The Goal

The beginning, that is, verse 1 chapter 1, of the Gospel of Mark is "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God." All the gospels tell the story of the life, or at least the important part of the life of Jesus. In Mark's case, it is profound that the first verse, where Greek writers would put a title, is "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God," because that means it applies to the whole work. Verse 2 starts telling about John the Baptist and skips any of the Christmas stories to jump straight to the baptism of Jesus. The baptism of Jesus is NOT the "beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God," it is just the beginning of the beginning. The "beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God," is the whole book of Mark. The beginning of the beginning is the baptism, the end of the beginning is the at the end of the book, with the women leaving the empty tomb confused and afraid in chapter 16 (then there are some other endings in our bible, but these are generally understood to have been added later). The "beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God" is the whole book. The awkward ending leaves the reader, who is presumably part of the Christian movement, some responsibility for living out their lives as a continuation of the "gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God," after the story of the beginning is complete.

The continuation of the story of "the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God" is the story of the church and all the church has done and continues to do. The author of the Gospel of Luke tells the beginning of the story of the church in the sequel to the gospel, the book of the Acts of the Apostles. For Luke, the church is intimately tied to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers the church to proclaim the gospel "to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." The Holy Spirit can even be interpreted as driving the early Christians OUT of Jerusalem so that they can spread the Gospel. In the book of Acts, upon hearing Peter preach the gospel, the whole household of Cornelius receives the Holy Spirit and is baptized (in that order). This gentile family receiving the holy Spirit convinces the church leaders from Jerusalem that Paul's ministry to the gentiles is valid, and the church grows into all the gentile territory around the Mediterranean; the church proclaims the gospel to all nations. Still, at the end of the book of Acts, that's just the beginning of the story of the church.

Matthew, also, shows Jesus sending the disciples into all the world. In English, we have the great commission: "Go into the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." Just before that it says, "When they saw him, they worshiped him, but they doubted." This moment is Matthew's creation of the post-resurrection church. The disciples gather, they worship, they are given authority, and commissioned to spread the gospel. In Greek, the imperative is not on "Go," but on a verb form of "disciple." It's really more about teaching people than making people into converts. A wooden translation might be "As you go, teach." The community is formed, the community worships, and as a community they are commissioned to teach the world the gospel. That's the beginning of the story, at the end of the Gospel of Matthew.

Steven Covey's book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People features the habit, "Begin with the end in mind." It's hard to get anywhere if you don't know where you're going. Where is the church going? What is the end that we should keep in mind? That word "end" can mean a couple of different things. When we talk about the end of time or the ends of the earth, we are talking about the last thing in time or the farthest reaches in space. An end can also be a goal. The ends of an organization are its purposes. When Covey says to "begin with the end in mind," he means we are to be clear about what our purpose is before we start. When we are talking about this kind of end, Covey would say, we are talking about first things in terms of priorities.

What is the goal of the church? Mark doesn't say much about the church directly, but we see Jesus say, "Any who want to be my follower must deny themselves, and take up their cross and follow me." He also says, "Whoever would be first must be last and servant of all." Luke sees the church as carrying the presence of Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit to the world. Matthew sees the church as proclaiming and baptizing. These are things that the church DOES, but I would say that equally important is what the church IS.

In Paul's letters, the church is the body of Christ. I love that as a metaphor. Paul was appealing for unity in the diversity of the Christian community. We cannot reject people just because they're different or function differently. The body needs thumbs and eyes and feet, with Christ as the head. There is another effect of this, though. WE are the body of Christ in the world. We are the physical presence which accomplishes Christ's ends. There is a quote attributed to Teresa of Avila but actually originated with a Quaker missionary, Sarah Elizabeth Rowntree, appealing for more mission workers (and she was quoting a Methodist minister for part of it) which says,

Christ has no human body now upon the earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours, my brothers and sisters, are the eyes through which Christ's compassion has to look upon the world, and yours are the lips with which His love has to speak. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless men [sic] now, and yours the feet with which He is to go about doing good through His Church which is His body.

To some extent, this is Luke's view of church, too, but for Luke, there is no church without the Holy Spirit. If the church is the body of Christ, then part of the purpose of that body is to house the Holy Spirit.

From Mark, we get glimpses of the church as community. When Jesus' family come to restrain him "because he was beside himself," he looks around at the people who were learning from him and says, "Whoever does the will of my Father is my brother and sister and mother." The flesh-and-blood members of his family were the ones outside him. The loving community that followed him and learned from him were the ones who were a part of him. Luke also expresses the idea that the church is the community that follows Jesus and his teachings. The whole story of the church in Acts is a story of communities in Jerusalem and Antioch and Ephesus and Corinth and Rome and throughout the world. Sometimes there is conflict within these communities, but they, together are the one, larger community which is the church. Finally, in Matthew's depiction of the scene of the great commission, we see that the church is a worshiping community, not just a learning community.

Above all, the church is an empowered community. Matthew shows Jesus giving authority, and Luke shows Jesus giving the power of the Holy Spirit. Along these lines, Mark's ambiguous ending gives the church a choice and a responsibility. The women at the empty tomb were charged, "Go, and tell," but they were seized by terror and amazement. That's our choice even today. Are we seized with terror and amazement? Are we afraid to go and tell? Or do we claim the authority and power given by Jesus, the power and authority not only to DO what the church is supposed to do, but to BE what the church is supposed to be.

If we're going to be effective (like Covey is trying to help people be), then we should always keep our end first in our minds. What is our end? I'm not advocating for a managed, measured kind of evangelism, for being effective at making and doing things. I'm advocating keeping in mind a vision of the community that we are called to be, "to do the will of my father," as Jesus put it in Mark.

So what is the will of God in the world? Every single gospel would say that the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is like it, to love our neighbors. That's an easy quip, but we have to work out the details for ourselves in each of our circumstances and in the life of our community. There are a few stories that come to mind: God is like a woman who lost a coin and turned her house upside-down looking for it; a merchant found a pearl of great price and went and sold all that he had to purchase it. Here's the thing: YOU are the coin. YOU are the pearl. These stories don't tell us the particulars of how God loves you, but they show the intensity with which God loves you. They show that finding you or purchasing you is everything to God. It is God's first priority.

Add to that the fact that WE are Christ's body in the world and it's easy to see that the vision God has for us is us, as a community, being the eyes through which Christ's compassion looks upon the world, and being the lips with which he speaks his love; being the hands with which He blesses people, and the feet with which He goes about doing good. We are to show God's priority for finding others who are lost and for purchasing others who are of great value to God. We are to be the community that comes together to worship in spite of our doubts. We are to forgive and reconcile and heal schism. We are to love one another. We are to support one another in learning more and more from the scriptures and from Christ as we're taught by the Holy Spirit. We are to gather and worship; we are to go and proclaim; we are to love and forgive. This vision of God-focused, God-worshiping, loving, and supporting, community is the goal that we should always keep in mind.

Blessings,

Chas