Sunday, November 24, 2013

The Call: Us (Sermon on Mark 16:1-8 for 11/24/13)

Mark 16:1-8

  16 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 3 And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large.
  5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. 6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” 8 And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

************************


************************

Did you ever read those ‘C hoose-Your-Own-End’ books?  I was into them for a while as a kid.  It was pretty exciting at the time, having control over how books ended.  Then I realized that it was just frustrating.  At the end of every chapter, I’d read the next chapter for both alternatives so I could know which one was best, except in some cases that ended up being the worst, so I’d have to backtrack and start all over.  In other words, I was trying to cheat, and that made it pretty frustrating. 
In a sense, the Gospel of Mark is somewhat similar to those types of books.  The Gospel ends rather abruptly—the women, seized by terror and amazement, run from the empty tomb of Jesus Christ, saying nothing to anyone.  If this were truly the end of the story, we’d be in big trouble, because the women were the only ones who witnessed the empty tomb.  If they had actually said nothing, this resurrection account would be lost.
Fortunately, they did say something.  They did tell the story, but Mark doesn’t include that part.  Mark leaves it blank for us to fill in the details.  Mark leaves the women as terrified and amazed, running from the angelic instructions to tell the story.
I think Mark does this on purpose.  I think Mark leaves the remainder of the story blank as an invitation to us—this is where we join in.  We’re all standing before the empty tomb, and we’re all amazed at what God has done.  Will we go and tell the story, or will we run from our own call?  Each of us has received instructions—how will we answer the call?
 Each and every one of us is called.  We spent the last two weeks studying specific call stories in the Gospel.  We talked about how Levi, Simon, Andrew, James & John were called to follow Christ.  Their lives were forever changed, and they saw the world differently.  Everything they did from this point forward was affected by their call to discipleship.
In the same way, we are called to live differently because of our call.  It should absolutely color our lives.  What we need to do, however, is recognize that our stories may not look the same as the ones in the Bible do.  The question is what Jesus would have us do.  That’s why this particular Gospel story is so relevant—we’re called to write our own ending to the invitation of the angel.
It’s easy to think of big, dramatic examples of ways individuals live out the Gospel.  We can look at Mother Teresa, making her home in the midst of the most dramatic slums in India, spending her life caring for the poor and sick.  We can think of Pope Francis, who seems to be remaking how everything in the Vatican is done, shunning opulence and choosing simplicity and service.  These examples spring to mind readily.
But I don’t know how helpful they are to us today.  Let’s be honest—most of us aren’t called to leave behind family and friends and go live in the slums.  While we can take short-term mission trips to places like Haiti and Honduras, we aren’t going to move there on a permanent basis.  Yet, we are still called.  Christ still wants us to live out the Gospel story here and now.  So what does that look like?
Well, I think it has everything to do with our habits.
I recently finished reading a fascinating book called ‘The Power of Habit’.  It’s a glimpse into human behavior, focusing on how humans are really an assembly of habits.  Everything we do is governed by habits—from our morning rituals to the way we interact with others.  We’re creatures of our habits.
But the good news is that habits can be changed.  We don’t have to always live the same way—we can alter our habits and live the abundant life Christ has in store for us.
I believe that is starts with small actions.  These small actions shape the kind of people that we become.  When we are habitually looking for small ways to serve, these small actions are woven together into a tapestry of a life that shows what the Gospel looks like, what it looks like for us to live into a call.  We start small, and it becomes a way of life, where we are constantly looking for ways to live the story, ways to tell the story.
Take, for example, the generosity shown by the visitors to Heavenly Donuts in Amesbury, Massachusetts.  You all have heard of the idea of paying it forward, where you pay for the car or person behind you in line, showing unexpected generosity?  On one morning, 55 consecutive cars paid for the order of the person behind them.  I know what you’re thinking—we all instantly judged the 56th person in line.  The good news is they did not hear the good news that their meal was free and drive off.  There just wasn’t another person in line behind them. 
But it’s small actions like this that create habits within us.  They get us looking for opportunities to serve.  They begin to open our eyes to see God’s kingdom at work around us.  They tune our hearts and minds to think in certain ways so that we look for opportunities to tell the story of God’s grace.
It’s like what we do with $.02/meal.  Now, setting aside two pennies each time you eat a meal isn’t a very big thing, is it?  It doesn’t feel like a massive investment in God’s kingdom.  It feels pretty small in the face of everything that is going on in the world.
But those two pennies come together to feed hungry kids in East Brainerd.  Those kids will know that a church cares enough about them to make it a point to offer food to them.  They’ll know that the love of Christ has a real impact in our hearts and their lives.  They have food to eat on the weekends because the church’s habit is to look for ways to serve. 
Now, I’m not for a moment suggesting that we content ourselves with little things.  But we need to start there.  We need to become the type of people who are constantly looking for ways to live into our call, where we tell the story and live out the story.  Our call is comprehensive—Christ has claimed all of life, and we are to offer all of our life back to Christ.
Now, there is a rhythm within this text, and I’d like to explore it a little, because I believe that it has something to teach us.
First of all, notice that the women wait until after the Sabbath to go and prepare Jesus’ body.  Their time with God is their first priority—before they go and serve others, they must ensure that they are properly spiritually prepared.  If we are to live a life of service, we have to ensure that our relationship with Christ comes first, that we’re serving out of hearts focused on Him.  May we wisely prepare ourselves to live into our call.  15 minutes a day, in a chair, with a Bible.  Simple & straightforward.
Next, the women prepared themselves.  They bought their spices and went to the tomb.  But, we know that they weren’t completely prepared.  They weren’t sure how to overcome the obstacle of the stone in front of the tomb.  We don’t know what they would have done if the stone wasn’t rolled away—but we don’t have to.  They couldn’t prepare for everything.
In the same way, we need to be prepared to serve.  We need to know ourselves, and we need to be ready to serve.  We need to look around us, to pay attention to what God is doing, but we don’t know exactly how everything is going to work out.  Some people will reject our proclamation.  Other things will surprise us.  We aren’t in control.  We have to leave room for God to act.  Make way for the Holy Spirit.
After this, the women are amazed by the resurrection news they receive.  They are stunned by what God has done.  And Jesus goes ahead of them, leading them into the future.
In the same way, Jesus leads us forward.  We follow him into the world, ready to serve, ready to proclaim, ready to announce the Good News of what God has done.  This isn’t about us—it’s about us being selfless, about proclaiming Christ’s story, about inviting others into the amazing news of resurrection.
May we cultivate small habits that lead to big changes in our lives, and may we live into Christ’s call on our lives.
Let us pray

No comments: