The Word Beyond Words – sermon on Easter Sunday, April 1, 2018
Mark 16: 1-8 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” 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.
Acts 10: 34-43 Peter fairly exploded with his good news: “It’s God’s own truth, nothing could be plainer: God plays no favorites! It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from – if you want God and are ready to do as God says, the door is open. The Message God sent to the children of Israel – that through Jesus Christ everything is being put together again? Well, it’s happening everywhere, among everyone. “You know the story of what happened in Judea. It began in Galilee after John the Baptist preached a total life-change. Then Jesus arrived from Nazareth, anointed by God with the Holy Spirit, ready for action. He went through the country helping people and healing everyone who was beaten down by the Devil. He was able to do all this because God was with him.
Sermon: The Word Beyond Words by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Hello. My name is Mary. I’m so glad to be here, listening to these stories, my stories, especially the one of that morning when Mary Magdalene and Salome and I went to the tomb. We hadn’t planned to go – we only did it for our Lord’s mother, Mary. She’d been there that week, staying with other relatives in Jerusalem when she heard about the arrest. We found her weeping at the foot of the cross as he hung there, and Susanna took her back to her relatives. We promised we’d stay for the long haul and see what was done with the body. We were relieved to be able to tell her that our friend Joseph had taken him, had wrapped him in linen and put him in a tomb. She took some comfort with that, but had it in her mind that he must be anointed properly. Mary Magdalene assured her she would take her after the Sabbath. She’d hoped her daughters would have arrived by then, but, come sunrise, they hadn’t. She asked us to go in her stead so she could wait for the girls, and so we did.
The story has it right about our wondering what we’d do about the stone. It was one more reason Salome was so frustrated that the men had run off. If only they’d stayed around long enough to help – just one more betrayal, she’d said bitterly. I wasn’t so much bitter about it as I was sad. They were such young men, had been so full of enthusiasm and hope. They were sure Jesus, who had called them as his disciples, would change the world, and they would get to be part of it. As the tensions mounted that week, they were increasingly agitated and confused. We all were. I’m not sure what happened at that Passover meal – we women had gone elsewhere for our meal. All I know is that my son James came to me and told me the master had been arrested at Gethsemane, and that they needed to lay low. And he was off. We figured Jesus was take to the Sanhedrin, so we went to find out what we could.
There was no stopping Mary Magdalene. She was going to find him no matter what it took. So the rest of us women went along, and we saw it all – saw them marching him off to Pilate, heard the crowds calling for his crucifixion. It was heartbreaking. I can’t speak for the others, but I was just so… how to find words… bewildered, shocked, confounded. I keep trying to find the right word, but I just can’t. Disbelief, perhaps? How could it be over? How could he have died, have let them kill him? In our grief, it helped to have something to do, and this anointing was one last honor we could pay.
So, there we were, headed to the tomb, worried that we wouldn’t be able to get to the body for the stone slipped into the groove sealing it shut. Well, guess what – April fools! The joke was on us. The stone had been slid aside, and it wasn’t our young men who’d found their way there to honor him, as I’d hoped. After all, this laying low, this hiding out they were doing, it wasn’t what the Lord had taught us. I’d heard enough of his preaching – the kingdom is among and between us, he’d said. We were to become one, he’d said. We were to follow in his way, he’d said. Believe me, it was not his way to lay low and hide out, although he did sometimes tell people to keep it to themselves who he really was. But not this week. This week there was something different about everything he did – the preaching and teaching, the healing, turning over the tables in the Temple. I can’t explain it, there are just no words. And then, just like that, he’s arrested and quickly crucified. With him gone, we stopped following, instead of staying together as one, we were all scattered.
But back to the tomb. The stone is slid away and inside there is this young man sitting there. But I don’t know if he was really a man, or an angel. There was a glow to him, not just his bright robe, but the brightness seemed to shine right out of him – his face and hair, his eyes. He says he knows we are looking for Jesus, but that he is not there. He points out where they had laid him, but there was nothing there. He kept talking, though I could scarce take in what he was saying. The next thing I know he is shooing us out of the tomb telling us to go with the others to Galilee, and we would see Jesus there. We would see Jesus there!? What could he mean?
This story I heard this morning has us fleeing in terror and amazement. I think this writer Mark took some creative liberties as to our state of mind. Again, I can’t speak for the others, but I was more shocked than terrified, confused, mind-boggled. It is so hard to find the right words. As for the amazement, yes, that was part of it, and it grew as we three looked at each other as if to say, did you see what I saw, did you hear what I heard. And somehow, we all knew we would never find the words to explain it. And I wouldn’t say we fled – I felt rushed out by that angel in fact. But we reached for each other and felt this shock move through us, this energy, this wave of love, and we picked up our pace. There was a lightness to our steps, we were filled with hope. Could it be possible. How is it possible. But oh, isn’t this just like him.
And we were headed to look for the men, of course we were. This Mark makes it sound like we weren’t. It is true that we didn’t say anything, but you see, when we got back to where we were staying, James and a few others were there, saying they were all heading back to Galilee post haste! Again, we looked at each other, amazed. We were supposed to bring a message to them about Galilee, but it was already in the works, already happening! Mark makes it sound like we failed in some way, and perhaps we did. In some ways we all failed Jesus. He’d get so frustrated sometimes, especially with the twelve. We all knew he was teaching above what we could absorb. What can I say? Change is hard, and the way he lived, the way he asked us to live, was about as big a change as you could imagine.
But what I realized was that Jesus could work even with our failures. We knew by this time that he was up to something amazing, incredible, and it wouldn’t be stopped whether or not we found the right words to share this message the angel had given. And we couldn’t wait to see what else would unfold in Galilee, or who knows, maybe even before that! And friends, it was amazing.
You got to hear some of the story of what happened after as told by Peter. We saw him in Galilee! Like Peter said, there weren’t tons of people who saw him, but I did, along with the twelve and the women, and some others who’d followed him. He made it plain that though he would no longer be going around teaching and healing, and would in fact be leaving us again, what he did was for everyone. This new life he revealed – for everyone. And he left it to us, us befuddled and fallible people, to carry this message, to bear this light. And we did! It was incredible. As much as we had loved being with him before, he was with us in a different way now. He was in our hearts, in our connection to each other. We really did become one, just as he called us to. And though we went in different directions to spread the word, we were never really scattered again. We certainly never “fled in terror.” But amazement, yes, that stayed – our sense of wonder and excitement.
And look, all these centuries later, you too have received this message, heard this good news. And so who can say we failed. Think of how many had to have heard this message, had to have come to know our Lord, had to have followed in his way for you to be here now. And think of the generations to come that you will touch with your faith, with the ways you follow him and open yourself to him. Maybe you will never find quite the right words, maybe the way those who come after you live in him will look different from the way you do. But trust me, our Lord is at work right here, in you, through you,and there is nothing you can do to stop it. But what you can do is stop yourself from experiencing the joy – the lightness of step, the hope in your heart. Don’t do it. Instead, let yourself rejoice and be glad. Let yourself believe the good news. Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. Halleluiah!
