July 8, 2018 | David Johnson | Ordinary Time | July 8, 2018

David picks up the thread of the gospel story in Mark 6:1-6, where Jesus preached in his hometown synagogue but His own people took offense because they thought they knew everything there was to know about Him: “Where did He gain this wisdom? And what are all these stories we’ve been hearing about the signs and healings He’s performed? Where did He get that kind of power? Isn’t this Jesus, the little boy we used to see in Joseph’s carpenter shop? Didn’t He grow up to be a carpenter just like His father? Isn’t He the son of Mary over there and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, Simon, and their sisters? Who does He think He is?” (Mark 6:2b-3, Voice trans.) As a result, Mark tells us that Jesus wondered at their unbelief; and the invitation the text offers us this week is to wonder at our own sense of expectancy about and openness to the power of God, at work in our ordinary lives.