Reviews and Praise

Ann Turner Review: The Gospel of Mark Performance
by Ann Turner, Article on Bert Marshall for Crosscurrents

Perhaps if you have been born in a town called “Weeping Water,” it fits you for a life of proclaiming the Gospel. Or—perhaps a long stint as a professional rock musician (Bert’s band opened for “The Who”) gives you a taste for the power and profundity of words. Or, it could be that the many miles spent on the open roads as a truck driver gave Bert Marshall the time to frame his beliefs in words so that others can take them into their hearts. I expect that even a shining career at the Yale Divinity School where he received several prizes merely capped a long preparation for preaching the word.

Whatever the reasons, to hear Bert Marshall proclaim the entire Gospel of Mark from start to finish (a mere two hours long!), is to partake of a sacramental experience, something that lifts us out of ourselves and links us to God’s heart. Those of us who were present on December 14th at the Haydenville UCC witnessed an incredible event—Jesus’ words told and dramatized the way they were probably meant to be almost two thousand years old. No visuals, no distractions, just words—telling of Jesus’ ministry: his baptism by John; the selection of his disciples; the beheading of John the Baptist; the healing of the man with the withered arm and the paralytic let down through the roof; the exorcising of demons; the feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000; the astonishing and constant crush of crowds following Christ wherever he was—laying down the sick on pallets at his feet, touching the hem of his cloak to be made well—and then, the disciples.

The disciples do not come off very well in the Gospel of Mark, and Bert Marshall—with his expressions, the pauses for breath, the occasional striding back and forth and arm gestures—clearly showed Jesus’ continuing impatience with the dull-witted disciples. “You STILL don’t get it?” Jesus asks in exasperation. And at the end, when Peter denies Jesus and all the disciples flee, it is almost unbearable.

In the middle of the recitation, Bert took up his guitar and played beautifully, singing a few of Mark’s verses. We sat stiller than stillness itself as Bert began the passion narrative, describing how Christ was beaten and mocked, how he was nailed to the cross, and finally let out a great cry at the end. All during this narration Bert beat loudly on a drum, each beat resounding through the church as we heard the terrible words as Christ approached his death. It was almost unendurable.

The last word of the Gospel of Mark is the word “afraid,” and after uttering it, Bert departed through the door, leaving us in holy silence.
I had to hold Alice Pannoni by the arm and help her out of the sanctuary as her legs didn’t move very well. She kept murmuring, “I’ve never heard anything so wonderful in all of my life! Never!” Her words echoed the sentiments of most of us in the sanctuary that evening.

Bert stayed to answer questions from the audience afterwards, talking about the Gospel, remarking on the fact that there is no infancy narrative and no resurrection narrative. Some used to believe that the front and back of this book had been lost, Bert told us.

His performance capped an intense and fascinating month-long study of the Gospel of Mark with Andrea, where we read through all the chapters, discussed them, and then reread them in the more modern version of “The Message.”

This tiny report hardly begins to encompass what it was like to hear the words of Mark’s Gospel proclaimed in such a direct and powerful way. I suspect that for many of us, we will never quite be the same again. Those words are now lodged within, and I thank Bert for his vision and strength in delivering them to my heart.

Ann Turner, Children's book author and speaker
web site: www.annturnerbooks.com
Reiki Master, treatments available in sun room
1-413-268-7639
fax: 413-268-0139

Recent Books:
"Hard Hit," Scholastic, winter, 2006: Mark, a 16 year-old skilled pitcher, has to face his father's terminal illness and learn the skills of survival and emotional resilience, along with the help of friends and family. ("Nobody tells you/what it's like/there's no road map/for death...") Starred review, Kirkus****

Coming Fall, 2007:
"Sitting Bull Remembers," HarperCollins: At the end of his life, the great chief of the Hunkpapa Sioux remembers what life used to be, roaming free on the plains, and how it changed when the white men came. Beautiful illustrations by Wendell Minor make this an extraordinary gift book.

