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Thank you, Amelia and Tom. Gr8! Now Simon getting a new name (nickname) reminds me of Abram and Sarai being renamed Abraham and Sarah. Are there others instances in the Bible in which God gives people new names? (Pardon me for straying from the story.)

He was giving his Inaugural Sermon of his ministry!

❤❤❗️

Great!!❤

The Good News!

Amen!

yay!!! you're back!

This is one of your finest episodes. ❤ Great telling, illuminating commentary, and riotous humor weaved in, too. A multifaceted blessing. Thank you Amelia and Tom.

So very relevant to the current political situation - is it a new version of this video?

Thank you and Msy God bless you

Again: Thanks!

Love being reminded, three years later!

The third year, but always heard, like story, in a new context. Right now, a great and coming conflict is with dominionism, white "Christian" nationalism/supremacy, Project 2025, which along with its supporters are very clear about the intent for revenge on all who are blamed for perceived, or feared, harms to them - centrally, the loss of dominance and freedom to visit violence on others. So I agree with the need to renounce violence or revenge along with white fake-Christian nationalism, but I also realize I can't make that decision on behalf of _others_ who are being harmed and will be harmed if it comes to pass. Lord, illuminate this narrow path!

What a very relevant story for today, 2024 - with "so many" people and congregations disaffiliating from the UMC! And "nones" and "dones" re church in general. We are living this story. Bishop Oliveto asked the same question a few years ago - "Where would we go?" And, the hijacking of Christianity in the name of white supremacy...

Amelia and Tom, your “Mondays with Jesus” episodes are always great - but this one is *outstanding.* Where else would we go?

Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.

Amen! Great job. And so great to reconnect at Festival Gathering!

Amen...though this year I wouldn't call politics "triviality!" See you Wednesday!

Thank you 🙏🏻 For clear and accurate

Thanks for lifting up tassels, Tom. This story echoes the woman with the hemorrhage who touched the "fringe" of Jesus' garment, too. James Fleming, from whom I first learned about tassels, says that the tassel was a man's ID, like a credit card and driver's license in one, symbolizing the center of his power. An man too poor to have a "seal" of his own could execute a contract by pressing the head of his tassel into the clay, and putting one's tassels beneath the tassels of another was a pledge of loyalty and obedience - as displayed in the entry into Jerusalem and the stoning of Stephen.

Amen!

I love your use of the phrase "Jesus addresses the primary anxiety of the peasant farmer." You have got me thinking about how the Good News always addresses our primary anxiety. And, in regard to the comment about invasive weeds, maybe God uses things and people that we see as weeds for Kin-dom work! Many thanks!

Amen! Great job, folks.

Thank you Amelia and Tom. I’m so glad to see a “live” (recently recorded) episode of Mondays with Jesus!

Because Easter "floats" this lection (Proper 4) only comes up once in a while but did come up in 2018. I wish I had your commentary then! Always insightful.

Lovely, Tom and Amelia. I'm with you, Amelia - hard to believe it's already Pentecost! I wish there were a way to tell the whole story without seeming antisemitic, though. Especially this year.

Gr8❗️

"airo" in verse 2 means "lift up", not "cut off" as in the NIV. See Scot McNight's latest NT translation called "2nd Testament"

Thanks, Amelia and Tom! And more about the agricultural metaphor from (of course) James Fleming. First Century vintners did not have steel wire as we do, so their vineyards weren't vertical, with vines tied to steel-wire fences. They did have lots of rocks, and continually had to lift up the vines' runners from the soil onto the rocks, so that they wouldn't root. (My back hurts just thinking about it.) Grapes constantly want to send out runners - branches - which root wherever they touch the soil. The problem is, those "daughter" branches put their energy into their own survival so they don't produce fruit, nor do they survive the dry season. Only the main vine, the "true vine," the deep-rooted parent plant, can survive, and put energy into fruiting to reproduce. So pruning and cleaning is about cutting out dead wood and also removing "suckers" that are trying to "go it alone" instead of remaining attached to, and getting their nourishment from, the main plant. Thanks for pointing out the importance of connecting pruning and cleaning!

Thank you Tom and Amelia. I find the commentary quite stimulating. Keep the stories coming. I love to hear them told followed by the explanation. Thanks again.

