For They Were Afraid

The Gospel of Mark starts with Jesus' baptism, there is no birthday story, no background, just jumps right in with his baptism, driven into the wilderness to be tempted, proclaims, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." Plucks Simon and Andrew up which they mend their fishing nets, heals Simon Peter's mother-in-law and she immediately gets up and serves them. (How many times does Mark use immediately?) And the next morning gets up early and while everyone is searching for him, he is heading to the next town. It is like a big movie opening that grabs everyone's attention and it doesn't slow down.

Did you ever watch Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail? There was to be this final battle of King Arthur with his forces and the God's blessing and just as the battle commences, modern police show up and arrest everyone and the movie is over and we are left scratching out head, "What just happened?" The end of Mark is just as confusing, for we read the original final eight verses of the Gospel. Three women, waiting for sunlight, finds the stone rolled away and a young man dressed in white sitting where Jesus' body should be and told not to be afraid, but go and tell the disciples that Jesus is risen and going ahead of them to Galilee. They leave, they flee, the get the "H-E-double hockey sticks" out of there. And they don't say anything to anyone, not a single word, not a peep, because they are afraid. End of Story! Two other communities or writers added to it eventually because they needed more.

But let's stay with this story, this gospel. The writers and the hearers didn't believe that was the end. How could it be, because we are hearing it so somebody must have said something eventually, right? This gospel was written about 30 years after these events taking place. The writer or writers didn't think they needed more than Jesus predictions of his death and resurrection and the word of the three women who was told by the messenger, maybe an angel. Even though it abruptly cuts off with no explanation, Mark's gospel story sustained the early Christians and inspired others to share the story of Jesus and of God's love.

We can all relate to being afraid at times or all the time, and unsure and wondering if this is the end. Can we relate to having the story unfinished but still buying into it? Whether we are talking about Jesus' resurrection, Jesus second coming, or universal healthcare which someone mentioned at our Maundy Thursday Supper about what would like coming kingdom would look like. Do we have a strong enough faith to believe in the goodness of this world and creation? Do we have enough hope not just that the world can get better, but will get better? Do we have enough love for God, the world, our neighbors, and even those who may consider us their enemies? Faith, hope, and love will remain, Paul the Apostle tells us, and the greatest of these is love.

God is good! (All the time!) All the time! (God is good!) We are here because there is something more than bad news in our world, in our future, and he who dies with the most money wins. We are here because we believe in Spring and life comes back. We are here because we have found some connection, some community that helps us get up and move forward. There is a God of love, whose image, every person in this world is created from. Each and everyone a miracle and blessing. We are here because we have found in Christ, in his teachings, in the healings and miracles, in the death and resurrection, and in the ongoing covenant through the body of Christ, the church, love, grace, and a call to do justice.

On this Easter Sunday, let us worship the Lord of Life, against whom the powers and principalities that divide the human race, oppress it, starve it, harm it and the world in which we live cannot and will not prevail. Amen?

A Tale of Two Females

In a book called, "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs, he tried to follow all 435 commands found in the Torah or Pentateuch. One of those commands was that you couldn't touch a woman while she was having her period so he wouldn't hug, kiss, or hold the hand of his wife during her cycle. She learned that he couldn't sit where she sat, so when she became frustrated with him she would sit on every piece of furniture in the house so he would have to stand or sit on the floor the whole day. We don't know what kind of hemorrhaging this woman in the crowd was suffering, but for her to be so afraid of Jesus and the crowd that she didn't ask for healing, but just touched his cloak and had faith that she would be made well, we have to assume that she has spent twelve long years not being able to hug, kiss, or hold hands with her family and friends. This physical and social isolation seems to be more damaging as she persisted with this illness for twelve ...

Do not be Afraid!

There is a plan for the future of this country that is posed to be a '2nd American Revolution.' It is called, "Project 2025." The authors of this 91 page plan are mostly former staffers of the last President and the Heritage Foundation. It is so bad that as the word is getting out about it the actions that are set to be taken, even the current Republican Presidential candidate is trying to put some distance from it, because he knows he can't sell it. The highlights are taking away abortions and contraceptives for all our nation, getting rid of marriage equality, allowing the President to fire any government employee and put in their place someone whose only qualification is loyalty to the President, and getting rid of the Department of Education and the Environmental Protection Agency. Basically to turn our Democracy into an authoritarian regime ruled by the oligarchy. We, as a church, are not supposed to be dipping our toes into politics for the most part. We ...

Selling Out

Last Fall, I read a book called, "A History of Burning." It is a multi-generational story about a family that migrates from India to Uganda for hopes for a better future to help the British build a railroad, whose children through education secures a government job, but then Uganda throws off their colonial oppressors and gains independence and turns against the Indians who live there, and they have to migrate again and start all over in Toronto, Canada. It is a sad story of colonial power of the British Empire bringing in foreign cheap labor to build their infrastructure that leaves out the local population. And once Uganda gets independence, the corporations still control much of the economy and fosters division between the Ugandans and Indian to keep the country unstable. It is a triumphant story of human determination in the face of adversity, but only a few make it. One of the first paragraphs in a Wikipedia search about Africa told me that Africa is politically unstab...

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