hello good morning we are in St Mark's Church New Canan in Connecticut and you are seeing at the moment the wonderful ridos of the church which is very special indeed so I'm here with the incumbent Father Peter who can say a little bit about it uh as um as you watch it so that you get an understanding of what this rados means the rados is a vision of Salvation history and you can see at the top it begins with the Alpha and the Omega and then Adonai burst and out of the hand of God Comes The Horn of Plenty the uh seven days of creation as it rolls on down from day and night and it rolls down through the vegetation and the animals on days four and five it get more sophisticated as you go day six you'll see men and wom Adam and Eve and that OV like Apple at the bottom and the Horn of Plenty that returns up to the top is the uh Humanity's return to the Divine and then and you'll notice uh at the bottom or perhaps that's hard to see that's the Garden of Eden story over on the left side you have the stories of the Hebrew scripture and that is Moses in levitical Garb in the uh in the centerpiece of that and then in the upper right corner we have uh the Pentecost event uh and out of the Pentecost you'll see icons one of which is the World Council of churches one of which is the United Nations all movements of the spirit during the mid-century modern movement and then in the center of the ridos is The Gospel According to Mark which of course is why we are here today absolutely right it starts with John the Baptist right down in the bottom there and it works its way up uh to the crucified Lord the last week of his life and an enigmatic human being grabbing Jesus's hand to say We join the history of salvation through Jesus it's tremendous I mean it's you never stop looking at it when you're sitting in the church it's got so many messages and it's it's difficult to sort of analyze you choose a different one every time you come here when does the church date from uh so the date uh the church uh the Cornerstone was laid in 1961 and we are in a community of Newan Connecticut which was a uh a real Hub of the mid-century modern movement in the United States and it was built in that built in that genre great but it's always wonderful worshiping here with your marvelous congregation we we love beyond belief when you and Fletch are come and join thank you and The Marvelous choir too which sings through the screen which is quite rare yes yes yes most growing company excellent we're going to begin uh on this day a sequence of little bites of St Mark's gospel trying to see what is particular to Mark as we did with Luke last week and no better place to start than in a church of St Mark so I'll start the morning office and say the Canticle and then Peter will take over with the psalm and the first part of chapter one of St Mark's gospel in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen amen this is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoice and be glad in it our Canticle is the vany come let us sing to the Lord let us shout for Joy to the rock of our Salvation let us come before his presence with Thanksgiving and raise a loud shout to him with Psalms for the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods in his hand are the caverns of the earth and the heights of the hills are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands have molded the dry land come let us bow down and bend the knee and kneel before the Lord our maker for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the Sheep of his hand oh that today you would hearken to his voice glory to the father and to the son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and will be forever amen Peter there's the Sunday Psalm 62 Psalm 62 for God Alone my soul in silence Waits from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that I shall not be greatly shaken how long will you assil me to crush me all of you together as if you were a leaning fence a toppling wall they seek only to bring me down from my place of honor lies are their Chief Delight they bless with their lips but in their hearts they curse for God Alone in my silence Waits truly my hope is in him he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold so that I shall not be shaken in God is my safety and my honor God is My Strong Rock and my refuge put your trust in him always oh people pour out your hearts before him for God is our refuge those of high degree are but a fleeting breath even those of low estate cannot not be trusted on the scales they are lighter than a breath all them together put no trust in extortion in robbery take no empty Pride though wealth increase set not your heart upon it God has spoken once twice have I heard it that power belongs to God steadfast love is yours O Lord for you repay everyone according to his deeds it's wonderful how that Psalm has a sort of chorus which comes for lurgical reading of the sort of for God Alone in silence my soul waits for God Alone my soul in silence Waits it comes again and again if you add 43 and the psalm Beyond yeah and it's the word that we all need over and over and over indeed never is out of style absolutely well let's begin Mark and have a go with that then we can just think what's special about this chapter this is the beginning of the Gospel According to Mark 1: 1 through verse 15 the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God as it is written in Isaiah the prophet behold I send my messenger before your face who prepare your way the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make his path straight John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the Forgiveness of sins and all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the River Jordan confessing their sins now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate Locust in Wild Honey and he preached saying after me comes he who is mightier than I the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie I have baptized you with water