This is What Really Matters: Relationship With God
Easter, 2006
Ralph DiBiasio-Snyder

Mark 16:1-8

Introduction to the Scripture

We have heard much these past two weeks of the newly published ancient text, called The Gospel of Judas. Not wanting to be among the uninformed, especially since in my profession I'm supposed to know about such things, I bought a copy for myself this week. And it is interesting, from a scholarly point of view I suppose. Not much "gospel" about it - "good news." Actually, I couldn't find any "good news" - nothing about the love of God, the joy of knowing God, forgiveness, or teaching about people loving each other, the sort of thing I think is "good news."

But you can decide for yourself, as always! If you do read it, keep in mind that it was written about a century later than the earliest of the four "usual" gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - Mark being the earliest. The gospel of Mark is the shortest of the four - its story of Jesus is told very quickly - he skips the Christmas story altogether, starting with Jesus' baptism - and Jesus is constantly moving around Galilee, healing and teaching, being rather secretive about who he is, not wanting people to call him Messiah. Mark's gospel tells us of the betrayal, of Jesus' trial and crucifixion, and then we come to the last chapter, and a surprisingly abrupt, puzzling conclusion. Listen to one account of what happened on that first Easter morning, as told by the Gospel of Mark.

‼

"They were afraid . . ." So much for an inspiring, uplifting, confident ending. So much for "He is risen; he is risen indeed!" Mark: why do you leave us hanging? What do you mean, they were seized with terror and amazement? How could they say nothing to anyone about what they had seen and heard?

There is an actor who performs the entire Gospel of Mark on stage - bringing to life the stories about Jesus and his teachings. People like his show very much - except for the ending, that is. The first time he performed the ending, just as we heard it today, he finished with "they were afraid" and "stood there awkwardly, shifting from one foot to the other, the audience waiting for more, waiting for closure, waiting for a proper ending." Finally he said "Amen!" and left the stage while the relieved audience applauded loudly and gratefully. [Thomas G. Long, The Christian Century, April 4, 2006].

But later he realized that by pronouncing an affirming "Amen!" he had really not been faithful to Mark's intention. Mark left it dangling . . . and, he decided, so should he in his performances. He did so, leaving his audiences with an obvious "discomfort and uncertainty" that was not appreciated by everyone.

The problem with Mark's provocative if uncomfortable non-ending was felt early on in the Christian community. So much so that two endings were added to Mark - endings with the disciples going about preaching with miraculous power, and Jesus himself not just missing from the tomb, but up in heaven on a throne! You can read those endings in the footnotes of your Bible, but everyone agrees that these were later additions - endings that clear up the ambiguity of Mark's story, with a triumphant ending! That's more like it - don't you think?

We understand that. We want - especially on Easter Sunday - we want to hear some ringing affirmations, don't we? We don't want to read about witnesses to the resurrection who instead of being seized with joy and confidence were filled with terror and amazement! Who wants to hear, "they were afraid?" Wouldn't we rather hear something like, They believed the angel, and had no doubts and were so happy that they gladly ran to tell the others who believed every word and loved each other and lived happily ever after, and Jesus is back in heaven and all's right with the world.

But we would have to close our eyes to the real world to affirm that. We know, like Mark knew, that the ultimate triumph of goodness and truth, mercy and peace, liberty and justice for all . . . we know, like Mark knew, that the ultimate resurrection of the world is yet to be. We know that our world - personally and as a world community - is still stuck in Good Friday. We live in a Good Friday world, as much as we long for the Sunday that is to come. Mark wants us to know that.

Writer Annie Lamott in her book Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith says this:

And that's why I like the way Mark ends his story. It's not that he didn't know about and believe in Jesus' resurrection. He knew that the women did finally tell their story, and that the rest of the disciples came to believe them, and in fact experience the risen Christ in their midst. Mark knew that the handful of first disciples grew into a movement of faith whose foundation was the Easter affirmation, Christ is risen!

