They
Fled
Transcribed from the sermon preached April 12, 2009 2727 College Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705 They went out and fled from the tomb, for
terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they
were afraid. This
is what we call the shorter ending of the Gospel of Mark. The earliest versions of this earliest
gospel ends right here: “They went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and
amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were
afraid.” We
hear this story at least once a year.
This time around I was caught by the word “fled.” “They fled from the tomb.” The guy in white tells them of the resurrection
and they don’t lollygag around.
‘Lollygag’ I guess is an old cowboy term. When I ask my kid what he was doing, he says, “We were just
kickin it.” (Apparently not running
around kicking a soccer ball, but kicking their legs upon the proverbial
table.) The ladies didn’t just kick it around the tomb. Nor did they nonchalantly stroll out of the
tomb, or skip out with glee…or simply leave.
Discovering Jesus body missing and a man in white informing them Christ
has risen, “they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had
seized them…” Southwest
has a series of commercials. The subject does something humiliating and as the
crowd looks on the narrator says, “Want to get away?” The ladies, discovering
the empty tomb want to get way. Have you ever fled? What feelings do the memories bring up? Sometimes when a work situation goes bad, we want to get the heck
out of there. We want to flee. We
may have felt the need to flee a bad date…or worse…a good date. About a year after Feliciana and I had been
working at an orphanage, all sorts of crises had led Feliciana to consider
fleeing the job. We had not yet
dated. We had barely even spoken, but I
did think she was something special.
She told me, “I think I am going to leave.” My response was unconscious. Before I had a chance to stop my
self I said, “What am I going to
do?” What happened next? In terror and amazement, I fled… And I said nothing to anyone because I was
afraid. During
Katrina, people fled in terror. And so
in the days following we heard many stories of people all over the country
trying to find loved ones who had fled without saying anything to anyone. Often
I find that there is something about death, or something about us that leads us
to flee from death. A part of us would
rather not be there, even when we love someone, we want to flee. Death is terrifying. When
the military besieged Xicanquic, (the village where we have helped with a
health clinic), burning, raping and murdering, our friends the Tombs fled in
terror. Escaping to the mountains any
which way they could, they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid. The family was split up and some went years
without hearing a word. But they did finally
get the word out. They met people they
trusted, Sister Maureen at East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, and then they told
their story, and eventually met up with their surviving family members again. The not telling is a temporary thing. From a literary perspective Mark’s ending
transfers the feelings of the actors onto us; the author tags us with the story
and now we are it. The
tomb is empty; see there is the place they laid him. We the hearers enter the
story, the story poses the question to us, “What happens next?” Is it true?
Is Christ alive? I
don’t know about you, but a part of me is troubled by the resurrection. Jesus died; Jesus was buried; such is the
tragedy of life. Time to move on, to
find our anonymous niche, or to step up to the degree we can, into a position
of comfort, privilege and power. To the
degree I can do this on my own, find a comfortable niche to live out my time, I
don’t want to find the risen Christ. I
want to flee from that empty tomb and say nothing to anyone. When
I was in grade school I spent numerous days defending my Jewish friend from the
onslaught of vicious anti-Semitism on the playground. Because I was a good athlete, like Sampson I was always confident
of my ability to win. And like young
David, I had confidence that God was on my side. Then one day two older, bigger and more popular boys were picking
on my friend. Two new thoughts entered
my mind. First, I wanted to be liked by
the big, popular boys. Second, I was
afraid of being beaten up myself. I
considered not helping my friend. I was ashamed and afraid. I wanted
desperately to flee. It
was upon discovering my own weakness that I began to question God. If God was so great, why did He need little
weak me? Always victorious in righteous
battle is one thing, doing the loving thing, the right thing, even when you
will suffer and lose is quite another.
It takes more courage and more power. A
part of us wants to flee – flee from those who crucified Christ, but also from
the crucified but risen Christ. A part
of us would rather not say anything to anyone; we would rather that others not
know we know. But if the Gospel is true, thank God the risen Christ shows up where we are hiding, in Galilee, Berkeley or Xicaquic, or in our minds, where we have fled to, where we are grieving, where we are afraid, where we are guilty and ashamed, where we are pretending not to believe – and calls us by name. Mary, Martha, Gloria and Dante…Each of us is called, Samantha, Paul, Lolita, I love you, I still love you, my love for you never ends. Even when we flee Jesus stays with us. When evil and sin threaten our lives, Jesus doesn’t flee. When death confronts us and we would like nothing more than to run away, physically, mentally, spiritually, the risen Christ comes to meet us once again. The
life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ testifies that the right and
loving is victorious even when it appears to lose, eternal even when it seems to
be cut short, joyous and peaceful even in the face of suffering, all embracing
even with hands nailed to the cross, an ever shining presence even when buried
in a tomb, all powerful even in weakness, reborn even after he breaths his
last. There is no such thing as
insignificant or powerless righteousness and love. The smallest decisions and acts are connected to eternal love,
the divine Creator and the spirit of all life. Life is pregnant with goodness. And
if all this is true, then its opposite is also true; lies, injustice, sin,
violence and evil are weak, even when they appear powerful, anxious even when
they appear in control, confused even with great knowledge, vacant even when
they appear full, hurt even as they inflict pain, grief stricken even as they
gloat in celebration, shallow and temporary, even when they appear to dominate
indefinitely. We
may flee, but God does not flee from us. God through Christ comes into
us and gives us new life, calls us to a new way of being. In life and in death we belong to God. God says, I will never leave
nor forsake you [7] Where shall I go
from thy Spirit? Death O Death, Where is thy
victory, O death, Where is thy sting The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law. Christ is Risen, and you, o
death, are annihilated! Christ is Risen, and life is
set free. Christ is Risen. God’s love
for us never ends. |