St. Mark's Day, A Day Later

Parishioners at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Covington, Ga, celebrated their mid-week Eucharist at 11:00 this morning, and Father Tim had some good comments on Saint Mark, whose memory the Church holds dear officially on April 25, but whose life and witness we celebrated a day later at the local Episcopal church. Fr. Tim remarked that Mark's Gospel is his favorite because (I'm paraphrasing here) it's so fast-paced--in-a-hurry, so to speak--full of down-home details and color. Then too Mark liked to make sure, Fr. Tim reminded us, that we get to see the first followers of Jesus for what they were: a bunch of bumblers, slow to catch on, not nearly ready for God's kingdom to break open as it did in our Lord's way of doing life. Mark makes sure that we who listen to the Gospel see ourselves as a big part of the story. Those who came to the Lord's table were, for the most part, older folks, about my age, and it was quite wonderful to see a few older men doing the liturgy well. Here's the collect for the day:

Almighty God, who by the hand of Mark the evangelist hast given to thy Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank thee for this witness, and pray that we may be firmly grounded in its truth; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.