Hearing the Gospel of Mark from beginning to end

Most of the time we read only a few verses, maybe a chapter, but rarely if ever do we get the whole story from beginning to end. This morning we had a go at hearing the whole of Mark's gospel from beginning to end. We heard it through twenty-five different characters (there was room for many more) recounting their encounter with Jesus as Mark's gospel tells it. A door stood at the front of the church and through the service, different characters telling us of the Jesus they met. Out of the door came John the Baptist, Andrew, Levi, Jarius' daughter, the Syro-Phoneician woman, a child, Peter, Judas, the woman who anointed Jesus at Bethany, Pilate, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary Magdalene and many more. Mark's gospel is full of encounter, never really stopping, before Jesus is meeting another life. We got a vivid sense of all the myriad of responses to Jesus that the gospel of Mark presents you with. We thanked God for the gospel, we said sorry for so often making it dull and we prayed for others through the eyes of the different characters with their need for faith, courage, welcome, mercy and so on. We sang songs and hymns that spoke of Jesus' ministry - my favourite was one I found this week from John Bell called 'In the Byre at Bethlehem' (there's a great version here). I rarely blog about church, but it was great to have such a multi-voiced occasion, bringing the gospel of Mark alive.