Bible Notes 1st February to 8th February 2015 by Philip Homes and Sue Draper

 

You can’t beat a good book.

 

Mark is one of those writers – direct, quick-moving, pithy – it’s all there! But like all authors, he has favourite language that he repeats. You’ll find this book a real page turner. Time and time again, Mark uses the phrase “Immediately” to convey a sense of excitement and action. Probably written by John Mark of Jerusalem, who was a companion of Paul, Barnabas and Peter, this account of the ministry of Jesus is the shortest and simplest of all the gospels. It can easily be read from cover to cover in less than two hours – and yet it contains the essence of what God has done in sending Jesus as the Saviour of the world. It opens with the words “In the beginning . . .” and ends with this affirmation of the impact of Jesus:

 

“And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked with them, confirming what they said with many miraculous signs”  Mark 16:20 (NLT)

 

In this short period before Lent, Mark’s gospel is helping us to understand the context of the ministry of Jesus as a foundation for the events leading up to Easter. We could not choose a better focus than these early chapters from Mark’s gospel.

 

 

 

Sunday 1 February 2015:  Mark 1: 21-28

What distinguishes Jesus from other religious teachers?

 

Mark tells us that Jesus, when he spoke to teach, was “quite unlike the teachers of the religious law” (Mk1:22b).  I heard John Cleese talking about how he spent a few years as a young man working as a teacher. He openly admits that he just kept one page ahead of his students and that it did not take long for one student in particular to notice that he was lacking a love, a fascination and a depth of understanding forHistory. You know when you are in the presence of an expert don’t you?  A passion and a rich seam underpin everything they say – and you are left in no doubt that theirs is not simplyhead knowledge. It abides deep within them so much so that it overflows in all sorts of unlikely contexts!

 

We know that all sorts of rabbis were teaching at the time of Jesus. But it seems that people discern that the ministry of Jesus is distinctive – he is special and he stands out both in terms of how he expresses himself and also through the way in which he is active pastorally amongst the people. Indeed, one man shouts out “I know who you are – the Holy One sent from God” (Mark 1:24). This incident in the Temple court leads people to question what they have witnessed: “What sort of new teaching is this?” (Mark 1:27). There is excitement in the air and everyone can sense that they are in the presence of someone very special.

 

Question: ​What does it take to get you excited?  Is there a spark missing in worship? How can

we, as preachers and worship leaders, ensure that the people of God sense the presence of God amongst us with awe and wonder?

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday 8 February 2015: Mark 1: 29-39

Jesus – the healer and the preacher

 

It has been a glorious day and the winter sun has sat low in the sky during the hours after noon. As evening approaches the deep crimson ball sinks towards the horizon and the air is still. It is an awesome sight as wisps of cloud dapple the winter light.  At such a time as this, people from all around Capernaum begin to gather. We are not told what inspired them to come to Simon and Andrew’s home, but soon a handful of people became a large crowd. Waiting and watching. And then, quietly and humbly, Jesus moves among them. He takes hold of an outstretched hand, he speaks quietly as he prays over the sick, and his majestic presence silences the demons.

 

Moments like this are rare.  Life is often much too busy to notice how God is working amongst us. Moments like this are rare – especially for those nursing a fever, for those feeling an overwhelming burden of sickness, for those for whom days fly by in the madness of work pressures, and for those who are so troubled in spirit that they cannot find relief in sleep.  Yet, Mark reminds us that moments like this can still be found when Christ meets with us in our circumstances and when he brings wholeness and blessing into our busy lives. The clue is to be found in verse 35. Although busy undertaking his Father’s work, Jesus makes time to be still and to pray. This daily priority is never neglected and it is for him the source of the strength that powers his preaching and his healing work.

 

Question: ​When we lead the people of God as they gather together for worship, what can we bring that will help us all see the Lord moving amongst us, meeting our needs?  How might the blessings of God be found more consistently in our corporate acts of worship?  

 

 

Sunday 15 February 2015: Mark 9: 2-9 (Sunday before Ash Wednesday)

Jesus – his glory revealed

 

Friendships are built on familiarity. Just when you think that you are on familiar terms with someone – the relationship has deepened to a level such that quirks and mannerisms go un-noticed. The physical presence seems normal and almostordinary, the inflections of language become predicable. And then, when you least expect it, something happens that causes you to stop almost in shock. Surely this is out of character? Is this the real person I know? What is going on?

