Beyond the Fear & Trembling: New Life! (Easter)

Isaiah 25: 6-8 & Mark 16: 1-8

Roger Lynn

March 27, 2016

Easter Sunday

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

The story gets told a lot of different ways. The cast of characters varies. Sometimes there is one woman. Sometimes there are several. Sometimes there is one angel. Sometimes there are two. Sometimes Jesus says, “Don’t touch me.” Sometimes he sits down and has breakfast. But underneath all of the variations, which are really just different ways of telling the story, the central theme remains constant and strong. Resurrection! New Life! The good news of the Gospel is that God is here, now, in the very midst of us, and wherever God is there is life - abundant, transformed, new!

It is the Easter message, and it needs to be shouted from the rooftops and proclaimed in as many ways as we can think to tell the story. And, it needs to be acknowledged at the outset that when we take such a reality seriously it can be totally overwhelming and unnerving. Those of us who have spent our lives in the Church have heard the story so many times that we often stop really hearing it. We forget that such news turns everything the world tells us about life and death upside down. We forget that if we give ourselves over to this reality, nothing will ever be the same again. It is bigger than we are. It is most definitely not within our control. This may be good news, but it most certainly isn’t safe news.

Which is why I really like the Easter story as it is told in Mark's Gospel. As some of you may know, the ending of Mark is a peculiar collection of stories. There are actually multiple versions. Just printing it requires a confusing array of footnotes and explanations. There is the long ending and the short ending and the alternate ending which sometimes contains some material, and sometimes doesn't. But after all is said and done, what virtually all scholars agree on is that what we can be certain is Mark ends with chapter 16, verse 8: "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.” Period! Full stop! End of the Gospel! There are some theories which speculate that this isn’t really where Mark intended to end the Gospel, but somewhere along the way the actual ending got lost. But I don’t think so. I think it’s brilliant just the way it is. It is honest. It is no simple thing coming to terms with the reality that death is not the final word - not in some abstract, theoretical way, but in a way which actually touches us where we live. 

It is one thing to read the words of Isaiah which were read just a few minutes ago. “And God will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; God will swallow up death forever. Then God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of God’s people will be taken away from all the earth, for God has spoken.” (Isaiah 25:7-8) Powerful and hopeful words to be sure. But it is quite another thing altogether to actually believe it down deep in our bones. Of course it’s good news. It is light in our darkness, healing for our brokenness, balm to soothe our weary souls. And it takes some getting used to. We don’t immediately have any hooks to hang it on. “Terror and amazement,” Mark says of the women fleeing the tomb. Yeah, I’ll  bet! The world as we thought we understood it just slid out from under our feet. The Easter message is cause for celebration, but if we move too quickly to the party, we miss the honest truth that it can also fill us with terror and amazement. 

But what I really like about this ending of Mark’s Gospel is that the story doesn’t really end there. The very fact that we are reading the story means they didn’t stay silent forever. Beyond the fear and trembling, there really is the gift of new life. And Mark doesn’t try to tell us exactly what that looks like, because that would be an impossible task. It’s going to look different for each of us. But for all of us it really does offer the power to move beyond the terrors we face, in whatever forms, and discover the abundance of life in the presence of God. And when we begin to accept that gift our lives and the world will be transformed.

At the end of the musical Godspell, Jesus has been killed and the disciples have taken down his body. As they carry it down the street they turn a corner and disappear into the hustle and bustle of downtown New York City. Everything is as it was before, except it has all changed. Anything is now possible. And while all of this is happening, what you hear is the powerfully simple prayer song, “Day by Day.”

Day by day 

Day by day 

Oh dear Lord 

Three things I pray 

To see thee more clearly 

Love thee more dearly 

Follow thee more nearly 

Day by day

(from Godspell with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz)

After the fear and trembling, day by day, how will you experience abundant new life which is filled with the presence of God?