The Gospel According to St Mark

256 Pages·2017·1.54 MB·English

THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO
ST. MARK
Sermons by
The Revd. KARL A. PRZYWALA
C&P
C & P Books
Copyright © 2018 Karl A. Przywala
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means,
graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or
by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the
author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in academic discussions,
critical articles and reviews.
ISBN: 978-1-7751062-5-8 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-7751062-6-5 (e)
C&P Books first printing 6/20/2018
____________________
To those who have gone
before me
and those who will follow
____________________

FOREWORD
The Revd. Karl Przywala’s engaging volume is especially valuable in
being a collection of sermons that move sequentially through
every chapter of Mark, thus allowing the reader to fit carefully
explained details into the ongoing sweep of the narrative.
These sermons, which were delivered at Holy Trinity Anglican
Church in Vancouver, BC between March 2014 and April 2016, are
written in a clear, graceful style; they are sparked with humour and
attention-getting points and are designed to encourage people in
their Christian lives by applying Mark’s words to their personal sit-
uations.
Karl has a remarkable ability to make complex ideas understand-
able without watering down the material. He combines erudition
with wit, offering historical context, explication of the text, and
references connecting Mark’s words to relevant sections of the
Old and New Testaments. While not a formal commentary on
Mark, this sermon series illuminates the Gospel, making its overall
pattern clear and its message applicable to the present.
One does not often find a book that presents solid biblical teaching
and scholarly explanation in clear, straightforward language leav-
ened with colloquial anecdotes. Karl’s The Gospel According to St.
Mark is a pleasure to read and study and it will make a valuable
addition to one’s library of Christian literature.
Dr. Margaret Blom
Rector’s Warden
Holy Trinity Anglican Church
Vancouver, BC, Canada

CONTENTS
Bible Bible
Reference Page Reference Page
1:1–15 1 10:1–16 129
1:16–39 7 10:17–31 137
1:40–2:17 13 10:32–45 143
2:18–3:6 19 10:46–52 149
3:7–35 25 11:1–11 155
4:1–20 31 11:12–19 161
4:21–34 37 11:20–33 167
4:35–41 43 12:1–12 173
5:1–20 49 12:13–27 179
5:21–43 55 12:28–37 185
6:1–29 61 12:38–13:2 191
6:30–44 67 13 197
6:45–56 73 14:1–11 203
7:1–23 79 14:12–26 209
7:24–37 85 14:27–52 215
8:1–21 91 14:53–72 219
8:22–30 97 15:1–20 225
8:31–9:1 103 15:21–47 231
9:2–13 111 16:1–8 237
9:14–32 117 16:9–20 243
9:33–50 123

Mark 1:1–15, March 16th, 2014
We’ve spent the past six weeks looking at the opening chapters of
Genesis. Today we start a sermon series looking at Mark’s Gospel
account. A ground-rule that I’m going to set myself — you can see
how well I keep to it — is that I’m going to try not to say “Mark’s
Gospel”: it isn’t. It’s, as most translations of Mk. 1:1 say, “The
gospel of Jesus Christ” according to Mark; although the words
“according to” can have a slightly apologetic ring to them. A
friend of mine who was brought up on the Prayer Book thought
that of the phrase in the Nicene Creed “according to the
Scriptures”. Perhaps the modern version, “in accordance with”, is
clearer on this point.
I heard the Sydney evangelist John Chapman say that in his ex-
perience Sydney Diocese clergy have a habit of starting a new min-
istry with a series on Mark. He speculated that this is what they’re
taught to do at Moore Theological College. There are good
reasons to look at Mark early on though. Mark’s, it is now gener-
ally accepted, is the earliest written of the Gospel accounts. The
reason Matthew comes before it in our Bibles is because it was
previously thought that Matthew was written first. And if you
look hard enough, you’ll find theologians who’ll make a case for
each of the four Gospel writers having been first. If you want to
know the basis for the majority opinion, ask me afterwards. (It
involves the mysterious character Q, not to be confused with
James Bond movies!)
Also passé is the idea, prevalent in the nineteenth and the earlier
twentieth century, that the Gospel accounts weren’t written until
the second century. The evidence now indicates that all four were
first century compositions and Mark was written no later than
AD 70, possibly as early as AD 50.
That still leaves the question, why did Mark wait twenty or so
years before putting reed-pen to papyrus? An answer is that the
‐ 2 ‐ 
earliest Christians thought that Jesus was going to return in their
lifetime. When it became apparent that this was in fact unlikely
to be the case, they wrote down what they knew so that the oral
tradition could be reliably passed on. In the case of Mark, he
largely drew upon Peter’s preaching.
Richard Burridge, Dean of King’s College, London, has written a
very readable book, Four Gospels, One Jesus?: A Symbolic Reading.
In it, he draws upon the four images traditionally associated with
the four gospel writers or evangelists. Can anyone volunteer what
those images are and, more trickily, which one goes with whom?
It’s actually a bit of a trick-question regarding which with whom.
Before 398, Sts. Irenaeus and Augustine had a go, then Jerome
came up with something different and that’s what we have today.
Richard Burridge does a good job of expounding Mark’s lion-like
qualities. I have a friend who is wont to tell me, “Your problem
is ... ” At this point I usually interrupt and say, “You mean, one
of my problems is ....” “Yes,” says my friend, “One of your pro-
blems is that whereas I’m an Eeyore, I never expect anything to
work and therefore I’m never disappointed, you’re a Tigger. You
bounce around all over the place with all your ideas and plans,
and then you’re disappointed when others don’t fall into line and
share your enthusiasm!” I know lions are different from Tiggers,
but Mark has that bouncy quality about him; we never quite
know where he’s going to land next, leaping all over the place:
fast, furious, frenetic, fantastic.
Look at how he starts: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God.” Mark leaps onto the stage with a pro-
clamation. What does gospel mean? The answer usually given is
‘good news’. But evangelion, gospel, is a stronger word: it’s great
news, life-changing news.
Baptism was something with which the Jews were familiar. It re-
presented repentance, confessing sins. But John’s baptism was lim-
ited. Sin could be confessed but there wasn’t forgiveness or new