"Come and See" A Sermon for Easter 2026

 

And now...the Easter sermon! 

The Easter Vigil featured the story of the resurrection from Matthew's perspective. This morning's Gospel was the John telling of the story.

And the joy of the night before carried over into this morning's celebration back at St. Barnabas.

Text: John 20:1-18

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One of the fun projects we’ve done here at St. Barnabas in these last couple of years is the painting of our Easter rocks.

I invite my friends Kris and Sally to come here from Tallahassee with their rocks and paint pens and we spend about an hour or so letting our creative juices flow.

We paint them with lots of colors and images with a word or a message of hope and encouragement.

And then we put them out around the city with the intention of an unsuspecting person finding them and brightening their day.

We also put on the back side of the rock some kind of identifier that this piece of rock art is brought to you by St. Barnabas in Valdosta.

We blessed our basket of Easter rocks last Sunday…and gave everyone an opportunity to take a couple to put out there in the world.

Easy enough assignment.

But I had someone come up to me with this one rock…beautifully decorated with hearts and a message of “Love.”

“I can’t put this out.”

OK….I’m thinking why not?

“I don’t think you want this out there?”

Now I’m totally confused.

Why in the world would I not want a message “Love” put out in the world?

I mean, that’s the point of this exercise.

“You don’t know what this says…”

And I’m like, “Yes, I know what it says….I saw all of these rocks. I was the one who sprayed the sealant on all these rocks!”

She flipped the rock over.

I saw that it had a hashtag with the church’s name.

I’m still confused as to what the problem was with this rock.

“Yeah OK….Hashtag Saint…..”

And that’s when I saw it.

Instead of St. Barnabas… it was inscribed “Saint Barabas V-L-D”

I thought I knew what I was seeing…but clearly I did not.

My eyes and my head were looking for one thing…only to find something else.

It’s funny how when we expect to see one thing…it’s hard for us to recognize the unexpected.

Such was the case with Mary Magdalene…Peter…and the other disciple.

They knew what had happened to their friend and teacher.

Peter was still carrying the guilt that he hadn’t stood up for Jesus.

The disciples had all scattered when the Romans showed up to arrest him.

Mary Magdalene and the other women had stood by helpless…crying…and horrified by the spectacle of seeing Jesus die on the cross…watching Roman guards cackling and picking over his clothing like vultures.

This was all real.

And their pain and sorrow were real.

Mary had thought that she could go to the tomb in the pre-dawn hours after the Sabbath to properly care for Jesus’s body.

What she hadn’t anticipated was to find the stone rolled away…and an open and empty tomb.

Whoa!! This is NOT normal.

Mary runs and finds Peter.

Then Peter and the other disciple are racing each other…likely with Mary joining in this sprint.

They get to the tomb…Peter goes in…and…uh oh.

There’s the head cloth neatly folded over there.

There’s the linen wrappings tossed aside over there.

Unlike Lazarus…there was no need to unbind this body!

John tells us the other disciple then got up the nerve to go into the tomb…saw the same thing and “believed.” But then he and Peter went home.

I’m thinking that they did one of those slowly backing up from this scene…blinking their eyes a few times…oh my goodness, this is…wow!  He’s really been raised from the dead?!

Remember: this whole ‘dead person brought back to life’ is not normal for them…any more than it is for us.

So they go home.  Home is safe. Home is normal.

Mary…still half out of her mind with grief…finally looks in the tomb for herself.

She doesn’t see the head band…or the linen wrappings.

She sees two angels…sitting in the place where these two items had been.

Whaaaaatt?

She begins wailing again.

The angels are confused and concerned.  This ought to be good news that Jesus has risen.

“Woman, why are you weeping?”

Now she’s confused.

“Why am I weeping?? I came here to care for Jesus’s body and he’s gone!”

“Woman, why are you weeping?”

Is there an echo in here??

Mary turns around and sees some strange guy…asking her the same question.

Through the tears in her eyes…she looks at this man.

“OK, look mister! I don’t know who you are but if you took Jesus’s body you better give him back…”

“Mary!”

That voice.

That tone.

He said he was the shepherd…and the sheep would follow him because he calls them by name and they recognize his voice.

Just like Peter and the disciple…she blinks…looks again…and realizes…this is Jesus.

It’s really him.

She wants to touch him…to hang on to him…to never let him go again.

