Morning Prayer: Shannon Cook Choral Amen Hymn of Resurrection *Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain* Witness of Scripture: Mark 16: 1-8 Anthem *'Hallelujah' from 'Mount of Olives'* Beethoven. Chancel Choir Sermon *What News!* David Spain
Recorded April 3, 2024
When it comes to holiday greetings, Merry Christmas sounds about right. There is a fullness to that greeting evoking any number of emotions and memories. Joyous Noel is less popular but has some depth to it. Other holiday greetings like Happy New Year, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy 4th of July seem sufficient for the celebration.The one holiday salutation that doesn’t seem quite adequate is ‘Happy Easter.’ Nothing wrong with it; but somehow it feels like Easter needs a different adjective than the ones used for Thanksgiving or New Year or 4th of July. Happy Easter feels a little understated, a bit modest for the occasion. We could try some other possibilities—‘Merry Easter,’ well that’s just confusing; ‘Joyous Easter’ is not bad but still sounds odd. Other words might work better—Wondrous Easter, Magnificent Easter, Glorious Easter, Hopeful Easter seem more appropriate but don’t feel like greetings.Even the church’s best liturgical words—“Christ is risen; Christ is risen, indeed” still come a little short for the day. It is difficult to know exactly how to talk about Easter. A few years ago, early on Easter morning as I was leaving for church, our next-door neighbor and I greeted each other. He practices a different religion, and confirming that it was Easter said, “Now that is Jesus’ resurrection, right?” “Yes, that’s right.” There was no follow up question, and frankly I wasn’t 100% sure what to say if he had asked another question.
Not knowing exactly how to talk about Easter puts us in the good company of Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome who went to the tomb that morning before they knew it was Easter. Theirs was a sad mission, carrying spices to the tomb to honor and care for the One who had honored and cared for them during his life. Other than wondering how they could move the stone aside to get into the tomb where Jesus had been hastily placed before the sun had gone down late Friday, they did not have much to say according to Mark’s gospel who is our companion this Easter morning. As difficult as it must have been to get past the horrific images from Friday afternoon, their minds did drift back to better days—to Jesus’ kindness, to his care for little ones, to his healing those who were hurting, to his welcoming those who had been excluded, to his teachings and especially his parables that made them laugh and wonder all at the same time, to the fact that while both religion and society had erected ‘no trespassing’ signs for people like them, Jesus said ‘come to me all who are weary and heavy-burdened.’When they remembered who he had been with them, it helped ease the pain of Friday a little bit. But they still kept coming back to ‘why’—why would some people want to do away with such goodness?
While they knew they could not answer the why question, they did what they could out of love and respect. It is bringing flowers, it is providing food, it is being present in the worst of times, and they could at least do that for Jesus. But as is so often the case when it comes to death, nothing was as they thought it would be, because while death was prevalent it did not prevail. They assume what we would all assume, that Jesus not being in the tomb was the final indignity, that someone had stolen his body, that it was not enough to do what they did to him on Friday, but now they would not even let him rest in peace. What they could never have anticipated was that it was God who would not let him rest in peace; instead, God made him alive in peace. In the mystery of that moment as the sun was just beginning to rise after the Son had already been raised was that a messenger confirmed what their eyes were beginning to adjust to seeing. Jesus was not there, said the lad in white, for he had already gone ahead of them to Galilee where they would see him. They could leave their spices for there was nothing dead to anoint; instead, they had a new job—go tell the scattered disciples that it is not over, that God is not through, and that if their question is ‘what is up’ the answer is Jesus; and they are to be up with that news also.
Mark’s gospel says when Mary, Mary, and Salome hear the news, their reaction is neither elation nor exuberance. Instead, they are bewildered, fearful, amazed, and silenced. Who can blame them, for the one constant is no longer constant. Who would not tremble? “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” as Hebrews tells us which is to say when it comes to God and Easter, who knows what can happen when love is liberated from all that tries to contain it. Mark’s gospel ends right there, with fear and silence. Yes, our Bibles have 12 additional verses, but it is widely accepted that these 12 verses were added later. The early church thought bringing down the curtain at the point of fear and silence was a bit of an abrupt ending—and it is. Mark has no conversation with Mary in the Garden as does John, no walk to Emmaus as does Luke, no Great Commissioning as does Matthew—all very important stories. Mark says, they were afraid and said nothing to anyone, and the houselights come up.Ironic as this might be, perhaps that is the best ending of all because since Mark doesn’t give us any words to quote, we must give our own voices to resurrection. What do we say, what’s the gospel, what news?
