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Sermon - April 12th, 2009
The Story Goes On
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Mark 16:1-8
It takes place on the day after the Sabbath, a sad, sad day for all who loved Jesus. Three women, two Mary’s and Salome go to anoint the body of Jesus with spices. It was their job in that day; women prepared the bodies for burial. On the way, they were asking each other, “How in the world are we going to get inside the tomb? Who will move that huge, heavy stone from the opening?” However, when they arrived, they found that the stone had already been rolled away. It put the women on edge, not that they weren’t already. Was someone there before them?
They entered the tomb with trepidation. They waited for their eyes to adjust to the darkness of the cave. Then they saw him—a young man dressed in white, and “….they were alarmed.”
We who are listening to the story are supposed to know that the young man in white was an angel. He was sent by God with a message—to tell what God had done. The angel gave the message, “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, the one who was crucified. But he isn’t here; he has been raised.” The man in white, the angel, pointed to the place, now empty, where he had been laid to rest. Then he told the women to go and inform the disciples and Peter that Jesus was going ahead of them to Galilee. He would meet them there, back out in the world where people were still hungry to hear about God’s saving love, back out there where people needed a loving touch, a gracious advocate, an encouraging word. That’s where he will be and they could meet him there—in Galilee.
The angel singled out Peter. Did you notice that? Go tell the disciples and Peter. Peter, the disciple with more brawn than brains, mister tough guy who talked a great line but was a bit slow on delivery. Remember how he promised Jesus that he would stand by him no matter what, even if he himself should have to die? But when push came to shove, Peter denied Jesus, denied that he even knew him, not once but three times. Now, the angel was saying to the women, “Go tell the disciples and Peter that he will meet them in Galilee.”
This message is so important because the disciples had all ran at the first sign of danger. They had left Jesus to face his death alone. Yet, the angel gave a message to the disciples through the women, and a special word to Peter, the man of broken promises, the word, “Come be with me again in Galilee.” As if to say, all is forgiven.
Galilee was where it all started, where Jesus began his work. The Resurrection doesn’t mean that the work of Jesus is over; it means he is still at work. So Jesus invited the disciples to join him there, to start over again, and maybe this time they will get it right. You see, God take our failures, our shabby compromises, our betrayals, our broken promises, our compromised lives, and hands them back to us as opportunities for new life. There is no mess we can make of our lives, no sin so grievous, that God doesn’t offer us another chance. This is the message of the angel to us today. “Come home. All is forgiven. I’ll meet you in Galilee.” That’s the promise the angel gave the women that very first Easter morning.
But that is not were Mark ends his story. It would have made a good ending, but he doesn’t stop. Some people have trouble wrapping things up. In fact, I’ve heard about preachers who take forever to wrap up their sermons. Especially when they have a full house!!!
Mark goes beyond this good ending and says that the women fled from the tomb, running in terror. Mark says: “And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” And that’s it. That’s Mark’s resurrection story.
There is no Great Commission like Matthew gave: “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations….” There is no road to Emmaus like Luke where Jesus was made know to them in the breaking of the bread. There is no breakfast of fish on the beach, like the Gospel of John, with the risen Christ. Mark has only a promise that they would see him in Galilee, followed by fear, then silence. The End. The credits roll, the music swells, people get up and leave, with a feeling of dissatisfaction, incompleteness. We are left hanging!
CLEARLY SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS ENDING!
If you read the Gospel of Matthew’s resurrection story it is much more glorious and triumphant. There’s a happy ending. The risen Christ met with the disciples on a mountain with specific instructions. No ambiguity there.
And Luke must have realized how inadequate Mark’s ending was—he rewrote the entire episode, adding a second man in “dazzling clothes,” and then he pulled a pair of stories from his file of resurrection appearances and added those. Jesus met a couple of disciples on the road to Emmaus, he interpreted the scriptures and broke bread. Now that’s the way to tell about the resurrection. A nice story with a happy ending.
