Scripture: St Mark’s gospel.
During the past few weeks, we have been looking at Mark’s Gospel and finding out a little about the interaction between Mark and Jesus.
Firstly, Mark wasn’t a disciple; that is, he wasn’t part of the ‘Jesus team’ who wandered the countryside for three years.
Mark’s real name was John Mark and he first appears on the scene on the night of Jesus’ betrayal to the authorities and he appears at the same time the soldiers appear to arrest Jesus. Mark is the young man who escaped the grasp of the soldiers by shrugging out of his robe and running away naked.
It is believed that Mark learned most of what he knew about Jesus by listening to Paul and he soon became committed to the cause. Throughout the scriptures we learn that Mark could always be depended upon to come up with the goods – never lazy, he was always there to answer to call, working for the gospel, working to bring about the kingdom of God, fending off the Pharisees and scribes when they tried to trick Jesus.
Yes, Mark was an ideal man to have around.
Every Kirk should have at least one Mark. I truly hope that the man or woman you select to be your next full-time minister has at least some of the attributes of John Mark – post-Covid there is much to do in order to bring the church near to where it was. Markinch and Thornton are not alone in this matter, all the churches are suffering the same loss of attendance.
My prayer for all is that Markinch and Thornton Church can again become the vibrant place working for Christ that it has always been.
God bless you all.