Resurrection of Our Lord B
April 4, 2021
Grace, Waseca, MN
Mark 16.1-8
When is an ending not an end?
When a dead man rises from the tomb—and when a Gospel ends in the middle of a sentence. Lamar Williamson, Jr. in Mark
My wife and I have been binge watching episodes from the DC comic book superhero universe: “Arrow,” “Flash,” and “DC Legends of Tomorrow.” And by “binge watching” I mean one or two episodes per night. One thing we’ve quickly learned is that you never want to time travel, for whatever reason, because you will always mess up the timeline. Another thing we’ve learned is that no one ever stays dead, no matter how decisively they’ve died. Anybody can reappear at any time. Finally, we’ve learned that it is obvious a story arc is never over; characters reappear and cliffhangers abound. There is never a neat, tidy ending. From what i remember of my college American Lit course years ago, that’s a unique feature of the American novel: stories never end.
Apparently, the Gospel writer Mark was ahead of his time with a story that ends so absurdly abruptly that leaders in the early church decided that it needed not only one ending but two, a “shorter ending” and a “longer ending.” It’s understandable because, though you can’t see it in English, the story does indeed end in the middle of a sentence. However, had the church fathers reread the opening sentence of Mark’s Gospel, “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ,” they might have realized what most modern commentators do: Mark did this intentionally.
Why does Mark end the Gospel this way? I don’t think that Mark is into writing cliffhangers to build interest or in resuscitating various plot lines. Rather, think Mark wants us to know that this is not the end, only the end of the beginning. That there would be more story to be written hardly seemed possible to the three women, those first witnesses, who come to the tomb that morning, wanting to finish what they started by anointing Jesus’ body. Even as they go, while they are on their way, they worry about who will roll away the stone for them.
What strikes me is they come to the tomb anyway, certain of their mission without knowing how they are going to carry it out. Yet, seeing that the stone has been rolled away, and hearing the claims of the young man, they begin to glimpse that this is God’s story continually being written, even in terror and amazement. Like many of us faced with the unfathomable, it probably took them time to process it all. So, clearly somebody did tell someone, Jesus met them and the disciples in Galilee, and the story continues.
A year ago, we faced a huge stone: how we were going to live in the midst of a pandemic? There was the false optimism of two weeks’ shut down and back to normal gave way to the reality that we were in this for the long haul. Over half a million people have died and even more continue to suffer. People are tired and businesses may never recover from the economic impact. Zoom fatigue is a real thing, weddings, funerals, and trips have been postponed or cancelled. And we fight over such a simple thing as wearing masks.
Yet, the story is still being written, for God is working in, with and through us in amazing ways. School teachers, administrators along with parents have been doing some incredibly heavy lifting. Businesses have been creative. The medical community has stepped up big time. At Grace, we had our first ever virtual Christmas pageant (and there will be an Easter one!). Because of our tech team, our outreach has multiplied through livestreaming with more people hearing the Gospel across the country. Our faith formation has shifted numerous times, helping young people to grow in their relationship with Jesus. The transition work by the Discovery Team was creative and fruitful and the Call Committee will be operating with the assumption that God will move stones and continue to write the story of Grace Waseca.
What are the stones in your life that seem to be insurmountable and immovable? What is the story you find yourself in that both terrorizes you and amazes you? As we proclaim that ancient message, “Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed, alleluia,” know that the God who raised Jesus from the dead 2,000 years ago continues to work in this world. Walk to the tomb every day, my sisters and brothers in Christ, expecting to see the risen Christ. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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