Easter Sunday, April 16
Mark 16:1-8
“Abrupt Endings and Embodied Futures”

A young woman living on a plantation in the antebellum South captures the eye of every young man around her, except, of course, the one she loves. When the man of her desire marries her best friend, the young woman’s passions for him do not diminish.

But enter a dashing and equally headstrong gentleman who clearly is a match for the young woman. In the midst of their memorable confrontations and quotable spats, war breaks out and she marries another man, perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of spite for the dashing gentleman who seems to have spurned her attention.

But, alas, her new husband dies of pneumonia. The war is not going well, and their side is losing. They are forced to leave their home. After a grueling struggle, and finally an end to the war, they make their way back. Miraculously, the homestead, though having been ransacked and deserted, is still standing.

After years of reconstruction and traumatic struggle, and yet another marriage that ends in death and the painful realization that she doesn’t really love the man of her young dreams, the woman, not so young anymore, is in the arms of the dashing gentleman, and he asks for her hand in marriage.

Then she…


Another young woman, a girl, really, has become disenchanted with life at home, a boring repetition of chores and school work. During a terrible storm, the girl is swept away to another land, very different from her own. In this new world, there is nothing boring in the least! Even so, she longs for home. However, she discovers that she must take a journey in order to find her way back home.

As she progresses on her expedition, she meets other, very unique, characters along the way. Each one in some way or another is looking for something to complete their life. The girl invites them, one after the other, to join her in her quest.

Soon, however, they come to realize that something… actually someone, stands in the way of the fulfillment of all of their dreams. This person seeks to block all attempts at the band of travelers from reaching their destination, in large part because they hold the key to her own life’s fulfillment. For her malevolent dream to be fulfilled the dreams of the others would have to be dashed.

At the climax of the story, as the motley crew arrive at their destination, they discover the “mighty one” who is to fulfill their dreams is just as simple and common as they are, and has no magic nor miracles to allow them to realize their hopes.

At this very point they…



Three women, who had been with their beloved friend and teacher for years, providing for him and his other students as they traveled the land sharing words and deeds of healing, transformation, and hope have been witnesses to unspeakable horror. Their beloved instructor has been unjustly sentenced as a traitor of the state and is executed like a common criminal.

A wealthy man, who up to this point had been secretly a follower of the teacher, comes forth publicly and asks to bury the body in his own family’s crypt. Since the murder happens on the cusp of a religious holiday, any appropriate preparation of the body must wait for several days.

Early, on the morning of the first day on which they could get to their teacher’s corpse, these three women arrive at the burial chamber uncertain of how they would manage to get in. But their concerns are moot because the crypt is open and the body is missing. A mysterious young man is present, however, and instructs the women to relax. Their associate, he says, is not dead but lives and has gone on ahead of them.

But they are frightened almost to death and excited out of their mind for…



Paul Harvey made famous his dangling storylines in his radio program, “The Rest Of The Story.” He would tell one half of a story and then, with a commercial pause in between, he would return with the story-behind-the-story, “the rrrrrest of the story!”

We do know the “rest of the story” of the three stories I shared, don’t we? Of course in the first, Margaret Mitchell’s epic story of life in the South before, during, and after the Civil War, Scarlett O’Hara does marry Rhett Butler. Even so, life does not end up easy nor happy for either. There have been attempts to create further storylines for the characters from Gone With The Wind, but as more and more people read the original book and see the original movie, the first tragic ending will always be etched in our minds.

In the second story we all know that Dorothy does, in fact, get back to her home in Kansas – and finds it to be a wonderful and caring place at that. Her companions along the Yellow Brick Road each find within themselves the very attributes for which they were longing. Though L. Frank Baum’s original story, The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, ended ever so slightly differently, and he did write subsequent stories, the 1939 movie indelibly printed in our minds the sepia-toned image of Dorothy in her bed, surrounded by family and friends who loved here, reassuring her that she was safe and sound.