But in the words of the great modern theologian Sting…

If you love somebody…set them free.

And Jesus has a job for her to do.

“Go tell the others that I am ascending…to our common Father and God! Go my beloved sister. Go tell them to come and see what you have seen.”

Come and see.

That is the overarching theme that we’ve been hearing for several weeks now…building to this moment of Mary Magdalene seeing the resurrected Jesus…and being tasked with becoming an apostle to the apostles.

Nicodemus took the risk to venture out into the darkness to come and see this rabbi who seemed to have a message that was striking a chord with the people.

The Samaritan woman at the well… like Mary Magdalene… became an apostle to her people…the rival Jewish faction… telling them to come and see this incredible man.

Even Jesus was told to come and see where they had laid his friend Lazarus…so that he could call him out of his tomb.

It brings us back to that field with the shepherds at Christmas…when they are told to come and see this new life that was destined to be the one to show them the way to abundant life.

When the unexpected happens… when something extraordinary occurs… the response is to come and see.

And once we have seen it…don’t we naturally want to share this amazing thing?

That’s what Jesus is counting on…and that’s God’s purpose in this feat of the resurrection:

Come…and see…take this in…and then go and share.

And share in ways that are meaningful.

Not standing on street corners with sandwich boards and bullhorns.

As people of this Easter time…we are to share in a manner that changes lives.

We share through telling our stories….how we’ve been touched and shaped by the God of Love…who transforms us.

We bring those stories to those who have not known that type of Love coming from the church…and give them a different experience of what it is to be “Christian.”

We make Jesus manifest through our caring and kindness to our frail and vulnerable friends and family members.

We show that love in our interactions with strangers who may be struggling…or that co-worker who is going through a difficult time.

We do it by letting others see the light of Christ that is within us…shining out through the ways that we live and move and have our being in the world.

Imagine what it would be like if others…having met us… in our revived and renewed Easter selves…turned to their friends and said, “There’s something different about these people…they don’t seem like what I’ve heard about ‘Christians’ from the news.”

Think about it.

“Come and see!”

Easter is the time to emerge out of whatever fears or doubts we’ve had…and to trust that the God of Love will never give up…and will carry us through to a life filled with hope.

That’s worth sharing…so that others may come and see.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

Don't Be Afraid: Get Rolling! An Easter Vigil Sermon

 

I don't get many opportunities to preach at locations other than St. Barnabas. So when the opportunity arose to be the preacher for our joint Easter Vigil at Christ Episcopal Church with our sister parish Christ the King, I didn't want to pass it up. Besides, having a seminarian at St. Barnabas afforded me the luxuary of NOT having to write a sermon for Maundy Thursday...something I knew my fellow clergy were going to have to do. 

It also helps that I love the Easter Vigil. Yes, it's long service. But it is also the culmination of everything we've been building towards through Lent, and there's something so magnificent about starting in darkness and then throwing on all of the lights to shout, "Alleluia!" 

I was pleased that this sermon was very well received, and they enjoyed my sense of humor. See what you think.

Text: Matthew 28: 1-10

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As I was looking over our Gospel reading…I found myself humming a classic blues tune first made famous by Big Joe Turner ….

Shake, Rattle, and Roll.

Because in Matthew’s depiction of the resurrection…there’s a whole lotta of shaking…and people getting rattled…and now they’re on a roll in this story.

I said this to the St. Barnabas congregation on Palm Sunday that when Jesus shows up…things get shaken up.

From the moment he entered Jerusalem…the city was in turmoil…meaning it was shaking. His presence was sending shockwaves through the community.

When he died on the cross….again…the earth shook…the curtain in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

And now we have another earthquake…another earth-shattering moment.

The scene is filled with the flashing light of this angel…swooping down from heaven…to open the tomb by rolling away the stone.

The Roman guards are also shaking…and quivering in their boots.

We can imagine their terror.

I mean, this was supposed to be an easy job.

All they had to do was stand watch in front of this tomb hewn in a rock and make sure nobody tries to break in.

Little did they know that the God of Love had other plans…and that when angels are on a mission from God…they aren’t playing.

In fact…this angel put period on this whole event by sitting a top that giant stone…maybe even throwing a bit of attitude to say, “You can’t top this!”

The two Marys were also rattled by this whole thing.