 

Mark takes us to higher ground in chapter nine.  Peter, James and John make the climb with Jesus to a place of blessing. Though they did not expect it, they were brought to a meeting place where Jesus is revealed in all his glory. Peter records the event in his letter: “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain” (2 Peter 1:18). It is a moment that seems so out of character with the other events that crowd the ministry of Jesus. And yet, it is such an event as this that transforms Peter’s understanding of who it is that he is following. It is a unique and fresh encounter with God. We realise that, sometimes, our unthinking response and even our words get in the way.

 

Question:​If possible, can you walk up a local hill and spend some quality time alone with God? It can be a wonderful and surprising thing that may lead us to ask ourselves: “Do I make enough effort to climb the mountain?”  On reflection, is my own habit alittle bit like Peter - one of filling the encounter with words that are irrelevant?

 

 

 

Sunday 22 February 2015: Mark 1:9-15 (First Sunday in Lent)

Jesus – who do you think you are?

 

The popular television programme ‘Who do you think you are?’ helps celebrities trace their ancestry, discovering secrets and surprises from their past.  Some things are shocking: singer Lesley Garrett learned that her great-great-grandfatherwas suspected of killing his wife by replacing her medication with carbolic acid.  Happily, many discoveries generate pleasure and pride in the courage and achievements of family members in overcoming the challenges of their day.

 

At Jesus’ baptism, God confirms the family relationship with pleasure and pride.  Jesus, his Father and the Spirit experience the special moment together.  Yet at once the Spirit sends Jesus alone into the desert for a challenge that is as much a preparation for his future ministry as was his baptism.

 

Satan tempts Jesus, and more detail is found in Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13.  At the heart of the three main temptations are questions of identity: do you really have that power?  Can you trust God to do what he says and not to let you down at the end?  Are you really his son?  Underneath is a deep stab at an insecurity with which many of us identify: who do you think you are?  Can we as preachers take encouragement from Jesus to acknowledge our own insecurities and challenges about identity and purpose?

 

How does Jesus respond?  Mark tells us very simply that he gets on with his mission, proclaiming the good news of God, demonstrating he is secure in knowing exactly who he is and that he has a clear purpose for his life.  

 

Question:​How do we face up to or put aside our insecurities about our own identity and purpose?  Many of the Psalms remind us of God’s faithfulness and care when we falter.  Look back at the good things God has done in your life and give thanks.

 

 

Sunday 1 March 2015: Mark 8: 31-38 (Second Sunday in Lent)

Jesus – “Do you know where you’re going to?”

 

Diana Ross famously sang those words, followed by, “Do you like the things that life is showing you?  Where are you going to?  Do you know?”  These are important questions for individuals and churches.  Some people seem to have them answered whereas others have no idea, and everyone else is somewhere between.  

 

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, “the world’s greatest living explorer”, is a modern example of someone with vision, a clear purpose, and an unswerving commitment to achieving that purpose through high quality planning, preparation and training.  He leads both solo and team expeditions, doing things no human has done before.

 

Jesus explains to the disciples where he’s going in his life journey.  He is focused on his purpose and disposes of distractions swiftly.  His life up to this point has been preparation and training for the final stages, when he will achieve what no human has done before: life in all its fullnessthrough the cross and resurrection.

 

Jesus then challenges a wider crowd to consider their own purpose in life and examine their commitment to it.  He explains that things aren’t always what they seem and it’s important to prioritise on the right things.  I’m sure SirRanulph would understand it, based on his experiences of the unexpected in the world’s most challenging and unpredictable environments.  What is the loss of a few finger-tips from frostbite when trying to walk solo to the North Pole?  Perhaps that sounds shockingly harsh: maybe we need to hear Jesus’ words afresh because they too are shocking.

 

Further in the song Diana sings, “Do you get what you’re hoping for?”  We rejoice that Jesus did, so that we can live in God’s love and glory forever.

 

Question:​How can we help people to have confidence in where they are going in their personal lives, and together as a church?  How do we sustain commitment to our priorities when there may be a personal cost?

 

 

Sunday 8 March 2015: John 2: 13-22 (Third Sunday in Lent)

The unexpected Messiah

 

It’s a shock when the unexpected happens. A BBC news reader, Sue Lawley, was interrupted in 1988   when protesters managed to gain entry to the TV studio and get their message across. In a crowded shopping centre, people become aware that someone is singing and that others are starting to join in – it’s a spontaneous and blessing-filled performance of Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus.  There can be nothing more calculated to make us stop what we are doing, look up and pay attention, than an unexpected happening.