So, then, must we also believe that the third story, that of the women arriving at the empty tomb and the resurrection of Jesus Christ also has more to the story than the awkward, incomplete ending we read today. Surely it must have a complete and full “happy ending?” We know, don’t we, that Mary Magdalene actually sees her “rabbi” and teacher on the way back from the garden? We are sure, aren’t we, that Thomas’s uncertainty about Jesus’ bodily resurrection caused Jesus to appear and invite Thomas to touch his wounded hands and side? We repeat each Easter season the tender tale of Jesus on the seashore, preparing a meal of fish for the disciples to share, and Jesus’ hauntingly beautiful words to Peter, “If you love me, feed my sheep.” This is part and parcel of the Resurrection account, is it not? And then, of course, we cannot forget the majestic account of Jesus on the mountain, giving the final instructions before he is taken into heaven: “Go, ye therefore, and teach all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost.” We’re not just imagining this scene, are we?

Yes, we do know these stories of the Resurrected Jesus, and they are biblical, but they are not the end of the story for the Gospel writer Mark. Mark’s Gospel is famously known for having neither stories of Jesus birth nor stories of bodily resurrection appearances of Jesus. While your Bible probably has more text following verse 8, those endings are some of the most suspiciously out-of-place pieces of scripture there are. If the translation you have is honest, it will have the remaining text in brackets, with footnotes indicating the uncertainty of the endings, of which there are at least two.

As a side note: The disputed ending of the Gospel of Mark is a delight to me because it is one of the most obvious reminders that Holy Scripture was never, ever meant to be read in a literalistic, dogmatic, or legalistic way. God chose to channel the divine text through the hands, hearts, and minds of human beings FOR A PURPOSE! Every Bible is the work of many humans, from collectors to interpreters to printers to readers. Such clear disagreements in the text are there to remind us that the Holy Spirit must be present in the ongoing interpretation, as much as at the writing, and that ultimately the Bible is not to be worshipped, but God alone.

Now, back to our missing “rest of the story.” If Scarlett can marry Rhett, and Dorothy can make it back to Kansas, why can’t Jesus appear in resurrected form in Mark’s gospel?

There are a variety of reasons why scholars are certain that the added endings are not from Mark. The language is radically different, as if I were to begin speaking in Elizabethan English in the middle of a sermon. Also, the most original Greek manuscripts indicate that there was quite literally a dangling participle in verse 8. If we read it in the Greek, you would have heard: “They said nothing to anyone. They were afraid for…” Scholar Lamar Williamson, Jr. highlights this most poetically: “When is an ending not the end? When a dead man rises from the tomb – and when a Gospel ends in the middle of a sentence.” (1.)

Okay, so it happened. But why? Why did this odd ending occur? Was it simply an accident of history? The final words were smeared off the page by someone eating hummus and pita bread while reading the story. Or perhaps the last page of the manuscript was eaten by the author’s dog. Or was it, as beloved Disciples preacher C. William Nichols speculates, that as Mark was writing this down, as official stenographer to the Apostle Peter, he was so taken up with the powerful realization of Christ’s resurrection, he just couldn’t wait to go spread the Good News himself! “Mark must have thrown down his stylus and said, ‘Where do I go enlist?’” (2.)

Or were there more intentional, and perhaps even spiritual reasons for the sudden end to this story. Perhaps Mark was wanting us to experience Easter in such a way as to add to our faith, not take away from it.

I believe the abruptness of the ending of Mark’s gospel has a purpose, whether he intended to end the story there or not. We’ve heard the story so many times, and have all four gospel accounts, not to mention a few television miniseries and documentaries, conflated into one, that it is hard to really imagine the story ending so suddenly.

