Thoughts for the Day

* St Mark at work, writing his Gospel.

Now after he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

During one Lent the congregations of Hanley Swan and Hanley Castle read aloud the whole of Mark's Gospel in one evening. There was a lot of "I have never read in Church!" and "I can't do that!" but everyone had a full copy of the text with their parts marked, so even if a voices was quiet we could still read the words. It was magical. Total silence prevailed in the chapel, no shuffling or extraneous noise, as we listened to the whole story.

The impact was enormous - the total brevity and speed of the text; how the stories linked to each other in a way that we don't get on a Sunday morning; and lastly, there is the odd ending of the gospel.

Mark's Gospel was the first gospel to be written - before the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE - and it is the shortest. Matthew in particular, as well as Luke, use much of his gospel. He writes apparently for gentile converts, probably in Rome. But the ending is odd (Mark, Chapter 16). The oldest manuscripts do not include verses 9-20, which is probably why two possible endings were included at a much later date. Today our reading concludes with verse 15, as Jesus sends out the eleven to "proclaim the good news to the whole creation." At the close of this Easter week that is still our task! We are to "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation."

Lord Jesus Christ,
we thank You for our Gospels,
for those who wrote them,
and for the way they told the story
of all that You had done for us.
Show us this and every day,
how to go out into the world
and proclaim the good news
to the whole of creation.
Amen.