This is some seriously otherworldly stuff to be happening just as the light of dawn is breaking!

The triumphant angel looks at them.

This supernatural being can see that look in their eyes…and calmly…and kindly says the most often repeated words in Scripture.

“Do not be afraid.”

“Really, dear faithful women, It’s OK.

Yes…I know I was very dramatic with that entrance…but really…come and see.

Come and see this empty tomb…see it for yourselves….Jesus is not here. God has raised him. Go and tell the others!”

The Marys take off.

They are mix of fear…with a dose of confusion…and a heavy dash of hope.

They go sprinting over the rocky terrain as the light of day keeps growing brighter.

Just as they round the corner on the path…a familiar voice calls out to them:

“Greetings!”

They stop.

They stare.

They blink several times.

Mary looks at Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene’s face brightens with a smile.

Is it?

Could it really be?

With no words…the Marys move closer to Jesus and kneel down before him.

Their bodies are shaking from the adrenaline that is coursing through their muscles.

And like the angel…Jesus speaks those words of courage:

“Do not be afraid.”

Mary and Magdalene: you are my apostles to the apostles.

My beloved sisters…I am with you and will gather with all of those who ran to the four corners at Galilee. Go and tell the brothers! It’s time to roll!”

And so they ran…now powered with hope and joy and a sense of purpose…as the sun’s rays lit up their path.

A day that for them had started in darkness is now full of new light.

They have seen it for themselves: Jesus is alive! And he is with them and us now and always!

This is the story we tell every year in the church.

It’s our story…one that has given encouragement to so many over the millennia.

This is the culmination of all that we heard in the tracing of the history…the story of a God who made a cosmos out of chaos and has found a way when their appeared to be no way out from under the crushing rule of tyrants and bullies.

The God who can and will breathe new life into those who say they are too tired…too weak…too discouraged to keep pressing for a world where we care for our neighbors who live in isolation and fear and liberate people from their self-limiting doubts and depression.

The message of Easter is the confirmation that mercy…justice and compassion are the way to life…and that those who struggle against powers and principalities can turn to this word for the blessed assurance of the real truth: Love wins.

And here’s the best part: this is not just our history…and some story out a book that councils curated centuries ago.

This Easter message is our present….our now…if we are open enough to hear it…and brave enough to proclaim it.

Yes…I know…according to the rubrics…deacons are the ones that the church has given the authority to “proclaim” the Gospel.

But when we hear those words of the Gospel from the deacon…it’s not them that we’re hearing: it’s God.

And it’s the God who is Love in Action telling us to “Go!”

“Don’t just hear this Good News and think ‘Well isn’t that a fine thing that happened?’

Let these words shake us up….let them rattle about in our heads…and then let’s get rolling out there to live…and speak…and share that there is a better way to be.”

And when the deacon dismisses us at the end of our worship…sending us out in the name of Christ…that’s not an invitation to go to coffee hour…really it isn’t!

That is a directive to leave this place…and be that light of Christ in our communities.

Because the world needs to hear from us who have known and experienced a God who seeks out the marginalized…the outcasts…and the easily dismissed and ignored and puts them into the center of the story.

The God who knew that the most reliable messengers were the women who came to pay homage to their friend Jesus…and found an empty tomb…and the women who have continued to carry the message of Christ to their communities.

And the world is waiting to meet the Christian who sees the injustices that are happening and is brave enough to take a stand alongside those who are the tired and poor yearning to breathe free.

Our Easter story is one of power and purpose and building our confidence to declare that Love will win…and nothing will stop the forward movement of that Love.

And so we say with one voice…to shake…rattle and roll the rafters of this building:

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Keeping Hope Alive in the Face of Hopelessness

 

 This is a really rough Easter season for anyone who is paying attention to news in the United States.  It is even tougher when you live in a part of the country where there are many who don't seem to want to believe that the administration currently in the White House is, well, fascist. 

This is not enviable place for those who are charged to preach hope. There are those who think we should not. That we should only live in Good Friday. 

Sorry, but I have lived through enough stuff that makes the grass grow green to throw in the towel and believe that unless I rend my clothes and sit in ashes, I am failing. 

Because even though we are in the ash heap of current events right now...I am not giving up on hope. 

I believe in the power of Love. And I believe that Love will not fail us in the end. 

See what you think.