I'm guessing that the lectionary for this coming Sunday starts this story in the middle so as to highlight the connection to the Numbers reading from the Hebrew Scripture. However, I appreciate your reminder that the story makes no sense without the whole context, and we cannot assume every hearer is familiar with the story. I'm rethinking how ill tell this on Sunday in worship. Many thanks!

... and now about that "Son of Man" thing... 🥰

Thanks for speaking about the impact of man-language on our picture of the sacredness of the female, Amelia. I'm so pleased that the NBS Canada festival workshop gave you food for reflection.

“That new world is at hand” … Thank you Tom and Amelia for shining that beacon of hope on your listeners!❤

Thank you, Amelia and Tom. And I'm glad the dog (Tippy?) got a moment on-screen, too.

Thank you Amelia and Tom!

Thanks TOM and Amelia.

Great telling and conversation, Tom and Amelia! Amen.

Great telling and great commentary, Tom and Amelia!

Great telling, Tom! It's also possible to see this story as full of humor and irony from start to finish. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" is clearly sarcastic. Jesus either hears that or sees his skepticism as he approaches - or has been warned - and says, "An Israelite indeed - who tells it like he sees it!" Nate admits his comment was less than respectful of an older man - "How did you know?" Jesus tosses off, "Oh, I saw you under the fig tree." Nate's over-the-top response is indeed over-the-top - and again sarcastic, not sincere, poking fun - that Jesus' "supernatural powers" only revealed what would be obvious to anyone who knew his big mouth. Then Jesus gets serious and responds seriously. Just a thought!

Fantastic job as always. However I did miss seeing your sidekick!😉

Great job, Amelia!

Amen! Great episode. Of course Luke also begins his story with folks who are "too old" and "too young." Thanks for the new insight - it had never occurred to me that with a 40-day break, it's totally likely that they were coming to Jerusalem from Nazareth and not Bethlehem in the story! Thanks. Of course, Luke and Matthew's stories are pretty much irreconcilable, since in Matthew Nazareth doesn't even appear in the story until after the return from Egypt, while the family has apparently been in Bethlehem all along, and for at least two years before the flight. Anyway, I love and tell them both. This Sunday I was Telling Matthew's story, and the only image in the service was the image of a baby Jesus wrapped in a Palestinian khaffiyeh, surrounded by rubble, in Manger Square. "For hate is strong and mocks the song..."

Do we know for sure that after Jesus was born that Mary and Joseph returned to Galilee and then returned to Jerusalem 40 days later? I would expect that after the birth of Jesus, the family stayed in Bethlehem until after the purification. Jerusalem and Bethlehem are about 7 miles apart. Since Bethlehem was the birth place of David, I would expect family to find a room somewhere among them by then and then stayed there for at least a year. Remember the wise men look for Jesus in Bethlehem, and he would probably have been a year old, so by ordering the death of all children under 2 years of age, Herod would be sure to kill Jesus. Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt with Jesus, with no mention of their ever returning to Nazareth.

And yes, Tom did finish his book and it's been out a couple years now.

How could I forget the locusts and wild honey?!!! So fun to tell. Definitely a prophet's diet.

Amen! And let's see...we have a Supreme Court majority which claims to be "originalist." Meaning no laws are valid that wouldn't have been valid in the context of 1789 (by their sometimes twisted readings, admittedly, of the history). When women were property, and black people were worse off property, and Native Americans were not even considered human. Hmmm. How is that going to work out for us? Jim and I are watching Heartland Docs - learn something every episode about farming and animals. But every other episode I am struck that "the actions being taken to save the life of this cow/horse/dog/cat are unavailable to women in the exact same circumstances, in many states."

Amen. And I can't help but compare the situation in Gaza today with the situation in Jerusalem in 70. I understand that there were factions fighting within the city itself! And surely did not speak for all the people there. As Hamas does not represent all Gazans - or even a majority. ...and, in fact, the warnings in the _first_ half of Mark 13, before the language turns mystical, had indeed all happened already in the war; that first half is a pretty good description of Gaza.

Wonderful to see Brother James! What a loss to Earth his death was - but what a gain for Heaven.