6-22-2015

Good Morning All!!

          Mark 1:1; “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

      It is always interesting how different writers start out their books.  The first sentence usually gives you a good idea about whether you want to keep reading or not.  How a book starts has even led to a contest.  It is called the Bulwer-Lytton fiction contest.  It is designed to have the worst introducing sentence possible.  It is named after Edward Bulwer-Lytton who wrote the infamous beginning,” It was a dark and stormy night-except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by violent gusts…”  You get the picture.  This first sentence went down in history as one of, if not the, worst opening lines in all of literature.  Yet most of us can recite the opening lines to many famous poems and stories because of the impact of these lines.  “Listen my children and you shall hear…” or “Call me Ishmael.”  Or “It was the best of times it was the worst of times…”

     The Books of the Bible have interesting opening lines as well.  Unfortunately we don’t always read them but some are really quite fascinating.  Our verse for today is one of those verses.  “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”; short, concise and to the point, this is about as plain as it gets.  There is a certain amount of irony in this beginning.  Even though it calls Jesus the “Son of God”, that rarely happens in the Book of Mark.  Peter calls him that, the centurion at the crucifixion does, the demons do but most people are left asking the question,” Who is this man?”  He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Every time the question is asked, it has already been answered.

     The other thing to notice is that it is the beginning of the gospel.  The Gospel of Jesus is not over in any way or anyhow.  So if the Gospel of Mark is only the beginning; then that means that the story continues and it does.  Mark weaves the story of Jesus through the use of miracles and the people ask,” Who is this man?”  It occurs so often; you almost want to scream at the Bible “IT IS JESUS” get a clue.  Yet Mark answered the question before it was even asked.

      So as this Gospel is just the beginning, it continues today through us.  We know the answer to the question; it is Jesus.  We can have confidence in God’s amazing love because that love is revealed in the Scriptures, especially here in Mark.  Jesus shows his power over the weather, the demons, sickness, and then his power over death itself.  The Book of Mark reveals Jesus as the powerful God who loved his creation so much that He took on the form of man.  Jesus enters our dirty, infested lives because He loves us and this is only the beginning. 

         We are only beginning to experience God’s love.  We get just a little taste of that great banquet when we join in the Lord’s Supper.  We get just a little taste of it through God’s grace.  We live within the Church, which is grace, as God molds us into His disciples until we are given the gift of eternal life; when grace is completed and glory is ours.    

Father of grace, your mercies are new to us each day.  We give you thanks that this is only the beginning of the love that you have for us.  The peace which you give keeps us safe within your arms.  You guard and protect us from all of the devil’s ways.  Keep us safe this day and use us as your hands to carry your grace throughout the world.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret