April 5, 2015 – Easter Sunday: May God’s words alone be spoken, may God’s words alone be heard. Amen.
“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.”
Folks, that is no way to run a resurrection!
The Gospel of Mark is famous for a lot of things – the Messianic Secret (Shhh! Don’t tell anybody who I am), disciples who can’t get out of their own way, but demons who understand all to well who Jesus is, and then it ends with this really strange ending, which if transliterated from the Greek reads: “To no one anything they said; afraid they were for…” It is almost as if the author of Mark had suddenly run off to get a cup of coffee at Starbucks, got into a discussion on race with his local barista, and forgot to finish the story when he got back to his desk.
Most of us, I think, don’t like untidy endings… we want things to be wrapped up appropriately – and with a good end too. Cliff hangers are fine, but preferably not with a full year before we get to another scene – and yes, Julianne Fellows, of “Downton Abbey” – I am talking about you.
So this ending of Mark is a bit strange, isn’t it. What we hear today is what scholars have determined to be the actual ending. The other verses that follow were added on later by others. They are called the “Shorter Ending of Mark” (really, you mean that last ending isn’t short?) and, with all their academic creativity the scholars call the rest the “Longer Ending of Mark.” Genius. And there are reasons – obvious ones – why editors would want to tidy up the script a bit, because this really is no way to run a resurrection – if they told no one…how does this author know about it? Or any of us?
If they told no one – what would stores do with all those peeps and chocolate bunnies?
But short or long ending, the important part is earlier anyway. The young man dressed in white that these women encounter in the tomb tells 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.”
Now, I have to wonder about that bit about Peter… was it “Go tell his disciples….and Peter,” like in Peter, maybe the chief of these scattered minions? Or, if we remember Peter as the one who denied him (and frequently seemed to trip up left and right as a disciple)… “Go tell the disciples and oh by the way, I want to see Peter.” You have to wonder how this was originally voiced, right? But whichever way the gospel was originally told in its oral form, the most important part is “he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.”
Now, THERE is a twist to the story.
I have to tell you, I don’t usually watch thrillers – too much tension for my taste – but I did like the movie that came out several years ago called “The Sixth Sense.” The movie is about a young boy who sees dead people. The dead seem to come to him all the time seeking help. I am sure most of you have seen this movie, and if you haven’t, I highly recommend it. But what I want to tell you is that I watched it on DVD when I first saw it, and then after nearly falling on the floor from the surprise ending, I watched the included interview with the director who then laid out all the clues to what was coming that were interwoven through the entire film. So of course, I had to watch it again, and then the clues became so apparent, I kept thinking – how did I possibly miss all of that?
I think of this film when I hear the words of Jesus to meet him in Galilee. This is the disciples rewind to Scene 1 after getting a director’s cut interview with an angel. This is where the ministry began with Jesus, and now they will walk with him again, but with new eyes – new eyes of resurrection. And we will as well, as we walk with Christ and the disciples in the weeks ahead.
I think this is where the story becomes so rich for all those who continue the journey after this Sunday. If we only hear about the birth and the death, the life and what it means is lost. It would be like seeing only the beginning and ending of a film – you might get the gist of what went on, but it likely won’t make much sense at all. And like that original ending of Mark, that is no way to run a resurrection.
Resurrection isn’t just about what happened to Jesus, but what happened to the disciples in Galilee, and what is happening to us now. I heard a pastor friend say once about Easter Sunday “Sometime today, my phone will ring–as it does every Easter. A voice on the other end will say, “Jesus is on the loose,” and then I will hear the click of the connection ending. I know who it is. I know the voice. It is my roommate from seminary sharing his unique Easter greeting with me.”
“Jesus is on the loose” AND he is heading to Galilee.
But why?
Not for nuthin’, but given what Jesus had just been through, Galilee, that backwater, no frills, little town by the sea seems an odd place to go. Sure, it is home to him, but seriously – I mean the guy is raised from the dead after being mocked, beaten and killed in the most gruesome of ways. Don’t some of you wish he would have wandered right over to the big ole temple in Jerusalem and said “Hey boys, look who’s back!” You know….sort of like “Heeeerrreee’s Jesus” Or maybe over to Pilate’s court, tapping the guy on the shoulder and say…”Oh Pilate, about that “What is truth?” question you were asking – you’re lookin’ at it!” You know if this were Hollywood that is definitely likely to have been a couple of possible endings. The marketing guys would have been all over that.
But, this is not Hollywood, thankfully, and Jesus is on the loose and heading to Galilee in this story…and Jesus is always leading us to meet him in Galilee – still, today.
No, not Galilee the place in the Middle East, but the Galilees that are here now, near us – the places we turn away from. Places where we see dead people – people who are dead to society, dead in their hearts, dead in their souls. Jesus’ ministry from his baptism to his death and still today was and is to those others don’t see, other’s maybe we don’t see – the marginalized, the outcast, the stranger, the poor, the abused, the neglected, and the lost. He invites us to begin the journey with him again in the Galilees of our own lives, walking with new eyes to see the signs we missed – signs that were always there for us, but we just couldn’t see them before – people who were always right in front of us, but we just didn’t or wouldn’t see them before.
Jesus is on the loose to be sure. And you can catch sight of him in the Galileans of today – in the immigrant trying to live with dignity, the poor young single mother seeking food for her child, the gay couple seeking to marry, the unarmed black man being shot, the police officer being spit on, the homeless man on the subway platform, the victims of violence all around the world.
St. Paul said in our reading from Romans “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
We begin our journey to Galilee in our baptism, where we are born into the body of Christ, and today, little Luke Shoola will join us in that life. But our vows, which we all renew today, are clear about what it means to be the body of Christ. We promise to “…continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.” Why? Because that is how we come to really understand who we are, and it is how we are sustained in the world, nourished here in this place to continue to do what Jesus calls us to Galilee to do, which we affirm in the other part of our vows when we say that we will “…seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourself, and that we will strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.”
That is what the resurrection is for us – a re-start. A chance to get it right, just as it was for the disciples, a new beginning. An opportunity to open our hearts to what has been there all along – the love of God for each and every one of us. And it is an invitation to open our eyes to the Jesus in our midst – to see Jesus in the other, the ones others don’t want to see.
Jesus’ resurrection invites us into a journey where we have an opportunity – really an imperative – to spread the light that is God’s love to all those who live in fear, in darkness, in despair. Ours is not a faith meant for sitting around, but for rising up. You are gonna need some good walking shoes and a sense of adventure if you plan on having this faith journey be something more than some obligatory thing on Sundays – if you plan on it meaning something deep inside of you – if you plan on being an agent of transformation in the world – being alive and spreading life.
Jesus is on the loose, and he is calling us to meet him in Galilee.
Where will the story end for you? In fear saying and doing nothing, or stepping boldly out to meet him? The choice is yours to make, and this dark and hungry world is hoping you will make the right one.
Happy Easter Everyone.
[Sermons as written may not be as delivered on any given Sunday]Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
April 5, 2015
Easter Sunday
1st Reading – Acts 10:34-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
2nd Reading – Romans 6:3-11
Gospel – Mark 16:1-8
