Mark This

By RAY WADDLE

As an experiment I read the Gospel of Mark at 34,000 feet last week. This was during a long flight before election day, high above America and its boisterous political divisions.

Since everyone’s talking about Christian politics these days, I wondered how Mark -- the oldest, shortest and bluntest of the Gospels -- might confirm or deny our use of Jesus in today’s election debates.

Homosexuality, abortion, global warming, the war -- people bring strong Bible-based emotions to public controversies. Yet Mark makes plain that Jesus wasn’t interested in starting a political party.

That’s puzzling news, awkward news.

The Reign of God, as Jesus announced it, had little to do with balancing budgets or promoting school prayer. Love God and neighbor. Beware of religious hypocrisy. Follow me, he urged. In Mark, Jesus is the God-man of decisive action and difficult teachings. He heals, teaches, moves toward Jerusalem, facing resistance from his quarreling disciples all the way.

Reading Mark, I have to quit scoring debate points and formulating theories about political life. Reading Mark, I shut up. A new theater of operation suddenly reveals itself: it’s time to witness him pass by and hear his answers, hear his challenge and invitation. Once again the Bible grinds down my pompous assumptions about true religious life. “Follow me” -- it’s as simple as that, and as difficult.

People of faith will always disagree (in good faith) about politics. I love the rough-and-tumble, the passions and surprises of American democracy. In this world, it’s the best we can do.

But Mark’s Gospel silences the noise of battle for a time, even the battle cries of Christian politics, and makes the reader, the citizen, think harder about what love, sacrifice and justice are.

Mark offers refreshment -- also correction. When people step into the public arena and deliver all those well-rounded religious answers, they usually manage to crowd Jesus out and let their own prejudices speak instead.

Reading Mark -- with its fast-moving, mysterious episodes public and private -- Jesus comes alive and, whatever the political winds, rises yet again.