Text: Luke 24:1-12

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Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

My mother would always call me on Easter Sunday and that was the first thing she would say. And… good Episcopalian child that I was…I knew what to say in response.

I hadn’t put a lot of thought into the power…the liberation…the absolute sense of Love having scored a major victory that is embedded into that call and response of Easter in our liturgy.

The “Alleluia” is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew phrase “Hallelujah”…a shout of joy…and yelling from the roof tops “Praise the Lord!”

Praise the Holy One for raising Jesus from the dead!

Indeed…let us rejoice and be glad in this!! Praise the Lord!

I imagine this must have been what Mary Magdalene…Joanna…and Mary and the other women were shouting as they ran to tell the eleven apostles all that they’d seen. The men were huddled somewhere…and fearfully pondering their next move.

Things up to this point had been looking bleak.

They had witnessed Jesus’ arrest.

They saw how the Empire executed Jesus …nailing him to a Roman cross.

They knew their lives were in danger.

Meanwhile…the women who had followed Jesus…also knew that there was some serious work that needed to be done.

Jesus’s burial had happened hastily.

They knew Joseph of Arimathea had taken their friend’s body…wrapped it in a linen cloth…and put in a tomb.

But because of Passover…he hadn’t taken the time to wash the body.

So the women prepared the frankincense…the myrrh…and mixed it with nard oil.

Perhaps as they put together the spices…they consoled each other…mingling their tears with this fragrant ointment.

Everything had looked so promising when they entered Jerusalem a week ago.

Jesus had filled them with such hope.

How quickly things fell apart.

They went to the tomb still in a state of shock and grief and sadness.

And when they found the stone had been rolled away…their hearts probably dropped to their stomachs.

“No, no, no. Please, no.

Wasn’t it enough to have humiliated Jesus by killing him like a common criminal?

Where is his body?

Why have they taken him?”

And as they stood there…distressed and horrified to see that his body was gone…two men suddenly appear.

The women drop to the ground.

Who were these two strangers?

Could this be their end, too?

Could these men be coming to take them away for visiting the grave of the one who had so threatened the status quo?

The jar of spices…carefully blended with love…hits the ground and spills open…filling the tomb with sweet and pungent earthiness…as these women tremble before these two unknown characters.

One of these dazzling figures offers them words of comfort and assurance:

“Mary…Mary…Joanna…it’s OK. Please…don’t prostrate yourselves. Why are looking for the living among the dead?”

We can imagine a collective gasp from the women.

“Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

The women look around at each other.

Suddenly…the memories flood back into their heads of all that Jesus had said…everything that he had been telling his followers once he set off toward Jerusalem.

It’s all happened…just as he said it would.

He is risen!

Alleluia! He is risen!

They go to tell the men.

And…of course… the men don’t believe them.

There are some who have tried to argue that the men didn’t believe the women because Jewish men didn’t accept the testimony of women.

But New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine says this isn’t about sexism; this was about belief.

And as much as the male disciples said they believed…they needed help in their unbelief.

I think that’s a common issue among all of us who call ourselves Christian.

When our world gets so badly shaken…and turned inside out and upside down…our beliefs get tested to the breaking point.

Many of us are happier with concrete answers to difficult questions.

We do better with certainty than with ambiguity.

And death is a reality.

That was the same mindset of those who were these male followers of Jesus.

They knew what had happened.

They understood death.

But now these women have told them that what they thought was a fact…turned out to be a fiction.

Never mind that the women reminded them of Jesus’ promise that he would die and rise on the third day.

That’s all just talk…not reality.

Peter takes off and goes to the tomb and then confirms their story for himself.

He’s amazed.

And then he goes home.

Was this all too good to be true?

Jesus would later show himself…to the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus …and then again to all of them as they gathered and were trying to make sense of what the women had already told them.

Jesus will open their minds to the Scriptures…and he will charge them to get out there and deliver a message of forgiveness…mercy…and love…because they have been witnesses that you can’t find the living among the dead.

Love can’t be killed.

And it will not be buried in a tomb.

Go! Get out there! Share!

I know that it’s hard sometimes to think of ourselves as evangelists…largely because that word has taken on a different and not always positive meaning in our times.

But the Easter story…this narrative that we have inherited from our ancestors…is about sticking with hope when everything seems hopeless.

And then walking alongside those who are feeling lost and afraid…reminding them that they are not alone.

