B106 - Epiphany 4 (Mk 1:21-28, 1 Cor 8, Dt 18:15-20)

Authority and identity emerge as key themes in Mark 1:21-28 as Jesus is portrayed as one powerful enough to cast out evil and liberate people from the power of evil. This is Mark’s Good News! We unpack ancient ideas of ‘unclean spirits’ or demons and discuss how our preaching and teaching might aspire to be transformative and healing in ways similar to Jesus’. Other options this week are Pauline ethics and how we show similar concern for the vulnerable in exercising freedom (1 Cor 8), what it means to “fear” God (Psalm 111), or thinking about how we continue the prophetic tradition of “naming” sin and evil (Deut 18).