 

Like all good Jewish men, Jesus is to be found in the Temple at Passover. But he is not just one of the crowd of people gathering together to celebrate the way in which God chose to rescue his people from Egypt. He is here to bring a new message of salvation and, in order to do that, he begins to do something that no-one expected. The comfortable market place becomes the centre of considerable hullabaloo. Voices are raised. A protest is underway. So the Temple authorities step in to quell this disturbance (v.18) and get more than they bargained for. From this point on, the rabbi Jesus becomes the talking point all around the city and there followed miracles and rumours about the Messiah.

Question: How often does church feel like the place of comfort and routine? When was the last time that the unexpected happened?  While we sing “Jesus is Lord”, do we expect God to surprise us and make us stop, look up and pay attention?

Bible notes for 25th December 2014 to 25th January 2015 by Rev Stuart Gunson

Christmas Day: Luke 2: 1-14 (15-20): The Birth of Jesus

 

The ordinary and the extraordinary

Luke is sets his birth story about Jesus into a real world/context:

•

Time (reign of Augustus/Quirinius, governor of Syria))

•

Place (Bethlehem)

•

Family (House of David)

•

Context:

o

Registration

o

Busy city

•

Making the best of it: There is no indication that this heavily pregnant woman was turned away by an unsympathetic innkeeper. Simply Mary and Joseph did the best they could - they found somewhere that would serve their purpose.

The birth of Jesus was as ordinary as it could be given the circumstances, and read v 7 again; there is real tenderness here.

 

The world is still very ordinary: shepherds are doing what shepherds do.

Then the extraordinary breaks in:

Bright lights, angelic voices, a proclamation: a first hand experience fortrhe shepherds and a second hand (story told) experiences for Mary and Joseph and ‘all who heard it’ (v19).

 

And responses to this extraordinary.

The shepherds feel compelled to follow up the revelation. They are impulsive. We are not told of any arrangements they made for the security of the sheep, we can only speculate as to how they knew to go to find a particular manger in Bethlehem. They knew it was ‘of God’.

‘All who heard’ were amazed. You are told about something that has happened, your imagination is captured, but you don’t really understand it. The words ‘awe and wonder’ spring to mind!    

Mary treasured and pondered! She kept her thoughts to herself. How many times would she call that moment to mind as ‘her little boy’ matured, ministered and was unjustly put to death on a cross.

 

Dec 28: Luke 2: 22-40 Jesus Is Presented in the Temple

 

According to the law:

The ordinariness continues. Mary and Joseph do what is expected of them: the child is to be ‘designated as holy before the Lord’, named and circumcised; the mother is to be purified and sacrifices are to be offered.

 

This story combined with last week’s story resonates with Jesus own words in response to a trick question about paying taxes: “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to god the things that are God’s.” The registration of the family in Bethlehem is according to the civil law of the occupying forces, this registration in the temple at Jerusalem is according to the religious law of the people of God. For people of faith, there is often a tension between what they must do according to the law and what their faith response demands of them. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of ‘this world’ are often in tension one with another.

 

There were two significant others in the temple, and they are both prophetic voices:

Simeon was ‘guided by the spirit to be there’. Doesn’t that open up a whole subject?  Are we in the right place at the right time because we just happen to be there, or is there some divine hand guiding and directing?

Anna was there because she was always there!

 

Both Simeon and Anna responded to the scene of this young couple and baby doing what was customary in their own particular way. The way Luke tells it Simeon comes first. This is ‘just what I have been waiting for’ he says. And in two verses of blessing (34 and 35) he summarises the future life of Jesus. Did Mary add these words to her ponderings? Did she, at the foot of the cross, remember this piece of prophecy? Anna, an old woman, just seems to know something! That often happens to people, they get a sort of feeling about things and seem to know that there is something special going on that they don’t fully understand, and they just have to say what is in their minds.

 

Two extraordinary responses within an ordinary scene!

 

Jan 4 Matt 2: 1-12 The Visit of the Wise Men

 

Following a star

 

The star in this story has two functions

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A sign that something of importance had happened

•

A sort of cosmic sat. nav. for the last stage of the journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem,.

