A Homily for the Feast of Saint Mark,
Evangelist
When he ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive,
and gave gifts unto men. . . .
And he gave some, apostles; and some,
prophets; and
some, evangelists. . . .
—Ephesians 4: 8, 11
Today, in the midst of Eastertide, we commemorate Saint Mark. We say of Saint Mark that he was an “evangelist,” and an evangelist is a bearer of glad tidings, a herald of good news. We call Mark an evangelist because he was the author of one of the four Gospels, and Gospel (or in the classical languages, “Evangel”) means “good news.” Mark, the Gospel-writer, is Mark the teller of good news, the evangelist.
There is little that we can say with certainty about Saint Mark other than that he was an evangelist. There are references elsewhere in the New Testament to a John Mark, who was a nephew of Saint Barnabas and whose mother’s house was a meeting place of the early Church. Tradition generally supposes that John Mark and Mark the Gospel-writer were the same person, but “Mark” was a very common name in the first century, and there might very well have been two or even more men of that name in the early Church.
Traditional also associates Mark with Saint Peter, whose interpreter or translator he was supposed to have been. After Peter’s martyrdom, the Christians of Rome are said to have asked Mark to write down what Peter had told them about the acts and sayings of Jesus. This is a very plausible tradition; but the earliest reference we have to the tradition was written by a bishop nearly one hundred years after Peter’s death.
And
we know that the first bishop of
Today, though, we commemorate Mark the Gospel writer, Mark the evangelist, Mark the teller of good news. Not all evangelists are Gospel writers, of course; but all evangelists spread the Gospel, that is, tell the good news; and all who tell the good news are evangelists.
In a way, the fact that we know so little about Saint Mark is proof of what a good evangelist he was. Through his Gospel, we know a great deal about Jesus, but nothing about Mark. The good news is about Jesus, it is not about Mark: his identity is swallowed up by his mission. The teller of the good news has become transparent, invisible: we see right through him to the person and saving work of Jesus.
In
today’s Epistle lesson,
Similarly, in today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus says that he is the vine and we are the branches, and he reminds us that the branches can bring forth fruit only when they are connected to the vine. Jesus, the vine, provides the vital force that allows us, the branches, to flourish and produce fruit. That vital force is his gift to us to equip us for our work in the world.
Paul, in his letters, repeatedly says that spiritual gifts are many and diverse, and that they are unevenly distributed. Not everyone has the gift to be a pastor, or a preacher, or a prophet, or a teacher. We are cautioned not to think ourselves better or worse than others because their gifts are different from our own. All of the gifts are given to build up the body of Christ of which Jesus is the head and we all are the limbs and organs.
In his letter to the Ephesians—and only in that letter—Paul includes evangelism in the list of gifts. Perhaps he was here using the word in the special sense according to which Saint Mark was an evangelist: the writer of a Gospel. But, although we may not all be Gospel-writers, we all have gifts that enable us to be bearers of glad tidings, tellers of good news.
Of course, the way the word “evangelist” is used now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, we may not want the gift of being an evangelist. The word is associated in the popular press with fellows who have southern accents and expensive haircuts, designer suits and Rolex watches, and their own television programs. If asked to name an “evangelist,” we might find any one of several names popping into our heads: maybe a distinguished old fellow who used to fill football stadiums for his rallies; but more likely one of those TV-preachers.
And that is to miss the point of what it is to be an evangelist. When Paul, in his second letter to Timothy (who had been appointed by Paul as the bishop of the Ephesians), told Timothy to “do the work of an evangelist,” he more than likely did not intend that Timothy should sign a deal for airtime on the Greek Broadcasting network. When we honour Saint Mark as an Evangelist, we are not honouring him for his skill at raising money from “prayer-partners” in TV-land.
To do the work of an evangelist is to tell the good news. And there are many ways to tell the good news. Slick television programs may not be the best way; accosting people in markets and malls and asking them whether they have been saved may not be a particularly effective way. The way we can most effectively proclaim the Gospel is by living according to the Gospel.
This festival of Mark the Evangelist falls within Eastertide. Easter tells us that we are dead and alive: dead to our old selves, and risen with Jesus to new life in God. The best way of telling the good news to the world around us is to live our new lives.
We know that in the first century, in Saint Mark’s time, those who encountered Christians were impressed first of all by the way Christians lived. They remarked upon the love that Christians showed toward one another. They marveled at the willingness of Christians to face death by wild beasts in the arena, by fire, by crucifixion, by beheading, and at their unwillingness to compromise their faith, even in minor or trivial matters.
Can the same be said for us today? In the first and second centuries, Christians who would have been spared martyrdom if only they had burnt just a pinch of incense in front of a picture of the emperor nevertheless refused and went to torture and death. How many compromises do we make every day to get by, to get along, to keep from making waves, to gain acceptance of friends, co-workers, clients?
Do we look the other way rather than confront injustice? Do we turn a deaf ear to slander or to jokes that bespeak cruelty or intolerance? Do we gossip? Do we write off euthanasia and abortion as the “right to choose”? Do we conceal our Christian belief rather than risk offending others or suffering ridicule ourselves? Do we indulge our desire for comfort and material pleasures, while people around us are in want?
If we would learn to do the work of an evangelist, we must learn to live our lives so that we become transparent, and others see Christ through us. That is something we can learn from Saint Mark. That is how we can become proclaimers of glad tidings; that is how we can share the good news.
This is the spiritual gift that we need to seek from the risen and ascended Lord. But it is also the grace promised to us in our baptism and confirmation: the assistance of God the Holy Spirit to live as a Christian: not to be ashamed to confess Christ crucified; to fight manfully under his banner; to reject the devil, the world, and the flesh. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
We are the branches, Jesus is the vine; the life-force of the vine will flow through us, if only we do not cut ourselves off from the vine. If we do not live in Christ, then we become dead branches, and we are lopped off and burned; but if we live in Christ, we flourish and bear fruit accordingly. And our flourishing and bearing of fruit is a proclamation of the good news, to the glory of God.
Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, Orange, California
Church of Our Lady of Walsingham, Corona, California
April 25, 2004