CreatingCommunity is an email devotion to guide your preparation for worship next weekend. Imagine how much more clear and relevant God's Word will be if you have had an opportunity read, reflect, and dwell in the Word prior to worship. You may do this devotion alone, with others, as a family, or over Zoom as a small group.

This devotion is to be done in preparation for Sunday, June 6, 2021, The Second Sunday after Pentecost.

Please follow these three steps:

1. Read through the text
2. Respond to the questions (select one of the sets of questions)
3. Offer a Prayer
Mark 3:20-35
[Jesus went home;] and the crowd came together again, so that [Jesus and the disciples] could not even eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.” And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—for they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”
Then his mother and his brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
No Experience Necessary Questions:
  1. What scares, confuses, or challenges me in this text?
  2. What delights me in this text?
  3. What stories or memories does this text stir in me?
  4. What is God up to in this text?
Family Questions:
  1. What size is your family? Who is in your family? Make a list. Be sure to include those relatives that don't live near you?
  2. When you were baptized you became a part of God's family, What does it mean to you that Jesus is your brother?
  3. Jesus sometimes gets in trouble for doing things that people don't understand. Have you ever gotten in trouble for doing something others didn't understand? What happened?

Advance Questions:
  1. Does it seem possible that those who first saw and heard Jesus might have thought he was a little bizarre? Would you have thought him somewhat unusual? Explain your response?
  2. How do you understand Jesus' talk about demons, Satan, kingdoms divided, a strong man tied up, and the stealing of property? What is the point of this imagery?
  3. Jesus' family is mentioned in this section of the Gospel. What do you know about Jesus' family? How do they act here? Jesus says that anyone who does the will of God (his father) is a part of his family? Does that mean you are in Jesus' family?
Click here to listen to this week's CreatingCommunity song
“God's Family | Mr. Music's Sing-Along Vol. 2 | LifeKids”
Pray a Prayer of your own or this one.
Heavenly Father, you call us like a good parent to you to guide and protect us, to nourish and lead us.
Brother Jesus, you call us like a caring elder brother to serve us and help us, to cheer us and invite us.
Healing Spirit, you call us and move us ever closer into fellowship with you and each other.
Forgive us and free us, we pray. Open our eyes to how your wisdom knows true leadership to be service. Open our hearts that we may learn that neither race nor tribe, culture or religion are barriers to separate us but that we are all one family in your love. Amen,