Here's to St. Mark on his feast day -- the Joe Friday of Evangelists: short and to the point; a real straight-shooter. I love the Gospel of John, but some days when I'm not tracking well and it starts reading like
I Am the Walrus -- "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together" -- I go to the Gospel of Mark instead: "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God..." And then he's off and running.
Almighty God who by the hand of Mark the Evangelist has given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank you for this witness, and pray that we may be firmly grounded in its truth; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
St. Mark, icon by Peter Wilke 
6 comments:
I love the Gospel of John, but some days when I'm not tracking well and it starts reading like I Am the Walrus -- "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together"
roflmho
Oh LC, that is the most wonderful comparison. I LOVE it. Thank you for thus brightening my morning...Spot on! I keep giggling whenever I go back to it.
x
The dreaded "Me too..." I find I have to be firing on all cylinders to comprehend John.
WOnder if that's why the lectionary doesn't use him as extensively as the other three? I mean, we could have had a four-year cycle, one for each, but we don't. We use John for Passion Week, a few dates here and there, and that all--not like Matthew, Mark and Luke.
The latter is my personal fave.
Actually in Year B, the year of Mark, Mark and John are used just about equally.
Except for seven Sundays (Baptism of Jesus, Transfiguration, Palm/Passion, and two each in Advent and Lent), it is the year of Mark only in ordinary time. With up to 26 readings to Mark's 29, the Gospel of John takes over for both the Forty (Lent) and Fifty (Easter) Days and interrups Mark with five continuous readings from John 6, the "Bread of Life" commentary on the feeding of the five thousand.
Sundays & Seasons says about Mark, evangelist:
Thought Mark himself was not an apostle, it is likely that he was a member of one of the early Christian communities. It is possible that he is the John Mark of Acts 12 whose mother owned a house where the apostles gathered. The gospel attributed to him is brief and direct. It is considered by many to be the earliest gospel. Tradition has it that Mark went to preach in Alexandria, Egypt, became the first bishop there, and was subsequently martyred.
Mark's story of the resurrection ends with women at the tomb who say nothing to anyone because of their fear. Though their witness faltered, the good news of the resurrection, the good news of these fifty days, reaches out to include us.
Here at St. Mark's we celebrated by installing a new communion chalice and... ummm what's the proper word, it starts with a P.. oh well, the little Host plate.
It was nice. Interesting to note the Anglicans do a lot more crossing and kissing of things than we tend to.
Peace,
Chris
hi Christopher. It's called a patten, but I dpon't know if I'm spelling it right. Once when
a friend and I were cleaning up after worship, I had to explain that the blood in the chalice was poured on the ground and it was washed in a special sink, but the flagon only contained wine, so it could be washed anywhere. I forgot the word flagon and ended up calling it "that thing that looks like a pitcher, but is called something else liturgical."
I am studying Mark these days. With the aid of Wright's "Mark for Everyone" and the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible.
I want to be more serious about the Bible -- actually studying it, not just reading through like it's a novel -- and I thought I'd study a book at a time. I wanted to start with a Gospel because I believe they are the most central, and I chose Mark because it's supposed to be the earliest.
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