The Gospel of Mark ends with the young man sitting in the tomb saying, “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 naturally the women who heard him fled away in terror and amazement. This is a pretty lousy ending to the Gospel, and Mark really does end there. The sixteen verses following this scene were added later because, well, it was a pretty lousy ending to the Gospel. The church wants to focus on the victorious resurrected Jesus. We want to see Jesus. The thing is, Mark says, if you want to see Jesus, you need to follow him to Galilee, where the work of living as disciples of Christ begins.
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“And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you — you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today." Matthew 6:27-34
These words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount came to me as I was thinking of where we are in this season. As I write this... My house is decorated for Mardi Gras/Epiphany. From the Epiphany side, it is the season of light coming into the world. From the Mardi Gras side it is, at least for me, the season of celebrating friends with music and good food.
When most people around us were taking down their Christmas trees and putting away decorations for the year, my husband took down Christmas, then up went Mardi Gras with even more decorations than Christmas. The tree is the same, but the lights have changed to purple, green and gold, as have the decorations. Beads hang from wall sconces and line the stair rails. The music on the stereo in the evening has a New Orleans beat. Ash Wednesday I will leave the house in the morning, and when I return after evening service, all the decorations will be gone. When I walk in the door, the purple, green and gold that has been draping everything will be gone, and the feeling is stark. Lent has arrived. Thanksgiving is behind us (the holiday, not the practice) and we are headed toward Christmas. In between we have that season, which seems shorter every year, of Advent. Advent is from the Latin adventus "coming or arrival.” As I am being installed as your pastor the first Sunday in Advent, I wonder what is coming for us as community. I am excited to find out and look forward as we share that journey together.
I am also mindful of the season of Advent. It is a threefold coming that we anticipate. The baby Jesus coming as God incarnate in Bethlehem; Immanuel, God with us now; and the second coming of Christ where God will be manifest clearly and not dimly as we see the inbreaking of God at work in the world now. Each week we light a candle... I am not sure I would want to hitch my wagon to Peter or the other disciples. Certainly not given their track record up to now in the scriptures. They do not look like rocks. But now they are going to be the rock on which Jesus builds his church.
We have seen time and time again that the disciples crack under stress and that they do not comprehend what Jesus tells them. However, Jesus calls them. Dear Friends in Christ and Partners in Ministry,
During the Lent and Easter seasons, many of our readings are from the Fourth Gospel, commonly called, “John.” In those lessons, the writer refers again and again to “the Jews,” often in an unflattering manner. We all know that Jesus, the disciples, and almost everyone they interacted with were all Jews. The Fourth Gospel reflects social conditions in the time and place it was written, nearly a century after Easter. You may recall that St. Paul wrote of stopping at the local synagogue whenever he visited a new town. By the time John was written, however, both Jews and Christians were “circling the wagons” in the face of persecution, which meant defining clearly who was an insider and who was an outsider. Christian Jews were not welcome at synagogues. There was no trust between the two groups that had grown out of the destruction of the Temple and Temple-centered Judaism around 70 CE. Jesus was crucified by the Romans as a seditionist, but the gospel narratives – especially John – make it seem as if it were the Jewish people who were responsible for his crucifixion. Beloved of God, grace to you and peace. . .
The other day I was searching through one of our closets to find Valentine’s decorations and I came across this little red heart. It is inscribed with the word “Blessed”. I remember picking this out at a shop several years ago and I’m still a little surprised that I bought it. Truth be told, I have a love/hate relationship with the word “Blessed”. This may be a risky confession for a pastor to make. But I hear this word used a LOT, and used in ways that are puzzling to me. On All Saints Sunday, we make time to give thanks for the life and witness of those who have died in the faith. We lean into the promise given through Jesus’ resurrection for new life in God’s presence forever. We trust that in life or death we are not ever lost to God.
All this is a right, good and faithful thing we do together as part of the long faith history of God’s family in Christ Jesus. Especially today we give thanks to God for those who now rest from their earthly labor. We believe our mortal life is gifted through God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness with immortality. Old earthly life is exchanged for new heavenly life. But I have a question for each of you. It comes from the singer Peggy Lee. It’s her song that asks: is that all there is, is that all there is? In 1530 Martin Luther’s co-worker Philip Melanchthon constructed a confession of faith of 21 articles on matters of faith and 7 articles on protestant reform issues in an attempt to answer challenges raised by the Roman Catholic church. It forms the basis of Lutheran Christianity still.
This being an election year, you might be curious to learn what the Augsburg Confession says about our civic duties as Christians. While there were strong efforts by other Protestant groups to withdrawal from civic responsibilities, our Confession encourages the following engagement in such duties. Not long ago, I saw her in the parking lot in front of Safeway, getting into the passenger seat of a car across the aisle. Her back was hunched so far over that, even when she tilted her head back as far as it would go, she was still looking down. It was a lovely day. There was a gentle breeze. Wispy clouds danced across the blue sky. A couple of young women chatted next to the display of hanging plants, while a boy practiced his skateboard skills on the walkway, but the woman missed it all. All she could see was the cracked asphalt, with its oil stains and flattened fast food cups.
As I got out of my car, I couldn’t help wondering what her life must be like. It made me sad. I could imagine the pain in her back as she went about her business, and I found myself hoping I would never be hunched over like that. I found I couldn’t get her out of my mind. Then I read today’s Gospel lesson. “She was bent double, and quite unable to stand up straight.” |
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