Well, good morning once again to all of you. It’s great to be back for another weekend of masses here at Saint Charles. I’ll be here next weekend as well before I head back out west California to San Francisco. And I think some of you may know that I am a high school teacher out in San Francisco, and it’s something I absolutely love doing.

Throughout the gospel of Mark, one always comes up with these incidents where Jesus acts in a certain way, and yet the disciples remain somewhat disbelieving and want not yet sure of who this person is. And certainly this is one of the incidents where we see that, but Mark has that as one of the elements that he builds throughout his gospel in the sense of saying that faith is a very challenging part of our lives.

Good morning everyone. We welcome Kiah and Caleb here today to become new members of the Christian community. They have already been blessed by God with the gift of life. They’ve been blessed by the gift of loving parents and godparents. And today we will be receivers of the blessings which they already are. So welcome and welcome guests and family members and everyone else here today is welcome to Brooklyn Heights and a nice, heat wave that we’re in here.

It may sound like a truism that in every age in history there are a number of great crises, and in every great crisis, great leaders emerge that capture the imagination of people and lead them out of the crisis. Certainly, the Second World War would be one of those moments of crisis, and certainly for the people of Great Britain.

One of the more prominent expressions and focuses within the gospel of Mark is the Kingdom of God. You might remember at the very beginning of Mark’s gospel, after he says he’s going to tell the story of Jesus, the Son of God. The first words that Jesus utters, is repent and believe. The kingdom of God is at hand.

Let’s take a little stroll down memory lane. Think back. What is the first time you clearly remember getting into trouble? getting into trouble. Now, there are many reasons why one could get into trouble. I wouldn’t know, I only got in trouble once in all my life. I learned very quickly. But for example, when we got into trouble, did we try to lie our way out of it?

Have you ever noticed that we as a people tend to think in threes? So if I say to you. Red, blue. Then I hear we have a discussion. Someone says white. Someone says yellow. Where are the yellow people? Primary colors red, blue and yellow. Who says white? Patriotic people. Red, white and blue. So sometimes there is going to be a fourth option.

So let’s try this again. If I say apples, oranges, you say bananas. Who say grapefruit? Bananas. Okay, we’re back to the fourth. One more. I’ve got to be right. At one point, Mo. Larry and. Okay, see, we finally came to three. The threes are very important for us as a people. Think of the number of times that we just think in threes.