The sign was that ‘king of the Jews’ had been born. There is no more natural thing for these wise men to do than to go to Jerusalem expecting to pay homage to him at the court of King Herod. There was no new king in Jerusalem, and clearly the city in general and Herod in particular are unsettled by the suggestion. Herod seems to guess what is going on because he specifically enquires about ‘the Messiah’.

Now Herod conceives a plan and attempts to make the wise men complicit in carrying out the plan which is set out in its dreadful detail in the verses that follow this passage. The star enables them to complete their journey and fulfil the purpose of the visit before deceiving the one who had tried to manipulate them.

 

It is the diligence of the Magi that stands out from the story:

They are diligent in

•

Their identification of the sign: as observers of the heavens, they would have seen something different.

•

Their interpretation of the sign: this required the experience of their learning coupled with imagination and inspiration.

•

Their response to the sign: they were not just content with the sign, but needed to confirm it.

•

Their enquiry of Herod and his court: they enlisted the help of those with more local knowledge than they had.

•

Their following of the star: they persisted in order to bring their quest to completion.

•

Their response to the Christ Child

•

And their response to that small voice that said … ‘don’t go back to Jerusalem!’

 

Jan 11: Mark 1: 4-11 The Baptism of Jesus

The age of grace begins

In the hymn that begins “When Jesus came to Jordan…” Frederick Pratt Green writes: “So when the Dove descended on him, the Son of Man, the hidden years had ended, the age of grace began.”

In ‘the hidden years’, God had been understood as law giver and law administrator.  In how many stories in the Old Testament do we discover that God is understood as the one who applies the law: discerning behaviour as right or wrong, making a judgement, pronouncing sentence and executing punishment? Then, when time has been served, there is the act of restoration.  The hidden is now to be unhidden in Jesus Christ; God’s nature is to be revealed as one of grace. John the Baptist is to be the messenger that Isaiah had described, the bringer of good news! The good news is ‘repentance for the forgiveness of sins’

 

This phrase can be examined in two ways:

Does repentance bring about the forgiveness of sins? This is mercy!

Is repentance a response to the forgiveness of sins? This is grace!

Psalm 103 says ‘God is merciful and gracious’; one of our hymns (The Kingdom of God is justice and joy) includes a verse that begins with ‘The kingdom of God is mercy and grace’.  We can explore mercy and grace with the technique of ‘compare and contrast’ and somewhere in the answer, we may find ourselves saying: Mercy is about God responding to our repentance by granting forgiveness.  Grace is about us responding to God’s love by determining to live in his way. There isn’t much in it, or is there? Of course it doesn’t have to be an ‘either/or’, but we can test the difference between the two by asking the question: is it easier to be merciful (to respond kindly to someone saying ‘sorry’ to us) than to be gracious (to assure the other person that our love towards them does not depend on them saying ‘sorry’).

 

Look at our services of baptism and confirmation: they begin with the gifts of grace, then a profession of faith, then the act of baptism and finally the response of promises.

 

Jan 18: John 1: 43-51: Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

First impressions

This encounter between Nathanael and Jesus draws a contrast between the first impressions each makes on the other.

•

Nathanael’s is based on some sort of prejudice. There is something about Nazareth that doesn’t resonate with Nathanael and he has dismissed Jesus as irrelevant because of it.

•

Jesus’ is based on observation of the person, and the first impression is that here is an honest man. The second is hidden in the phrase ‘under the fig tree’: Micah’s (4: 4) vision of the universal reign of peace has everyone sitting ‘under his own vines and fig tree’. So Jesus views Nathanael as a man whose ambition is peace.

Jesus’ response, based on his discernment, challenges and defeats Nathanael’s prejudice!

 

When people are asked for their judgement on a subject they respond in two ways:

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Impulsively: they make the first statement that comes into their head and then quote the evidence that supports their statement. Even when they are clearly prejudiced or even obviously wrong they defend their position fiercely.

•

Reflectively: they quietly consider the evidence before them, weigh it up, and even then their judgement is cautious and their response allows them some room for manoeuvre.

 

There seem to be many who have misconceptions about the life of faith and/or about ‘the church’ that crystallise into prejudice against the call to discipleship. There is plenty of material in the public domain to feed that prejudice. The challenge to every Christian is to live in a way that provides evidence of the loving, caring, reconciliatory way of living that Christ himself advocates. This is how prejudice is confronted and reflection is encouraged, and the work of the Holy Spirit is fed.

