“Get Out There and Look for Jesus”

You know these three women, the faithful followers of Jesus who were first to the tomb that first Easter morning?  Mark says they “fled from the tomb” in “terror and amazement,” but I don’t think they started out afraid.  They had seen too much death in their lives to be afraid of death – I think they were afraid of the hope emerging within them.  I think they were afraid of giving voice to their faith.

I mean, these weren’t three scared teenage girls sneaking into a dark graveyard in some stupid movie.  It was just after dawn and they were three grown women.  In their world, they were just getting up on “the first day of the week,” in our world an ordinary Monday morning, to do a chore – an ugly chore, and extra chore, but sadly a familiar chore for women in their time – to prepare a son’s body for burial, to clean it up properly and make it smell better with perfumed oils.  And so, like so many hard-working women and mothers today, they would get up early and get it all done before anyone else even woke up. They weren’t happy about it, but they were prepared for the job and knew what to expect, just as we know what to expect when we go to a wake at a funeral home.

These were some brave women, though.  Don’t get me wrong.  Remember, these were the same three who sat vigil at Golgotha and watched Jesus die over 6 miserable hours on the cross.  Mark 15, v. 40 says many women were “looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.”  And so they knew preparing the body – or RE-pairing it – would be awful, messy work – the Romans had stripped and beaten that poor boy before they even got out the nails to crucify him.  At 3pm when Jesus finally died, it got dark and began to thunder, so they had to help Joseph of Arimathea work to quickly claim the body from Pilate.  Sabbath began at sunset, and it looked like rain.  So they had to hurry.

Mark says Joseph wrapped the body in a new linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb carved out of a rocky hillside. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. I’m betting those 3 strong women helped with that – that’s why they knew how heavy it was.  Mark just says, “⁴⁷Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.” The job wasn’t quite done right so they were planning to come back at the beginning of the new week to finish up properly. It’s not exactly our funeral customs, but we get it.  We would do the same thing for a friend whose son had died.  They did it because it could have easily been any one of their sons.  That other Mary was the mother of a disciple, James the Lesser.  You know she was happy that he and the rest of the 12 ran away from Gethsemane and were safe in hiding.  Real moms are like that – we are practical.  We want our sons to play it safe and stay alive, because we love them so much.

And poor Mary – her boy Jesus had been executed at “the place of the skull” – that stinking bone yard outside the city where the filthy Romans nailed the children of Israel onto crosses every day.  No mother should have to see her baby’s body in that condition.  You see? Their offer to go and anoint the body of their friend Mary’s son was their version of us bringing over those “holy casseroles” of the mainline Protestant churches. When a tragedy is too much for words, when we don’t know what else to do or what else to say, we do what we know how to do.  We offer the comfort we know how to offer.   And we prefer to stay well inside our own “comfort zone.” Death customs are like that – they give us traditions to cling to when our grief is pulling our world apart.

So Mary’s friends were doing the best they could to comfort her.  They were going through the motions of their culture’s rituals, so of course they were startled by the empty tomb and the young man they met inside.  But I’m sure they were much more terrified by what he told them to do next: “Go, tell [Jesus’s] disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” OK, well, that was way outside their comfort zone!  Women back then were not even legally allowed to serve in court as witnesses.  How would they begin to testify about a miracle they hadn’t even seen?  You can just hear them on the road back from the tomb.  “We can’t tell anyone about this.  We just can’t.  And even if we could, nobody would listen to us.  We might get stoned to death for bearing false witness.  We’re not prophets. We’re not lawyers or priests.  And if anyone did listen, there’s no way anyone would believe us.” Mary Magdalene had to know that was true.  The Bible says she had been possessed with 7 demons.  People would just say she was crazy again if she dared to open her mouth.  (And the resurrection stories in the other gospels say they were right, of course – they say the disciples did not believe the women at first.  They believed them to be “an idle tale.”)

So what changed for these women, the first witnesses of the resurrection?  Obviously, they told someone, or you wouldn’t have had such a hard time finding a seat in church here today.  What gave them the courage to speak up and share the Good News of God’s eternal and steadfast love?   How did they find their own voices?