When it comes to Easter, two mistakes are easy to make. We can relegate it to history, something that happened to Jesus 2,000 years ago; or Easter can be relegated to the future, as in new life is what happens after we die (“made like him, like him we rise,” consigning that to heaven only). Of course, by faith we proclaim, sing, celebrate that both are true, but let us not relegate Easter only to ancient history or heavenly future, because Mark’s gospel does not do that. Resurrection happens in this earth, and even in our own bodies—new life, new hope, new love happening on earth as it is in heaven, just like we pray every Sunday.
We might also be tempted to chase another rabbit at Easter—the how of it, as in how did God do that? It is an understandable question, to which the gospels provide no answer. When the old spiritual is sung ‘were you there when he rose up from the tomb?’ the answer is ‘no, none of us was there.’ We don’t know how it happened and no one can explain it, so if you have come today for an explanation of the resurrection, you may leave disappointed. Biblically what we can say is that some of God’s most vital work happens in the mystery of the darkness—in the void and dark of creation; in the isolation and darkness of exile and enslavement; in the poverty and darkness of a manger; in the despair and shadows of a tomb. Okay, fine, but if God had wanted resurrection to be validated, shouldn’t God have sent Jesus to Caiaphas or Pilate or Herod—that way the so called legitimate powers could have stamped their approval. As if that would have worked, because most of the powers who rule with loveless power have no interest in Christ’s kind of loving power reigning in this world. And frankly, do we really think God needs some stamp of approval by civic or even sectarian powers when it comes to resurrecting love—how presumptuous and arrogant is that!? But perhaps most importantly, just as it is with Christmas and incarnation, so it is with Easter and resurrection—God brings, God offers, God gifts—but God never rules by force, only by consent; God never rules by codified legalism; only by the generous willingness of anyone who would be part of what God is doing in the world. The power of the resurrection is not the how of it, but the what of it and the who of it.
Mark says of the resurrection, Jesus is going ahead of you to Galilee, which is to say resurrection happens in the common places where Jesus trods. Jesus did not say on that great getting up morning, “I’ll be in heaven where you can see me,” nor did he say, “I’m giving you a philosophical idea you can discuss to satisfy all your enlightenment questions.”He said, “I’m going ahead of you to Galilee, come follow me there and you will know resurrection.” What does that mean for his disciples all these years later?Well, we likely don’t fully understand resurrection because full understanding is not the prerequisite any more than understanding marriage is a prerequisite before you enter it, teaching before you go into it, doctoring before you practice it, child rearing before you begin it. Easter is not about understanding fully in order to do it; it’s about courageously, wondrously, lovingly participating in it to grow our understanding of it. As it was for Mary, Mary, and Salome so it is for us—resurrection happens thanks be to God, and then we invite and engage it to grow on us and into us. We don’t only sit at a computer and tap out, “Jesus is risen,” says Richard Lisher.“You perform it; the church enacts it.”
That’s right…absolutely that is right. We perform resurrection every time we go to sit with someone who is scared; every time we drive a nail into a rafter to build a home for someone who is homeless; every time we pour a cup of soup into a bowl for someone who is hungry; every time we call for the better angels to prevail instead of greed or hubris; every time we tell the truth rather than spin a lie; every time the student who sits alone or is made fun of at school or on social media is asked to be included not vilified; every time the church makes room for one more at the Table; every time the golden rule spoken becomes the gold standard of behaving; every time we make a community better for everyone and not just for those who already have it good; every time we work for peace with justice and not war for gain; every time we offer humility and mercy that leads to reconciliation and healing. Every time we engage in any courageous, wondrous work, we are going to Galilee where Jesus already is, welcoming us to join him in resurrection.
We are here today because obviously Mary, Mary, and Salome found their voices and said something. All these years later, somebody is still invited to say something, and that somebody may well be you, because the good news is you are exactly the word that can go in front of Easter. You, we are invited to be Easter’s salutation, Easter’s adjective, Easter’s description, Easter’s expression, Easter’s embodiment. So, let it be with our lives and our love that as we proclaim “Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed,” the world and those around us will exclaim, ‘what news!’