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.
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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
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