Renovating Power: Embodying Jesus' New Way (Critical Essay‪)‬

When I was in seminary, my first New Testament professor, David Tiede, suggested that we choose one of" the four Gospels to relate to in an on-going way throughout our pastoral life. He spoke of his long relationship with the Gospel of Luke and how that Gospel continued to unfold new mysteries to him even after decades of rigorous engagement. I have followed his advice with the oldest of the four Gospels, Mark. Like many of the readers of Currents in Theology and Mission, I have spent time with Mark every three years since my baptism as an infant. In seminary my knowledge of the evangelist's message deepened. But our friendship went to a whole new level when I committed to taking its mysteries to heart in order to perform them for others. Every day for sixteen months, I spent a half hour over morning coffee internalizing Mark's narrative. 'This relationship has brought us together at such a deep level that it is hard for me to untangle where my own thinking ends and where Mark's begins. As with other deep friendships I have enjoyed throughout the years, I find myself finishing Mark's sentences for him, but more surprising is that he occasionally returns the favor for me. At the heart of Mark's gospel is renovating power. In a context where the Roman Empire sought to control how power would be understood and experienced, the evangelist re-imagined what power was and how it could be used. Mark s Jesus over teaches this renovated, renovating form of power.