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Season after Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Proper 23, Year B

Scripture: Mark 10:17-31

What does it take to get in? That’s the question that Jesus is asked. Jesus answers the question that is not asked and offers a very different way of being. The commandments of old are valid but insufficient. The way we’ve always done it is not working. What in the world would be an entrance requirement for a way of life you have already begun? What if it is not about getting in but about noticing that you are already in?

Download the lesson plans for Proper 23

LPTW Proper 23, Year B, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 23, Year B, Older Children
LPTW Proper 23, Year B, Adults
LPTW Proper 23, Year B, All

Season after Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Proper 22, Year B

Scripture: Mark 10:2-16

The Pharisees continue to try to trap Jesus. Divorce: “Is it lawful?” the Pharisees ask. Jesus moves the question to higher ground. Meanwhile, people were bringing their children to Jesus. The disciples still did not “get it” and were trying to turn the children away. Jesus takes the children, lays his hands on them, and blesses them. Do we “get it”?

Download the lesson plans for  Proper 22

LPTW Proper 22, Year B, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 22, Year B, Older Children
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LPTW Proper 22, Year B, All

Season after Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Proper 21, Year B

Scripture: Mark 9:38-50

Jesus continues to teach, while gently holding a small child on his lap. “Whoever is not against us is for us.” Then, do what you have to do to make sure you place no stumbling block before one of these little ones. If your foot causes you to stumble – cut it off! Hyperbole, perhaps, but the point is clear: pay attention. We are called to be salty people and at peace with one another.

Download the lesson plans for Proper 21

LPTW Proper 21, Year B, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 21, Year B, Older Children
LPTW Proper 21, Year B, Adults
LPTW Proper 21, Year B, All

Season after Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Proper 20, Year B

Scripture: Mark 9:30-37

As Jesus prepares his disciples for what is to come, they not only do not “get it,” they begin to jockey for position. Jesus is succinct: whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. He takes a small child gently in his arms and tells his disciples that as you welcome this child, you welcome not only me – but the one who sent me.

Download the lesson plans for Proper 20

LPTW Proper 20, Year B, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 20, Year B, Older Children
LPTW Proper 20, Year B, Adults
LPTW Proper 20, Year B, All

Season after Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Proper 19, Year B

Scripture: Mark 8:27-38

“Who do people say that I am?” Jesus asks his disciples. And they offer the various responses they have heard. “But who do YOU say that I am?” asks Jesus. Ah, the central question. Central for the relationship between Jesus and his disciples. Central for us. Who do WE say that Jesus is?

Download the lesson plans for Proper 19

LPTW Proper 19, Year B, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 19, Year B, Older Children
LPTW Proper 19, Year B, Adults
LPTW Proper 19, Year B, All

Season after Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Proper 18, Year B

Scripture: Mark 7:24-37

Two healings. One may have come as a surprise even to Jesus. A woman, not of his flock and not of his tradition, begs Jesus to heal her daughter. Because of her persistence he agrees to heal her daughter. A man, deaf and unable to speak clearly, is brought to Jesus. Jesus takes him, gently, off to one side away from prying eyes and heals him. “Don’t tell anyone about this,” he cautions. But of course, people find out.

Download the lesson plans for Proper 18

LPTW Proper 18, Year B, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 18, Year B, Older Children
LPTW Proper 18, Year B, Adults
LPTW Proper 18, Year B, All

Season after Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Proper 17, Year B

Scripture: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Temple security guards, those responsible for guarding the purity of the religion, are getting hung up on rules that seem urgent to them but they are missing what is important. Jesus dismisses their concerns about who washed what and insists that these concerns are reducing the ability to hear and do God’s word. What is important is not what goes into the body, it is what comes out of our hearts.

Download the lesson plans for Proper 17

LPTW Proper 17, Year B, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 17, Year B, Older Children
LPTW Proper 17, Year B, Adults
LPTW Proper 17, Year B, All

Season after Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Proper 16, Year B

Scripture: John 6:56-59

The fork in the road. The moment of truth. The choice. Will we do things the way we’ve always done it, or will we take a leap of faith? “This teaching is difficult!” say those who have trekked with Jesus. Will we risk the spirit that gives life or will we pin all our hopes on “the flesh”? Jesus invites us into the unfathomable joys of the kingdom of God. What will we choose?

Download the lesson plans for Proper 16

LPTW Proper 16, Year B, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 16, Year B, Older Children
LPTW Proper 16, Year B, Adults
LPTW Proper 16, Year B, All

Season after Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Proper 15, Year B

Scripture: John 6:51-58

Nutritionists will assure us that we are what we eat. Jesus, long before nutritionists, told us that we become what we eat. And so Jesus invites us to become one with him by eating his flesh and by drinking his blood. Our task is to trust that “whoever eats this bread will live forever.”

Download the lesson plans for Proper 15

LPTW Proper 15, Year B, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 15, Year B, Older Children
LPTW Proper 15, Year B, Adults
LPTW Proper 15, Year B, All

Season after Pentecost, Ordinary Time, Proper 14, Year B

Scripture: John 6:35, 41-51

Those entrusted with keeping the faith are getting nervous. “Hold it,” they say. “Isn’t this Joseph and Mary’s kid? We know them well and have watched their child, Jesus, grow up. How can he say, ‘I have come down from heaven?’ How are we to understand this Jesus to be the ‘living bread’?” Each of us today is also on a journey into trusting this bread of life.

Download the lesson plans for Proper 14

LPTW Proper 14, Year B, Younger Children
LPTW Proper 14, Year B, Older Children
LPTW Proper 14, Year B, Adults
LPTW Proper 14, Year B, All