And we have a part in that story. Lamar Williamson has said that the ending to Mark "puts the ball in our court . . . It puts us to work. We must decide how the story should come out." [Lamar Williamson, Mark, John Knox, 1983] We, by our lives, determine the whole story. And that is a crucial Easter message for us.

I hope that you have been able to catch the TV ad produced by the United Church of Christ, called Ejector Pew.

The ad is part of a larger identity campaign of the UCC, and the symbol for the campaign is a simple comma. It comes from Gracie Allen's statement, Never place a period where God has placed a comma." You see, a period means it's done. A period means that everything God is ever going to say has been said. A period means that the story is complete, over, finished, ended - we know all that we need to know.

A comma, on the other hand, means only a pause in the story. A comma means it's NOT done. A comma means that the story goes on, it is yet to be finished, it is open-ended. We don't know yet all that God has for us, what God might yet have to say to us and the world. "God is still speaking," we say. And that's a little scary, really. We are like the women at the tomb that morning, seized with terror and amazement because the good news of the empty tomb IS good news, but it is unfinished news. The empty tomb is no period, not even an exclamation point. It is God's great comma. We have yet, really, to understand what it might mean to us and the world.

Some church traditions major on exclamation points - in bold, all-or-nothing statements about God and God's ways. This is the way it is, they say. Just repeat it often enough and you'll come to believe it! I prefer the comma for my faith, because it tells us that God is still speaking and working . . . that there are new resurrections for us and the world, if we will look for them, if we will work for them.

We have been talking through the Lenten season about the things the "really matter" in life. We have talked about relationships - with family and friends, with spouses and partners, and co-workers, with the world. But what of our relationship with God? Is it not this relationship that matters, perhaps the most? The very phrase "relationship with God," though, is fraught with difficulties. We understand how to relate to people with whom we can talk, people we can see with our eyes, and hear with our ears. Relating to people has its challenges - we know that - but at least we know where to start.

But God? How do we relate to pure Spirit? You know there are many ways, from worship to prayer to service. Each of us must find our way of cultivating a relationship with our Creator. But what must be common to us all is this: we relate to God, in the end, in so far as we relate to each other. Loving my brother and sister in need is, as Jesus taught us, loving God. In as much as you have done it unto the least of my brothers and sisters, you have done it unto me. Elsewhere we read, God is love; whoever lives in love abides in God, and God lives in them. [1 John 4:16] That is relationship!

What really matters in life is truly our relationships, and our relationship with God has a lot to do with how we live out the unfinished story of the resurrection, how we discern a God who still speaks, how we love one another.

Let me conclude this Easter meditation with a quotation from a man whose life and words glowed with the indisputable presence of God within him, reflecting the depth of his faith, and the profoundly rich relationship he had with God. William Sloane Coffin passed this week from this life to the next, and today he is living his first Easter no longer seeing God "in a mirror, dimly, but [now] face to face." [1 Corinthians 13:12] A United Church of Christ pastor and scholar and activist, he believed that God was still speaking to a hurting world, and a struggling church. He spoke the truth, but always in love, and always with hope. During the 60s and 70s Bill Coffin served as the university chaplain at Yale where is spoke passionately in favor of Civil Rights and against the Vietnam War. In the 1980s he headed the anti-nuclear SANE/Freeze campaign, speaking out against the US nuclear weapons buildup. More than anyone I have had the privilege to meet, he was a man who took seriously the command of the angel in the tomb to go and tell of Christ's resurrection, and of the ongoing presence of the resurrected Christ in the world, commanding us to live in peace, with justice. As one UCC leader said of him this week, he was urgent and clear, but never stern. His love for life in the world that is, never blinded him to a yearning for life in the world that ought to be.

One Easter Sunday morning William Sloane Coffin said this:

And then he concludes,

"Be not afraid" said the angel. But of course we are afraid. May God on this Easter morning revive us, to make us bold to live through our fears, to tell the story, that we might truly be fully alive, and reflect God's glory in the world. Amen.