The Gospel of Mark Performance, by Richard Spalding
Protestant Chaplain at Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Inkberry

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ…” It was as though those few words grabbed the affable Bert Marshall by the lapel of his tunic and pulled him into the gravitational sphere of a narrative that is both deeply familiar and utterly strange, even shocking. For the next two hours the unfolding story seemed to be a presence of its own in the darkened Great Room of Goodrich Hall at Williams - with Marshall not so much telling it as circumnavigating it, transfixed in its mystery, and with the audience held too in the field of attraction.

Maybe the particular energy of the evening was released by the fusion of the familiar and the unknown. Most people know the basic trajectory of the story - from the fishermen leaving their nets to follow, to the miracle of the loaves and fishes, to the ominous political/religious rumblings and the gruesome death. But no one knows who “Mark” really was. No one knows why this gospel was written - or when - or for whom. No one knows why it ends in the quite particular way that it does. And no one knows why it is that the narrative seems to be charged with astonishment - why the storyteller seems not to know where it’s leading, why he startles himself with the word “immediately” time and time again when the Mystery touches down in the middle of ordinary life.

On the other hand, just about everybody knows Bert Marshall - or is getting to know him - or should. He’s been the pastor of the Congregational Church in Lee for almost a decade. Before that he was a dairy farmer, an innkeeper, a truck driver, and a rock and roll musician. Maybe its not so much the story that’s holy or the text that’s sacred so much as it is the meeting of the familiar and the mysterious, the confluence of the known and the unknowable.

Bert is a commanding figure, even when he’s in the thrall of an ancient story whose power dwarfs him. And for the most part he keeps the magnitude of his achievement with this material backstage. But every so often it occurs to you to marvel at the sheer audacity of it: how he took a three month sabbatical, a year or so ago, and made a kind of pilgrimage to Halifax, Nova Scotia - where he rented an apartment and proceded to memorize every word of the 16 chapters of text. Along the way, he also seems to have swallowed great quantities of humanity, hope and light - because they all come tumbling out as he tells the story. As you watch and listen, you feel as though you’re meeting a new friend you’ve known forever - or, as theologian Marcus Borg has it, “meeting Jesus again for the first time.”.

The shock of the ending of the Gospel of Mark is perhaps its most striking feature. To me the broken, fragmentary ending is one of the holiest moments I know in all of literature:

When [the three women] looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Actually the Greek text is even more abrupt: it reads, more or less literally, “…and they fled from the tomb, for trembling and amazement siezed them - and no one nothing they told, afraid because - ” Why? What urgent need or fear compelled the author to drop the pen before telling us what to make of the astonishing news that terrified them in the midst of death? Bert Marshall simply let the word fall - “because…” - and then paused, waiting to see what the silence after it fell sounded like. Then he walked from the stage, leaving the broken piece of story stuck in our minds. Exactly as was intended from the beginning - “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.”

What Others are Saying About Bert's Performance

"Dear Bert, Thank you so very much for your wonderful presentation of the Gospel of Mark last Friday evening in Worcester, MA. It was simply a superb evening: a good size audience, a terrific setting, and your moving rendition of Mark's Gospel. What a way to spend an evening! I am so grateful for your presentation of Mark. You really entered into the story and thus brought us into the story as well. Most of the people present, including the young people, of whom there were a goodly number, never 'heard the story' that way before. It leaves a powerful impression. You certainly had a receptive audience!"

- Donald A. Wells, Executive Director, Massachusetts Bible Society, Boston, MA.

"Rev. Bert Marshall's presentation of Mark's gospel was much more than performance. He was the story-teller, made tangible before us, living and breathing. It was the very opposite of "me" centered performance. He subjugated his ego and allowed himself to become, as St. Francis wrote in his Peace Prayer, an instrument. And we were all deeply touched. As the narration proceeded it felt like the energy in the room moved in circular fashion, gaining strength like a quiet hurricane, pulling us into its center. His music powerfully undergirded the text. I don't recall ever experiencing anything quite like this. I will not soon forget it."

- Jim Ballard, Ashfield, MA

"I am still struck by hearing and seeing the Gospel of Mark Alive in Keene before Thanksgiving. You did more than bring the Good News to life, you reached across the centuries and showed us the timelessness of the message, and how vibrant it still is today especially for a modern world. You freed Mark from being words on a flat page book. Thank you!"

- Ingrid Baily, Southern ME