On Your Mark

Mark has been our Gospel this Lectionary Year, and his Feast Day is on Sunday. At the end of the eMag you'll find an essay on Mark's Gospel and the BCP collect for St Mark. We've even had a weekly bible study group on Mark (although I see they've been tempted to visit John's gospel from time to time).

Normally, we'd transfer Mark's Feast Day to a weekday, and leave Sunday's lections alone. But on a Sunday when we meet for our APCM, it seemed very fitting to celebrate together Mark the Evangelist. Because his work is also ours — the work of telling, and living, Christ's story.

It's the work of a lifetime, and the work of a moment. Mark's gospel doesn't take long to read, maybe an hour and a half or less. Becoming a Christian doesn't take long either, but it takes a lifetime as well. And being a thriving Christian community can happen every day, and yet we've been working on it for centuries — not always getting it right, but by God's grace we get back up and carry on.

We are, individually and together as a church, evangelists, εὐαγγέλιον, bearers of the good news. Like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we tell the story of Christ's redeeming work. And like Mary, we bear the Good News, carrying the word of God in our hearts and in our lives. In a world which needs more good news, what very good news that is!