1. St Mark the Evangelist (25th) Martyr 24th April 2015
Morning Worship Liberation
St Mark the Evangelist (25th) Martyr 24th April 2015
Information from ‘Exciting Holiness’:
Mark was a Jew and, according to Paul's letter to the Colossians, was cousin to Barnabas. He accompanied Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey. Afterwards, he went to Cyprus with Barnabas and to Rome with first Paul and then Peter. Mark's gospel is generally regarded as the earliest and was most likely written whilst he was in Rome. It was probably based as much on Peter's preaching of the good news as on Mark's own memory. Mark's gospel has a sharpness and an immediacy about it and he does not spare the apostles in noting their weaknesses and lack of understanding that Jesus the Christ would suffer for the world's redemption. Sharing in the glory of the resurrection means sharing in the giving of self, both in body and spirit, even to death; sharing the gospel was, for all, in essence both excessively generous and ultimately sacrificial.
Bishop Justus Church of England School

2. Gather The Lord be with you And also with you
St Mark wrote the first Gospel telling the story of Jesus.
Mark’s Gospel is the shortest one, probably the earliest.
It is distinctive as a Gospel as it rushes on at a pace with ‘a sharpness and immediacy’.
Sharing the Good News is a key theme of his Gospel.

3. Jesus said to them,
"Go throughout the whole world and preach the gospel to all people. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Mark 16: 15-16
Receive
St Mark is attributed to writing these words from the Gospel with his name…
Sharing the Good News is a key theme of his Gospel.

4. Engage Mark was a witness to Christ not just what he may have seen
and encountered in Jesus
but also by hearing the preaching of St Peter.
In our reading at the end of Mark’s Gospel Jesus commands us to go into the world and preach the gospel to all people.
Discuss:
How can Christians witness to Christ in today’s world?
As witnesses will we all be seeing the same things? What do we miss?
Use this clip about inattentional blindness to think about what we pay attention to… And what we miss…
Other Ideas
Witnesses
Prime a couple of students to have a silly but noisy and short argument to begin worship… Stop them when appropriate… Ensure they do not give the game away…
Take the two students out and ask the rest of the students to write a quick report in silence on what just happened….
Break the news it was a game and then hear the reports—notice if there are similarities and if there are differences…
Did anybody take sides? Did some details get noticed by some people but not by others
Alternatively show a short film clip—then have some observation questions…
Ask questions to your eye witnesses and congratulate the most observant members of your class… notice if everyone saw the same thing?
Sharing the Good news
Mark’s Gospel is about sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ
Share some good news as a class—celebrate success and achievement
Or play a good news song—chill out with some Michael Buble ‘feeling good’— what makes you feel good....

5. Respond Almighty God, who enlightened your holy Church
through the inspired witness
of your evangelist Saint Mark:
grant that we,
being firmly grounded in the truth of the gospel,
may be faithful to its teaching
both in word and deed;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Respond

6. Go
Go and live for the praise of his glory
Alleluia, Alleluia