 

Jan 25: Mark 1: 14-20 The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry

Responding to the call

Jesus carries on where John left off! In Matthew and Luke the ministry of John and Jesus have some overlap. In Mark, the story is set out in discrete steps: John preaches, Jesus is baptised, Jesus goes into the wilderness, John is arrested, Jesus ministry starts and followers are recruited.

 

People don’t just leave their place of work, their families and their security on an impulse; or do they? We don’t know how little or how much exposure those first four disciples had to Jesus and his teaching. We don’t know how much or how little heart searching they had or whether they had discussed this vocation with the family. What we do know is that they responded to the call to repent and to believe the good news. The telling of the story makes the response decisive, they walked away from their past. Is this what ‘repent’ means?

 

The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near: we’re back with the Frederick Pratt Green Hymn (from Jan 11): The age of grace has begun.

This is the good news: God loves you with a ‘ceaseless unexhausted love’; believe it!

 

As the disciples engage with Jesus, they can begin to understand what ‘the kingdom has come near’ is about. Back to hymns again: “The kingdom of God is mercy and grace, the lepers are cleansed and sinners find place, the outcasts are welcomed God’s banquet to share and hope is awakened in the place of despair;” the ministry and message of Jesus in a nutshell!  In this Ebola epidemic in West Africa, volunteers are putting themselves at risk to care for the dying, to nurse the sick, to contain the virus. (Is there something about saving the world in here?) Wherever a hungry child is fed, a lonely person comforted, a homeless individual given a bed for the night, the kingdom of God is come near.

Repentance has a lot to do with change. Humankind is challenged to envision a world which is changed: a world that embraces the nature of God as revealed in Jesus Christ; then’ here and hereafter the Kingdom will grow’.

Bible Notes on Mark for Advent 30th November to 21st December 2014 by Barrie Morley

November 30th - Advent Sunday     

The RCL gives preachers a challenging Gospel passage for Advent Sunday this year.

Mark was written during the 'Jewish War' which, in time was to see the sacking of Jerusalem and the ruin of the Temple.  Almost certainly some of Jesus words here refer to that event, almost 2,000 years ago.   Talk of trauma for refugees must ring  bells for the many displaced people in the Middle East this Advent time.   But this passage has become a happy hunting ground for those who only look for predictions of the return of Christ.   The problem is which of these words have already been fulfiled, and which are yet to be?

The 'Second Advent' is very important.  This season is much more than a time of preparation for Christmas, but what can we say as we deal with the confusing picture language of this week's Gospel?   What we CAN say is this.  'in the beginning God....and in the end, God.'    This is the message of the Bible.

POSSIBLE PREACHING TOPIC

Jesus speaks here of a time of trauma.   Modern times produce great distress for so many people.   Let's not get tangled in the intricacies of this passage, but let us hold to its message and the message of the Bible.   'In the beginning God....and...in the end....God.'  This is Advent Hope. 

December 7th - Mark 1:1-8

'To begin at the beginning' intones Richard Burton at the start of the radio play 'Under Milk Wood.'

   

'The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.' writes Mark in the opening words of his gospel.  'Listen, only you can hear'   continues Burton in Dylan Thomas's play.  You are a secret observer and listener to twenty four hours of life in Llarregub.  Mark too is dealing in a secret.  He shows us that the value and true identity of Jesus and his message is a secret.  The Priests and doctors of the law miss theirsgnificance.  So do the the crowds, and even the disciples.  Even at the Resurrection, the first reaction of the disciples is of fear and astonishment rather than belief. (Ch 16: 8)

AND YET....the reader of Mark is in on the secret of Jesus true identity, and the value of his message.

Mark tells us plainly what it is in the opening words,  'Jesus Christ is the Son of God.'   In Thomas's play we see an open public day in the life of one small seaside town.

Perhaps the link for us this Advent is that now, just as in Mark's time the value of Jesus and his gospel are there for those who will look and listen, but now as then the majority of people in our culture and time miss the true worth of Jesus and his message.  

   

POSSIBLE PREACHING TOPIC

What does it mean in our time and culture,  to be one of a minority who are in on the secret of who Jesus is and what he does?

