Few books of the Bible are as fast paced and action-packed as the Gospel of Mark. And St. Barnabas Episcopal Church aims to bring this story of Jesus’s mission and ministry to life in the way it was originally intended: as an oral interpretation of the story of God’s saving work through Jesus. Done as a staged reading, the performance will be Saturday, February 10 at 3pm.
“Most people will only hear snippets of scripture on Sunday mornings,” says the Rev. Susan Gage, priest-in-charge at St. Barnabas. “But Mark is a whole, tightly knit drama, and depicts a Jesus who has come into a chaotic and dangerous world with an intent to bring light and unselfish love into the world. To fully grasp this, a person needs to hear it completely, not just a few choice stories or verses here and there.”
The Gospel of Mark is thought to have been written sometime between 66 and 70 CE, putting it close to the time of when the Roman Empire destroyed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem for a second time. It was a period in history when there was growing unrest in the region. The original Markan community suffered from the persecution of the Romans and the growing tensions within Judaism as more Gentiles became drawn into the emerging Jesus community. Mark’s Gospel reflects that dynamic and ends at a point of acknowledging what was the reality on the ground for the Jesus followers: people believed the Messiah had come but were afraid.
Fourteen church members from both St. Barnabas and Christ the King Episcopal Churches will participate in the reading. Each person has one or several parts and will give voice to the persons in the Gospel. Rehearsals have been about learning what was happening at the time and the ways Mark constructed his Gospel in addition to developing character.
“I think this will be interesting even to those who are not ‘church people,’” says Rev. Gage. “It’s a chance to hear the whole story without interruption and to maybe discover a very relatable Jesus who was ministering at a difficult time. We might learn something for our time from listening closely to this narrative again.”