“Resurrection” Mark 16: 1-8

 If I asked you to tell me the highlight of the Easter story as you recall it, what are some of the big things that immediately come to mind? Women going to the tomb. The stone is rolled away. Jesus is not there - he is risen from the dead! And…

The women went to go and proclaim the good news that defines us even here and now today as Christians - that Jesus is resurrected! Amen. 

Only each of the Gospels tells the account of Jesus’s resurrection in different ways and we have a tendency to smush them altogether. It’s completely understandable. It’s what we do with stories in our everyday lives - as we work to make meaning, we combine details or change timelines. 

Why do I say all of this? Because the resurrection story as told by Mark is completely different from what we would find in Luke and Matthew. So let’s untangle some of our mixing of the different Gospel accounts this day in order to hear the Good News in perhaps a different way. 

The Sabbath is over. Not only the Sabbath, but the Passover, which turned from a time of celebration to a time of deep sorrow as the women watched their Lord hang on the cross amongst the jeers of the crowds. When his body breathed it’s last his body was taken down, but not tended to because of the rules around the Sabbath. But now, after the Sabbath, after the Passover and all the preparations that proceeded it, and life is going back to the routine of the everyday. 

Only today is not the everyday. It’s not the routine or the normal. For the women are walking silently in the early morning towards the tomb of Jesus. The grief in their hearts is echoing through their heavy steps. The only words that are recorded amongst this painful journey to go and anoint the dead body of Jesus was a question about the stone - the stone put over the entrance of the tomb to “protect” Jesus’s body from being stolen by the Romans. Who would roll that stone away from the entrance so that they could do the hard but necessary task of love that they are compelled to do. 

Only when they arrive they find that the stone is already rolled away. Jesus is not in the tomb! And there’s an angel present telling them not just that Jesus has been resurrected, but that they are to go to tell the disciples this good news. 

And….

Then the women are to shocked to say anything. 

Is that how you remember the ending of this Gospel text? Probably not. It was so disconcerting that Matthew and Luke intentionally made the ending more complete. And a piece was added to Mark later to try to add clarification. 

The truth is that we want a different ending to this text in Mark. We don’t just want the women to flee from the tomb. We want action. Triumph. The joy of this day as we know it today. But we are told that the women had alarm, terror, amazement, and fear. We want the word to go forth on that day down to us here and now today. Yet, that isn’t what we find. 

Mark doesn’t try to over-explain what the women were going through. He doesn’t try to cover up the discomfort. He doesn’t take the challenge of verse eight and sweep it under the rug. Why?

Because I think Mark understood that in particular seasons of our lives we may find ourselves right there with the women. We may not do what we were told to do because we are so confused or fearful or don’t understand. But that doesn’t mean that God is done. Nor does it mean that God doesn’t give us second chances - just see the next part of the Gospel of Mark for that truth. 

In our discomfort that this is not what we expect to happen, we come face to face with elections of our own actions or inactions but it also bring us face to face with God’s grace. God’s truth that keeps working on us even if we don’t fully understand the details or the vastness or importance of what we are celebrating today - that Christ is risen!

But the Good News is not just that God continues to work on our hearts and redeem us even when we fail to follow through in the moment. There is also these words of the angel that the women are to go and tell the disciple and Peter that Jesus is risen. Peter is deliberately included. Peter who turned away from Christ out of his own fear, alarm, and terror. Peter who God is redeeming in even this invitation and moment. The promise that Jesus will meet them again, including and especially Peter. Christ is doing transformative work in him. 

And that my friends is good news, not just for Peter, but for the women. For us. That our sins, faults, and failures will not have the final word in the light of the cross and the empty tomb. If only we will go where Christ has gone. Even if we don’t understand. Why? Because God isn’t done yet with Peter either. 

Just as we can understand Peter turning away from his promise to Jesus on the night of Passover when Jesus was arrested and tried, we can also understand the women. We try to put ourselves in this morning’s text and think of course we would go and tell everyone and anyone what just happened, but what is it that the women fear? They have just watched Jesus be killed. In the flesh. And now they are seeing something unlike anything they have experienced before. Even if they were present when Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, they saw his body come out in linens and all. This is new. This is terrifying. And the threat of the Roman Empire is still hanging over them. 

But God is not done, even because of those real fears. 

God was still moving and speaking. Because in the long term, the women did tell. The Good News did go forth. Peter did find healing and became the rock upon which the church of Jesus Christ was built. 

The question, then, is how are we living into the Gospel? How are we being part of what has yet to be written? 

Maybe for some of us, the idea of being part of carrying forth the Good News terrifies us like did the women so long ago. What did the women have to fear? Everything. Absolutely everything. They had watched Jesus died. They had returned to care for him and were met by an angel/ stranger who told them that Jesus was risen and told them to go back and tell the disciples to go to a place and a people they may not understand what has happened. 

If they were honest, they didn’t understand what was happening either. It was simply too much to process.

Sometimes, we too have fears. Fears that people won’t understand. Fears of rejection. Fears that people are going to ask us questions that we don’t have answers for. So we flee the sight of the empty tomb. 

But for others of us, maybe the idea that we are invited to be part carrying for the Good News amazes us. Maybe we are asking, “Are you sure you want to use me Lord? Do you know who I am? Do you know what I’ve done?” To which Jesus replies, yes. Now go. We may not fully understand all the ins and outs of proclaiming “Christ is Risen indeed but we are humbled that Jesus is inviting us to be part of this Kingdom work before us. 

And maybe for others what we feel is joy. Joy to go forth. Joy to keep going forth no matter what. Joy because the resurrection has changed us and now we can be part of sharing that with the world! When we proclaim that “Christ is Risen!” We are also saying that Christ saved me. Christ took what my life once was and raised it from the ashes and made it into something new. And you so desperately want that for other people.

