Resurrection Roller-coaster

Easter 2B, John 20:19-31; St. Paul’s Smithfield, NC 4/08/2018

Jim Melnyk: “Resurrection Roller-coaster”

I don’t know about you, but having just heard John’s gospel for today, I feel like I’ve been on a resurrection roller-coaster ride of emotions.  It only takes eleven verses to cover everything the author of John wants us to know about the first eight days of Easter.  In just those eleven verses, we move from uncertainty and fear of potential death to a proclamation of peace; then through moments of joy and transformation; finally being faced with challenge and promise – all giving us a glimpse of what resurrection life will look like for the followers of the risen Christ both then and now.

Today’s passage from John’s gospel starts out, “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them…”  We’re still on Easter Day at the start of our lesson today, and it’s interesting to note a couple of things. 

“That day,” as the author of John refers to it, starts out quite early – while it’s still dark.  Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb by herself, and seeing the stone rolled away, she runs to tell Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved.  The three of them run back to the tomb only to find it empty and the linens that had bound Jesus lying to the side.  The evangelist tells us that none of them understand fully what has happened – that Jesus has indeed been raised from the dead.  Think about it: all that movement running back and forth – all the emotions that must be careening around through their minds – and yet – and yet, Peter and the other disciple simply go home.  That’s it.  They just go home.

Mary, however, hangs around a bit longer by herself trying to deal with her grief.  It’s then that she meets the risen Christ, whom she at first assumes to be a gardener.  Her initial thought is not about resurrection, but that the body of her friend and teacher must have been moved by someone.

It’s only when Jesus calls Mary by her name that the reality of resurrection sinks in – and Mary gets it.  The passage leading up to today’s lesson ends with the author telling us, “Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’” (20:18).  And it seems obvious that the disciples refuse to believe Mary, since picking up with today’s passage we find them all holed up in the upper room with the doors locked out of fear for their lives.  Just like last week’s lesson from Luke, it seems that this whole resurrection thing is having a hard time getting any traction with the followers of Jesus, even though Jesus had worked hard to prepare them for this reality.

But then, incredibly, Jesus is present with them.  We don’t know how – it all seems rather spooky – but the author of John doesn’t try to explain it at all.  As one writer puts it, “The living Christ comes to us, unhindered by our fears, unblocked by our defenses.  If a shut tomb cannot hold him in, a shut church [or a shut heart] cannot keep him out.  [Jesus doesn’t] rebuke their anxiety, but says simply, ‘Peace [be with you],’ anxiety’s antidote.  By this greeting,” we come to realize, [that Jesus] keeps his promise to give [the disciples] peace, [though] not as the world [understands the word] (14:27)” (Feasting on the Gospels: John, volume 2, Homiletical Perspective).

Following the events of Good Friday I’m sure any proclamation of peace must feel like a reprieve to the grieving followers of Jesus.  After the corporate experience of betrayal, denial, and fearful flight, the traditional greeting offered by their risen friend makes their hearts leap with joy.  This is truly our friend!  And for them, the words “Peace be with you” offered by Jesus goes beyond any sense of everyday usage – these words carry with them a sense of forgiveness and grace that calms their troubled spirits. 

This is a transformative moment for the followers of Jesus – where it seems as if God is back in God’s heaven and once again all is right with the world.

Enter one of the sharp turns and stomach wrenching drops roller-coasters are known for – “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  Wait! What?  But look what happened to you, Jesus!  It has been suggested that “the peace Jesus offers has nothing to do with tranquility, harmony, and affability.  Instead, Jesus invites his disciples into the same activity of peacemaking that characterized his own life and mission, the same activity that led him to the cross, an activity possible for us in the here and now only through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Kristin Johnston Largen, Feasting on the Gospels: John, volume 2, Theological Perspective).

