Commentaries, exegeses, and correspondences provide pastors with tremendous help in crafting relevant, meaningful, and evidence-based sermons. In fact, texts like those of Boring (2006), Collins (2007), Donahue & Harrington (2002) and Moloney (2002) can be considered indispensable. Commentaries like these round out a discussion of each gospel, and each passage within scripture. Moreover, reading and re-reading commentaries helps to eliminate bias and promote an open-minded and lively discussion about the contextual variables and inherent meanings in the gospels. When encountering a critical passage like Mark 13:33-37, it may be tempting to take the text at face value and ascribe personal meaning to it. As valuable as personal meaning and literalism can be, commentaries provide rich and thoughtful analysis related to special events like the First Sunday of Advent. Each of these commentaries provides historical context for the Gospel of Mark. Moreover, some of the writers like Boring (2006) place the Gospel of Mark within the broader historiographical record by noting, for example, that Matthew and Luke “adopted Mark as a basic source for their own Gospels,” (p. 16). Furthermore, all of the commentaries...

Boring (2006) states outright that the Gospel of Mark has a message that transcends its original situation,” (p. 16). Collins (2007), Donahue & Harrington (2002), and Maloney (2002) all draw similar conclusions about the modern and historical implications of the substantive content of the Gospel of Mark. Donahue & Harrington’s (2002) commentary is among the most scholarly of the bunch, making their text especially relevant when crafting a more erudite homily.
The most helpful of these commentaries may be that of Collins (2007), whose analysis is more in-depth and intertextual than any of the others. Through an intensely detailed discussion of each passage, Collins (2007) provides the preacher, pastor, or priest with the tools needed to reflect, then consider how to interpret and deliver fresh messages for a congregation. The messages always need to be adapted to suit the needs of the audience. Keeping in mind the unique requirements of the congregation on that day, whether the First Sunday of Advent or not, the leader of the congregation can inspire, illuminate, or inform. Using a commentary like Collins (2007) allows for rich discussions and a discovery of issues and ideas that might otherwise go unnoticed when relying purely on…