Will Vaus

The story is told of two boys who were good friends. One was a Catholic and the other was a Baptist. Because they were good friends, they decided to attend each other’s churches on two consecutive Sundays, with their parents’ approval.   On the first Sunday, the Baptist boy visited the Catholic Church. Just before they sat down, the Catholic boy genuflected. “What’s that mean?” the Baptist asked. All through the mass, the Baptist boy wanted to know what this and that meant, and the little Catholic boy explained everything very nicely.   The next Sunday it was the Catholic boy’s turn to visit the Baptist church. When they walked in the building, an usher handed them a printed bulletin. The little Catholic boy had never seen anything like that before in his whole life because his Catholic parish did not have bulletins. “What’s that mean?” he asked. His Baptist friend carefully explained. When the preacher stepped into the pulpit, he carefully opened his Bible and conspicuously t...

Mark Twain and his wife once visited the Holy Land. Among other places, they stayed in Tiberius on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It was a moonlit night, and the weather was perfect, so Twain got the romantic idea of taking his wife for a boat ride on the lake. They walked down to the shoreline, and Twain inquired of a man sitting in a rowboat how much he would charge to row them out on the water. Twain was dressed in his usual white suit, white shoes, and white Texas hat. The oarsman, presuming him to be a wealthy rancher from the USA, said, “Well, I guess about twenty-five dollars.” Mark Twain thanked him, and, as he turned away with his wife on his arm, he was heard to exclaim, “Now I know why Jesus  walked  on the water!” [1]   Well, that is Mark Twain’s perspective on the story about Jesus we are going to read today. I would like to look with you at three more perspectives on this same story: that of Jesus, that of the disciples, and that of the crowd.   Liste...

One of my first experiences in ministry was teaching a fifth-grade Sunday school class when I was still in high school. On one occasion, I invited the entire class of thirty students to my house for a party. My parents kindly obliged by opening their home for the event. My mother made 80 enchiladas to serve the horde, and then my parents went out for the evening, leaving me in charge. I thought I had enough activities to keep thirty fifth-graders busy for a couple of hours, between games, movies, and food, but apparently, I was wrong. By the end of the evening, they were doing back-flips over the sofa in our living room. When the parents arrived in the middle of this chaos to pick up their children, my parents arrived home as well. Standing in our foyer, looking out over the masses, one of the fifth-grade parents turned to my parents and asked them, “So which one is yours?” My mother replied nonchalantly, “The tall one over there.”   Sometimes feeding and entertaining large groups ...

What sells magazines? One only need take a glance at the publications on offer at the checkout counter in the grocery store to answer that question. It seems to me there are three things that sell magazines… Royalty.  One can most always see photos of the British royals on display where I shop. Sex.  Who was in bed with whom? That is a perennial favorite. Religion.  Though this topic is not as popular as the first two, the tabloids do take an interest in the fall of popular preachers, and Jesus makes an appearance in my grocery store at least every Christmas and Easter.   Now, if you mix these three topics together (royalty, sex & religion) then you have a bestseller on your hands. And that is precisely what we have in the next story in Mark’s Gospel. Listen for God’s word to you from Mark 6:14-29…   King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist   has been raised from the dead, and that is why mi...