"FOR...."
A sermon by Rev. Dr. Jack E. Skiles

April 12, 2009

Isaiah 25:6-9; Mark 16:1-8

“What then shall we say about Easter?  If bunnies and baskets are for us who can be against us?  What will separate us from the love of chocolate?  Diets?  Cholesterol? Blood Pressure?  No!  In all of these things we are more than conquerors through denial that first duped us.”   This little Easter summation of Paul's faith statement in Jesus was written by the Rev. Dr. Tari Lennon. 

What more could any preacher have to say about Easter that hasn't been said repeatedly two thousand years over?  As preachers we have preached, as listeners you have listened to the Biblical texts exegeted, studied, thought about, prayed over and nearly worn thin both from over use and under appreciation. 

We come here this Easter Sunday 2009 of the current era and most of us are seeking to make a bridge in our lives to God, however it is that we name and know God.  I also know that there are several here this morning who do not name God in any  way other than to say that God does not exist or that if God does exist, no one has found a way to name that God in any way that is meaningful to you.  

There are also some friends here this morning from other faith systems.  We have some visitors from the Muslim community with us this morning that I am aware of and I welcome you along with others that I simply have not yet met.  At First United, especially early on from our American Baptist side of the family, we have long fought in this land of the brave and the free to acknowledge that in this country all persons of faith be accorded equal status and recognition, even those who have no faith at all.  If the truth be told, we who are Baptists had such a horrible reputation in the early years of the formation of this country that we were often expelled from colonies and given second class recognition by those who would let us in.  Our preachers were often flogged right here in the USA.  We fought hard, perhaps out of self preservation, for the concept of religious liberty so that we could have a place at the common table.  We have not forgotten the whips, the chains, the ugly words, the doors locked against us, the thousands who have died for not believing what the majority demanded and we rejoice that all are welcomed here with respect and dignity. 

Here at First United we value our historic Scriptures and faith stories.  We follow a patterned pathway, a lectionary cycle, which pulls us systematically through nearly the whole Bible on a three-year cycle.  We like to say that we are not Biblical literalists, we take our Scriptures seriously.  We demand of ourselves not only the joy of simply believing but also the hard work of applying every scientific, literary and philosophical method in our faithful study of our Scriptures.  We do such hard and tedious study because we believe, as our United Church of Christ denomination likes to proclaim, that God is still speaking and speaking through every discipline.

Very briefly, we have to ask the question of our Scripture reading this morning, “Where does the Gospel of Mark end?”  Why were we given such a truncated version for Easter Sunday morning that includes no resurrected Jesus?  Inquiring minds want to know.

As simply as I know how to state it, please know with me that we have no original texts for any of the gospels.  We have some really old manuscripts and many of them vary significantly.  Some not-so-old manuscripts have the longer ending in Mark that goes through Chapter 16 verse 20.  The oldest and most reliable manuscripts of Mark's gospel stop with verse eight which reads literally from the Greek, “To no one anything they said; afraid they were for.”  That gets smoothed out for us in our English translation, “They said nothing to anyone, for or because they were afraid.”

Fred Craddock, the phenomenal Disciples professor and preacher asks this of Mark's ending, “Is this any way to run a resurrection?  Is this enough to persuade, to stir new life in the followers of Jesus?”  Mark is the first written account of the four gospels.  Though the other three stories are more emphatic, they do not share unanimous faith exhortations regarding this thing called the resurrection.   Matthew writes next that the disciples worshipped Jesus but some doubted; Luke says that in their joy they were disbelieving; and John says one of the Twelve refused to believe until he touched and felt.  In John they all went back to their day jobs after Jesus' death.  It is worth noting that faith is not coerced, questioning encouraged, even on Easter.

Our Easter message really starts a very long time ago, even before Jesus.  Our second reading this morning was from the prophet Isaiah who pre-dated Jesus by some five hundred years.  Isaiah was not very popular because he, like Mark, did not end his story with the shock and awe techniques, clear success stories and unlimited economic growth patterns that people prefer from their faith.

Isaiah lived and taught during a horrific time in Israel 's ancient history. 

Everything that they had counted on was coming apart at the seams.  Violence was living around every corner.  Religious belief no longer seemed enough to guarantee a good life.  And from the distance they could hear the approaching Assyrian army reducing their northern cousins to ruin.  The Babylonian horde of Nebuchadnezzar was seen rising in the East and the people were scared.

