(Redacted) The passage that we are looking at in Mark today asks, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan’ (Mark 3:23)? The Greek word for ’satan’, ‘satanas’ literally means ‘accuser’. [i] The question being asked directly here is how can accuser cast out accuser? It reminds me of Jesus addressing Peter when he says, Get thee behind me accuser! (Matthew 16:23) It also reminds me of Job where, ‘satan’ (literally ‘opponent’, ‘adversary’; pronounced: saw-tawn) the Hebrew equivalent of ‘satanas’ is used. In the case of Job, God baits the accuser. He tells the accuser how good Job is, knowing full well that he would accuse him of only being good because God does so many good things for him. The whole story of great suffering, perseverance, and more unfolds from there. The main name we think of when we think of ‘the devil’ is Satan (satan, satanas), accuser. This is important. I suggest that it is because his main attribute, almost his defining characteristic, is that he is one who accuses ot
As this is camp day, I have a camp story. This one is from a men’s camp we went to on the prairies years ago.. We men, as you know, can think of ourselves as fairly organized and when I was in teacher-training many years ago we learned that while women are generally more skilled at the creative side of things men have a much higher aptitude for math and such. So here is a math question for you. If you start off with 1 Officer and 5 other men from one town and you add 1 Officer and 4 other men from another town, how many men do you have? (11) Good. Now if you subtract 1 person from the second town (who will get off the bus in Saskatoon) and add 1 person from the first town (Who will get on the bus in Saskatoon) how many men should we have on our bus as we leave men’s camp? (The one person we are going to add in Saskatoon is ‘David’, he is Major Ed’s son) How many people should we have on our bus at the beginning and the end of the trip? Do you think we could get that right?