Sermon for March 27th (Easter)

The reading

Mark 16:1-8

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ When they 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.

The message

In many ways,  our reading today feels incomplete or inadequate. According to most scholars, that is the earliest recorded report of Easter.  The bible verses we just heard are often called the original ending to Mark’s Gospel since this is where the book ends in the oldest manuscripts we have available.  Throughout history, people have always been left uncomfortable with it, asking “is that all”. Mark’s Gospel, the story of God’s love as revealed through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ ends right there with a group of faithful, amazed and terrified women who say nothing to anyone. Over some years, addition verses based on oral traditions and other reports of Jesus resurrection were added to the end of the book, to explain what happened after this moment of joy and fear.  Some people suggest that this abrupt, sudden and unsatisfying ending was intentional, a reminder to the audience hearing the book that they are part of the story and need to complete the story by going and telling the others. 

That is what I want to talk about this morning, how we complete Mark’s Gospel. This is not easy work. There are some big challenges. The first challenge is that Easter did not happen in isolation from the rest of the story, no one was ever intended to just hear Mark 16:1-8 and then believe and accept these things.  The whole book of Mark was supposed to be read together in a community of faith where people welcomed, helped, studied, loved, provided for and cared for each other.     

 

We have been immersed in the story for a while now. In September of last year, we changed our Sunday bible readings.  We now follow a list called the narrative lectionary.  For 4 months, from September to December, we went through the Old Testament leading up to Christmas, when Christ our Savior was born. Immediately after that, we spent 3 months, from January to today, going through Mark’s Gospel leading up to Easter, when Christ our savior is Risen.  People here every week or following online have had 7 months to get ready for this Easter story. As I planned what to say this morning, I knew that not everyone here for church had the advantage of 7 months to prepare for Easter. 

This is not just about being lost or bored at worship when you do not know what is going on. A little Christianity can be very dangerous. We need to tell the story. If we do not, other people will and what they say is often terrible. Without the whole story our faith can be easily manipulated and twisted into all sorts of inhumane ideas and false promises. (If you want to see this happen live, just watch our presidential debates).  Without recognizing the brokenness of the world and our need for God to save us, the church becomes little more than a sort of place where we tell each other “your okay, im okay, everything’s great”.  Without hearing Jesus radical message of welcome again and again, without spending week after week hearing Jesus heal the powerful and poor or stopping to help anyone in need, church becomes little more than an exclusive club where people feel just fine leaving lots of others out.  Without having the cross at the center of our faith, without seeing God’s presence in suffering, the church becomes little more than some magical place built on fake promises that is you believe well enough you will be rewarded greatly.  

The solution for this challenge of sharing comfort and joy with people who do not know the whole story involves working together.  The story of God’s love is not a secret revealed to a select few. It is accessible, available and should be part of our daily lives.  There needs to be individual commitments to learning, to welcoming, to teaching with patience, to showing up, to find the words and courage to share the joy that is in us, to pray and to care for others.     

The other challenge to completing Mark’s Gospel is similar. I know a lot of people can go to church and have no idea what we are talking about.  That is the fault of many religious leaders, people like me who assume others understand the traditions, phrases and background, so we never bother to explain them.  The truth is we do have our own language, at church, we speak Easter. For the next few minutes, we are going to have a short ESL or Easter as a second language class.   

Easter is a language whose origin is in trying to express the shocking, to give words to the unimaginable. It is not comfortable to speak.  At the end of Mark’s Gospel, no one speaks it. The bravest, most faithful and dedicated of Jesus followers, the women who walk up to the empty tomb, are so filled with terror and amazement, they do not speak it. The only moment in my life I can think of anything like it is when my father passed away.  He died about 20 years ago during a March night.  I woke up the next morning for an early day of school and saw him on the couch.  I tried to wake him a few times. He was still and cold. At that point, it should have been obvious, even to a 15 year old, that he was gone. I said a prayer, paced around a little and tried to wake him again a few minutes later and again a few minutes after that.  At that point I had to tell someone so I paced around a little more and then woke my mom up, telling her “dad was still asleep and I couldn’t wake him up’.  That was the scary part, after that it would be seen and verified, I couldn’t pretend I was dreaming or he was just sleeping.           

These first women at the tomb go through that same experience when Jesus died and now again this morning, when the tomb is empty.   After a few hours, they start mentioning what they saw and heard to Jesus very closest friends. Now, with these first whispers of the resurrection, the women’s terror and amazement would be verified. Others would go to the empty tomb, they would see things as the women said, they would encounter and experience the risen Christ. The world would see that not even death could separate us from God’s love. This meant all those things Jesus taught were true and they would have to do something, teach, help, heal and tell the others.

The most important vocabulary words in the language of Easter include “Christ is risen from the dead”, God’s promises are good, true and will be fulfilled, God’s love includes all people,  our sins are forgiven by God’s grace,  we are actively love God and neighbor, God is really here in the world, walking with us in, celebrating in joy and accompanying in suffering.  

The solution to the challenge that we speak our own language here at church, that others may or may not know, is that we need to use it more.  We can speak Easter to those who mourn by sharing God’s promise of eternal life. We can speak Easter to Racism and other forms of exclusion by telling people that God loves everyone, acting like we mean it and recognizing when we don’t. We can speak Easter to poverty, economic injustice and unfair practices by doing things to help and insisting our leaders do too. We can speak Easter to violence by proclaiming God’s peace and demanding people find other solutions.  We can speak Easter to those who are anxious with prayer and trust in God.   Many of you might think this is too confrontational, or that it is not our place to say anything, that faith and world are somehow rightly separated. You know what, If we are quiet, others will speak and it won’t be words of forgiveness, care and welcome. 

I invite all of you to try it, to speak Easter. I do not mean just saying happy Easter, like its some random happy birthday to an almost stranger or have a good weekend to co-workers, let people know “Christ is Risen from the dead”.   Put something up on facebook (for those who are too cool for that, go to instagram, twitter, or whatever your preferred social media is). Let your friends or followers know, Christ is risen from the dead. This year, perhaps more than any other, think about God’s saving love for all people before you make your vote.  Do something to help others and if someone asks you why, let them know it’s because “Christ is Risen from the dead”.  Talk with someone about the joys, comforts and struggles of faith because “Christ is Risen from the dead”, Keep this church, community, and school in your life and prayers, we need your help to speak Easter, to let people know “Christ is Risen from the dead”.