but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit in those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan and when he came up out of the water immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove and a voice it came from Heaven you are my beloved Son with you I am well pleased the spirit immediately drove him out into the Wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and he was with wild animals and the Angels were ministering to him now after John was was arrested Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel it's a very different pace from Luke which we were on last last week um i' I have a special attraction to that little bit because um the choir this morning sang My hymn the kingdom upon you yes which was the first PM I ever wrote which sort of took off and went into our hym book and it was it was that sentence of Jesus coming from the the the hidden years and bursting into Galilee in Mark's gospel the kingdom is upon you repent and believe in the good news and it it all of Mark is really dagger sharp when it comes yes yes uh oh wonderful to connect your hymn to the reading today yes I I think you know we're cinematic people and and many people are watching us even uh visually and I think that uh Mark's gospel is like an action movie is it just moves bang bang bang bang one thing to the next and Luke's gospel where you have been is something of a history dear theophilis and laid out in that orderly account and and I think Matthew's gospel is like a documentary film we get a you know the five teaching in and then John's gospel is like a fantasy movie as it begins in the heavens and comes down and so you're joining now yeah John a Netflix seven series exercise we'll we'll get there but but with with with Mark it starts straight away the Gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God there's no bones about that and Jesus is already adult as his John the Baptist yeah you know he's not waiting around at give us any kind of Prelude he begins right right with the beginning and as you said uh he the first sentence tells what we're talking about here who this guy is and he starts right with everybody as adults John the Baptist preaching it on the way out of the Wilderness and uh it's one of these books say you know you have to put your seat Bel on and go for the ride because you know no rest for the weary here certainly not and it it it just doesn't lose Pace all the way through but it's much shorter than many of the accounts so that yes John's teaching is all about first repentance for preparation for the coming of the Christ but at the same time it doesn't talk about John's other teachings which Luke gives us in a in a way it's it's it's just straight through and then Jesus is going to appear for baptism yeah that's thank you for that for saying that to me yes you know in in obviously in Luke we have John saying share your coats if you have two share here but now this is so laser focused on the identity of who is Jesus of Nazareth that's that's that is the topic yeah that is the topic and he he doesn't stray from that right there and the baptism is dramatic and it is an event only for Jesus yes so that the the the sense of the hearing of God's voice and the dove coming down is all for the Christ himself you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased not this is for the audience you know it's everything is almost when Jesus come out of the river it's it's the The Vocational experience which consolidates all these hidden years yes oh beautifully said and a lot to say about that but I just want to go back to the the torness of the Skies as the dove descends and one of the things you said when you uh joined our podcast the Rev uper Sunday podcast and you were talking about Mark's gospel and the kernel that it is and then Matthew and Luke kind of cleaning up the story yes but this the unclean story as if to use your metaphor there there's so much power in that and and we are much better if we don't back away from the power of it yeah no you know yeah and then we get just in a capsule almost The Temptations and the time in the wilderness yes but the spirit immediately this Greek word usus immediately drove him into the Wilderness he had no option he was driven into the Wilderness immediately yeah yeah I mean there is a strong there's the I mean the the divine power in this thing never ever stops and as you know I mean the word immediately is used 41 or 42 times and 410 out of the 661 verses begin with and this the we are on it tear the Divine is ripping right into ripping right into the world surely is yeah and when we get to the Wilderness this is I think the the The Story of Temptation I like best because in the others there are ordered Temptations the devil does this yeah then the devil does that then the devil does that then he leaves him Bing his time and Ang appear and now in Mark it's much more true to what one experiences that The Temptations and being alone with the wild creatures animals and the angels ministering are all together at the same time yeah I I love that you that you love that I was a latecomer to understanding that at first I thought there was too few verses given to such a Monumental thing and then I realized there was more power in the fewer verses and I love that the mean I particularly love the wild animals coming uh because as you know we know from from our knowledge of all the writings of Francis that when one meditates our bodies vibrate in a particular way and animals can pick that up and you know if you meditate at your house your your dog or your cat or your roosters as you've made famous the world over uh come in and make home particularly under your cassic and uh and that we have that with Jesus's Stillness these wild animals I think are not threatening I think the wild animals have come appearing threatening but then settled down along with the angels this is how I see it I think the old translation of that didn't help because it was the wild beasts oh nice call whereas creatures is a much