December 14th - John 1:6-8, 19-28

The RCL now follows its usual pattern of introducing readings from John's Gospel around the Christmas and Easter seasons.   'John the Forerunner' is a traditional Advent topic.  He represents (as Jesus himself said) the height of the Old Testament witness.  There may have been an almost rival discipleship movement to that of Jesus for a time (see Acts  18: 24-19: 7).  However the Gospel of John has no doubt that John the Baptist was no more than the messenger of the coming Messiah.

POSSIBLE PREACHING TOPIC

John preached a demanding, no compromise message.  In our liberal, multi-cultural age, how do we live in the light of John's witness and the more important witness and example of Jesus Christ?

What in the Old Testament do we learn from and live by?  What do we sit more loose to in the light of the revelation of Jesus?

December 21st - Luke 1:26-38

Only Matthew and Luke give us details of the birth of Jesus.  For Luke the Gospel is  'Good news to the poor.'   The shepherds, a low status class of people, are the first to hear the good news, and they receive it whilst out..and working a night shift, ..'Out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night.'

Whereas Matthew has Jesus pronouncing  blessings on the poor in spirit,  Luke is more direct in his version of the Beatitudes...'Blessed are the poor.' (Luke 6:20)

So here in today's passage a peasant woman from an unfashionable village is chosen to the mother of the Lord.  Later in this chapter comes Mary's song of praise the Magnificat, praising God for reversing the social status of society then and now.

POSSIBLE THOUGHTS FOR WORSHIP

• Explore how the poor are blessed and used by God.  'The humble poor believe.'  C. Wesley. 
• Are their spiritual blessings that only the humble or the poor can receive?
• What here and now, on earth in 2014 is the Good News to the overlooked unfashionable and poor? 

Sources 

• Cranfield, C.F.D., The Gospel according to Mark.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959
• Barclay, W., The Gospel of Mark.  St Andrews: St Andrew Press, 1954
• Hooker, M., The Message of Mark.  Peterborough: Epworth Press, 1983
• Hargreaves, J., A Guide to St. Mark's Gospel.  London: SPCK,  1965
• Martin, Ralph P., Mark: Evangelist and Theologian.  Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1972
• Leaney, A.R.C., Cambridge: Black, 1958.  

Mark's World and Our World: A Further Introduction to Mark's Gospel Revised Common Lectionary Year B by Rev Barrie Morley

MARK THEN AND NOW 

Those dedicated and hard working people, Local Preachers in training often say that the hardest subject for them to come to terms with is Exegesis.  But it is one of the most important parts of preaching..  What is the point of simply repeating what Paul said to a new church in Ephesus in the first century when addressing a congregation in the UK 2,000 years later?   The words remain the same down the centuries, but  the world has changed, and our task is to dig out the golden nugget of eternal truth and allow congregations to 'cash' it here and now.    For example can we simply quote,  'Slaves be obedient to your masters', or 'Wives obey your husbands?' without putting those words into the context of British culture in this twenty first century?    And if we need to do more than simply quote it without question, then how many other Biblical texts and concepts need careful examination and exposition to ring bells for congregations today?

Several times a year we travel between the East Midlands and North Yorkshire.  I have come to realise that the best way for us to go, is over the mighty Humber Bridge.   The twin towers of that beautiful piece of engineering not only link Hessle with Barton on Humber, or even Yorkshire with North Lincolnshire.  They bridge two regions,  the Midlands and the North.    Just so when we prepare our sermons we stand on one bank of a river of time and ask questions like,  'Why wrote this?'  'When?'    'Under what circumstances?'   'To whom?'    Only then can we stand on the opposite bank of the river of time and begin to ask 'What kind of people will hear this today?'  'What are their "issues"?'  'How do those ancient words apply to todays world which is both different and the same?'  When we do that, we have begun to achieve an exegesis, and can then hope to share that golden nugget of truth in a way that might be helpful  to people today.

SO over the next twelve months we can dig deep into the oldest of the Gospels, the foundation for two of the others, and try to discover Mark's world, Mark's people, Mark's purpose.  Only then can we begin to think of the different people, in a different time, culture and place who will hear it today.    If we go through this process (which can be both fascinating and tedious),each time we preach or listen to a sermon, then Mark's word can come alive in our century just as much as it did in his. 

