Since Advent Sunday at the end of last November, most Sundays our gospel lessons have been from Mark. Since Monday, January 11, the day after the Frist Sunday after the Epiphany, we began reading all of Mark. Tonight, the lesson will be from the tenth of Mark’s sixteen chapters. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. We will hear him speaking for the third time to his disciples about his death and resurrection. Meanwhile at the weekday Eucharists, on the same day the Daily Office took up Mark, we began with Jesus’ learning of John the Baptist’s death and the beginning of his own ministry in Galilee. Jesus preached, “The time has been fulfilled, and the dominion of God is has come near! Repent, and believe in the good news!”[1] Because the Daily Office and the Weekday Eucharists are on a two-year cycle, and the Sunday Lectionary is on a three-year cycle, it has been six years since we were in this situation of having a lot of Mark.
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