NOTES:
1] Jesus seems to operate in & out of Capernaum a lot. 2] MK has a strong emphasis on Jesus as Teacher. 3] Jesus may be out of step with the organised religion of his day, but he is very much the observant Jew. 4] In v.28, 'fame' means 'news that spreads'

WARMING UP: When we have a job to do, do we set-to straight away, or put it off if we can?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything this week?

ENTERING INTO THE STORY:

21-22  How do we view, relate to, cope with those who say they're 'Anglicans' or 'Christians' but don't want much to do with the church? On a 1-10 scale (10 = most important), how would we rate 'teaching' as one of the church's responsibilities? What about 'teaching with authority'? Or is the kind of authority Jesus teaches with something we're not too familiar with today?

23-28  How do we feel when we read or hear of a healing like this one back then yet don't normally see or experience that kind of thing now? Have the circumstances changed? Have we changed? Has our expectation of healing changed? Is healing as much a spiritual matter as physical, or is that a 'cop out'?

Is exorcism (the casting out of some possessing evil force from a person or place) too much based on a 1st C. view of things ('demon possession') to be taken seriously today? What remedies would we normally expect to be applied to someone who has whatever we might define as an 'unclean spirit' today?  What if 'normal' remedies don't work? Do we have a fall-back position? Do our churches have a problem in this area because we take too many 'fall-back' positions instead of taking more  'affirmative action'? How experienced are we at intervening in any way in people's illnesses of body, mind, or spirit? Or do we leave it all to the experts?

Does 'amazement' feature much in our vocabulary these days in relation to our experience of Jesus? Do we have much to be amazed at? Honestly? Do we recognize teaching that we receive as having God's own authority? Or is there a lot of  wishy- washiness around because we're not too sure about any kind of authority anymore? Do we allow so-called 'political correctness' to gazump God's authority too much now? If so, why?

What positive & constructive actions could we take to spread Jesus' 'fame' & re-establish God's authority in our community?