Hear it again, and try to clear your mind of expectations and familiar and pat endings.
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But 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. But 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.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone. They were afraid for…
They fled with terror and amazement, they were afraid for… why were the women, who had been through thick and thin for Jesus, fleeing, afraid, fearful because of nothing. I mean, literally, nothingness… and empty tomb… a crypt void of a body, of death, of Jesus. Well, it helps to really get into the actual Greek. Three words are used for the emotions the women felt that day: tromos – to be in a state of trembling or quaking with fear, sometimes used to describe the anxiety of one who distrusts his or her ability completely to meet all requirements, but does one’s utmost to fulfill his or her duty. Add that to ekstasis, a state of amazement, of “blended fear and wonderment.” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” says the Proverb. The final word used, and this is in reference to saying nothing to anyone, is phobeo, to be seized with alarm, to be afraid of something, or to treat with reverential obedience. What if, rather than timidity and nervousness, we saw terror, amazement, and fear as indicating humility,“holy awe,” and reverence on the part of the women? (3.)

Then the empty tomb becomes a symbol of resurrection faithfulness, based on the promises they and we have heard directly from Jesus. Instead of brokenness and failure, what if we saw the empty places, the unfinished stories, the half-sentences of our lives as ripe with possibility for the resurrection proclamation? Would that change our perspectives?

Presbyterian pastor, Patrick J. Willson, explores this further,
The jagged edges of these final verses do, in fact, trace Mark's pastoral wisdom. He refuses to tie the loose ends of the gospel into a tidy bow of fleeting consolations. The final verses are ambiguous: a promise greeted by fear; a pledge that that we will "see him" swamped by our own uncertainty and dread. What Mark's ending lacks in romance it makes up for in sheer realism. Isn't this the world we live in? No enchanted world of thinly fabricated happily-every-afters, but a world in which we hold tightly to the promise and fearfully tread our way through a tangle of doubts and amazements. (4.)
Even as I preach this, this pushes my buttons. Why do I find Mark’s Gospel so compelling? Me, the guy who likes everything to be wrapped up into a nice, neat little package? Me, the guy who specializes in trying to bring things to completion? Me, the one who dreams in Technicolor tidy endings? Why would I, of all people, be drawn to a story that ends with mystery and amazement and fear and uncertainty?

I think it’s because that is how life is, and I just can’t deny it. Reality is for each and every one sitting here in this sanctuary today, that we don’t know the end of the story! Oh, we’ve been told by many people how our story might end. There are some beautiful endings predicted for most of us. [I can’t repeat to you good folks some of the places I’ve been told I’m headed to, but let’s just say some people think my mode of transportation will be a handbasket!]

But, seriously, we also have reliable sources – certainly three other amazing gospels – which tell us that Jesus was seen in a bodily resurrection and that the evidence is true and worthy of our belief. But just for a moment, just for today, we can pretend that all we have is this story from the hand of someone named Mark and he, for whatever reason, ends with a half sentence. “They were afraid for…” Like a smart English teacher, Mark finds a way to draw us into the action. An open sentence catapults us into the story. We are there, for we don’t know the end to Jesus’ story and we don’t know the end of our story, either.

Could it be, then, that we must actually live out our lives in order for the story of Jesus to be completed? Could what we do day in and day out in our hum drum lives in the year 2006 actually have an effect on how the story might end?

Oh, I don’t think there’s any question as to who’s in charge of the story. And I’m not asking you to question the big picture, Creator God-stuff. But I am asking you to let loose of a comfortable, rote, familiar view of the resurrection long enough to imagine what difference it makes in your life. Scholar Maria Sabin writes, “Mark's open-endedness is purposeful, inviting members of each faith-community to complete the meaning for themselves. To respond to that invitation is to acknowledge that Mark's Gospel has implications for our own time.” (5.)

So what clues do we have in order to envision a possible ending. One way is to look at the characters at the end of Mark’s gospel and ask the necessary question: what did they have to go on in order to figure out how the story would end, and what did they do to live out the story. If they didn’t have a living, breathing body, what did they have to go on? They had Jesus’ promises. Again and again in Mark’s gospel, Jesus tells them he would rise from the dead and that they should believe in this promise.

