Family Communion for the Second Sunday after Trinity; celebrant the Revd Tola Badejo.

First reading: Genesis 3: 8 – 15
Gospel: Mark 3: 20 - 35

The readings today are an Old Testament passage that almost everyone will recognise from the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols at Christmas and another from Mark that is much less familiar. Both, however, deal with the nature and consequences of sin and with the responsibility upon leaders and teachers to act and speak in accordance with the word and will of God.

The Genesis passage is of course set in Paradise: the rules are different, so the serpent is capable of sin and subject to moral consequence. Both the serpent and Eve share the blame, and through their offering and acceptance of temptation shape the pattern of the natural world that now exists, where one creature hunts another and humans often fear snakes whether or not they really are venomous. In Mark, the scribes explain good actions (the casting out of demons) as the product of even greater evil, and so, instead of recognising divinity in Jesus, see him as a representative of the devil. Like the serpent in Genesis, they turn truth on its head.

The Gospel passage begins in mid-story. Jesus, having attracted attention through his curing of the possessed, is relentlessly mobbed by crowds who will not leave him alone, and he is also being pursued by the religious authorities. We might wonder about the feelings and motives of the different groups and individuals involved: what exactly do the people in the crowd want, and why are the scribes so hostile? How do we respond to the concern of Jesus's mother and brothers; are they standing between him and his ministry, or simply concerned for his safety and welfare? And what about his own final comment: does he brutally reject his earthly family or, on the contrary, extend familial love beyond his blood relatives to all who belong to his heavenly father?