The Rev. Canon Anne E. Kitch
April 15, 2006
Mark 16:1-8
Where do we go from here? Just what do you suppose we should do next? We’ve had new fire, the beautifully chanted exultet, great story telling, a baptism, it’s Easter…and the Eucharist is coming up. What more could you want out of one service? Out of one community? Out of life?
Where do we go from here? This might be what Jack’s parents are thinking about now. It took a big effort to get here: to this Church, to this moment, to this baptism. But, as they well know, Baptism is not the end. It is not simply a matter of getting the baby done. Greg and Cheryl are well aware that this is only the beginning. After all, they have just promised to help their son grow into the full stature of Christ. They have some work to do. And by the way, so do we. We all promised to help. I hate to break it to all of you gathered here, but none of us is finished yet…not with Jack’s baptism, and not with ours either.
Baptism is an important event in and of itself. After all, we have been so bold as to call down the Holy Spirit to enter into this newest Christian. Yet it is not the baptismal rite itself but where it leads that is ultimately the point. Baptism is a threshold experience. We do not remain at the font. Jack is already older than he was when we poured water over his head. He is older than he was when we welcomed him into the household of God. He is older than he was when I stared this sermon. He has crossed the threshold of baptism and moved on into his life in Christ. Tonight, we are all moving with him. Did you feel it? Did you get wet? Tonight we too are carried along in the baptismal waters. This baptism recalls a knowledge of Gods’ presence in each of us.
So, where do we go from here? We ask the question because the answer is not always clear. Sometimes we ask the question with confidence, with a certain daring and a sense of completion. How could it get any better than this? But there are times when this question marks confusion, a sense of uncertainty or even despair. Often we don’t know what to do next, either because we are so full, so satiated and so at the top of our game that there seems no place left to go, or because our path seems so dark and we feel so lost that we don’t know if there is any way open to us at all. At those times we feel we have reached a dead end, exhausted all options.
Where do we go from here? This must have been what the women felt when they encountered the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome had been with Jesus for months, even years. These disciples who had traveled with him, shared meals with him and learned from him. These faithful women stood with him even at the foot of the cross. And after that horrible day, they lived through the next empty one.
I think it was the day after the crucifixion, the long Sabbath day after Jesus was laid in the tomb, when they hit the wall. I think it was on the day after, when these women arrived at a dead end. Do you know what the day after feels like? The day after disaster? Your adrenaline has run out and reality sets in. I think they were lost and thought they couldn’t get any more lost. And then…and then… on the next day…the third day, when the sun had just risen, they encountered the empty tomb.
What would it really be like to visit the graveside of your friend, perhaps with flowers in hand, and find an open and empty grave? Despite everything they had ever heard about Jesus and the messiah, they could not have expected this. No wonder they were alarmed! Instead of a body, they find a man in white, just sitting there. And then the man (an angel, perhaps ?) speaks, “Don’t be alarmed!” As if saying that ever helps ! Honestly, it would be a bit like someone telling first time parents not to be alarmed when their newborn suddenly spikes a fever for the first time. It’s not as if these women have encountered a resurrected savior before! Nor do they encounter one now. Jesus is not there.
“You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified,” says the man in white. “He has been raised; he is not here. He’s gone on ahead. You’ll catch up with him in Galilee. Just go and get Peter and the rest and meet him there.” Oh. He’s gone ahead to Galilee. Well that makes complete sense! Thank you very much sir, we’ll just be on our way now…..No. What happened next was those women got the heck out of there. As soon as their frozen hearts and legs would let them, they fled. They fled from the tomb seized with terror and amazement. And apparently they forgot their errand because in this gospel telling, “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”
That is how Mark’s gospel account ends: and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. Now if you go home and look un the gospel of Mark in your bible, you may find an added ending. Because the people that read Mark’s gospel couldn’t leave it there. Later writers added a whole bit about Mary Magdalene meeting the resurrected Jesus. Clearly that did happen. We have other accounts of it in the gospels of Luke, Matthew and John. Clearly the women did tell someone eventually, or else none of us would be here for such a very long church service tonight. But Mark’s gospel account ends in fear and silence. Perhaps that is a realistic response. What would it really be like to find yourself face to face with a fulfilled prophecy? How would you react if you encountered a resurrected Messiah when you went to visit the cemetery? If we fear death (and I think in our heart of hearts we all do), then I believe we fear resurrection more. I think if face to face with the reality of a risen messiah, we would be terrified.
Where do we go from here? Here we are, more than three quarters of the way into this Easter Vigil. We’ve had a new fire, some great stories, a baptism, an empty tomb….and terror and silence. Where do we go from here? Literally, tonight we go to the table. We make Eucharist. We will share an Easter feast and we will remember that Jesus lived and died and rose again. We will remember that because the tomb is empty, our lives are not. We will remember that what opens for those women with the empty tomb, is the possibility that all that Jesus said is true. He is the messiah. He is imbued with Godhead. He is the one who will save, has saved us all. And if that is true, then so is something else. All that Jesus said about us, and all that he calls us to be, is very real. As we make Eucharist tonight, we will remember that like those dry bones in the valley God can breathe life into us. God does breathe life into us. We are to live and to live to the fullest. We are to live into the full stature of Christ.
We will break bread and share in the one cup and be filled with the Holy Spirit. We will rejoice and be sent out into the world to share in this good news; all of us--even baby Jack (who is even older now). We will be sent out. Sometimes that will terrify us. Nevertheless, the story will be told and Christ’s redeeming love will continue to call others to the baptismal waters and the Eucharistic feast and we will go on. So--where will you go from here?
