silent Easter

from my message on 4/8/12 from Mark 16:1-8

According to Mark's Gospel, this is how that first Easter went.....(15 seconds of silence)...I know you are disappointed. I know that you are saying, "Pastor Lynn, we are underwhelmed." I know you were expecting running to the tomb, an appearance by the risen Christ to some of his disciples, maybe a meal where Jesus reconciles with followers, or maybe Jesus showing his wounds to prove he has been raised from the dead. There were no trumpets blasting in Mark, only the women fleeing the tomb, "and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." It was a silent Easter.

Are there any English majors in the room? Great, you are going to love this ending. In the Greek text, Mark literally ends this way, "they said nothing to anyone, they were afraid for...."
FOR is one of those Greek words that expects a phrase to follow it. They were afraid for... is this any way to end a sentence? a paragraph? a Gospel?

I have read the commentaries. Maybe the original ending got torn off of the manuscript. After all, papari is fragile stuff. This is the first instance of the "dog ate my homework" defense. If you read Mark's Gospel, you will find that later copyists try to add on at least 2 different endings. They try to overcome the silence of the original ending, borrowing material from other sources that make Mark more like the other Gospels.

Maybe the women were silent because they were in awe. Maybe what they had experienced was so overwhelming that they did not have the words to express it. Last night we had the first service of Easter, a service of baptism. Five children and one youth were baptized. The father of 3 little girls was trying to describe his experience of becoming a father. He did not start having children until he was in his 40's. He told me that when his first daughter was born and the nurse placed this tiny person in his hands, he couldn't speak. He looked into this face that was his face. He thought about being a co-creator with God, and there were no words.

I once had a Good Friday service at another congregation. We had read the passages that described the passion of the Christ. The sanctuary had slowly gotten darker and darker. Finally, at the crucifixion, even the Christ light was taken out of the worship space. All was darkness. All was quiet. In the worship bulletin, that was supposed to be the end, but people started streaming out of their seats, up to the chancel area, where they knelt in silent prayer. God showed up in the silence, outside of what was written in the liturgy. Maybe that is how it was that first Easter. It was silent, because the women didn't have the words to describe what they experienced.

Maybe they were scared. It says that they were alarmed, afraid. Certainly at the time that Mark wrote his Gospel, it was a dangerous thing to be a Christian. A believer could be persecuter or even put to death by being a follower of the Christ. Are we scared today? We live in a multi-cultural society, with people of many different faiths or no faith. I think we are afraid of offending others with our faith. We are afraid to go up against the rationalism of our age, those who can shoot us down with their logic. We may be embarrassed by the Gospel story. Maybe we are silent out of fear.

I think that Mark has a great ending, "they said nothing to anyone, they were afraid for...." I like his ending, because it makes the ending up to us. Tom Long tells the story of an actor who memorized the Gospel of Mark. He would perform the 16 chapters in one telling. The first time he did it, he came to this ending, "they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." There was an awkward moment of silence. He couldn't stand it. He blurted out, "Amen." Applause followed. Later, he reflected. Was the right thing....for him to get the applause. He began to end the performance exactly as Mark had written it. "They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid." What happened was this: the audience would sit in stunned silence for a moment, and then there came a holy buzz, "What did that mean? What are we supposed to do? Is that the end?" It puts the ending on us. We are the ones who are called to break the silence.

You may do that in a dramatic fashion like our organist, Sheryl. Tune in to CNN this next Sunday evening at 7 p.m. as she tells her story. Just over 2 years ago, Sheryl's husband flew his plane into the IRS building here in Austin. Sheryl tells how her faith has helped her deal with this terrible tragedy.

Sometimes it is not so dramatic. I heard of a middle school boy who had some friends who were Christians and one who was an atheist. His Christian friends were picking on the atheist. He stood up for the atheist. He apologized. He said, "I am sorry. This is not the way we are supposed to act."

Sometimes, you don't have to use many words at all. Join us on ReThink Church day in 2 weeks when we go out into the world to be the church in these some 10 service projects. Take care of animals or take clothes to the homeless at Church Under the Bridge. This "hands-on" ministry really resonates with young people.

Don't worry about the ending. The angel tells the women that Jesus goes ahead of them. He will meet them in Galilee. Galilee is code language for "the nations." Jesus is going ahead of us too wherever we go, preparing the way for us to tell his story.

The women must have broken the silence or else we wouldn't be here today. How will you write the ending of the gospel so that there will not be a silent Easter?