Podcast of "Hope Springs from our Losing Battles" (MP3)
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
Mark 16:1-8
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Our reading this morning is
distinct among the gospel accounts of the resurrection. In Mark’s version we hear
a most unlikely resurrection story. It’s a resurrection without Jesus. We’re
left with an empty tomb, everything is left up in the air. Later editions of Mark’s
gospel add stories of Jesus with Mary Magdalene and the apostles. There is another
piece that adds a version of the ascension.
But these verses, the verses following the eighth, were added at least
250 years later. This oldest, most reliable version of Mark’s gospel leaves us
with an empty tomb, but that is not how it begins.
It begins with Mary Magdalene, Mary
the mother of James, and Salome with spices, spices they would use for their
Lord’s burial. Now, why bring the spices? The spices were to prepare the body
and should have been used before Jesus was placed in the tomb. But I ask then, why
the spices at all? The purpose of the spices was to preserve the body. The
preservation of the body and the aromatic quality of the spices would help keep
down the wretched smell of decay. After the three days from Friday to Sunday, a
corpse that was not handled properly would begin to stink. We learn this from
the death of Lazarus and he was placed in the tomb properly. Even from the
sealed tomb, there would be an odor.
Friends, these three women knew
they were about to fight a losing battle with the spices. From their combined
experience they would have known that when they reached the tomb what they were
prepared to do would have been at least ineffective and at worst a waste of
time. Still they went, not out of obligation, but out of love.
They also knew that once they
reached the tomb, opening it would have been nearly impossible. The stone was
probably round like a millstone. To seal the tomb it would have rolled and dropped
into a groove carved out for it. It would have been fairly easy to roll in, but
very difficult to roll out. They knew, they even said to one another that this
was going to be a losing battle. From their combined experience they would have
known that when they reached the tomb what they could do would have been at
least ineffective and at worst a waste of time. Still they went, not out of
obligation, but out of love.
Earlier this week I read a little
nugget of wisdom about human endeavor in scripture. This piece of wisdom was
that scripture is filled with human failure. It’s kind of demoralizing to say,
but it’s true. It doesn’t require a close study to see that people mess things
up. Sometimes messes are caused by disobedience. Other times it’s circumstances
playing themselves out. This is an example of the latter; there was really
nothing these women could do at the tomb. They were on a fool’s errand. But I
say again; they went, not out of obligation, but out of love.
When they arrived, they found what
they were not expecting. They found the tomb open. They did not find a stench.
They found a young man in a white robe and they were alarmed. Friends, we know
how this ends so we can smile in the firm and certain knowledge of what has
happened; but at this moment these women did not. Being “alarmed” would have
been the only responsible reaction to what they found at the tomb.
So the young man cries out “Do not
be alarmed!” (Yeah, right, sure…) Then he tells them while they were still alarmed and
on their way to being afraid, “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was
crucified. He has risen!”
The Reverend Doctor Michael Jinkins
wrote: “Over seventy years ago, a young minister named Karl Barth addressed a
group of ministers and told them why people came to church. His words became a clarion call to his
generation and they still echo today. He
said that on any given Sunday morning, when the bells ring calling the people
to worship, there is in the air an expectancy that something great, something
crucial, something momentous is going to happen. People, he said, come to church wanting to
know the answer to one question above all else: ‘Is it true?’”[i] This
ending of Mark’s gospel causes the reader to ask that very question.
Mark’s gospel has none of the meticulous
precision of Luke’s. Matthew’s many references to the Jewish Law are missing
too. Mark makes us ask questions—and this ending makes us ask the questions,
“Is it true? Did Jesus rise from the dead?” Today we testify, “Yes, he is
risen.”
This is a bold statement of faith.
It doesn’t come to us by scientific method, but that’s not what a faith
statement does. Faith is the “firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence
toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both
revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”[ii]
Our faith is founded on the truth
of the freely given promise in Jesus Christ, the Messiah given to us in the
word written and proclaimed, the promise that he is with us through the ages. Through
the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s own spirit, we are able to interpret the
word finding God’s loving kindness toward us as Jesus continually intersects
our lives.