Those of you who opened a pew Bible and followed along today’s reading, will notice that verse 8 is not the last verse in Mark. That’s because the early church could not leave Mark’s ending the way it was. They knew that the story couldn’t stop so abruptly. Faithful Christians insisted that there was more. So, by the second century someone added “the longer ending” to Mark’s Gospel. Tradition has accepted this longer ending, even though it has inspired some rather dangerous behavior. The longer ending says that certain signs will accompany all believers: the casting out of demons, speaking in new tongues, picking up snakes and drinking deadly things without being harmed. Not something I want you to try at home, please! We do know how things can take a very bizarre turn—especially in the name of religion.
But, back to the original ending. Surely, the original writer of Mark was tempted to end the story with an elegant, soaring vision. Most scholars agree that Mark’s audience was a group of people who were suffering persecution. Wouldn’t these people come to listen to Mark’s good news hoping for the blessed relief and consolation of a happy ending?
I love happy endings. They are so comforting, so soothing.
I have heard that during hard times, like we are having now, romance book sales are soaring, movies are selling well. I love romantic comedies with happy endings! I love neat and tidy endings. They warm my heart. I am left feeling filled, satisfied and reassured about the order of things in the universe. The world is a reliable place after all: dramas begin, conflicts arise, but all is resolved in the final scene. Isn’t that why we are all here today? To hear the happy ending to the story of Jesus? What was Mark thinking?
He began his gospel with these reassuring words: “The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” But, good grief, what kind of good news ends with such devastating ambiguity: Promises uttered from the shadows of an empty tomb, women rushing off afraid, too afraid to say anything?
YET, perhaps there was incredible wisdom in the jagged edges of Mark’s final verses. Mark refused to tie up the loose ends of his gospel into a tidy bow of temporary relief. The final verses are open-ended and ambiguous: a promise greeted by fear, a pledge that the women will see him even though they are drowning with sorrow and caught in uncertainty. “YOU WILL SEE HIM.” What Mark lacks in a romantic happy ending, he makes up in sheer realism. Isn’t this the world we live in? Our world is not a fairy tale world, full of enchantment and happily-ever-afters. We live in a world where we hold on tightly to the promise and fearfully tread our way through a tangle of doubts AND amazement.
WELCOME TO EASTER! The day has dawned upon us with promise and apprehension. Joy and fear. Belief and disbelief. And we can give up and go away exasperated, OR we can stick with Matthew, Luke, and John’s story, OR we can search for a deeper significance. Mark’s ending, or rather its lack of an ending, leaves us hungry and haunted. So, we go back into his story and look for clues, answers, something. What was it Jesus said back in the 14th chapter? “After I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Mark wants us to ponder possible meanings. Mark wants us to continue exploring and asking questions. Why? Because this story cannot end with the empty tomb. It cannot even end with the resurrection. THE STORY GOES ON. Mark hinted at this in his very first verse. “The beginning of the good news of Jesus…” The story goes on. Jesus’ story goes on, and so does ours. We proceed with the promise and the uncertainty.
We LIVE by faith. We balance the promise of the young man in the dazzling white robe with the women’s fear and astonishment. We see ending after ending only to discover that every ending that WE fashion usually disappoints us. Every finale falls short. An ending says too much, too confidently, and therefore it never says enough. It may satisfy us for a moment, but we know there is more to come. And isn’t that the message Mark leaves for us. The message that there is more to come. “He is not here,” not in the tomb, not at the end of the story. “He is going on ahead of you,” always ahead of us, and “you will see him,” in Galilee and in places we would never expect.
The promise is he is going ahead of us. The terrifying part is that there is no end of the story. It goes on and on, generation after generation, Easter after Easter. It goes on until this moment, and this one, and the next one.
What Mark is telling us is that the story is no longer about Jesus, it is about this community that we call church, it is about us, it is about you, it is about me. We have become the story.
Amen.