The Feast of St. Mark

 

A disciple of Jesus, named Mark, appears in several places in the New Testament. If all references to Mark can be accepted as referring to the same person, we learn that he was the son of a woman who owned a house in Jerusalem, perhaps the same house in which Jesus ate the Last Supper with his disciples. Mark may have been the young man who fled naked when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul refers to “Mark the cousin of Barnabas,” who was with him in his imprisonment. Mark set out with Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey, but he turned back for reasons which failed to satisfy Paul (Acts 15:36–40). When another journey was planned, Paul refused to have Mark with him. Instead, Mark went with Barnabas to Cyprus. The breach between Paul and Mark was later healed, and Mark became one of Paul’s companions in Rome, as well as a close friend of Peter’s.

An early tradition recorded by Papias, Bishop of Hieropolis in Asia Minor at the beginning of the second century, names Mark as the author of the Gospel bearing his name. This tradition, which holds that Mark drew his information from the teaching of Peter, is generally accepted. In his First Letter, Peter refers to “my son Mark,” which shows a close relationship between the two men (1 Peter 5:13).

The Church of Alexandria in Egypt claimed Mark as its first bishop and most illustrious martyr, and the great Church of St. Mark in Venice commemorates the disciple who progressed from turning back while on a missionary journey with Paul and Barnabas to proclaiming in his Gospel Jesus of Nazareth as Son of God, and bearing witness to that faith in his later life as friend and companion to the apostles Peter and Paul.

Almighty God, by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have 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 Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalm 2

Lessons: Isaiah 52:7–10; Ephesians 4:7–8,11–16; Mark 16:15–20

Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2006, April 25th

GOING

 

One of the characteristics of being a follower of Christ is the desire and action of reaching out to others with the hope and redemption offered by Jesus to the world.

Recently, I was out at the Pitt's farm for a "blessing of the fields", setting them apart and asking our God for a fruitful harvest. While we were walking around on the homestead, Jack pointed out a particular gas vapor farm light that they used for security reasons. This light was no longer needed on one part of the property, and so, he had moved it to be better used at another location.

Now, if that same security light had been purchased, put into the machine shed, unpacked, and left unconnected, what good would it do? For the lamp to fulfill its design and purpose, it had to be installed outside of the machine shed and connected to an electrical source so that it could have an appropriate place to have any influence.

Outreach is not something that the baptized Christian is supposed to do first of all; it is to be an evidence of who we truly are. Our genuine character will reveal itself through habitual patterns, whether good or bad. Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter five that "we are the salt and light" of the world. He goes on to say that we "should not hide our lights under a bushel-basket". How are we developing our full character in Christ?

This Sunday, we are looking at Luke chapter ten. Jesus has already sent out the 12 disciples to bring the good news of the Kingdom of God to various Jewish villages. In Sunday's text, he is now sending out 72 other disciples to attempt a similar mission. How does this text apply to the people of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church?

God is not asking any of us to be something that we are not.  However, he is asking us to claim who we are in Christ, and through the gifts and strengths that he has given us, bring the light of Jesus to a world in need of God's love.

(See the YouTube Channel for Father Thomas Reeves for the video sermon: "GOING")

Evangelism in the Anglican Tradition

Anglican evangelism is communal, constantly sprouting and spreading from within the Covenant Community of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Church. God gifts and calls His people to serve the church and be light to the world outside the gathered People of God. In the Old Testament, God called Israel to be His special Covenant People, “a light to the Nations”. While they did not fulfill this task due to their disobedience to their sovereign God, Jesus Christ, the light of the world, DID!

Through his life, death, and resurrection, the Lord accomplished the way of freedom and salvation for all humankind. In following our Lord by repentance and faith through the mystery of Baptism, we join the New Covenant People of God in worshiping and knowing this wonderous, Triune God, bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a world in need of forgiveness and reconciliation with their Creator. While the church sends out evangelists gifted explicitly in sharing the good news of salvation, they are sent from within the community of Christ, which is the vehicle of salvation in the world. Also, the very nature of our Worship is evangelistic, as the Gospel is at the center of what we preach, pray, and engage in the sacraments.

By our particular vocations dictated by the spiritual gifts given to us in the body of Christ, we live, love, and engage the created order around us, revealing the true humanity of Jesus Christ as we are continually “conformed to the image of the son”. Every task and vocation we engage in is valuable and a potential revelation of our God-given humanity and redemption in the world. The Gospel is often lived as a message before it can be verbally proclaimed and understood by those living in darkness. Most vocations must live out the faith before the words about Jesus will be heard. However, there is a time to speak clearly and boldly of the need of sinful humanity, and the gracious salvation that our Savior offers.