The Gospel of Mark begins with the sentence,” The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God”.  Unlike the parallel accounts of Matthew and Luke, Mark does not share a genealogy of Jesus.  His use of the word “beginning” is not accidental but intentional, announcing that four-hundred-years of prophetic silence was disrupted by the appearance of Jesus on this planet.  He announces the beginning of something big.  This sermon tells us why.