Easter, Yr. B March 31, 2024
Intro: The Legend of the Touchstone.
“When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome (Sa-loh’-me) brought spices, so that they might anoint Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.” (Mk. v. 1-2)
These two markers of time (when the Sabbath was over and very early on the first day of the week) show that these women were taking the proper steps in the common ritual of “Shiva”, which was anointing and then sitting with the body of Jesus.
On their way to the tomb they were asking how they were going to deal with the heavy stone at the entrance.
Then the gospel writer Mark tells us something important – they “looked up” which signifies that a divine revelation was about to occur. This revelation was about more than the removal of a large stone at the entrance of the tomb.
With the stone removed from the entrance their next
expectation would be to sit with the body of Jesus.
However that soon turned into a combination of bewilderment, amazement, alarm, and surprise!
The one task they initially set out to do had changed.
What were they going to do?
Well – there was one thing they could do.
They were to go and tell the disciples, and Peter, that their Lord had been raised and was going ahead of them to Galilee. The good news was alive!
God was counting on Peter, who would have been counted out by everyone else. God was the only one who knew Peter and how the resurrection of Jesus would soon transform him.
Therefore the angel says to Mary to go tell the disciples but names Peter in particular. Peter, having denied Christ, might have discounted his role as a disciple so God makes sure he is called by name.
Now Peter – the one who denied Jesus three times– was being invited back into God’s story of grace.
And it is Mark’s gospel, perhaps more than any other gospel that brings the disciples’ humanity, and ours, to meet the risen Christ.
Mark’s readers in the early church like those first disciples were experiencing persecution and bewilderment.
Similarly, there are times when all seems lost to us today. A significant change in the diagnosis we receive about our health, or that of a loved one, a recent job loss, or the end of a meaningful relationship all bring very real types of grief, which can stand before us, and sometimes seemingly between us and our Lord – like a giant stone.
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and
Salome (Sa- loh’- me) were looking for answers to: Who will roll away the stone? And Where is our Lord?
But God does not always answer the questions we ask.
God answers the question that God wanted us to ask.
God’s answers are love based and have to do with the revelation of the good news. The good news is for the lost to believe that God leads the wayward sinner – home.
The women that day, the disciples and Peter, and all of us who believe, are then given a new mission. Mary Magdalene is named in all four gospel accounts as the first or among the first that Jesus appears to. In Mk’s gospel an angel is the messenger and gives Mary the task of delivering the news to the disciples. If a working definition of an apostle is “bearer of the good news” then Mary and the other women – are “the apostles – to the apostles!”
Let us be reminded that the power of resurrection was not up to the first disciples. Nor is it up to us. Reconciliation through what Jesus did on the cross – never was or will be within our power.
However we have power in choosing how we will participate in God’s redemptive acts while we are here.
Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard said, “Life can be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”
How does the resurrection instruct our lives?
How does being identified as an Easter people influence our decisions – with our family, our congregation, our workplaces, schools, and interactions with strangers?
Being people of the Resurrection is the everyday business of our lives. Because the unplanned surprises and the empty tombs of loss and longing can be God’s dwelling places too!
In the places that seemed at first glance void of God –
These places can end up serving as a meeting place for us with the divine message – of hope.
The greatest task for us, like Mary is not about moving stones, for God still moves stones. Our task and our mission is in choosing what to do with a risen Lord.
Orienting one’s life to make room for the resurrection is bewildering as much as it is amazing.
Therefore we have to take a little time to discern – meeting God in the empty places too. If God can meet the three women in the tomb that first Easter, God can meet us wherever we are as well.
Let’s consider the three things God’s messenger asks them to do:
- To not be alarmed or surprised – God shows up in the empty places with hope. Yes, the death was real, but so is the life beyond it.
- To look – In looking for Jesus we need not look at where Jesus was in the past (where they laid him), but where Jesus is now.
- To go and tell – In sharing the power of the resurrection with others we find our greatest mission.
God’s promises point our faith community towards mission. God has another part of the mission story to tell to us and through us this Easter morning.
When we think the stone is too big – we don’t settle on resignation looking down – we look up! – to see what God has done because of the resurrection of Christ. We may feel fear and surprise time to time, but what ultimately determines our course of action is what God’s messenger offers every disciple, from the lowly to the mighty, to all who have denied Christ, to the communion of saints before, and to all now – to live with hope.
For what they expected – was death in the tomb. However what they found upon entering – was that Christ had risen. Because you see – through it all – God was waiting for them – to let them know there was another part of the grand story to tell.
God still opens passageways, because God is faithful and God still rolls away stones. God can meet us anywhere; even the empty spaces in our lives, because God is everywhere.
Go and tell the good news – after all by some means, the Good News did come – to us. It is the responsibility of each one of us to broadcast it to the next person and then to the next… until the faith is handed down generation to generation.
A wonderful example of how the waters of faith can cascade from one generation to the next is right in the room with us.
Check this out – the same baptismal gown that Noah Michael Campbell is wearing today was first gifted in 1948 to his grandmother Marie for her baptism. Then her brother Michael for his baptism and then their sister Diane wore it for her baptism. Then on down to the next generation with Lyndi’s baptism, then Ryan’s, then over to their cousin Julia’s baptism, on to Caroline’s baptism, and then to her brother E.B.’s baptism.
That’s 3 generations, and with Noah’s baptism today, that adds up to 9 baptisms since Marie’s baptism Christmas Day 1948!
What was happening in 1948? ’58? ’68?…you get the picture. So many changes and history. And through it all, with every baptism, the vows of hope in God – are spoken and renewed.
So – Go and tell! Hand down the good news as much as possible because the Risen Christ is that rare touchstone we are holding right now. Warming our hearts whenever we allow ourselves to be touched by it.
As we share that warmth of God’s love and mercy for all then we share something eternal – and much more precious – than gold.
The Lord is risen indeed! – Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.