The Gospel of Mark in 14 Minutes

This past weekend at our fall Board of Elders retreat, the pastors and elders of the church got together  and we read the Gospel of Mark together, out-loud in one continuous sitting. It was a powerful exercise in hearing the story of Jesus proclaimed from beginning to end, in context as the author intended it to be read. The whole exercise took about 80 minutes to complete and many new observations and epiphanies occurred as the various parts of the gospel came together to form a story that is rife with correlations, connections and internal structures that are missed when we take it in bite sized portions. It takes almost an hour and a half of investment to read all sixteen chapters of the gospel out loud, but my my estimation you can probably finish it in around half that time just reading silently to yourself (depending of course on your reading speed - it took me about 45 minutes) and I would heartily recommend to everyone that you take the time to do so - because reading the gospel (any of the gospels - and most of the books of the Bible, really) in context means reading them comprehensively from start to finish.

It's only when you can familiarize yourself with the story from beginning to end that you can start to see the big picture that the writer (in this case John Mark) was trying to paint, not only events and signs and miracles, but intent and motive and trajectory along with nuance. One person who has done such comprehensive study and reflection on the gospel is one of my favourite scholars, Ben Witherington III. Dr. Witherington has taken his years of study on the earliest gospel and condensed it into a 14 minute video presentation where he highlights the story of the Gospel of Mark from the beginning to the end and frames it as the story that John Mark wanted to tell.

As we're just entering into the third act of Marks Gospel this month with our preaching series at EAC I'd encourage you to invest the time it takes to get a comprehensive perspective on the story by reading it from beginning to end in the coming weeks. If you can invest the time to do it in one sitting, all the better. And if you have 14 minutes to spare today while you are checking your Facebook and surfing the web - I'd encourage you to watch this video and learn something new about this earliest story of Jesus.

Chris

This is not the end

I'm working on a funeral for a dear saint who has just gone to be with her Lord and I have the immense privilege of preaching the good news of the resurrection - and while I'm preparing the message I just can't get this song out of my head. What an amazing hope we have in Jesus.

This is not the end - Gungor

This is not the end
This is not the end of this
We will open our eyes wide, wider

This is not our last
This is not our last breath
We will open our mouths wide, wider

And you know you’ll be alright
Oh and you know you’ll be alright

This is not the end
This is not the end of us
We will shine like the stars bright, brighter

The Goal of the Gospel

I'm going to quote this video on Sunday in the sermon so I thought it would be good for you context seekers out there to see the whole clip. This is part of a message by Skye Jethani on the goal of the Gospel and I think he's nailed it.

Enjoy

Confessions of a Pastor III

Forgive me Lord for being the type of pastor in my heart that I too often deride with my lips. Forgive me for the hypocrisy of my attitude and the selfishness of my dreams.

Forgive me when I look out at a half-full sanctuary and fantasize about having 50 more people in the pews instead of praying for the 20 specific people that I notice are missing.

Forgive me when I lie awake in bed, dreaming about how great it would be to gain respect or notoriety from my peers for growing a big church instead of longing for a “well done” from my God from shepherding a faithful church.

Forgive me when I long to see more conversions and baptisms in my church without thinking about, or even knowing sometimes, the people I’m longing to see converted or baptized.

Forgive me when I dream of starting ministry programs that reach out to a certain demographic rather than doing ministry to help specific people.

Forgive me when I get swept up in the excitement and flash of a new program or method or strategy that I’ve seen somewhere else and become obsessed with applying it upon my context without asking if it comports to your will for my church.

Forgive me when I’m more concerned with keeping the peace than following faithfully, and forgive me when I’m more concerned with being right then living in an authentic community of reconciliation and restoration.

Forgive me when I think more highly of myself than I ought to, and forgive me when I doubt your sufficiency to make me better than I am.

Forgive me Lord when your children become a means to an end instead of the treasure you died for. Forgive me when I commodify the church in my heart and engage in the spiritual sin of big-picture ministry. Forgive me when I believe that the ends justify the means and believe that there is an acceptable level of collateral apostasy for building a “successful” church.

Forgive me Lord for all my best intentions and lofty plans, for my noble goals and “Christian” dreams, the things that occupy too much of my thinking and prayer – when they don’t align with the things you actually desire. Forgive me for blindly worshipping the false god of the business of church instead of the real and living Lord of the Church.

Help me God to escape from this self-imposed prison of faulty expectations, from this distorted image of what a pastor should be and how a church should function and instead to embrace my calling as a shepherd of the flock – a hired hand who tends someone else’s sheep. Allow me to see the church through your eyes and to lead this church into your will for her.

Help me follow you as they follow me.

In the name of the great shepherd of the sheep, Jesus Christ,

Amen.