MARK'S WORLD

Many believe that this oldest of the canonical gospels was written around 80AD, probably in Rome, at a time when Jerusalem had been sacked by a Roman army and the temple reduced to ruins.  (See Dr. David Palmer's article).    This growth was mainly among Gentile people.  many of them were slaves and near the bottom of the social heap.  As the military and civil authorities began to understand that Christianity was a separate faith from Judaism, the followers of Jesus were losing the protection given them when they were seen as simply a branch of the Jewish faith.  Now the threat of persecution was in the air.  The exciting but testing atmosphere was heightened by questions about the promised return of King Jesus to reign.  Eighty years after Christ's death, and around thirty years after the earliest of Paul's letters (Thessalonians) revealed that people were on the tip toe of expectancy, Christ return to reign was still no more than a hope. 

Into these situations Mark composed his Gospel.   It seems to be aimed at those who taught new converts, (Pastors and teachers?) and evangelists who were working to spread the faith among others, and to strengthen believers in difficult times.

OUR WORLD

As we bridge the river of time from Mark's world to ours we find enough similarities to make us excited and bring his gospel to life today.

• Just as the old faith, Judaism (-see Palmer) had suffered a severe setback, so now in the Western world, Christianity has experienced decades of decline.
• HOWEVER, this provides a fallow field for evangelists to bring a Gospel which sounds 'new' that is, the Story is no longer known as it was say two generations ago.  To those who have never really heard the story before the Gospel can sound new and exciting Good News.
• Now as then there are difficulties and sometimes even dangers in following the way of Christ.   Britain is now proud to be secular, religion is often seen as being a cause of conflict and harm in society, and there are restrictions on Chistian life style and worship. (e.g. Sunday work times and worship time can be incompatible).  Christian symbols and public prayers are forbidden in certain places.  
• Disappointment and apparent delay continue as we still wait for the Kingdom of God to fully come.
• One of the most fascinating aspects of Mark's gospel is the veiled identity of Jesus.  WE are told in the first verses who Jesus is, but throughout the book the Jewish leaders do not recognise who he is, and his own disciples lack faith and misunderstand that his mission must invlove suffering.   The Messiah, (the one chopsen and anointed by God) ends up dying on a cross.  

The original manuscripts of Mark end (Ch 16: 8) not in strong faith and joy, but  with disiples 'in fear and trembling.'

    

Today as in Mark's time the Lordship and reign of Christ are not obvious.  The way of Christ involves suffering, and it takes faith to see the man on the cross as God's Annointed.

Mark wrote a Gospel, , NOT a biography of Jesus of Nazareth.  In other words he provided material for Teachers and Evangelists.  Therefore we as preachers should be able to use his work in the way he intended - to help create and nurture Christians.

With these links between Mark's gospel in HIS time and in OURS, we turn to the Gospel readings for the season of Advent.

Introduction to Mark's Gospel Revised Common Lectionary Year B by Rev Dr Graham G Palmer

Mark

By Rev Dr David G Palmer

Introduction

As a Supernumerary Minister of the Methodist Church, I am pleased to be invited to supply my introduction to Mark’s Gospel. 

I offer here an artwork and some notes of mine. The artwork itself has been produced at Double A0 size for exhibition purposes and is now one of a series that I have had reproduced and miniaturised in charts, jigsaws, mugs, mouse-mats, place mats and greetings cards in an attempt to stimulate and renew interest in the church in a serious study of the New Testament Books. 

The artwork, if you are looking at it on screen, can be enlarged electronically, of course. 

If my notes are too short for you here, there are my books and my website with its fuller presentation of this article, under ‘Samples’: www.davidgpalmer.co.uk.

Rev Dr David G. Palmer, Church Gresley, October 2014

Mark's Gospel

Mark’s Gospel was likely written in Rome soon after the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of its temple in 70 CE. The need for ‘Good News’ had to be met, and quickly. The return of the victorious General Titus with his spoils from Jerusalem’s temple, coupled with the news of the annihilation of most of the inhabitants of both Jerusalem and Judea, signalled (as it was thought then) the end 
of the Jewish faith. The ‘Mother Church’ of the new Christian Jewish sect (linked with the temple and keeping to the law) was gone too. Someone elsewhere, therefore, had to make sense of these cataclysmic events. Christians were everywhere scattered around the Roman Empire. Now they were adrift. It was they, in the first instance, not ‘the world’, who needed this Gospel. 