Together…bound by hope…we will survive.

And when doubts arise in our hearts…as they will…return to our faith in that Source of Love who helps us to overcome our fears and guide us through those times when we feel as though we are walking a gauntlet.

Whether it’s uncertainty about the future of our job…a medical diagnosis… or even the grade on a test at school that will determine if we get to the next level of learning… our faith teaches us to not give into worry and despair when hope is always an option.

Right now… we are living at a time when it is vital for us not to keep Jesus in the tomb…but to dwell in the reality that Jesus is alive.

Tap into the liberation of knowing that Love will not be put down by the bullies and tyrants of the world…the purveyors of death… and the robbers of our joy.

Love is calling us to life.

Love is commanding us to choose life…real life.

To stand up…and keep loving…with courage…and mercy…and compassion.

When kindness is in short supply…we have faith in a God who has the means to meet the demand.

And it begins with us.

We can meet this moment…with God’s help.

May we carry this Good News in our hearts…keep hope alive…and shout it out…

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seeing with Easter Eyes: A Sermon for Easter Sunday

 

If my sermon for the Easter Vigil encountered a hiccup because of the shorter ending of Mark, at least my sermon for the 11am Easter service was the well-worn story from John's Gospel. Trying to figure out a different approach into the story...just like trying to preach a meaningful and not sappy sermon at Christmas Eve...is always a challenge. This is the day churches are likely to have people other than their usual attendees present, some of whom might be coming to church out of a family obligation. It's not that I change my preaching style for these occasions; it's just that I feel a little extra need to be mindful that there are going to be people there who may only hear this one sermon. And so, I pray. Even more. Help me, God, to make this crazy tale accsessible even to the most skeptical and cynical person who might be out there this morning.

Text: John 20:1-18

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About nine years ago…there was this huge controversy that erupted in popular culture.

It was all over social media…about the colors of a dress.

Some people saw this photograph of the dress worn by the mother of the bride at a wedding in Scotland and insisted that the color scheme was white and gold.

Others saw it and determined it was black and blue.

And very quickly…something as innocuous and

fairly trivial… became a raging argument.

As the New York Times said…it became the dress that melted the internet as people feuded over what color is this dress.

Fashion bloggers…celebrities…your next-door neighbor…everyone had an opinion about this dress.

And scientists became cool…noting that what people saw in the color of the dress said more about the neuro-receptors in their eyes than the fashion decision of some British dressmaker.

Apparently…we have certain cones in our eyes that read the color blue.

If a person saw the dress and thought, ‘that’s gold,’ it meant they had fewer of these blue receptor cones in their eyes.

Because the dress was…in fact and in truth…black and blue.

Fascinating…this thing about what we perceive and how we respond to the things that we see.

And living in our world where people can manipulate images…we all have to be careful with those random photos that get shared across the internet.

Back in the world of the First Century…in the days prior to all our super-connectedness through our phones and watches…this idea of “seeing is believing” was all they had.

And when things were more than just a little “off”…it must’ve caused quite a stir.

Nobody was there to take a photograph of that empty tomb, the wadded up linen wrappings.

And we can only imagine how freakish this must have been for Mary Magdalene to show up at the tomb…and find it unsealed and Jesus’ body gone.

She did what anyone of us might have done:

She ran.

She probably ran faster than she’d ever run before.

She had to tell somebody…someone who she trusted to see what she’d seen.

She finds Peter and one of the other disciples.

All her words come spilling out of her mouth…

And of course they ran!

Like Mary….Peter and this nameless disciple… still processing their fear and disillusionment at knowing their friend and teacher Jesus had been killed by the state…are now full of adrenaline…sprinting to the tomb.

And when they get there…what do they see?

First…they see that Mary was right: the stone had been removed so they could go into the tomb.

There’s the linen wrapping that was on his body.

Over there…that’s the cloth that had been on his head…in that corner…

What in the world??

Oh, no…not in the world…no this is something other-wordly.

So…Peter and Disciple No-Name…their minds now blown wide open…decide they better go home….give this new information some thought.

Meanwhile…Mary is weeping outside the tomb.

Was it not enough that one of his twelve friends had betrayed Jesus?

Had the Roman Empire…and their fawning collaborators…had they not made their point by crucifying this innocent loving Jewish man?!

She dares to peak inside.