But isn’t that how it is with us? We have the promises of God in Jesus, but we don’t have a body to prove it. Like Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Solome, we only have words and our task is to decide if we are going to live changed lives based on promises, on words, or will we forever be waiting for, postponing life for evidence, proof, something convincing beyond a shadow of a doubt? Renown Disciples preacher, Fred Craddock, affirms, “Mark did not need an appearance of the risen Christ to affirm his faith in the resurrection. Faith can be expressed by adding an appearance after death and burial or it can be expressed by remembrance of Jesus' repeated promise of a resurrection. Mark chose the latter… At the tomb the angel said to tell his disciples and Peter that he would meet them in Galilee, "just as he told you." The recollection of the words of Jesus is the stuff of faith.” (6.)

But still, isn’t it downright dangerous, even foolish for God to place the end of the story into the laps of such a humble lot? Why would God rely on our believing the promises and living out the words of faith? I’ve likened the disciples to the Keystone Cops, trying to do their best, but always falling all over each other in the process. But somehow, out of the fumbling and the bumbling, the disciples manage to get the message out, to proclaim this transforming news that God has come and lived among us and we are different because of it and must live life differently because of it.

It makes no sense otherwise. If we aren’t partners in the story of redemption, then we’re all just puppets doing what has been planned for us. If our theology of creation revolves around each and every one of us being partners with God in creating the world as we know it, co-creators, then most certainly God will need us to finish “the rest of the story.” It’s not about God proving some high and mighty principle to other gods around the universe. Salvation and redemption are about convincing US to live lives that are filled with hope and with joy and with compassion and with perseverance and with honesty and with love, lots and lots of love.

I am reminded of the incomplete and yet powerful resurrection account in the musical “Godspell” as produced by our marvelous Near West Theatre this last November. Based on Mark’s gospel, the production does not have an official bodily resurrection scripted. Instead, it ends with the cast singing triumphantly, “Long Live God.” But what Near West did, to capture our imaginations as to how we might envision “the rest of the story,” they end with the “resurrected” Jesus, not on stage, but coming from behind the audience and filming the cast/disciples/audience singing, and the images being projected on the screen in real time.

There, we had our answer right in front of our eyes. WE were the resurrection! The young man was right, we should not look for a body in the tomb, because WE ARE THE RESURRECTED BODY OF CHRIST! That’s the only way it will truly work. We must take the promises given to us and believe in them, not wait to be convinced by nail-scarred hands or pierced side. We know enough to realize there is never enough such physical evidence to prove resurrection. Resurrection can only be proven by how the followers live out their lives. How we live out the promises of Jesus.

My beloved, Mark has done us a huge favor by leaving us with a dangling participle, an open-ended sentence. He has invited us… no reminded us that we must not look for the living among the dead, we must be the resurrection of Christ to a living and breathing and yearning world. The story does have an ending, because each of us are writing it as we live our lives.

Scarlett got her man. Dorothy found her way home. And Jesus?… he has us!

And that really is “the rest of the story!”

Amen!

Rev. Allen V. Harris
Franklin Circle Christian Church
www.FranklinCircleChurch.org

1. Lamar Williamson, Jr., Mark: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary For Teaching And Preaching, p. 283John Knox Press, Atlanta, GA, 1983
2. C. William Nichols, Day By Day Through The New Testament: The Gospels, Chalice Press, St. Louis, MO, 2001, Day 70.
3. Blue Letter Bible. "Dictionary and Word Search "Blue Letter Bible. 1996-2002. 15 Apr 2006. <http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/words.pl?word=5399&page=1> from a public domain copy of Thayers Lexicon.
4. Patrick J. Willson, Ending Without End - Living by the Word - Mark 16:1-8, Christian Century, March 16, 1994
5. Marie Sabin, Women Transformed: The Ending Of Mark Is The Beginning Of Wisdom by at http://www.crosscurrents.org/sabin.htm
6. Frank Craddock, He is not here - Living by the Word, Easter Sunday, April 20 Mark 16:1-8, Christian Century, April 5, 2003



 

Copyright 2006 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096