Continuing with that line of thought, God didn’t send Jesus into the world to “confirm the status quo…. Jesus’ peace invites the lion to see the lamb as neighbor and friend, the Jew to speak with the Samaritan, and the [Pharisee] to dine with [tax collectors and sinners]” – a glorious illustration of the in-breaking kingdom of God lived out by each of us in our daily lives (ibid).  Can’t you just hear the disciples now?  “If that’s what you mean by peace, Jesus, thanks but no thanks!”  Wouldn’t we tempted to respond in the same way?  Aren’t we tempted to respond that same way today?  We have our own sets of doubts just like Thomas and countless others throughout the ages.  After all, we want peace to be – well, peaceful!  Stress-free.  Heavenly.

But as disconcerting as the peace of Christ might be, Jesus doesn’t leave his disciples – or any of us – hanging.  According to John, Jesus breathes upon them saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”  Basically John places the events of Pentecost fifty days earlier than Luke.  And if we can let go of any literal arguments about which author gets it right – John or Luke – Easter evening or Pentecost – we can find assurance in the underlying truth of their two stories: While Jesus calls us – while Jesus commands us to proclaim the good news of the coming kingdom of God – Jesus doesn’t leave us helpless or alone. We proclaim the gospel – but in the power of God’s Holy Spirit which has been poured out upon us and within us in our baptisms.  We can proclaim the grace and forgiveness of God to a world that prefers judgment and recompense – to a world that honors power and status over personhood – simply because Christ is alive and with us in the power of the Spirit.  Only when we do that, life may not seem as peaceful as we would like it to be – it may even get a little hairy!

And yet isn’t there a sense of peace somewhere deep within us when we finally make up our minds to follow Jesus?  It may not be all tranquility and calm, but it’s a sense of Presence with a capital “P.”  There’s a sense that even though the world may be spinning around us wildly – and even though the roller-coaster may seem at times to be careening out of control – we are where we need to be, and doing what we need to do, as followers of the risen Christ – and so in that Presence there actually is peace – the peace of the risen Christ.  This is transformation – the point where in all the chaos of life, we know God to be with us, and we know ourselves to be living witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

This is the kind of transformation that allows the early followers of the risen Christ to step out and proclaim the gospel even if it means putting themselves at odds with the powers that be – even if it means risking their lives.  This is the kind of transformation that allows us to proclaim the grace and love of God – to proclaim the dream of God for all God’s people – even when the world would rather the followers of Jesus stay hidden behind locked doors, or locked behind trite religious aphorisms, letting the status quo of power over love continue to have its day.

Mary Magdalene, Peter, Thomas, and the other disciples stand as witnesses to the power of God across the ages.  They open themselves to the One Whom Death Could Not Contain and give us permission, so long removed from that first Easter Day, to take our own roller-coaster rides of faith.  The risen Christ steps into the lives of his first followers and sets them free to proclaim the good news of God in Christ – and that same risen Christ rolls away the stone from our own self-made tombs, and calls us forth as living witnesses of the power of God’s love.

Easter Day, Yr. B Mark 16:1-8 St. Paul’s Smithfield, NC 4/1/2018

Jim Melnyk: “Where Do We Go From Here?”

This past Wednesday in our weekly Bible Study several of us spent some time talking about the rather abrupt ending to Mark’s gospel.  Mark’s version of the resurrection concludes – as best as we can tell – with verse 8: “So they [the three women] went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid” (16:8). 

Years ago I read someone’s question somewhere, “Is this any way to run a resurrection?”  It might not be a fitting ending to Matthew’s account, or Luke’s, or John’s, but I find myself believing that this is indeed a fitting ending for Mark’s story.

“Mark’s abrupt ending, as found in the earliest manuscripts, shifts the burden of understanding to the reader” (Synthesis CE 2018).  The author challenges us to go back to the beginnings of the Gospel in order to finally understand what the ministry and teaching of Jesus is all about.  In fact I believe the author is enjoying a bit of irony with his listeners.  Throughout the entire ministry of Jesus he is constantly commanding everyone to “tell no one” about who they think he might be.  Now, with Good Friday over and done with, and the Lord of Life risen from the dead – the first witnesses in Mark’s gospel are actually told to proclaim the resurrection and they flee without telling a soul!  