But unlike Peter and Ol’ No-name…Mary perceives something different.

Instead of noticing a discarded linen wrapping and such…she sees two angels.

“Woman, why are you weeping?”

“They’ve taken him!” she bawls, “I don’t know where they’ve taken him!”

She is beside herself with grief and fear and maybe even some rage.

From behind…she hears a kind voice.

That voice repeats…

“Woman, why are you weeping?”

Ah-hah! A human! A gardener.

Was this culprit who stole Jesus’ body?!

We can imagine that in her own adrenaline rush…in her own shock and fear and horror at the possibility that something terrible has happened to Jesus’ body, we can hear her desperate demand:

“Sir, if you have carried him away….tell me…tell me now…I want him back!”

“Mary!”

A pause.

Another shift in her perspective.

Is this? Could this really be?

She gasps, “Rabbouni!”

How could she have not recognized him?

How did she not know this was Jesus?

And what about Peter and the other disciple?

Could it be that in their haste to get home…they ran right past Jesus and never noticed that he was there the whole time that they were looking around inside the tomb?

Could they only perceive the linen wrapping and the head covering and not get a sense that God could bend the rules of nature… and perhaps a new reality is taking a dramatic Godward shift…where Love claims victory over death?

She remembers what Jesus once said, “I am the resurrection and the life.”

And now…here he is.

And her perception…through tears…and sense of reality has shifted.

As she processes this incredible event…Jesus tells her to go tell the others…let them know that he’s not ascended to heaven but is ready to meet them…and reassure them…that all those things he had done and all those words he had spoken…they’re for real.

We tell this wild and fantastic story every year.

And we tell it in the face of things in the world that feel not right…not loving…not life-giving or liberating.

Our lives are punctuated by things that hurt…and losses on the personal and the global level that can make us doubt the reality that God is love and desires for us to experience goodness and love every day.

We still face challenges from forces that seem determined to keep crucifying God’s creatures…both through destruction and degradation of the planet…and the people.

There are those who seem to wish to use power and privilege to keep others from being able to pursue their own happiness in this world.

And I think that’s why we need to keep hearing this Easter story every year.

Because this is a story of God bearing witness to the absolute worst of humanity…and with greater force and confidence…saying a big ol’ “Nope, not today Satan!”

This is a story of God showing us that we can overcome those obstacles thrown in our path…we can survive hardships…and we can…with love in our hearts…ascend to greater heights…and—yes—we can make a difference.

With Easter eyes…perhaps we can see each other as God’s beloved children…treat the people we meet with the dignity and respect they deserve.

However we take the message of Easter out of this building today…may our vision be clear…our hearts be full…and may we have the courage to live and pursue that Love revolution that God has been dreaming for us to experience.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

 

Getting Comfortable with the Unknown: A Sermon for the Easter Vigil, Year B

 

Sometimes, it helps to double check the Gospel before you write your sermon. I was surprised as I listened to the Deacon telling us the story of the empty tomb in Mark to hear her continue past the ending of the women fleeing the tomb and saying nothing to anyone because they were afraid. This was the point on which I had planned this whole sermon. 

But the crafters of our Gospel book saw fit to add "The Shorter Ending of Mark," one which says that the women "told briefly" the news to Peter and the others and all lived happily ever after because Jesus sent them out to proclaim eternal salvation. The end. 

OK...that's some embellisment on my part. But that "shorter ending" which is at least a little better than the expanded "other" ending of Mark was something the church tacked on about the time of the 4th Century. Because.....they needed something better than where Mark left the story?? 

Anyway...I preached the sermon I had prepared. And I will continue to teach people to pay attention to a message of uncertainty...trepedation...and awe-struck fear that comes with those last words of Mark's Gospel. Because it helps to keep Mark's version a very real and relatable story of Jesus and those who were brave enough to follow his path. They had to go back to Galilee. They had to be reminded of Jesus' declaration that he made coming back from his time in the wilderness. They needed to change in order to move the story of Love forward.

Text: Mark 16:1-8

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I don’t watch a lot of T-V…or Netflix…or Hulu.

But one show that is my “junk food” of television is “The Equalizer” starring the hip hop artist and actress Queen Latifah.

Like every good cop show ever put on American T-V…the plots are pretty simple to follow:

Something bad has happened to someone.

The criminal is not readily apparent.

