April 25: Saint Mark the Evangelist

As a daily thing, I'm not into saints and holy days, but thinking about our collects of the church year and looking at the church calendar, I see April 25 is the holy day of Saint Mark the Evangelist, my favorite gospel and one of my three favorite Bible books. In parishes I have served or supplied, today, as any saint's day, the paraments are changed to Red.

So, here's today's collect:

Saint Mark April 25

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.

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There's a full set of Propers for the Day (BCP p. 923), including Psalm 2 and either Mark 1:1-15 or Mark 16:15-20. Using Eugene Peterson's translation The Message, frankly, because it's startling. The Message tells it like it is, although it's not authorized by General Convention for liturgical use in The Episcopal Church (see Canon 2 below, scroll down); why not? GenConv has established criteria for Bible translations that may be proposed for authorization; they pretty well like to stick to real translations as opposed to paraphrases.

Anyway, first the psalm:

Psalm 2

1-6 Why the big noise, nations?
Why the mean plots, peoples?
Earth-leaders push for position,
Demagogues and delegates meet for summit talks,
The God-deniers, the Messiah-defiers:
“Let’s get free of God!
Cast loose from Messiah!”
Heaven-throned God breaks out laughing.
At first he’s amused at their presumption;
Then he gets good and angry.
Furiously, he shuts them up:
“Don’t you know there’s a King in Zion? A coronation banquet
Is spread for him on the holy summit.”

7-9

Let me tell you what God said next.
He said, “You’re my son,
And today is your birthday.
What do you want? Name it:
Nations as a present? continents as a prize?
You can command them all to dance for you,
Or throw them out with tomorrow’s trash.”

10-12

So, rebel-kings, use your heads;
Upstart-judges, learn your lesson:
Worship God in adoring embrace,
Celebrate in trembling awe. Kiss Messiah!
Your very lives are in danger, you know;
His anger is about to explode,
But if you make a run for God—you won’t regret it!

And the two gospel options, below (note that in Mark's introduction, Peterson omits the phrase "the Son of God", which does not appear in earliest known manuscripts).

Mark 1:1-3 The good news of Jesus Christ—the Message!—begins here, following to the letter the scroll of the prophet Isaiah.

Watch closely: I’m sending my preacher ahead of you;
He’ll make the road smooth for you.
Thunder in the desert!
Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!

4-6 John the Baptizer appeared in the wild, preaching a baptism of life-change that leads to forgiveness of sins. People thronged to him from Judea and Jerusalem and, as they confessed their sins, were baptized by him in the Jordan River into a changed life. John wore a camel-hair habit, tied at the waist with a leather belt. He ate locusts and wild field honey.

7-8 As he preached he said, “The real action comes next: The star in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will change your life. I’m baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. His baptism—a holy baptism by the Holy Spirit—will change you from the inside out.”

9-11 At this time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. The moment he came out of the water, he saw the sky split open and God’s Spirit, looking like a dove, come down on him. Along with the Spirit, a voice: “You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.”

God’s Kingdom Is Here

12-13 At once, this same Spirit pushed Jesus out into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by Satan. Wild animals were his companions, and angels took care of him.

14-15 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: “Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.”

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Good one, thanks, Eugene! Blessings, Mark!

Now for the optional gospel reading for Mark's Holy Day. By no means should this be read, nor should it even be an option. Mark the Evangelist never wrote this and never consented to it. It was added by the church later, by simpleton editors and do-gooders who stupidly thought Mark hadn't finished, or needed finishing, and so added postResurrection appearances because the other gospels had them.

But the addition(s) to Mark are absurd and offensive. Mark's own most clever agenda has his gospel end abruptly with Mark 16:8, the women fleeing in terror and saying nothing to anyone; which climaxes the so-called "Markan Secret" in which only the demons know who Jesus was/is, and finally the gentile Roman centurion in charge of putting Jesus to death by crucifixion ("truly, this man was the Son of God").

Mark, by agenda, has built our frustration all through his gospel, and now with even the women not "getting Jesus", Mark means us to be so aggravated with everyone's naïveté and "blindness" that we are inspired to jump up and run out to proclaim Christ ourselves.

Mark ends by leaving the reader up in the air, frustrated. Mark is the ultimate evangelist in my estimation. Mark is a grand storyteller: unlike the other evangelists, Mark is not just telling the story of Jesus, Mark is both proclaiming Christ and inspiring his every reader to proclaim Christ. Unfortunately as it has turned out over the Christian ages, including very early on for those who rubbished Mark's ending by trying to "improve" it and instead added nonsense, either you "get" Mark or you don't.

Anyway, here's the false ending to Mark:

Mark 16:9-11 [After rising from the dead, Jesus appeared early on Sunday morning to Mary Magdalene, whom he had delivered from seven demons. She went to his former companions, now weeping and carrying on, and told them. When they heard her report that she had seen him alive and well, they didn’t believe her.

12-13 Later he appeared, but in a different form, to two of them out walking in the countryside. They went back and told the rest, but they weren’t believed either.

14-16 Still later, as the Eleven were eating supper, he appeared and took them to task most severely for their stubborn unbelief, refusing to believe those who had seen him raised up. Then he said, “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all. Whoever believes and is baptized is saved; whoever refuses to believe is damned.

17-18 “These are some of the signs that will accompany believers: They will throw out demons in my name, they will speak in new tongues, they will take snakes in their hands, they will drink poison and not be hurt, they will lay hands on the sick and make them well.”

19-20 Then the Master Jesus, after briefing them, was taken up to heaven, and he sat down beside God in the place of honor. And the disciples went everywhere preaching, the Master working right with them, validating the Message with indisputable evidence.]

Note: Mark 16:9-20 [the portion in brackets] is not found in the earliest handwritten copies.

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Canon 2: Of Translations of the Bible

Sec. 1. The Lessons prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer shall be read from the translation of the Holy Scriptures commonly known as the King James or Authorized Version (which is the historic Bible of this Church) together with the Marginal Readings authorized for use by the General Convention of 1901; or from one of the three translations known as Revised Versions, including the English Revision of 1881, the American Revision of 1901, and the Revised Standard Version of 1952; from the Jerusalem Bible of 1966; from the New English Bible with the Apocrypha of 1970; or from The 1976 Good News Bible (Today’s English Version); or from The New American Bible (1970); or from The Revised Standard Version, an Ecumenical Edition, commonly known as the “R.S.V. Common Bible” (1973); or from The New International Version (1978); or from The New Jerusalem Bible (1987); or from the Revised English Bible (1989); or from the New Revised Standard Version (1990); or from the Contemporary English Version (1995); or from the Contemporary English Version Global (2005); or from the Common English Bible (2011); or from translations, authorized by the diocesan bishop, of those approved versions published in any other language; or from other versions of the Bible, including those in languages other than English, which shall be authorized by diocesan bishops for specific use in congregations or ministries within their dioceses.

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Okay, still trying it. For supper: oat milk on crunchy pecan cereal, and a half banana, sliced, and demerara sugar sprinkled on.

Overwhelming relief of the hour: Macron wins reelection. In this condition of the world, the French election yesterday was more important than anything else under the sun.

Monday breakfast: avoiding bread, crackers and other carbs, so a saucer with just two things, a slab of liverwurst with goose, and a slab of Limburger from Wisconsin. Cut up into bites, and mug of hot/black coffee.

RSF&PTL