where all the troops in the county gathered, Delano made a point to invite me to eat Saturday dinner with his boys. Sometimes the fare would be normal, venison or fried fish. Other times the menu was exotic. In the three years I worked in this district, the Pireway troop served bear, squirrel, turtle, raccoon, and even a greasy opossum.

Delano and I got along well. Both of us believed that when camping, an afternoon nap was a necessity. He had a small but devoted group of scouts who looked up to him and knew that he looked out for their best interest. There’s not much more you could expect from a scoutmaster. 

Sadly, as I was leaving the Waccamaw District in early 1984, the church reassigned Delano, giving him responsibilities inside the church and appointing someone else as the scoutmaster. His son, had earned his Eagle. I have no idea who took over the troop, but they would have a hard time fitting into Delano’s shoes.

Eagle presentation, 1983
Delano next to his son at his son’s Eagle presentation. Next to him is another Eagle from the Tabor City troop and his scoutmaster (Harold).

###

Jeff Garrison, 1981
You won’t see many pictures of me like this. 1981, I’m working with the BSA, and have hair but no beard.

I rewrote this post from something I wrote nearly 20 years ago. After the piece was first published online, a relative of Delano contacted me to thank me for the article and to let me of Delano’s death. 

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The Battle Over Tradition

Title slide with photos of Mayberry and Bluemont, two rock churches along the Blue Ridge Parkway

Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches 
July 14, 2024
Mark 7:1-23

This sermon was recorded on Friday at Bluemont Church. This was, before the events of yesterday evening. In have made a number of changes to the sermon, and completely re-wrote my opening remarks. Read the text to see my response to yesterday’s events.

At the beginning of worship:

At the beginning of worship this morning, it’s important that as Christians we pray for former President Trump and along with those who died yesterday evening and their families. I’ll do this in our opening prayer. 

As followers of Jesus, we shun violence. We follow a man who, even when receiving the most painful and inhumane treatment ever conceived, still prayed for his persecutors and refused to allow his followers to fight back. Only the complete trust in God allows such a response. 

Whatever your political views may be, I encourage you to set the example of civility in the days ahead. We are called to be peacemakers, to love our everyone, and to work for the wellbeing of all. Those are our marching orders. Only such actions can foster the type of society envisioned by the gospel. Retaliation by individuals is never right. That’s the role of government. 

My previously prepared opening remarks this morning now seem out of place. I had planned a humorous look into how we lean toward the Pharisees. If you want to hear those remarks, I invite you to go watch what I posted on YouTube, as I recorded that sermon on Friday. Instead, I encourage you to think about the conflict we’ll see in the scriptures this this morning between Jesus and the Pharisees considering yesterday’s events. While our Savior didn’t hold back words and was even sarcastic, he never called for violence in response to the Pharisees attack on him and his disciples. 

My revised “Prayer for Today” to be used at the opening of worship:

Faithful God, we come before you this morning with concern and anxiety in our hearts. We are frightened by the events yesterday and pray for the recovery of former President Trump and for others who were injured in yesterday at Butler, PA.  We ask that you hold the families of those who died in your arms and comfort them. Help us, O God, to tone down the rhetoric, and to lift up your visions of peace and justice for all. Give us the ability, as followers of your Son, the ability to be peacemakers. And keep us remindful that you are in control, that we might trust your plans for the world. This we pray in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.

Before reading the Scripture:

In the seventh chapter of Mark’s gospel, we find a shift in themes. Jesus is once again being attacked by the religious leaders.[1]The section we’re reading in many translations is titled, “The Tradition of the Elders.” Personally, I don’t like that title as it sounds too close to a book introduced in the early 20th Century Russia titled, “Protocol of the Elders (actually the full title is the Protocol of the Elders of Zion).”[2]

The book was supposedly written centuries earlier describes how the Jews planned to take over the world. The work is a forgery but gave Russians a reason to persecute the Jews. Of course, from their history, it doesn’t seem they needed such a reason. The book also found receptive ears by the likes of Adolph Hitler and other antisemitic conspiracy theorists to this day. 

Let’s refer to our text as something else other than the Tradition of the Elders. I suggest we call it “The Battle over Traditions.” As for traditions, we all seem to be slaves of them. How many times have you ever said, “we don’t do things that way?” We’re enslaved to the past. One of the more truthful things Karl Marx said was that “the tradition of past generations weighs like a nightmare upon the brain of the living.”[3]

In this battle over tradition, Jesus and the Pharisees duke it out. What’s important? Appearance or what’s in our hearts? Let’s see what Jesus has to say.


Read Mark 7:1-23

Washing our hands before eating seems an odd line to draw in a battle. After all, we’re bombarded with the message to wash our hands. Our moms instilled this in our heads. When the flu is prevalent, public health officials remind us of the need. The same went for the COVID outbreak. Every public bathroom is required to have a sign reminding employees to wash before returning to work. It’s good hygiene. Let’s get rid of the germs.[4] Who can argue with that?