No matter what we may be feeling, we are part of the story, Church. God is not done yet. The Gospel keeps going on. So, I ask you again, how are we being part of what has yet to be written? Because God is still at work, in and through us, in this world today. Amen. 

“End of the Age” Mark 13: 1-8, 24-37

 Since the point when Jesus ascended into Heaven his disciples have been looking for his return. Immiatley. And in every age since there have been people who have tried to guess when Jesus is going to come back, using everything from fancy counting methods to just straight up guessing again and again and again. If I’m honest, these attempts to nail down the date when Jesus will return frustrate me, because Jesus says in this passage that even the angels, even he, the son of God, do not know that date. It’s for God to know alone. And yet, we keep trying to guess, as if we know better than Jesus. 

The question is why? Why are we so fascinated with texts like this that talk about the end of the age. The Gospel of Mark is thought to be written shortly after the temple is destroyed. Christians are living in persecution. Things look really bleak. So they start to look for the signs of the times that point to Jesus coming back and setting them free from all of the pain and suffering that they are currently experiencing. 

I think we can understand that as well. We, too, live in a time where things seem bleak - even if it looks completely different then the believers who lived during the time when the Gospel of Mark was written. So we, too, look for that day and time when Jesus will return. It’s one of the reasons I think the Left Behind series were so immensely popular. People are yearning for Jesus to come back. 

When Jesus was teaching his disciples, they were marveling over the temple before them. This magnificant building that stood the test of time, and was believed to be the home of God. Under that wisdom it could never falter. But Jesus, in this time of private teaching with his disciples, points out to them that things are not always as they seem. The stability of a building, even the very house of God, does not last forever. Something new is coming. 

The disciples had to be shocked. Wouldn’t we be shocked if we heard that the very things we trusted most in our lives were going to come tumbling down? Yet, Jesus is reminding his disciples, and reminding us, that a time of change is coming. 

Peter, James, John and Andrew then had an even more private conversation with Jesus and asked the most rational of questions - when? When is this going to happen Jesus? And what’s going to tell us that it’s going to happen soon. 

And Jesus had a beautiful answer. Watch out that no one deceives you! Friends, we can get so distracted by the when that we totally miss the why. This teaching that Jesus is passing on is the bridge between all that the disciples have experienced with Jesus so far - the teaching, the miracles, the healings - and his Passion that is come. This time when Jesus would give his very life in order to change the world. 

For some that would seem like the end of the story, but it goes on. The Son of Man will return in final victory. Jesus will return in all of his power and glory. 

Church, that is surely exciting. But when we get so caught up in what is to come, we miss out on the present mission that Jesus has given us here and now. 

Normally, I am a pretty fast walker. I attribute it to having short legs that need to move faster in order to keep up with other people. Unless I am at camp. Whenever I am serving as a camp counselor, I know my place. I am at the back of the group of students with the folks who are the stragglers. Some would find this to be a frustrating place, but I find it fascinating. Because I notice more. When I slow down with these campers I notice new things, even if I have been in the same place so many times before. When we go too fast, we miss seeing what is right before our very eyes. 

When we are distracted, looking for signs of what is to come, we can miss the mission of the present. We can miss what God is trying to point out to us here and now. We can overlook the call to pay attention. 

There is, however, a flip side to being in the present as well. The things that Jesus says we will experience are frightening. Wars. Rumors of more wars. Earthquakes. Famines. It is sometimes hard to find hope in the midst of so much pain. But Jesus points out that pain is not to be seen in a fatalistic manner - instead it is like a birth pain. The pain that comes before something new emerges. 

Jesus goes on to tell them a story about keeping watch. That they (and we) are keep alert like we are waiting for the owner of the home to return. We don’t know when. So we stay alert. We are watchful.

For some of the earliest disciples, they were so convinced that Jesus was coming tomorrow, that they forgot the mission. They quit their jobs. Sold their homes. And just waited. And waited. And waited.

Friends, as we are watchful, it is not an excuse to give up what God has appointed us to do. We are certainly waiting for the owner of the house to return, but until then we are stewards of that which is entrusted to us. And that’s a pretty weighty thing that we are in the care of - Christ’s work in the world. 

When we give up on the mission, we are giving up on souls. It is like we are saying that people don’t matter and we are more interested in Jesus’s return than people coming to know him. I have told people many times, that it is our job to keep sharing the Gospel until Jesus returns, because I don’t know about you, but for me, there are people I know who if Jesus came right here and now today, don’t know him. And that breaks my heart. And I hope it breaks all of our hearts as the Church of Jesus Christ and gives us fuel for the mission before us. 

We are not passively waiting for Jesus to return, friends. We are actively waiting. We are to stay focused on the mission at hand and the truth that is before us. 

At the end of the day, the disciples didn’t get the answer they were hoping for. In fact, Jesus tells them that even he does not know the day and time. But he calls them to something greater with his answer. He calls them to faith and vigilance, even in a present and a future that will have suffering. He is telling them of the hope of the Kingdom of God, even if they do not fully understand or recognize it. He tells them of a freedom from that which binds their hearts and lives that will be broken at the end of the age. 

These were meant to be words of encouragement, but also challenge. Words that propelled them, even in the absence of Jesus, to be the people of God. 

I think there is always a fascination with knowing what will happen tomorrow. But the truth is, none of us know what tomorrow holds. Recently someone in this parish told me “things can change so quickly.” And that is true for any of us. The question is what are we going to do with the gift of today? Let us not be so caught up in what is to come that we forsake the mission and call in the present. Let us be emboldened to share the mission of God, here and now. Amen.