Please ignore the two posts that were sent from this site earlier this evening. I am updating this site.
In the hopes that you will not receive more posts while I am working on it, I have closed the site for a few days. I will sent a note when it is back up.
None of this will impair your ability to access the coming Mark Bible study once the site is back up.
I apologize for the inconvenience. – Marjorie George
Watch this section for announcements of new studies and resources as they are released.
The Gospel of Mark
The Sunday readings in all Episcopal Churches follow a three-year cycle, so that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke can be read more or less in sequence across three years. Readings from the Gospel of John are sprinkled throughout all three years. This year (Advent 2014 to Advent 2015), the Sunday readings are chosen mainly from the Gospel of Mark, so, as a Diocese, we are concentrating our biblical study this year on encountering Jesus in that Gospel.This is the biblical book our bishop, Gary Lillibridge, asked us to read this year.
A ten-week online study of Mark that may be used by individuals, in our churches, or in small groups will be available on this blogsite beginning August 21, for use during the fall.
What follows are a few simple suggestions for ways you might read the Gospel of Mark in its entirety this summer on your own, before engaging the online study in the fall. The Gospel is so short that it can be read in a single sitting (a little over an hour). We have a friend who read all of Mark every morning before work during Lent, so we know that it can be done!
We suggest that you choose a single focus for your study as you read. If you want to read Mark more than once, choose a different focus for your attention each time you read it. Over time, you can build up a very deep grasp of the themes of the Gospel in this way.
Choose one or more of these ways of reading, and enjoy this dramatic, provocative Gospel. Then join with fellow parishioners to read it more slowly and more in-depth in the fall. If you can’t wait until fall to get together with some others, you could adapt one of these areas of focus over the course of a week, and gather a small group to talk about it. Or you could each take one of the areas of focus and gather to share your different insights. You may have your own ideas about how to carry out this reading in communion with others.
Link to Mark
Some ideas for your focus:
Settings
Pay attention to the different physical settings, such as the desert, synagogue, mountain, sea, Jordan River bank, homes, temple, way (or path). Consider the significance of your chosen location in the Old Testament. For example, a mountaintop is often a place to encounter God with clarity; the sea can be a place where the chaos that preceded the creation is encountered and ordered; the “way” was an early name for the Jesus movement; the synagogue and temple are places where the presence of God is mediated through the leaders of the religious community; the Jordan was crossed when the Israelites entered the Promised Land, etc. What is important is simply to record your own thoughts as you take note of the different locations.
Characters
You could choose to follow a single significant character (Peter, for example) throughout the Gospel, or a group (such as all the disciples or all the unnamed people whom Jesus encounters in a significant way), or Jesus himself. How does the Gospel portray different dimensions of the person’s character along the way? Whom do you want to take as a model for yourself?
Plot
What is the plot of Mark? Where are the points of tension? What ironies are there in the plot? Who are the heroes? Who are the villains? How can you tell? Is Mark a tragedy or a victory?
Persuasion
What do you think this Gospel wants you, the reader, to think, to do, or to become after you have read and internalized it? How does the Gospel of Mark affect your understanding of discipleship?
Power
An important theme of Mark concerns the use of power and authority. Who has what kind of power in this Gospel? Do not ignore the invisible characters and spirits. What kind of power are most of the characters (including the disciples) familiar with? What kind of power does Jesus have? How does he use it? How does he teach his followers to relate to power and authority?
Enjoy the Gospel of Mark, the earliest of the Gospels, this summer. Then join us in the fall for a more in-depth exploration of this wonderful introduction to Jesus the Christ.
Leave a comment below, or, if you have questions or suggestions, contact Marjorie George at marjorie.george@dwtx.org
March 29 – April 4
Read or listen to this week’s reflections here.
The written texts of this week’s reflections have been posted so that you may begin to deeply engage Holy Week.
The audio files will be posted as they are produced but will be available for each day. The Palm Sunday reflection in audio is now up.
This week we depart from our pattern of hearing from the five different writers we have been reading and listening to over the past five weeks. The Rev. Drs. John Lewis and Jane Patterson will be with us the entire week to bring us wisdom and an in-depth experience of the last six days of Christ’s earthly life.
Joining them on Thursday is Rebecca Hall, a staff member from St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin and a student in the Spiritual Formation program at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin.
This Sunday we begin again the long walk with Jesus to Jerusalem. We take up palm fronds with the exuberant crowd and welcome him as king as he enters the city on Sunday.
On Monday we are with Christ as he curses the barren fig tree then cleanses the temple to make it “a house of prayer for all people.”
On Tuesday we are at the table as the woman with the alabaster jar of costly perfume anoints Christ’s body beforehand for his burial.
Wednesday brings us to the Passover Meal with Jesus and his disciples, for Mark’s gospel places this event here in the chronology.
On Thursday we recall Christ’s washing of his disciples’ feet as we perhaps prepare to do the same at our own churches on Thursday evening.
Friday brings us to the culmination – the trial, the crucifixion, the voiced despair – and we wonder if the cause is lost.
Saturday we accompany Christ as he descends into Hell to free the prisoners of sin and death.
Sunday – well, you know Sunday. The most glorious and triumphant day in the Christian church. We do not offer a reflection for Sunday but know that each of you will be celebrating at your own church. We wish you a joyous and blessed Easter Day for the rest of your life. We appreciate your practicing Lent with us.
Adult Christian Formation 