Easter Year B

Easter Sunday Year B Mark 16:1-8 April 12, 2009 The Rev. Benton Quest

I said last week that the season of Lent is full of contradictions. People yelling “Hosanna” and then screaming “Crucify Him!” Losing your life so you may find it. Searching for sin so you may life in the light of forgiveness. All kinds of weird stuff. So why should we think that just because we have reached Easter the situation should be any better?

This Sunday we have a gospel reading that most people will probably claim to know. It should be a “no brainer.” It is Easter and the gospel reading should be about the resurrection. And for the most part you would be right. But there is a problem with the story. Let’s look again at the last line of the reading: “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.” Not only is this the last line of the reading for today, it is the last line of Mark’s gospel!

This abrupt ending to the gospel has caused some problems over the years. People have actually written alternate endings to the gospel; endings where the women tell people. But that is NOT how the original gospel ended. The gospel ended with the women having an all too real response to this seemingly impossible experience. The alternate endings are signs of the Church trying to tidy up the loose ends and make the whole thing clean and neat.

But Christianity is not a clean, neat faith. Christianity is a faith that is real and earthy. Jesus was a real person. He lived in the world of his times and experienced the troubles of his times. He was temped and he questioned. He felt the pains and the pleasures that are a part of this life.

Jesus did not associate with the clean, neat people. He was out in the countryside. He was roaming from town to town. He would at times dine with a High Priest, but he would also be found with the prostitutes and the tax collectors. Jesus was earthy. He would probably have been labeled a hippy if the term had been around then.

And Christianity is not a “let’s all be happy kind of faith.” Well, I may have misspoke there. It is a “let’s all be happy kind of faith.” But not just “let’s be happy,” no, “let’s all be truly happy!!!” Christianity teaches us that true happiness does not come from what we have, but from a deep knowledge that we are totally loved, loved beyond our understanding.

Christianity is a faith that is not to be kept in the marble sanctuary of the churches, it is a faith that belongs in our jobs, in our homes, in the skyscrapers, and in the foxholes. Christianity is not a faith for the saints, it is a faith for real people.

I am glad that the gospel ends the way it does. We can see that the women who found the empty tomb were just like you and me. They were not some kind of superhuman. They encountered something they could not describe and were freaked out by it!

But what is so great about this story is that we do know that the message go out. We don’t know how it was spread, but we know that the women did tell someone. We don’t need to have the revisionist come and try to tie up the loose ends, we can just look and know that the story spread. And what is also great is that we can see that Christ rose from the dead, not for those who are superhuman, but for those people who get freaked out and run in fear. Christ rose for the earthy people of the world. Christ rose for those who are not perfect.

Now, there is another odd thing going on in the gospel reading for today. The young man in the tomb, we never are told who he is, tells the women to tell the disciples “AND PETER” that Jesus will see them in Galilee. Wasn’t Peter one of the disciples? Why would he need a special invite? Well, Peter was the one who denied knowing Jesus. And having denied Jesus, Peter was probably feeling quite guilty. But by having the special invitation issued especially to Peter, Peter was being told that he was not excluded from what was happening but was forgiven and included.

All Lent we have been talking about looking at ourselves and our congregation openly and honestly. We have been taking an honest appraisal of our lives and trying to find the stumbling blocks. We have been coming to the realization that even when we fall short, Jesus is there to strengthen and encourage us. And so this continues today! The risen Christ is here for us all! Christ is here for those who are too afraid to speak his name in public! Christ is here for those who have denied Christ by their words or their lives! Christ is here! Not in some clean, sanitized way with all the loose ends tied, but in our real world with our real situations with all of their real tangles.

I remember Easter sermons that I have heard that have almost put me to sleep. It bothered me. Easter is THE reason we are Christians! Our God knows what it is like to be human. Our God knows the trials and the pain we go trough. Our God knows the doubts and troubles we have. Our God knows us better than we know ourselves. And amid all of this, our God loves us, and forgives us, and calls us! Our God calls us to the table to feed us and sustain us. Our God calls us to the joy that is life in Christ. Our God calls us, not because of our shortcomings, but in spite of our shortcoming. Our God calls us because in our God we can find a love that is unknown anywhere else in the universe!

The love we find in the world is conditional. We are only loveable if we are good enough, or rich enough, or righteous enough, or attractive enough…The love we find in the world has strings attached. But the love we find in Christ has no strings. It is freely given. Period. It is freely given to those, like Peter, have abandoned Jesus. It is freely given to those, like Mary, Mary, and Salome, who go running off in fear and misunderstanding. It is freely given to those, like you and me, who get tied up in the strings of life.

Contradictions: From the beginning of time our lives have been full of them. But among the contradictions we have a savior who stands strong. Neither life nor death can hold him! He has taken the worst the world can deal and has emerged victorious! Even if we feel the need to run in fear, we need not feel ashamed. Our God is there. Our God forgives. And our God will carry us through.