What I think happened is that did as the mysterious stranger told them.  They put one foot in front of the other and started walking – even though they doubted.  I know many of you have done that – as you got your first long look inside the dark tomb – as you left the doctor’s office with the diagnosis you didn’t want to hear, as you left the ER without your loved one’s body.  Don’t you love how in Mark’s version, the first account of the Good News we think that was told, the women didn’t describe the strange young man as an angel, but as guy “in a white robe”? These three women were way too level-headed to jump to a “woo woo” conclusion that brought Heaven and angels into the picture.  You know?  “He was just there, this guy in a white robe – know what I’m saying?”  But they did have just enough faith to work up the courage to do what he suggested – they took the first steps away from the tomb, and away from their grief and fear.  They did get out there and started looking for Jesus.  And that’s what I think really changed them.  I bet they drew courage from each other as they walked and talked on the way back home again, as they practiced telling the story to each other. 

Isn’t that how all faith-sharing really starts?  Think about the last time you had the nerve to speak out loud what it is that you really believe about God and faith and other matters of life and death.  It takes some guts in our sarcastic society, to work up the nerve to find a voice to speak in awe about the mystery of holy love – eternal things, sacred things. We have a stand-up comedian on every channel – where are our poets?

When was the last time you spoke aloud what was really in your heart?  Were you with a priest or a pastor, your psychologist or doctor?  Or maybe your hair dresser or bartender?  That’s when the real confessions start, right, at closing time?  Maybe it was with a stranger on an airplane, or over dinner with your spouse or best friend? 

Think about it.  Do you remember the first time you went deep and shared what was really on your heart? Do you remember how good it felt, to have the freedom to wonder about your destiny and your part in the universe? Do you remember your first feeling that you were sure God was with you because of the trust and peace you felt?  Maybe it was at bedtime when you were little.  Maybe it was when you first fell in love. Maybe even it was here in this church – on Christmas Eve, at Easter Sunrise, right now? In our “Unbinding Your Heart” Sunday night adult study, sharing our thoughts on faith has become so addictive that we’ve decided to continue with a new series after Lent.  But the new book, “Unbinding Your Soul,” calls us not just to look inside our own hearts but to get out there in the real world – in our own personal “Galilees” – and to look for places where holy love is at work, and to get better at naming them as real “God sightings.”

I guarantee you that our post-Easter world will start to transform if we really look for Jesus everywhere we go, and if we can work up the nerve to share our stories of our own “God sightings.” Where is your “Galilee”? Where might you find Jesus today?   

Just this week I saw the face of Christ on Jeanine Hanewicz as she told her “Wellspring of Welcome” story at Lenten Lunch.  I saw Jesus in my husband as he helped Rod Schmaling carry the cross on our Good Friday walk. I saw the glory of God in Sue Boughton’s granddaughters as they climbed up into the hospital bed to snuggle with her like a couple of puppies.  I saw the Holy Spirit radiate from Ashley Zennis right here in this spot, in this meetinghouse yesterday, as she looked into her beloved Mike’s eyes at their wedding.  But the best part of all happened before that, out front. 

I can testify that I heard a real joyful noise, directly from the heart of God – and it came from the bikers who happened to be stopped at the traffic light out front when Ashley was coming up the front walk to get married.  They were so cool in all that black leather, revving their Harleys – but they went wild when they got an eyeful of Ashley – with her elegant updo, and her pearls, and her gorgeous wedding dress.  She was a dream!   It was true – they were seeing the glory of the Lord and they couldn’t hold back their shouts of praise!  They believed in love with all their hearts at that moment, and they couldn’t stop themselves from cheering and shouting at the top of their lungs. 

It is true.  Believe the Good News!  Christ is alive again, and his spirit of holy joy brings new life to anyone willing to get out there and meet him – whether on a Harley out there on the road or here inside our church.  Get out there and look for Jesus.  I promise this – he’s waiting out there for you!

Thanks be to God for this Good News.  Amen.

 

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Mark 16:1-8

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ²And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” ⁴When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. ⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. ⁶But he said to them, “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. ⁷But 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.” ⁸So 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.