Sermon
Happy Easter everyone!
How is everyone feeling? Kind of excited? I feel a Like a baby chick breaking out of the egg shell and having more room to spread out! Extra daylight each day reminding us that spring time is a time for expansion. The smell of spring makes you want to smell the beauty, inhaling deeper, the smell of cut grass, the smell of a flower – unless you're allergic, then your nose reminds you of spring in different ways. Beauty breaks out of each bud that comes to life and we see the newness all around us. The warmth of longer days lingers on our arms as we enjoy the soft touch of the sun. And the birds, let's not leave our ears out of the celebration! The songs that we hear in nature right now are exciting. All of our senses remind us that things are about to change. Things will be brighter, more colorful, more alive. There's almost a manic nature to the joy that can come bursting out of our hearts in appreciation for all of God's gifts in nature. Easter and spring time go hand in hand. Nature comes out of its shell, buds break free from the dead seeds they once were, and hope dares to show its elusive head.
I wonder just what kinds of conversations you've been having with people these days? Maybe they've been like mine.
Have you been vaccinated? Are you planning on getting vaccinated? How did you get your appointment? Have you scheduled your second appointment yet? What activities am I allowed to do these days? What activities am I comfortable doing these days? I hope there isn't an uptick in COVID cases. What about these COVID variants? How long do I need to keep wearing a mask?
That's not very Easter-y.
Or what kinds of things are on your minds? Maybe you have conflicting feelings:
Kids should be back to school as soon as possible vs schools can't keep my kids as safe as I can at home. My kids aren't learning anything with on-line school vs these teachers are rock stars! Thank goodness for the government restrictions on gatherings vs my business has closed and I don't have a job. I am so thankful for these vaccines vs how are those outside the system going to get help?
If you're not really feeling all Easter-y, that's ok. People have been likening this year to one entire year inside the tomb. Sometimes all we can think about is the pandemic, and sometimes all of our thoughts seem to conflict.
The conflicting pulls on our hearts have been happening for years. People we love who think differently politically. People we trust who do things we don't understand. Having personal conflicts is nothing new. It just seems like everything about this year and this pandemic has been bad and everything about Easter is supposed to be good, and that juxtaposition just makes me frustrated.
The text from Mark reminds us that not everything about Easter was good – at first. When we look for stories for Easter from the gospels, the text for today is one of them. Notice, Jesus isn't even in the scene. The gospel of Mark actually has three endings. Earliest scholars think the gospel ends here. 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. There are two other choices for endings to Mark. The shorter ending and the longer ending. The two endings lengthen the gospel of Mark to include what Jesus did next, some of which we probably expected to hear today. Each of the two alternatives includes the men then coming to the tomb, a post-resurrection experience, or Jesus telling the disciples to go out into the world, or include an ascension story.
Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome were women who had been around Jesus and the others. They heard everything he promised and saw the amazing things Jesus did. The women had not expected Jesus to die before the glory he promised happened. And none of Jesus' followers expected the humiliation and cruelty that came.
After the disciples were all gone, the crowds had all gone home, James of Arimathea came and placed the body in a tomb to await the proper time for preparing the body for burial, when the Sabbath was over. The three women bought spices so they could prepare the body for a proper burial. They came as soon as they were able, when the Sabbath was over at sunrise, to do the work that would involve the stench of death and the physical and biological reality of human death. They had probably done this before for others, but this time would feel different. With the loss of Jesus, so much was lost. They would be approaching with heavy hearts. They were even thinking in practical terms, wondering who would roll away the stone for them when they got there.
The women were just as we are – fresh from Good Friday, a time of unnatural darkness, and then what some call waiting Saturday. Holy Saturday is a time when the Easter Vigil is kept marking each hour of confusion, death, anger, horror, sadness, grief, denial that all who followed Jesus were experiencing. The disciples were gone, the soldiers were gone, Peter was gone, the desolation was complete. Today's text meets us in the right place.
Put yourself right here. Close your eyes if you're comfortable. Are you there? How long can you stay there before your mind helps you flee from that spot?
I can't stay there for long, and I kind of resent being asked to – especially on Easter!
My heart feels the sorrow, but only until my mind quickly takes over and fills in the story for me. I know that which the angel tells the women. He is not here. He has been raised. My mind tells me that Jesus went to Galilee, appeared to the disciples, and was raised, and for 2100 years this is the truth that has surrounded this news. My mind fills in the gap when the reality is confusing. My mind gives me the good news that the women in this story didn't have. Using this portion of the gospel of Mark that does not have the longer or the shorter ending, allows us to land right at the moment of resurrection, just like the women. Not looking back, like we do. This is how it feels, to not know what is next.
It's important to feel the loss and confusion because the good news of the Resurrection is complicated. It's important to understand the women's feelings in order to grasp what came next for them, and how our resurrection moments usually begin.
Before Jesus' betrayal and humiliating death, the women and the other disciples wanted and hoped and believed that Jesus was the one to save us. What happened next was that in the midst of their confused feelings, the angel was actually telling them that Jesus has indeed been resurrected and has gone on ahead. The angel is saying that everything Jesus had promised is actually happening, right in that moment. The angel said, “Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” Jesus will indeed be the one to save you. Just not the way you thought.
All of our resurrection moments look like that. We hope, we are disappointed, but Jesus has gone ahead of us and we find a new way.
If you've ever been really sick or lived on the dark side of life for a long time you might get to a kind of mind set that becomes familiar even if it is terrible. When freedom comes, the stone rolls away, the feeling of terror is not that uncommon. Change, even towards freedom brings anxiety. Some even reject freedom in favor of the comfortable. You've heard the phrase “The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know.” Or “out of the frying pan into the fire.” People with mental illnesses, chronic severe conditions, abusive relationships, chronic and generational poverty, and other trapped circumstances don't always have a way out. Often, even with a way out, there is so much fear of what's next. It may look like freedom but it's a trap of another kind, so says the brain. “I'm safer here where he hits me, than out there where I don't know when he might kill me.” “I'm safer here where I know the rules of the street, than out there with social rules I don't understand.” Or alcoholics who get sober only to find themselves out of place in their new skin.
Except for the level of the darkness, changing even for the better does not come without considerations. We have lived through some examples of this. Think of the reticence to take public transportation after 9/11, or fly in an airplane after a major crash, or the fear of large spaces after a mass shooting. Right now we are experiencing a kind of re-entry anxiety. We are facing the question of how to re-enter our lives after a pandemic. We might expect something like this after a long time away from normal. Kind of like an entrance ramp to a freeway, we have to get up to speed before we enter the traffic. Except this time, we are on the entrance ramp and it turns out we're jumping onto a roller coaster instead of a freeway. There is no direction, there is no normal, the speed is kind of crazy.
Easter of 2021 is a perfect time to remember that because we know that Christ came and lived and died and rose from the dead, we know that whatever is next, Jesus went ahead of us. Christ is the one to save us, even if it is not the way we expect it.
Let us pray….