Parents long for it.  Children are not so sure.  And teachers sometimes dread it.  The beginning of the academic year, like all beginnings, evokes a spectrum of emotion.  Excitement and anxiety.  Eagerness and dread of change.  Ambition and self-doubt.  Emotional energy and exhaustion.  New beginnings place us everywhere on this spectrum.  What was known and sure is now confronted by what is unknown and unsure.

At my high school the first day of each new academic year was imminently predictable.  Every class would review two things; the school discipline handbook and the course syllabus.  The syllabus was the touchstone of my anxiety.  Confident that my future happiness was indexed immutably to my GPA, I was both an avid and anxious student.   And the new course syllabus loomed as a threatening question mark to my future joy.

Would this class be my undoing? Unmask me as a hack, a fraud?  In my anxious world, the first day of class was a credibility reset.  Previous accomplishment was simply academic history.  Only my present now mattered.  Was I up to it?  What would this new beginning mean for me?  How would I respond?  And how would this class affect my future?   Beginnings are like that.  They offer boundless opportunities, but they also ask hard questions.  Who am I?  What will I experience?  And how will I respond? 

These are the same questions that confront us when we encounter Jesus as he is revealed and offered to us in the gospel.  The narratives of Jesus’ earthly ministry are often called ‘gospels.’  The word gospel comes from an Old English word that means “glad tidings” or “good news.”   The story of Jesus is the good news promised throughout the Old Testament and unfolded throughout the New. 

The New Testament begins with four books – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – that we call ‘The Gospels.’  They are not biographies, but stories of Jesus’ earthly life and work that answer important questions.  The designation of these books as Gospels is probably drawn from the first verse of Mark which reads, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”

But the very first word of Mark is the word, “beginning.”  And like beginnings in our lives, the Gospel of Mark confronts us immediately with critical questions about Jesus and about ourselves.  Who is he?  What did he come to do?  And what is our response?  These are the questions Mark’s gospel answers.  

Join us as we examine Mark 1:1 and consider the implications for us of “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.