This, then, is the reason why this book’s theology of the atonement focuses on Jesus’ body as ‘the new temple’. It is a new teaching. It did not come from Paul who wrote his letters in the 50s and 60s. This is new thinking and it links the events of 70 CE with the writing of this Gospel. This book was going to be important. It would shape the thinking of the church, of itself as a discipleship movement in the world. It needed to be written well. It had, therefore, to be written to the rules of Ancient Rhetoric that pertained in the First Century [1]. These rules had to do with Idea, Structure, Style, Memory and Delivery. To get at the Gospel writer’s ‘Big Idea’ we have to understand the book’s structure. But to get at this, we first of all have to reckon with his writing style. 

The Title to this Gospel is found in the likely original opening words: ‘Beginning / of the gospel / of Jesus Christ’. It is a three-part construction. The Prologue is similarly arranged. Contrary to much scholarship on the matter, 1.2-20 describes its limits. Parsing establishes this [3]. Day One of ‘Logue’, the narrative of the Gospel, begins at 1.21. The first readers of this Gospel’s manuscript would have spotted these things. As a result they would have expected more of the same writing style throughout the rest of the document. And they wouldn’t have been disappointed! In the Greek, the first day’s telling covers a full 24 hours from dawn, through the twelve hours of daylight and the four watches of the night, to just before dawn on the following day. The writer’s choice is the Civil Day. Armed with these facts, we can go on to uncover the book’s structure.

For each of his Four Series (as my artwork presents them), the writer employs an arrangement that he adopts from the structure of Homer’s Iliad, which consists of a Prologue, a Logue (of Three Days, a Turning Point and Three Days) and an Epilogue. Each of the Series in Mark’s Gospel comprises Seven Days. They are in similar arrangement to that of Homer, ABB’XABB’, where a threesome of days, ABB’ in the telling, is balanced by a second threesome of days, ABB’, around a central day, X. The First Day, A, is introductory, the Second Day, B, is a first development and the Third Day, B’, is a second and concluding development. The overall structure of ‘four’ by ‘seven’ had meaning in the Century. ‘Seven’ represented ‘perfection’, ‘fulfilment’, or ‘completion’. ‘Four’ equated to the ‘four winds’ (for us today, the four points of the compass). The book has universal significance. 

Because we can define the Days in their Series, we can establish that the writer organised his work as a matrix which works vertically, horizontally and, at its middle, diagonally also. Take time to explore the artwork and you will see what I mean. Dualities are everywhere in this Gospel. This arrangement of this Book makes it, above all else, memorable. In an age of learning that was not based like ours on everyone’s ability to read, but was characterised by the oral-aural method, arrangement was hugely helpful [3]. Further, the Logue required both Prologue and Epilogue. Without an Epilogue no audience would have risen to leave!

In the artwork, I express the sunset of the first day’s telling and the sunrise of the last day’s telling, and I have shown the extending rays, in turn, over the different ‘halves’ of the matrix. The whole of the left ‘half’ of the matrix is about Jesus bringing the Old Covenant to a conclusion through fulfilling all its requirements. The whole of the right ‘half’ is about Jesus establishing the New Covenant. To present this Gospel meaningfully to an audience, the reader/reciter has all the help he (she?) needs. The writer enables him/her to deliver the text accurately from memory and ‘expose the speech with art of grace, dignity, gesture, modulation of voice and face’ [4].

We are thus propelled to understand the Big Idea of this book. While the fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of its temple and the annihilation of most of the ‘Jerusalemites’ and ‘Judeans’ (see 1.5 for a link) is indeed very bad news, there is, nevertheless, really Good News (even in the Greek, ‘Bravo News’?) to share [5]. The Gospel tells in a fast moving and rivetingly alternating way how the sun set on the Old Covenant and rose on the New. Centring firmly on Jesus (his mission, death and resurrection), this Gospel demonstrates that Christianity is the new world religion. It is Judaism’s replacement and rightful successor! 

Notes

1. For Ancient Rhetoric, see David G. Palmer, The Markan Matrix: A Literary-Structural Analysis of the Gospel of Mark, Ceridwen Press, Paisley, 1999; also David G. Palmer, New Testament: New Testimony to the Skills of the Writers and First Readers, Fourth Ed., Ceridwen Press, Church Gresley, 2013.
2. By parsing, I mean that by subjecting the Greek text to grammatical scrutiny phrases and sentences can be defined.
3. We do, of course, see how visual messaging in our culture has become almost as important as the word.  
4. From Cicero, De Oratore, 55 BCE.
5. The eu in euangelion, the Greek for ‘Good news’, means ‘well’, ‘well done’, ‘bravo’.