So, what’s the problem with the Pharisees questioning Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands? We might also ask Jesus this question. 

First, germ theory has come a long way since the 1st Century. Back then, they didn’t know about germs. 

Second, the idea of washing one’s hands regularly wasn’t in the law. The law required the Priests to wash their hands and feet before doing their work at the temple. In times, the Pharisees extended this to apply to everyone and before food.[5] The act of washing hands became an identity marker and helped differentiate between the faithful and the heathen. 

Let me suggest that you wash your hands before eating. But don’twash them for religious reasons. At least don’t think you’re being religious when washing your hands. Wash them out of a public health interest. The idea of doing such an act to receive God’s favor is the theology of pagans. We follow the God of grace. God loves us all, whether our hands are clean or dirty at the dining room table.

We can assume in our text this morning that the Pharisees looked for something to discredit Jesus. They think they got the perfect topic when they see the disciples eating with dirty hands. Interestingly, Mark, in verses 3 and 4, explains some of these rules. Remember, as I reiterated again last week,[6] Mark writes to a non-Jewish audience. If he wrote for the Jews, there would be no need to explain. They would understand the issue. But non-Jews, the gentiles, would be confused.[7]

Jesus shifts the topic from outward forms of piety, such as washing one’s hands, to an inward piety. In this way, he’s much like the prophets and he even quotes Isaiah,[8] who condemned Israel’s hypocrisy, for saying one thing and doing another. If we think we can get by just by show, and not by changing our hearts, we are mistaken.

Jesus then goes into a long discussion over the 5thCommandment, that is to honor one’s father and mother. He speaks of the practice of Corban,[9] which is dedicating possessions to God, but still using such possessions during our lives. If a parent was in need, they could refuse to help because such resources have already been committed. This is a lot like Jesus telling us that before we make a gift in the temple, we should make things right with others.[10]  

Jesus has a problem with us taking an oath, which we also see in the Sermon on the Mount. Taking an oath will make us feel as if our future acts are bound.[11] So, if we promise to give our possessions to the temple, and then find the need of our parents will require what we plan to give, we could get out of the commandment to honor our parents. Our oath would take precedent. However, Jesus says, basically, if you do this, you’re still breaking the Commandments. Don’t be looking for ways around the law!

After shutting down the Pharisees through examples and some biting sarcasm,[12] Jesus turns to the crowd that always seems to be close by in Mark’s gospel. In a different way, he tells them the same thing. It’s not what’ goes into our mouths that defile us, it’s what comes out. In other words, it’s what we say and do, how we live, how we treat others. 

Afterwards, Jesus is alone with the disciples who are often clueless in Mark’s gospel. It’s no different here. Jesus must explain to them in even a simpler manner. Here, we learn that Jesus isn’t talking about food regulations, but about the heart, from which evil may arise. John Calvin describes our hearts as “factories producing idols.” This is why we must protect our hearts, for they can bring destruction upon us. 

Jesus lists a series of sins. While he starts with sexual sins, he extends this list to include others sins even more common. After all, most of us have done something wicked, or have been deceitful, or envious. In our idol talk, we slander our enemies. Some of you may have said such things while watching the news yesterday evening. And who among us hasn’t been prideful in some point in our lives? 

What’s the intention of this passage? I think Jesus tells us it does us no good to pretend to be a Christian. If we only go through the motions, to maintain the traditions of the past, without developing a relationship with Jesus Christ, we’re still lost. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says that true prayer is not doing it publicly (like in a restaurant) to draw attention. Instead, we should pray privately, where we can be honest with God.[13] The same goes for our lives. We’re not to do things to draw attention to ourselves.

As followers of Jesus, we seek to honor him, not to inflate our own egos. And that means following him, and not the ways of human tradition which often misses the point. We guard our hearts, work to develop a relationship with Jesus, as we love and care for others. Amen. 

[1] We’ve seen this several times in Mark’s gospel. See 2:18-28, 3:20-35, and 6:1-6.

[2] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion

[3] Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte as quoted by my grandmother’s cousin, Francis M. Wilholt, The Politics of Massive Resistance (New York: George Braziller, 1973), frontpiece. 

[4] See Chelsey Harmon, Commentary on Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23. https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2021-08-23/mark-78-1415021-23-3/

[5] Douglas R. A. Hare, Westminster Bible Companion: Mark (Louisville, KY: W/JKP, 1996), 81.

[6] https://fromarockyhillside.com/2024/07/07/jesus-and-the-disciples-more-adventures-on-water-and-land/

[7] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002), 206-207. 

[8] Quote in verses 6 and 7 come from Isaiah 29:13 (in the Septuagint). 

[9] For a description of Corban, see Edwards, 210-211. 

[10] Matthew 5:23-24. 

[11] Matthew 5:33-36. 

[12] For comments on Jesus’ sarcasm, see Edwards, 209. 

[13] Matthew 6:5-6.