The injured party turns to the good guy…or gal in this case…Queen Latifah….to get to the bottom of the case and right the wrong done.

And after some plot twists and turns…a few commercial breaks to help pay the bills…the bad actors are caught…the victim has received justice…and everything is made right in the world…all in 52 minutes time.

No loose threads…unless they intend for you to come back next week for a part two.

We like things tidy…and unambiguous.

Which is why the ending of Mark’s Gospel…his story of the resurrection…is so unsettling.

Because there is NO resurrection:

We don’t see Jesus.

He’s gone.

Some young man…an angel we suppose…tells Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and Salome…that Jesus has been raised. Go tell the others, especially Peter…Jesus is going ahead of them to Galilee… the fulfillment of a promise he’d made right before all the chaos and trouble began at that critical hour of his arrest and crucifixion.

They hear this news.

But instead of rejoicing and running off to tell the disciples that Jesus has been raised from the dead…they flee the tomb.

They’re in awe. They’re terrified.

And they said nothing because they were afraid.

Not exactly the ending we want to hear.

No! This isn’t how it’s supposed to end!

These women are brave.

They go tell the men…

“He’s risen! Hallelujah!”

Isn’t that the end we prefer?

But Mark’s a realist.

And we need a dose of reality, too.

Because if this were us…wouldn’t we be terrified and amazed too?

They saw the death of Jesus.

These women watched Joseph put his dead body in the tomb.

They hadn’t been there to see the unnamed woman show up before the Last Supper to wash Jesus’ body with expensive nard from her alabaster jar…so they assumed somebody needed to bring spices and do the proper burial procedure.

Now something beyond their ability to understand has happened.

Jesus has been raised from the dead.

Say what?!

Lots of Biblical scholars have put their minds to why Mark ends his Gospel in this way…so abruptly and without the nice tight happy ending we want.

Some speculate that this is reflective of the mood in Mark’s community…the Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus.

This… the earliest of the Gospels…is from the time when the Roman Empire destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem for a second time…leaving us today with only the remnant of the Western wall.

Perhaps these women represent the trauma of that period.

A time of trembling and fear of the Roman Empire.

Others think the purpose of this ending is to get us to remember that command to go back to Galilee.

Go back to the beginning of the story…to that first chapter of Mark’s Gospel…where it all began, and finally take in that one sentence sermon of Jesus’:

“The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near; repent and believe in the Good News.” (1:15)

Suddenly…that line…in light of a missing and reportedly resurrected Jesus…might make a little more sense.

Repent is such a loaded word… especially for anyone whose been told the lie that they aren’t good enough for God.

But what “repent” really means here is to change your focus.

Because love has won, has beaten death.

See the world through new eyes…with a new heart.

Earlier…we heard the history of God’s people…and the many ways in which God has always been there from the start.

God was there…through escaping oppression in Egypt…all the way to escaping a tomb in the outskirts of Jerusalem…God has shown up over and over.

Look and see.

Even crazier? God is there often when we least expect it.

And maybe that’s the message of this peculiar…not-made-for-TV ending to this story.

While we go about doing those things…making those preparations…carefully putting together those plans for how to finish the multiple storylines flowing through our lives…God is working God’s purpose out in ways that are completely unseen…unknown… unexpected and will blow us away…when we finally pay attention.

God’s work is happening in ways and through people that we can’t comprehend.

Because…honestly…we don’t always see God’s incredible handiwork and can’t know how God has been molding and shaping someone until it smacks us in the face.

And then…once we’re done saying, “Ow!”…we have to just smile, and think, “Wow!”

This is why the words that are in the Letter to the Hebrews are so important to remember.

 “We must keep mutual love flowing and to show hospitality to strangers because we may be entertaining angels without knowing it.”

And angels come in all shapes, sizes, genders—binary or non-binary, immigrants, and natives.

Now we know that the women didn’t stay silent forever.

The story of the resurrection did get shared…when they were ready to share it.

Once that initial shock of the moment wore off and they were able to accept this profound change to their reality: they could say…Jesus had fulfilled the mission…and Love has burst out in technicolor.

And now…through these women…through us who believe…we can live and love freely in full color, too.

We have the ending we need…the one which brings us back to that beginning:

Open the eyes….see and treat those whom you meet with loving-kindness…and know and believe….

Hallelujah! Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

In the name of God…F/S/HS.