Easter 2009 (B)

I’m sure you have all seen movies where you don’t like or aren’t comfortable with the ending. Things are unresolved, uncertain, and you are left wondering what happened, or what happens next. We want things all wrapped up with a bow, all neat and tidy. All happily ever after. We want closure and justice and resolution. And so, we probably are much more comfortable with Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts of Easter morning.

But today we have the Gospel according to St. Mark, and the last 8 verses of the gospel. This is where it ends, with women coming out and fleeing from Jesus’ tomb, filled with terror and amazement. Women who said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. An even more accurate translation of the Greek is even worse: “The women went out from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; they said nothing to anyone, they were afraid for . . .”

Afraid for what? Even in Greek, you can’t just end a sentence with a preposition, as we learned in basic grammar, and our English translations resolve this by saying, “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

According to scholars, this is most likely the true original ending of Mark’s gospel, though in most of our bible translations one of two alternate longer endings is included. But this is indeed where the earliest manuscripts end. Like a song ending with an unresolved chord. “They were afraid for . . .”

There’s a story of a student

who had memorized the whole of Mark in order to do a dramatic, Broadway-style reading before a live audience. After careful study, the student had decided to go with the scholarly consensus regarding the ending. At his first performance, however, after he spoke that ambiguous last verse, he stood there awkwardly, shifting from one foot to the other, the audience waiting for more, waiting for closure, waiting for a proper ending. Finally, after several anxious seconds, he said, "Amen!" and made his exit. The relieved audience applauded loudly and appreciatively. Upon reflection, though, the student realized that by providing the audience a satisfying conclusion, his "Amen!" had actually betrayed the dramatic intention of the text. So at the next performance, when he reached the final verse he simply paused for a half beat and left the stage in silence. "The discomfort and uncertainty within the audience were obvious," said [his teacher] "and as people exited the buzz of conversation was dominated by the experience of the nonending."
(http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3392)

So what are we to make of this, this non-ending? Perhaps the key is the first verse in Mark’s Gospel. “The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” With Jesus, the good news began, the kingdom of God is at hand, and it hasn’t ended. It continues today with us, with Easter People, living this side of the resurrection. Like Paul Harvey might say, we are “the rest of the story.” And the promise that the resurrection brings won’t be resolved, won’t be complete, until Jesus returns to reign and to judge, and heaven and earth are reunited and recreated, and we too are resurrected. That’s the promise of Easter. That’s the hope of the resurrection.

But the promise of Easter is for today, too. Especially for today—Alleluia, He is Risen!! Through his death, Jesus conquered sin and death so that through our baptisms we too have the power to overcome sin, and ultimately death. Jesus cleared the way for intimacy with God so that we can also call God our Abba, our Father. The resurrection of Jesus is the down payment for our future bodily resurrections.

In fact, the Resurrection of Jesus is the highest point of our whole year as Christians. Our culture has it wrong. It’s not about Christmas, it’s about Easter. Jesus conquered death and the grave. New creation has begun. Something totally new, totally unexpected happened. While we have read that Jesus raised Lazarus and others from the dead, we know that eventually they died. But when Jesus was resurrected from the dead by God the Father, he spent time on earth with his disciples in a new and different kind of body before ascending into heaven, where he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, and he will come again to reign and rule the New Earth, the re-created earth, populated with our resurrected bodies.

We have come through 40 days of Lent, preparing our hearts and minds for Easter. Preparing for this day. Like the women coming to the tomb early that morning to anoint and prepare Jesus’ body. What normally would be done for a dead body was put on hold for the Sabbath, but as soon as the Sabbath was ended, the women set about with the proper kinds of preparations for Jesus’ dead body. With great sadness and yet firm resolve they headed for the tomb where they had seen Joseph of Arimathea put Jesus’ body after he was killed on that horrible day. As they approach the tomb, they wondered about ordinary and reasonable things, like would they be able to move the stone away from the entrance. But when they got there, it was already moved back—a nice surprise. So they entered the tomb, expecting to find Jesus’ body so they could perform their labor of love.

But when they went in, they saw a young man, and they were understandably alarmed. Someone, a stranger, was there, when the Lord should have been there. The stranger told them not to be afraid, and he knew they were looking for Jesus—how could he have known that? He explains: He is not here, he has risen. Look, this is where he was, and he’s not here. Go and tell his disciples, tell Peter, that he will meet you in Galilee as he had promised. And the women fled from the tomb in fear and they said nothing because were afraid for . . .

But of course, they must have told someone. And they went to Galilee and met Jesus who had gone on before. Jesus who has gone on before us, too, leading the way.

We have come through the long season of Lent, but let us make sure and remember that Easter too is a season. This is the Feast of the Resurrection, Easter Day, but Easter lasts until Pentecost. There are 12 days of Christmas, but 50 days of Easter. Fifty days!! NT Wright says that Easter is so marvelous, so special, so unexpectedly wonderful, that we need to spend at least as much energy celebrating Christ’s resurrection as we did preparing for it through Lent. We need to spend as much on Easter as we do on Christmas. We truly should celebrate with wild delight and amazing joy! Be extravagant and exuberant in our worship. Be Fools for Christ. Wright suggests champagne for breakfast, planting spectacular blooming, fragrant flowers in our yards and in our hearts. Looking for opportunities to go and grow and bear the most wonderful delicious fruit—through the whole Easter season.

Easter is what it’s all about. Jesus is not in the tomb. He is risen. And we are the rest of the story. What are we doing as Easter people? How are we sharing the joy and the hope of the resurrection?

We are Easter people when we give of our money to help those less fortunate: through food basket projects, or through Superbowl of Caring, or through helping various shelters and food pantries in our communities. We are Easter people when we work for justice in our towns and counties. We are Easter people when we do our work in a way that glorifies God, that is noticeably different to those who work with us. We are Easter people when we help those around us, especially those less fortunate: the poor and the oppressed, the hungry and the widows and the orphans, those in prison either emotionally or in reality. We are Easter people when we work at marriage and other relationships even though it would be easier not to. We are Easter people when we put aside our own rights, our own needs, and we serve and follow Jesus to Galilee, to West Frankfort (Marion) Illinois, to the ends of the earth.

In our lives, though, things are still unresolved, uncertain, and we are left wondering what happens next. The ending is not yet clear, the music ends on a discord, our lives are messy and relationships unresolved. Things aren’t all neat and tidy. They aren’t all happily ever after. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We don’t know all of the details of the rest of the story. But we do know that today is the Feast of the Resurrection, that Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. We know that “We are God's children now; [and] what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). The Lenten fast is over—Let the Feast begin!! Alleluia!!

(St. Mark’s and St. James’)