5 Sunday after the

Epiphany B
th

5 Sunday after the

Epiphany B
th

What is the Gospel? The word gospel derives from the Old English god spell meaning good
news, or glad tidings . It is the English translation of the Greek word euangelion eu=good
angelion= message.
1.In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus tells his disciples, lets go to the neighboring town, so that I may
proclaim the message there also. What sort of message was Jesus proclaiming?
Jesus was proclaiming that the kingdom of God had begun with his own coming in to the world, and that
people should have faith in him, love God, be inclusive, and love their neighbors. That was Jesus own good
news: a different perception of God as love, and a conviction that he stood in a special relationship with God
who had given him the power to teach and perform miracles

2.What about Paul? What sort of good news was he proclaiming?

After Jesus death and resurrection, Jesus became the focal point of Pauls message: what Jesus said and
what he did. Pauls good news was that God had provided a way for us to be saved by sending his son into
this world. Jesus sacrificed himself, suffered death, overcame death and returned to God and now offers a
share in his triumph over sin and death to all who believe and are baptized. That was the totality of the
Gospel that Paul was preaching during his lifetime
To a world that viewed Gods as hostile and vengeful Paul preached that God is love, and that out of his
goodness God had taken the initiative to save us, by sending his son who accomplished this salvation
through the sacrifice of his life. We can join Jesus in his glory through faith and baptism.
Pauls letters are the oldest Christian writings in existence. The first letter of Paul (1 st Thessalonians) was
written around 50 AD. Paul died during Neros persecution in the mid 60s. So his letters were written during
about 15 year period and in them Gospel means that we have been saved by Jesus' death and resurrection
and can join him in his kingdom if we believe and are baptized.

3.What about the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John? Are they also the good news?
The were written well after the death of Paul and after the death of most of the eye witnesses who had
known Jesus personally. Mark is dated around the year 70 AD, Luke and Matthew around the year 85, and
John after the year 90 AD. In addition to the good news that had been proclaimed by Jesus and Paul, they
also give us the collection of the memories of the various church about the sayings of Jesus, about his life,
death and resurrection.

5 Sunday after the

Epiphany B
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But there is more: during the first 3 centuries of the church, several other books were written about Jesus:
some contained rather far fetched stories. Over time, the church fathers agreed that 4 of these accounts of
Jesus's life were authentic and they were accepted as canonical, and the term gospel was extended to them.
Thus, the concept of gospel grows over time: 1) It was originally Jesus proclamation that the kingdom of
heaven had started. 2) Then it became Pauls proclamation that Jesus life, death and resurrection had earned
salvation and entry into the kingdom of heaven for all those who believed in him. 3) Finally it included the
accounts of Jesus words and deeds collected by Mark, Luke, Matthew and John compiled from what various
churches remembered about the preaching of the original eye witnesses.

4. In todays passage from Mark we read that Jesus cured Peters mother-in-law and many others,
then needed time for prayer and quiet, refused to stay in Capernaum and started preaching
throughout Galilee.
Peter was married. Is that a surprise? Those of us who come from the Roman Catholic tradition are rather
surprised to learn that that the apostles were married. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, all of the
followers of Jesus were married, as were the leaders of the early church, with the exception of John (the
youngest disciple of Jesus) and Paul. History tells us that, for the first 1000 years of the church, marriage of
the clergy was the norm in the church, with some exceptions (monasticism).
Celibacy was made mandatory in the middle ages for economic reasons having to do with church property. If
a priest collected funds and built a church, who would own the building after his death: the priests family or
the congregation? Mandatory celibacy of the priest was imposed to solve these kinds of problem in the
Western church. The Orthodox church does not mandate celibacy for the priests, but mandates it for the
Bishops, who even now are selected among monks.
I am glad that the Anglican church did away with celibacy, and I believe that as a result of that it has a much
healthier attitude towards sexuality that the Roman Catholic Church.
Paul in his 1st letter to the Corinthians talks about his celibacy in terms of renunciation: giving up something
he was entitled to for the sake of the gospel. Let us look at it for a moment

5. In the passage we read last week about eating meat sacrificed to the idols, Paul stated that
that although people have the right to do that, they should be prepared to give up that right to
avoid confusing the weaker members of the community with their actions.

5 Sunday after the

Epiphany B
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In todays passage he continues to make the case for renunciation of ones righties for the benefit of
the community.
Paul was being criticized in Corinth for being different from the other apostles. Some questioned if he
was a real apostle: the other apostles were married, travelled with their families, and were supported
financially by the community. This was the norm among Jews and Gentiles: the priest would devote his
life to preaching and ministering to the community, so he was entitled to be paid by the community.
Paul was different: he was not married and was self employed, and was not supported by the church.
However, he kept pressing pressing his churches to raise funds for the church of Jerusalem. That is
something the other Apostles did not do. Some Corinthians came to believed that they would have
been better off with a salaried priest then with Paul, unsalaried but constantly asking for donations for
the church of Jerusalem
To make matters worse, Paul's financial management style was rather secretive, and that made some
members of the Corinthian church even more very suspicious.
In the passage immediately before todays reading, Paul asserted the right of the apostles to be
married and to be supported by the community, but them went on to defend his prerogative to
renounce to these rights for the sake of the Gospel. He stated that the privilege of being an apostle
was reward in itself, and that his reward would not come from the Corinthians by from God.
For Paul, being an apostle was a way to serve the community. Not being married, he had no ties and
was free to be an observant Jew with the Jews and also to ignore the laws of Moses with the Gentiles.
Like Jesus he felt that he had came to serve, not to be served, and the only law Paul felt bound to was
the law of charity: he did all he could for his communities, and was ready to renounce to all his rights to
succeed in bringing them the Gospel, the good news that God loved them, God sent his son to become
a human being. Jesus taught, performed miracles, was executed, was raised from the dead, and had
opened up a way to salvation for all those who believe in him and are baptized.
That was Pauls Gospel. He believed in it with every fiber of his being. He was totally devoted to
proclaiming that Gospel. He was ready to renounce to everything in life for the sake of the Gospel.
As we are approaching Lent, the idea of renunciation (giving up something) will recur. Let us remember
that there is no value in renunciation per se, the value is in doing it for the benefit of others.