Sermon for the Feast of St. Mark
“Speak the truth in love”
Mark is the Eastertide Saint par excellence; his commemoration always falls within the orbit of the Easter Season. As such he belongs to our Eastertide reflections on the radical nature of Christ’s Resurrection.
That this is paradoxical is perhaps not surprising. The so-called short ending of his Gospel, referring to the earliest texts that we have, ends not with the Resurrection but with the statement that “they were afraid.” The longer ending takes us somewhat further towards the Resurrection and its power at work in us.“They were afraid,” however, captures perfectly the condition of our awareness of being broken hearted, our awareness of our lack and insufficiency. Yet, to know our insufficiency is to know our brokenness at the same time as to be looking to our wholeness.
The longer version belongs to the Canonical Scriptures, to be sure, to the texts that are received as authoritative, and yet, the fact of the shorter version remains intriguing and suggestive. In so many ways, it belongs just as firmly and fully to the accounts of the Resurrection as the final ending. Consider it an ending within that ending.
The paradoxes mount up but in ways that belong to the greater paradox of the Resurrection itself, the paradox of dying in order to live. That is the fundamental pattern of Christian life which provides us with a way to face our brokenness and our incompleteness. In facing such things we are in principle open to the one in whom alone we find our wholeness. It means confronting our fears and our anxieties without being defined by them. It means not conforming to the expectations of the world but to the greater work of God with us and in us. The building up of the body of Christ is not about church buildings per se but about what they exist for. They exist only to remind us of our life in Christ.
This is why the Epistle reading from Ephesians is read on The Feast of St. Mark. It speaks to us about the truth of our lives in the love of Christ which alone is the principle“for the building up of the body of Christ.” Speaking the truth in love, as Paul suggests, equally belongs to our being witnesses to the Gospel of Christ even in the face of persecution and worldly troubles of whatever sort, whether it be political or natural catastrophes.
The challenge of The Feast of St. Mark is signalled in the Collect which draws upon both the Epistle and the Gospel readings. We are to stand firm “in the truth of [his] holy Gospel” and not give in to “every blast of vain doctrine”; in short, to be established in truth with love even when everything seems to be falling down around us. To speak the truth in love is to let Christ rule in us. The simple honesty of Mark’s Gospel allows us to face our fears and yet remain firm in our witness, holding fast to “the heavenly doctrine of thy Evangelist Saint Mark.”
“Speak the truth in love”
Fr. David Curry
Eve of the Feast of St. Mark, 2018
