The Parish Magazine

I know I’ve mentioned before that I can be rather last minute with deadlines; just ask the magazine editors! I’ve also admitted to a certain tendency to procrastinate. It’s not that I don’t start the job in hand; it’s more that I put off the actual completion. Sometimes that can help, as when recent events or news make the job more relevant or up-to-date. Sometimes I get caught out.

The other evening I was preparing to lead our Wednesday morning study group, currently looking at St Mark’s gospel. (That’s because the Sunday readings in church this year are largely from Mark.) I sat down to look at my New Testament books and commentaries, though not before I’d filled my fountain pen and done a bit of filing and generally postponed the real work – or was it getting in the mood? I flicked through a few references in the dictionary simply because that’s what one does; why check the meaning and origin of one word when there are several others tantalisingly close? I then decided to see how the internet could help and found what I thought was a really good quotation in Wikipedia that I could use the next day. However, instead of writing it out or even printing it for the group, I decided that I could finish there for the night and simply return to my computer the next morning. As luck would have it, when I tried to get on the website on Wednesday Wikipedia showed a blacked out page. They were having a sort of 24 hour strike in protest against proposed legislation in America which would either restrict access to information (censorship) or stop internet piracy (the theft of intellectual property) depending on your point of view. There was to be no chance of finding what I wanted until the day after I needed it. That will teach me not to put off till tomorrow what I should be doing today ... or will it?

There is a certain irony here in that it was for St Mark’s gospel that I required the information. Because, though all the gospels present us with a challenge to act, and to act now before it’s too late, it is St Mark who conveys the most urgency. His style is brusque. He pushes the pace relentlessly. Short sentences drive the narrative on. One episode quickly follows another. Jesus barely has time to breathe.

We don’t usually notice this when we read passages either in church or in our private bible reading. That’s because we divide each book of the bible into convenient lengths for listening or reflection. Sometimes by doing this we don’t remember what has just gone before and fail to notice what we’ll be reading next. The evangelists would not have known that this is how their books would be read. They would certainly be aware that reading passages of scripture in worship from what we call the Old Testament was standard practice in Judaism. There is an account in the fourth chapter of Luke’s gospel of Jesus standing up in the synagogue and reading the lesson from Isaiah. They wouldn’t have known, though, that their own writings would come to be regarded as Holy Writ and read out and prayed over by followers of Jesus for two thousand years. They didn’t write in chapters or mark out verses for our convenience. The gospels were accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, remembered for his impact on those who met him or subsequently were touched by the truth they found in his story. That story of hope was related by an oral tradition for some years before it was written down at all.

The truth found there, is that the world can change, beginning with individual lives. We can be forgiven and released from whatever holds us back and keeps us from God’s love, whether our own failings or the sin of the world. There is an urgency about deciding to accept this truth. Don’t put off till tomorrow what is best to do today. The New Testament writers and the early Christians believed that part of this urgency was because the world would end in their own lifetime. In that they were clearly mistaken. The gospel’s urgency is not because tomorrow might be the end but because today could be a new beginning. Lives are enriched and begin to make more sense in the light of Christ’s forgiveness and love. And life in Christ lasts forever.

If you want to have a better feel for a gospel, set aside a period of time to read one from beginning to end without the artificial breaks of chapter and verse. St Mark’s is a good one to read like this. It will take only about an hour and a quarter. You will be driven on by its pace and timing, and you will feel challenged by its message.

Do it soon.

Ken Boyce
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