Politically, Israel 's national government swayed between armed conflict and one alliance after another.  Isaiah, one of Israel 's most trusted religious voices, stood to say that all alliances and all warfare were foolhardy and that reliance on military might was nothing more than an illusion of power.  In Isaiah's opinion there was nothing Israel could do to save themselves from the inevitable.

He insisted that only a firm faith in the resourcefulness of God would be able to contend with the powers and the principalities and the ugly realities of their world.   It is important to remember what Isaiah did not mean by that.  He did not mean passively waiting around for God to perform a magic miracle and save the people from their situation.  What he meant was an active participation by the people in living forth the rich resourcefulness that comes from God's presence in their lives.  Instead of trying to outmaneuver or compete against the mighty Assyrians, Isaiah challenged his people to become conduits for divine activity, to relieve the suffering of the oppressed, empower the disenfranchised, and to proclaim the universality of God, even to their enemies, the Assyrians, and eventually the Babylonians.

Isaiah uses an image that I think you'll recall.  Isaiah uses the image of a Great Banquet that is to be held on the top of the highest mountain.  Invited to this great feast are not only all the Jewish people, but all the Assyrians, their King, Israel 's king, and at the center is a place set for the one God.  It is a feast that takes place in real time, among real people with a real God, not an ideal banquet that will take place in some timeless heaven among bodiless souls.  At this banquet Isaiah says they will not celebrate a military, cultural or ethnic victory, but oneness with God that even death can not vanquish.

Jesus certainly extended this dream, this vision, the banquet of all of God's people coming together as he sought to live out the reality of the Kingdom of God and we live it out without a doubt today in our Christian traditions as we celebrate communion, the Eucharist and in our insistence in feeding the hungry of the world. The early developing Christian community, those Jews who followed the way of Jesus, sought to extend to all people through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus an invitation to all to join God's great banquet table.

The tantalizing way in which Mark ends his story is a disappointment to those still looking for a magic wand.  The challenge inherent in the Markan ending requires that we be willing to put his story in the context of a larger story, the continuing story of God's unending and relentless resourcefulness and creativity to bring new life to our world of lives, no matter how bad the economy, no matter how bad our grades or distorted our future seems today. 

Mark's story brings all to a tomb and asks us to believe that resurrection has happened, is happening and will happen.  The truth of the resurrection is timeless.  We may celebrate Easter on a particular day, but the Easter Event was preceded by countless resurrecting moments and the Easter event will continue to happen wherever and whenever God's people take it upon ourselves to read ourselves into Mark's story and continue Jesus' work of renewing and re-sourcing the world with what yet can be as we participate in the fullness of God's creative action in the world.

Marcus Borg is very popular around here.  He believes that the Easter event is foundational for Christianity.  For him that means the process through which an itinerant, Galilean peasant comes to be seen as the face of God continues beyond the moment of the discovery of the empty tomb.  It is in the days, weeks, and eons subsequent to the empty tomb that people continue to experience Jesus in new ways.

These new ways disclose that resurrection is not about the return to an old life, the good old days, but of entrance into a radically new life, a life that rejects passively waiting for God to do something and actively enters into partnership with God to transform life itself.

Mark believed in the resurrection but included no appearance of the risen Christ.  The text causes us to wonder why.  A reasonable answer may be in Mark's focus on the cross.  He has told the story of Jesus from baptism to crucifixion.  His whole story line is about what must happen if we journey through life like Jesus did.  All who follow in the way of Jesus must take up the cross.  Perhaps for Mark the ending of his story with a glorious resurrection would have suggested that life is about little more than believing the right things and then getting resurrected, when really it is about living in new creative, adventurous, resourceful, stretching, demanding, dangerous ways, liberating the captives, feeding the hungry, loving our enemies and transforming life from within active relationship with the divine.

The women who came to the tomb were afraid and silent, remember?  Who wouldn't be in the face of the shocking discovery that they and we are called ahead to a brand new place in life where we live in fresh new ways the presence of the living Christ who has risen and is waiting to rise in us.

Like the first women at the tomb when they found their voices, wow, what powerful witnesses they were.  No glib and easy Easter words.  They had been to the cemetery and Jesus still lived.  The Christ is waiting to move anew in us.  Dare we risk new life in Christ?  Our world needs what only we can do in partnership with God.

Amen.