friendlier concept and it it goes with the the peaceful moments when angels are are ministering to him I think and it's happening yeah I I think the question of the Angels ministering is a very good question I think in my early days thought oh what do you I I I wanted him to do it by all by all on his own and then I came to realize none of us does anything on our own and that I mean I grew up in a tradition where we had Guardian Angels uh as I thought of as a little boy and that the the Angels ministering uh to Jesus is one of the kind of divine touches kind of like a little kiss in the middle of a kind of crazy wild scene yeah there's just a little little something there yeah and then straight into galile with the ministry yeah yeah and you know from your pilgrimage time and I've been to the Holy Land many many times that I think a lot of of Christian pilgrims come into the Holy Land expecting Jerusalem to to sort of blow them out of the water and there's so much to say about Jerusalem but it's when they get up in the Galilee that they go ah now I sense all of that coming to me I I I sense Jesus as real I and I experienced him as alive now but but it's in the in the area of the galile when we were coming down this morning from New Haven to here um the sun rose Over the Sea and that must have been an experience that those fishermen were so used to right and there was a great calm and we both felt it as we drove past the road was empty at that very early time in the morning yeah I I think that um the Sea of Galilee the lake of tiberious whatever whatever uh handle it goes by as you know I I I think you want to talk about how how can we understand the witness of the Bible as real anybody who's been to the Sea of Galilee knows that those stories come completely alive because we still have winds that come over the trans Jordan Mountain quickly and well you have those calms you have this sense where you can the that the scriptures convey to us yeah that this is this is this is a place where Jesus did his thing yeah yeah and it's IM mediacy but it's in home territory right so we're going to go on to meet people that he knows very well yeah yeah and and I think that the you know I mean Mark as you know is telling the his story to to uh well I think Peter's story I if you don't mind my saying I think he's telling Peter's story agree and he's telling it to Romans who haven't been the place so uh and that this is a theography not a biography so there's a lot of theological things happening but you know Jesus's movements as we know are theological not just physical as he travels about in the G and in fact Mark wraps it into one Journey right on right right you're you're starting here and you'll end up at at Calvary yeah yeah I think I think Mark's gospel is the the impact of Mark's gospel is hidden Plain Sight yeah that uh you know there as you know there was no there was no genre of gospel before Mark and since as you were have spoken many times Mark almost completely embedded in Matthew and Luke yeah that his his impact the petrine impact through Mark's voicing on our understanding of the story of Jesus as it's told in a theological way it can't it just can't be overstated it's enormous it's really absolutely so thank God for the gospel of St Mark and yeah I think Mark's an amazing guy I think that Mark is the most major minor character in this in the biblical story in the New Testament and if we take as you know acts 12:12 where it says is John Markin known as Mark if we take that is true uh Mark was never at the center of anything but he was always at the edge of everything having been friends with Paul and friends with Peter and uh and his articulation of this action script of the power of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is is profound yeah let's continue with our prayers if you like to take on from here and add some intentions before our Lord's pray yeah for the love of Christ urges us on because we are convinced that one has died for all and therefore all have died and he died for for all so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who died and was raised for them this of course is from the second letter to the Corinthians some intentions yes our As We Gather and uh gather with everybody who gathers with you our prayers for all of us are always around the Middle East in the holy land and the escalating violence there we pray for uh communion of human beings uh deescalate the violence and coming to know one another all as fellow uh siblings we pray also for those in the world uh that are uh unnamed for all those places of violence and we pray again for all those uh who suffer uh many of whom suffer in silence and we pray of course for all the households that are tuning in with you today absolutely you yeah so shall we say the prayer Our Savior taught us together our Our Father who in heaven be th name thy kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen the collect for Sunday oh God you make us glad with the weekly remembrance of the Glorious resurrection of your son our Lord give us this day such blessing through our worship of you that the week to come may be spent in your favor through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen amen amen and the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and Minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his son Jesus Christ Our Lord in the blessing of God Almighty the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be upon you upon All Those whom you love and would pray for today and always amen well thank you for allowing us to do this for our Goden congregation in the Church of St Mark as we begin our little Adventure throughout the week in St Mark's gospel you can't imagine what an honor it is for me to be anywhere near your garden congregation for we love it all good thank you for that that's a great great uh vote of thanks as well and thanks for the rados too which gives so many different insights into the whole scriptural story yes thank you welcome