A method for learning to understand & present “Mark” in THE park, or wherever God has parked you...

I recall that “Mark’s Gospel”, is actually one  of “many”* writings, let alone tellings, tellings of “the Gospel” (of God, who was in (Jesus -) the Christ of God.. reconciling the world to himself)• and we have four of these preserved for us at the start of the New Testament, and each is titled in the Greek Language it was written in, “according to … Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or John”. Together these four act as a repository of over 350 pericope (small storylet's or sayings maintained in the Christian Church, “the body of Christ” by being told (“handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word”) and then retold orally- sometimes to draw out different meanings, and for different purposes in different sequences), and we have modelled for us 4 different ways to put them together for different times, and for different audiences. We, the followers of this same Jesus, are thereby invited to take in each of these four distinct tellings separately, then to compare, contrast, and for our generation, our 21st Century evangelists (gospel-ers) may even seek the spirit’s help to present, in the tradition of Jesus, “the gospel according to … Fred, Mary, Bob, Paul, etc..” replete with a rewording of the central pithy evangel/ jingle, and modern-day working parables to help our generation to come under the kind (of) rule of the kind (of) God Jesus embodied and taught about.

In an attempt (as suggested by Rebecca Manley-Pippert#) to “get this gospel straight, let this gospel in, and take this gospel out”, I am inviting you to follow me, as I follow Christ, in a learning community, to  do the work to learn Jesus. (Note: All the primary source documents on his life and teachings are in ancient Koine Greek, not the Literary Greek of the Greek philosophers, so to seriously understand him)…

1. Learn the letters of the Greek alphabet, to vocalise the language of the primary source of the New Testament Koine [= (Ancient) Common] Greek.

2. So that you can read it, so that a person who knew (or learned) Greek could know and understand it more, and you could at least learn to look up Greek words in a dictionary/ lexicon.

3. Read in a dozen English translations each pericope (spoken-word story passed on for years by word of mouth, by spokesmen & women) you intend to learn. Then, as part of a learning participatory group, choose (for your assigned chapter at least) or translate/ edit the text which will become that learning community’s script. 

4. Together with your learning community, learn to perform it in a flexible way, involving a variety of any number of participants. [e.g. as the learning community trains, they could  roll a “dice” with the number of options matching the number of participants present; the number indicated by the dice is then taken to be the number of presenters (which the lead presenter then chooses to present  that chapter/pericope to “others” who become the audience].

5. Mark seems to lend itself most easily to a spoken word oral story-telling event, but there are three other “tellings”, and those whom God is calling as evangelists to our generation may be wanting to transpose/ compose further editions of tellings of THE GOSPEL (OF GOD, IN this CHRIST - who is “in us”) reconciling this world to himself•! 

6. Let's ACT it out! (The first Act, after “making” or “being made”, is to SEE (or hear/ notice). Seven times in Genesis it says “”And God saw that it was … good/ very good, and in chapter 6 we read  “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” And he let it affect him emotionally, for then it says “the Lord was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6 NRSVUE) and with similar frequency in Jesus’ days as prophet to Israel he says “if you have ears to hear, then hear” and similarly he asks his disciples “Do you have ears but not hear? Do you have eyes, but not see?”(Mark 8)  

7. Then tell it out, as part of, & to be interpreted in the light of, our larger actions/deeds! - where-ever & when-ever God gives us the chance…

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Short-term objectives along the way might be to Form a small group of Anyone up to learning Mark's rendition of the Gospel with me over the next three-5 years? (By 2030AD)... Then preSENT it wherever whenever we can for the next 3-5 years???

After that there are the other records of 3 First Century Evangelists (Matthew, Luke, John, and records of Paul’s Visits & Letters, and the letter to the Hebrew followers of Jesus being tempted to “go back”, & reneg. on Christ, and the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures… especially Proverbs 1-9, various Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

Then also there are present day lives and letters (& lives as letters) needed within the family, and enacted/spoken/written-word events called for by providence itself.

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Footnotes

*   Luke tells Theophilus that by the time he is writing (almost certainly before John):”Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative about the events that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word,” (Luke 1:1) NRSVU

• For Paul’s First Century understanding see passages like 2 Cor 5:16-21 (esp v.19)

#  Out of the Salt Shaker -”, by Rebecca Manley-Pippert,  IVP,  This book is so good, that I am looking to read/hear her second book “Stay Salt” soon.

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