Seven of the Lectionary B pericopes from Mark's Gospel come from the first chapter of Mark! Several of these pericopes overlap each other. Where there is overlapping you may wish to consult other sections of this work for additional comments. For the Baptism of our Lord Sunday, for example, the appointed text is Mark 1:4-11, which overlaps with the final four verses of the pericope for the Second Sunday in Advent.

The title or heading of Mark's Gospel is stated simply: "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (1:1). And then the story begins. It begins, so to speak, in the middle of time. No genealogies here. Mark gets right down to the business of announcing the identity of his central figure. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Jack Dean Kingsbury has written an…