Our faith cannot be founded on what
we do because to find faith in our failures is futile, and this is the Good
News. If our works are in vain then our hope can only come through the grace
and peace of our Lord Jesus. This morning we read of three women who approach
the Lord with hope, hope that their impending failure will have any effect at
all. They go to fight a losing battle, but by showing up, they see that by
Christ the battle is won.
Hope springs from their losing
battles, hope springs from our losing battles because our failures give God
room to work miracles.
Through faith and hope we find the
Lord at work in our lives. Through faith and hope we become free to live in the
truth of Jesus Christ. Through faith and hope, we can become sure of the
meaning of our own existence, our own humanity.
Through faith and hope can we say “He is risen.”
We testify our faith in Jesus as
our risen Lord using the words of the Apostle’s Creed. But the creed is not
about our faith, it is about the one in whom we have faith. The words describe
the triune God as the church understands each of the three persons. The creed
reminds us Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried; and on the third day he rose
again from the dead.[iii] The
words of the ancient church for over 1,800 years, the creed has helped us state
what we believe about the triune God.
We bear witness to our confidence
in the faith through the sacraments, the outward signs instituted by God to
convey inward grace.[iv] One of
the marks of the true church is the right administration of the sacraments.[v]
In the waters of our baptism we are
born, cleansed, and live. The waters provide refreshment for our bodies and our
lives. Baptism initiates us, brings us into the body of Christ. Jesus rose from
the waters of the Jordan
and when we come from the water we are new in Christ. From the tomb of the
waters and from the tomb of the grave, He is risen.
As we journeyed together along the
road to Golgotha this week we are fortified
with the meal of grain and vine, the bread and the juice. “Through this bread,
there comes about what we see in the gospel: a fellowship of pilgrims, a
fellowship gathered around the apostles, a fellowship of a meal that includes
everyone, a fellowship of one single pilgrim path to God.”[vi] This
is the meal we share until Christ comes again in glory.
People of faith and people seeking
faith want to know, “Is it true?” Mark leaves the question up in the air. Being
told “he is risen,” in the last verse of the gospel, the women who came to
prepare Jesus’ body left the tomb terrified and amazed. Barth frames our quest this
way: “They reach, not knowing what they do, towards the unprecedented
possibility of praying, of reading the bible, of speaking, of hearing and
singing of God.”[vii] For
us, God is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Through the power of the
Holy Spirit, we are able to answer Barth’s question with hope and confidence.
Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of
James and Salome left the tomb afraid to speak to anyone. They were told to
spread the news of the empty tomb, Jesus is returning to Galilee .
We are called to spread the good news too. Through the hope of God’s loving
kindness we can live a life of faith daily. We proclaim, we confess our faith
using the words of the creed. Through the sacraments, we participate in the outward
signs instituted by God to convey inward grace.
Through the water, the bread, and the wine we share in
the elements Jesus used to identify himself with the community. We become the
body of Christ as the church, through these elements of thanksgiving. Through
the word, faith, hope, and the sacraments we answer the question. This is how
we show the world what we believe. We do this not out of obligation, but out of
love. This is how we say, “Yes, it is true. He is risen. He is risen, indeed.”
[i] Jinkins,
Rev. Dr. Michael. Transformational
Ministry, Church Leadership and the Way of the Cross. Edinburgh :
Saint Andrew Press, 2002, page 33.
[ii] Calvin,
John. Institutes of the Christian Religion,
McNeill, John T. Ed., Volume III, Chapter 2, Section vii.
[iii] PC(USA )
Book of Confessions, 2.2
[iv]
Augustine
[v] PC(USA ),
3.18, 5.134
[vi] Rahner,
Karl, in Eucharist, A Source Book,
Liturgy Training Publications, 1999, Chicago, page 19
[vii] Ibid.
Jinkins