None of us can climb into the minds of Mary Magdalen, Mary the mother of James, or Salome to see what they are thinking as they encounter the stone rolled back and the young man, whom I believe we’re meant to see as an angel, dressed in a white robe and in the very place they expect to find the body of their teacher, Lord, and friend.  Apparently his admonition to “not be alarmed” falls on deaf ears – and can we blame the women?  Who among us wouldn’t be both intrigued and yet scared out of our wits at such a vision?  And while Mark tells us that they flee the tomb – and the heavenly messenger – in both terror and amazement, saying nothing to anyone out of fear, they must have finally told someone – because here we are, nearly two thousand years later – followers of the risen Christ.  As author Carlos Rodriquez reminds us, “Easter is about listening to women preach the resurrection.  Easter is about putting down the sword and picking up the cross.  Easter is about denying the ways of the empire for the kingdom of peace.  Easter is about God embracing our Friday for the hope of Sunday” (Twitter).

But I have always wondered if there isn’t something more to their terror and their amazement.  Perhaps they’re thinking, “It was all true!  Everything Jesus told us – it was all true!”  The stories about his source of authority – having been sent by God.  The power that held sway over both people and the natural world around them.  The promise of suffering and death as well as the declaration that death would not have the final say.  And now a new summons – “Go, tell his disciples and Peter that [Jesus] is going ahead of you to Galilee” and that there, in Galilee, they will see him, “just as he told you.”

If these three faithful women are anything like most human beings they’re probably thinking, “OMG – this stuff is real – and we’re all in this up to our necks!  This stuff is real and if Jesus isn’t angry over the way we acted the last couple of days he’s probably going to expect a lot out of us.”  The way of Jesus was certainly a threat to the way of the world when he was alive and walking the dusty roads of Galilee and the crowded streets of Jerusalem.  How much more dangerous is a risen Christ who shows power not only over the world, but over death as well?  As Presiding Bishop Michael Curry says, “The way of Jesus is a threat to the way the world is – and [at the same time,] the hope of how the world can be” (Easter Message, 2018). 

And we, like the women, now know that resurrection means our call to follow Jesus is not only real – but it’s also expected of us by the risen Christ.

Author Frederick Buechner has written, “Anxiety and fear are what we know best…. Wars and rumors of wars…. We have heard so much tragic news that when the news is good we cannot hear it.”  But, [Buechner] reminds us, “Love is the victor.  Death is not the end.  The end is life.  His life and our lives through him, [and] in him.  Existence has greater depths of beauty [and] mystery…than the wildest visionary has ever dared to dream” (Synthesis CE, 4/1/2018).

And so we gather together this day to do so much more than dazzle one another with our Easter finery.  We gather together today to declare that the powers that brought about Good Friday may have their day – but the power of God to bring hope to a broken world, the power of God to bring peace to hearts in turmoil, the power of God to bring life out of death, has won this day.  As it has been said, “you [may be able to put] truth in the grave, but [Easter shouts out,] it won’t stay there!” (Clarence W. Hall)         

We gather together today to remember and to claim our kinship with the risen Christ – the One who proclaims even today the Dream of God – a dream of justice, of inclusion, of radical welcome, of peace, and of God's unending love.  And because Jesus lives, we can proclaim the grace of God, the peace of Christ, the promise of love, and the hope of resurrection power in our very lives this day.  And once that power and grace are found alive in our hearts, it is ours to bring to a world so desperately in need of God’s love.

The angel tells the women, and through them all the followers of Jesus throughout the ages, to go – we are to go and meet Jesus wherever and whatever our Galilees might be, and proclaim the same message of grace and love as did our Lord—wherever that may lead us. 

For in the end we have two choices.  We can go back to our nets, or we can roll away our own stones and follow Jesus.