Church
Sat. Apr. 27: St. Mark’s
Saint Mark 04/30/2019 (April 25 tr.)
It’s not quite a week since the wider church concluded a 40 day preparation for proclaiming the Risen Lord. Then a week of intense telling of the story of the way to the cross, the tomb, and the empty tomb. It took a week to tell the story and this week has been focused on telling variations of the proclamation: "He is not here. He has gone ahead of you to Galilee. The Church understands that this primary proclamation is of such central importance that it takes a week to say it. And here we are, coming to the end of this week.
The Gospel for tomorrow is an account of Easter – one week later.
ancient homilies
I am going to read to a short excerpt from an Easter sermon, written some 1700 years ago. I have never done this before. But I do it because of the power and significance of the words for us today.
The Most Precious and Becoming of Gifts
Be sure to deliver it, not just read it.
Gregory Nazianzus delivered this as an Easter sermon in the 300’s after Jesus.
Yesterday I was crucified with Christ; today I am glorified with Him. Yesterday I died with Him; today I am given life with Him. Yesterday I was buried with Him; today I rise again with Him. Today let us offer Him Who has suffered and Who has risen for us – you think perhaps I was about to say, gold, or silver, or precious things, or shining stones of rare price, the frail material of this earth, which will remain here. . . . [R]ather, let us offer Him ourselves, which to God is the most precious and becoming of gifts. Let us offer to His Image what is made in the image and likeness of this Image. And let us make recognition of our own dignity. Let us give honour to Him in Whose Likeness we were made. Let us dwell upon the wonder of this mystery, that we may understand for what Christ has died.
Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us. Let us become Gods because of Him, since He for us became man. He took upon Himself a low degree that He might give us a higher one. He became poor, that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Cor 8:9). He took upon Himself the form of a servant (Phil 2:7) that we might be delivered from slavery (Rom 8:21). He came down that we might rise up. He was tempted that we might learn to overcome. He was despised that we might be given honour. He died that He might save us from death. He ascended to heaven that we who lie prone in sin may be lifted up to Him. 1 2
Returning to my own words …
Easter is the key proclamation for Christians, it has been repeated over and over again to make that possible. On the one hand I think that every generation has to make the truth their own. At the same time I think that I am only here because of the countless saints who have gone before – many of them doing a better job of it than I.
We live in the echo of Easter. We are here only because of the empty tomb discovered by those women all those years ago. If they had been able to anoint and bury their teacher as they intended, they would have been impacted the rest of their lives with the sadness and disappointment of that. But instead they found the Lord Risen again and the rest of their life was one of joy.
Easter of course occurs at different times in different years. The feast of St. Mark occurs on the same day every year – April 25th. Except that nothing is allowed to get in the way of the Easter proclamation during the week of Easter. The focus is all Easter.
The rules in the church calendar indicate that a Saint’s day is to be moved to the next available day when it is superceded by Easter week. In this case, St. Mark’s day is shifted to next Monday. But here we are, we’re gathered on Easter Saturday. It seems fitting that we would recognize and honor Mark.
The Gospel for that day is either: The beginning or the ending of the Gospel – (the sending of the disciples)
Both of those readings are dramatic and powerful. The opening makes it clear that this gospel proclamation business is the most serious business there is. “This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God …” And it jumps right in.
The ending is equally dramatic. The witnesses to the Resurrection are frightened. They don’t know what to make of the empty tomb. But the Spirit empowers them to go forth. To jump in and proclaim the “good news”. Just the way the beginning is. “Go back to the beginning of hearing the good news – and do it again.”
We live in interesting times some would say. Some would say we live in the ending times, like the ending of the Gospel. Some would say we are just beginning to figure out what it means to proclaim the Gospel. We live in the beginning and we live in the end. It is fulfilled in our midst.
Notes
Lectionary
Saint Mark the Evangelist Transferred from April 25
Color: Red Assigned Readings
Lesson 1: Isaiah 52:7-10 Psalm: 2 or 2:7-10 Lesson 2: Ephesians 4:7-8,11-16 Gospel: Mark 1:1-15 or Mark 16:15-20
St. Mark lectionary: http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC/HolyDays/Mark.html
http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearABC/Easter/EasSat.html
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Homily on the Holy Pasch Gregory of Nazianzus (ca. 330–ca. 389) was one of the three great Cappadocian Fathers, along with Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. He was Archbishop of Constantinople and is perhaps best known for his defense of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity against the heresy of Arianism. ↩︎
a part of Easter Day Morning Prayer in Give us this day our daily bread. ↩︎
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