There is no one living on planet earth at this moment in history who remains insulated, and therefore unaffected, from one or more of the crises presently occurring simultaneously. Every time I think we have reached the breaking point and nothing could surely worsen one or more of the crises deepen and widen, or simply erupt sideways. Still, I await the quieting of the storm and look for signs of a return to life before.
There are certain events that happen in our lives not just on a personal level but collectively that change the trajectory of the path we have been on. Today there is not just one such event but a watershed of seminal moments.
Readers of Mark’s Gospel would certainly have pointed to the War of 66 to 70 as the event that altered their lives. For them, there was life before the war, life during the war, and life after the war. Mark simply cannot be read without understanding the influence of the war on the entire region, in the same way that one cannot read Isaiah without understanding that it covers the before, during and after of the Babylonian captivity. Mark’s Gospel proclaimed a new age of spiritual awakening from the ground zero of a desolate Jerusalem.
One good resource for exploring the connection between Mark and the War of 66 is Stephen Simon Kimondo’s recently released book: The Gospel of Mark and the Roman-Jewish War of 66–70 CE. One reviewer of the text writes:
“Kimondo’s thesis is that Mark’s hearers, living in rural Galilee, southern Syria, or both, received the Gospel shortly after the end of the Roman-Jewish War not only as a proclamation of Jesus but also as a commentary on the war…. Mark’s gospel contrasts the onset of God’s empire and the Roman Empire under Vespasian. According to Mark 1:1-14, instead of employing military forces, the onset of God’s empire is nonviolent, and is based on the proclamation, teachings, and redemptive deeds of Jesus.”
At the very outset of Mark's gospel appears John the Baptizer who called the people to confess their abandonment of divine governance in lieu of the seduction of a worldly empire and return to God. John prophesied the coming of the Christ, who would usher in a new reign, a new kingdom far more powerful than the Roman Empire. The Kingdom of God is marked by peace and the insistence of love of God and love of neighbor in sharp contrast to unimaginable violence and persecution of the day: the thousands of crucifixions that daily filled the streets year upon year; the temple destroyed, Jerusalem left in burning ruins, the people displaced, far-flung and in desperate search for a place to live without persecution. This is what the hearers of the Mark’s Gospel had survived; this was their reality. The dove that descends on Jesus at the time of his baptism announces a reign of peace; an end to war and strife; open access to the Kingdom of God. Mark being the first gospel, is the bridge between life before and new life.
We too live in a time marked by events previously unimagined. Standing on the back side of the events of last Tuesday in our nation there exists a clear line between life before the breach of the capital and life after the breach. There is a shift occurring, a great chasm opening and engulfing the nation that now goes far beyond the body politic and we do not know where this fault line will settle as events continue to unfold.
The same is true of the pandemic. It is still very much in play and we do not know where things will stand, in terms of our health and well-being, or in terms of the world-wide economy. We only know that life was different before Covid than it is today. A shift has occurred but it may be some time before we can define it.
Today I speak to you on the other side on an unimaginable event in my life - a fire that destroyed a home and all the worldly possessions within it. The clarifying moment, the understanding that life before was coming to end came while I was calling 911 in a kitchen filled with smoke and flames no longer confined to the fireplace visible across the room. It came with the realization that something far out of my control was occurring and that it was bringing with it significant change. One week having passed, I see the fire with my in the here and now eyes as a single seminal event within a sea of cataclysmic events occurring all over the world - and not in any way an isolated event. In this way, I too am woven into the fabric of all that is now burning away to make straight a path for the coming of a new age - an age marked not with the acquisition of worldly goods and the welding of power over others through the possession of wealth or political capital but rather the putting away of those things; an age of higher consciousness, the realization of higher ideals; the coming of the Kingdom.
To that end, there is nothing that is happening in our lives, personally or collectively that should be considered apart from the spiritual realm. Let me repeat this: There is nothing that is happening in our lives, personally or collectively that should be considered apart from the spiritual realm. The call of Mark is to rightly interpret significant personal and collective experiences as part of the greater holy whole and to find one’s place within that continuum. There is something more to be realized when the crack in the thin veneer of our lives reveals the light breaking in. Where a shift occurs there develops an opening through which the Kingdom may be perceived - a Kingdom not outside of ourselves but within us, so vast and so encompassing we did not know that we had arrived at the place we had always been, never beginning, never ending, but eternally a part of the greater holy whole.
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