Look! Go! Tell!

(Scriptures:  Acts 10:34-43 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24, I Corinthians 15:1-11 Mark 16:1-8)

The sinking of the Titanic, which took place on April 15, 1912 – next Sunday will be the 100th anniversary – has prompted renewed interest in the details of the ship’s demise. It has also prompted the re-release, in 3D this time, of the movie Titanic. I didn’t see the movie when it originally came out in 1997 – can 15 years have passed already? – but I gather that at the end, the now-elderly Titanic survivor Rose quietly throws a ring, her memento from the doomed voyage, overboard. I’ve also read that there’s an alternate ending, in which several bystanders try to stop Rose from throwing the ring overboard. And, of course, with video technology and access to YouTube becoming widespread, Titanic groupies can write their own alternative endings. I shudder to think of the Trekkie version: the Titanic is beamed aboard the Starship Enterprise, and Jack and Rose go to Starfleet Academy and live long and prosper. Maybe I’ll skip seeing that version.


I was reminded of the concept of alternate endings by this morning’s reading from Mark’s Gospel. You see, like the Titanic movie, the Gospel of Mark has more than one ending. The most ancient manuscripts of Mark’s Gospel stop at chapter 16, verse 8, with the women fleeing the empty tomb in terror and amazement, and not saying anything to anyone, because they were terrified. However, it apparently didn’t take long for early readers of Mark’s gospel to express their dissatisfaction with what they evidently considered a lame ending by supplying other endings. One of the alternate endings to Mark’s Gospel is very brief:

“And all that had been commanded them they told immediately to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.”

A second, longer alternate ending of Mark’s Gospel begins with Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She goes out to tell the disciples, but they don’t believe her. Next Jesus appears to two disciples who were walking into the country – this sounds very like the Emmaus road encounter in Luke’s Gospel – but the others still don’t believe. Finally Jesus appeared to the remaining eleven disciples, chastises them for their lack of faith, and sends them out into all the world to proclaim the good news to the whole creation – and this part sounds a bit like the end of Matthew’s Gospel. There’s some additional material: Jesus tells them that believers will be accompanied by various signs: Jesus said: “By using my name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Advisory note to the congregation – don’t do the stuff with the snakes and the poison at home, and for heavens sake don’t try it in here! But anyway - In this ending, after making this proclamation, Jesus is taken up into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God – very much like the beginning of the Book of Acts.

But most Bible scholars think these endings I read, both the short version and the long version, are later additions to the original text, which ended at verse 8 with the women fleeing in terror and amazement, and not telling anyone because they were afraid. What a weird ending! Why would Mark end his Gospel, his account of good news, in this manner? A few scholars have offered the idea that perhaps there were additional verses that followed verse 8, but they crumbled off or were torn off the manuscript at some point long centuries ago, and are now lost to time. Most scholars, however, think that Mark’s unusual ending was intentional – in effect, it was an invitation for readers to do exactly what the writers of the alternative endings to Mark’s Gospel did - to tie up the loose ends themselves, to respond to the angel’s proclamation in their own way; in effect, to write their own endings. From Mark’s Gospel, the last thing we hear is that the women fled the tomb and kept silent because they were frightened out of their wits. However, we know that they must have told someone at some point – the existence of the missionary outreach of the early disciples, the formation of the Christian church, indeed, the very fact that we’re seated here at Emanuel Church this Easter morning is testimony that the women fleeing the tomb sometime, somehow, some way eventually told somebody. And those somebodies told other somebodies…..and today, some 2000 years later, here we are, singing that great old Easter hymn of testimony, “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”, and preparing in a few minutes to gather at the table, share bread and wine, and in so doing experience the presence of Christ in our midst.

For in fact each of us sitting here and in other congregations around the globe today are writing our own continuations and endings to Mark’s Gospel every day. Mark’s Gospel begins with the words, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” That’s how it starts. How it ends is, at least in part, up to us, to you, to me, to each of us sitting here this morning. Like the women at the tomb, we’ve been given great good news – that the Crucified One has risen, that through his dying and rising we are saved – that life, not death, has the last word; that divine love, not human injustice, prevails in the end; that what humans intend for evil, God in God’s infinite creative wisdom is able to use for good.

How will we end Mark’s Gospel? We can behave as the women did just after fleeing the tomb, by keeping the good news to ourselves, out of fear of how it will be heard. But that’s not what the angel told the women to do. The angel gave three imperatives, three commands, three words that constituted their marching orders, if you will: Look! Go! Tell!

Look! It’s hard to tell others about something we’ve never seen, that we’ve only heard about at second hand, if at all. We need to experience the resurrection power of Jesus ourselves, before we can pass it on to others. If you’ve never experienced it – find someone who has. Talk to that person. Talk about it, read about it, pray about it – but by all means experience it. The resurrection power of Jesus may come in quiet, surprising ways, ways we would never expect – one who experiences unexpected healing or recovery from illness, a timid one receiving holy boldness to step out in faith, one who is in mourning seeing the beams of God’s love breaking through the storm clouds of grief, one who is bitter and alienated, finding inspiration to tear down walls and build bridges to others who have been kept at a distance. You may not experience God knocking you off your horse on the Damascus road. You may not find God in the wind and the earthquake, but find that he calls to you in a still, small voice. Look! Listen! Expect the unexpected!

Go! Christian discipleship is not something we do for one hour on Sunday morning. Indeed, Sunday morning is a time of refreshment and renewal, to provide us with strength for the journey on the other six days of the week. While I’m the pastor of Emanuel Church, all of us are the ministers of Emanuel Church – all of us, no exceptions. The real work of the church doesn’t happen in here, but out there, outside our doors. Especially since people aren’t necessarily breaking down our doors to get in here, we need to go out there, to go into the highways and byways and meet people where they are. As Frederick Buechner wrote, “The place where God calls us is the place where our deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Deep gladness meeting great need – that is where we are to go. So what are you waiting for? What am I waiting for?

Tell! Many Christians act as if going to church is like going to Las Vegas – you know the saying, “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”; what happens in church stays in church. But what happens in church is great good news, news that your neighbor and your neighbor and your neighbor are dying to hear, whether they know it or not. If you talk to your neighbor, he or she probably won’t tell you they want to experience Jesus. What they may tell you is that they feel like something is missing, that joy has gone out of their lives or that they don’t know exactly why they bother to drag themselves out of bed in the morning, lace up their shoes, and go to work, that while they’re making a living, they’re not sure how to make a life. That’s your opportunity, not to get all preachy and holier-than-thou, but to share what God has done in your life, to show what the promise of abundant life in this world and eternal life in the world to come are like. So do tell!

We began by talking about various alternative endings to Mark’s Gospel, and indeed the three other Gospels end in different ways. Matthew’s Gospel ends on a mountain top in Galilee, with Jesus telling the disciples to Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost – and with Jesus asking us to remember these words, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” John’s Gospel ends with Jesus asking Peter three times if Peter loved him, and Jesus commanding Peter three times, “Feed my sheep”. Luke’s Gospel ends with Jesus being carried up to heaven, and the disciples returning to Jerusalem with great joy, continually being in the temple blessing God. And of course, Luke’s Gospel has a sequel, which we know as the Acts of the Apostles.

So what ending will you write to Mark’s Gospel? For what acts will the disciples at Emanuel Church be remembered? Will we be known for our silence, or for our words of hope and love and joy. May we at Emanuel Church be surprised by joy at the resurrection power of Jesus, and may we share that joy with all we meet. Amen.