April 23 The Second Sunday of Easter
Deacon Marilyn Roth My husband and I recently connected with a couple of high school friends, and our conversation drifted into sharing old high school memories. Nancy, my best friend during high school, asked whether the church she and I had started was still open. I said yes, “It’s called Lifeline Baptist church, and it is no longer located out in the Chenoweth area.” We laughed a lot as we remembered how scared we were to drop-off flyers each Saturday to houses located in the Chenoweth area, almost hoping that we wouldn’t get any kids to show up for Sunday School. Evangelism has a way of provoking fear in Baptists also. Back in the latter 1960’s it was easy to get kids to come to church. Parents were busy, and they loved receiving a bit of a break from them. Over a year’s time it wasn’t unusual to see around 75-100 kids piled into the Chenoweth Grange Hall listening to high school kids teach them about Jesus. The entire missionary experience was quite exhilarating for teenagers, but Nancy and I graduated and moved onto college. Through the years I haven’t given my first experience of evangelism much thought, but today we will be celebrating the Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist so it seemed appropriate to share my own personal story of church planting. St Mark is every person’s evangelist. Fear, curiosity, and ambivalence shaped his early Christian years, but in the end John-Mark’s name would be connected to the symbol of a mighty lion. But before he became famous, he was a young man struggling to know himself. So I am taking the liberty to share his history with my own paraphrased narrative. John-Mark’s narrative is captured from snapshots offered by Peter, St. Barnabas, and Paul. It goes like this. The most terrible night in human history began in silence. In this silence, in a house cooled by a nearby garden, there slept a young man. Suddenly, his sleep was interrupted by the clanging of metal, excited voices, and loud screams. The young man leapt out of bed and hastily wrapped a piece of cloth around his naked body as he ran from the house to see what was happening. He thought that robbers had broken into his family’s garden, but what he saw turned out to be far worse than any robbery: A vicious mob, and shouting soldiers surrounded the holy teacher named Jesus. The young man saw how the jeering mob led Jesus away; he saw how those men closest to Jesus ran away. How can one leave the Teacher alone in such a dire situation? This thought stung the young man’s heart, and he began to follow the crowd. Then one of the guards turned to him, and grabbed him, forcing him to run away in fear. The cover with which he had wrapped himself remained in the guard’s hands. John-Mark, too, ran away: miserable and naked, driven away by fear and shame. John-Mark came from a pious family, who readily accepted the preaching of Jesus of Nazareth. The Lord Jesus would often come to his family’s property, to the shaded garden of Gethsemane, to pray in solitude. That is why St. Mark was nearby at the hour of Gethsemane. Jesus also chose the house of Mary, the mother of St. John-Mark, for his mystical supper. This same house later became a refuge and place of prayer for Christ’s disciples. The chosen disciples of Jesus knew and loved the young John-Mark, who Jesus himself chose to be among the 70 lesser apostles. John-Mark did not initially stand-out from the other 70 followers of Jesus. His cousin St. Barnabas was much better known, where he played a role in the fate of the newly converted Saul, who would later go by the name of Paul. It was at the suggestion of St. Barnabas that the Apostle Paul take John-Mark with him on his first missionary journey. Though we do not know the age of John-Mark when he traveled with the Apostle Paul, there is reason to believe he was young, and somewhat soft and weak. The trip did not go well for John-Mark, so when Paul organized his second missionary trip he refused to take the young man with him. For a while John-Mark returned to Jerusalem and hung out with the Apostle Peter. Peter took him under his wing, and gradually this young man became the closest and most beloved of Peter’s spiritual children. Later John-Mark traveled to Rome with St. Peter, where he would be known as the disciple and interpreter of St. Peter, and would set down in writing the words of Peter in the gospel that now bears his name. Under the Apostle Peter’s influence, St. Mark matured, toughened and grew in spirit. Several years after Paul’s first missionary journey, he marveled at the change Mark had undergone, considering him a worthy companion. St. Mark was no longer afraid to travel long distances. Mark traveled to Seleucia, Cyprus, the Italian lands, Antioch, Ephesus, and inner Africa, where he preached Christ the Savior. When there were false teachers in Colossae, leading people astray, the Apostle Paul sent John-Mark to bring clarification to the teaching of Jesus Christ. St. Mark had become a teacher, a comforter of Paul while he was in prison, and a traveling companion of St. Peter. But, St. Mark is mostly known for the book he would eventually write. The Gospel of Mark is written in a simple and succinct way, portraying Jesus as healer, miracle worker and Savior of the world. Historical references show that St. Mark founded the Church of Christ in Egypt, later serving as bishop of Alexandria. St. Mark would suffer the same fate of martyrdom as the other disciples. One day as St. Mark was celebrating mass he was drug out into the streets of Alexandria face down, where he finally died of his injuries. The Holy Spirit transformed a timid young man into spiritual might, wisdom, and a lion’s courage to persevere when evil takes over. Who could have imagined that over the centuries St. Mark’s icon would show him as a lion surrounded by six angels as he holds the gospel he wrote. The symbolic picture of St. Mark holding a lion and a gospel probably mean very little to our 21st century minds, yet, they point to a man who became a courageous giant among Christians during his lifetime. At some point in the history of this church, the patron saint of St. Mark was chosen to model their ministry in the world. I like to think that our strong voices still penetrate the veil of evil and injustice that Jesus railed against in his lifetime. Evangelism simply means to share the good news about Jesus Christ, and what better way to do that then sharing compassion and love with the world. Amen.
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AuthorI don't know what the future of the church is, but I know that we will continue to be a place of sanctuary and hope, working towards healing in the world. Archives
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