Sermon Title: "The Rest of the Story"
Date: April 12, 2009
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Mark 16:1-8

The voice of an American radio icon was stilled this past February.  Paul Harvey, who broadcast from a Chicago studio for fifty years, died at the age of 90.  I am not typically a listener to talk radio, but from time to time, on trips across the country, I would catch Harvey’s broadcasts.  He would read the news with his distinct staccato clip, even telling you which page he was on as he turned the pages of his news report.

One of Paul Harvey’s trademarks was to tell the story of some person, without giving out their identity.  He would tell most of the story, then break for a commercial, usually delivered by himself.  Then he would return to the news with “the rest of the story,” in which he would reveal the identity of the mystery person.

If ever there were an Easter lesson that needed “the rest of the story,” it was today’s account from the Gospel according to Mark.  The original manuscripts of Mark end abruptly at verse 8, just where Susie concluded the lesson this morning, with the women fleeing from the tomb, “for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” 

The verses found later in some Bibles are thought to be a later addition, perhaps added by scribes in the middle of the second century as they blended in portions of Matthew’s, Luke’s and John’s account of Jesus’ resurrection.  In fact, if you happened to read along in the pew Bible, you would have noted a bracketed section consisting of two verses, called The Shorter Ending of Mark.  Following that, was a double bracketed section called The Longer Ending of Mark, consisting of 12 verses.  The footnotes read: 

“Some of the most ancient authorities bring the book to a close at the end of verse 8.  One authority concludes the book with the shorter ending; others include the shorter ending and then continue with verses 9-20.  In most authorities verses 9-20 follow immediately after verse 8, though in some of these authorities the passage is marked as being doubtful.”

Now, I challenged myself by choosing to preach on Mark’s text this Easter.  My favorite resurrection story is found in John’s Gospel, which begins like today’s, although it was just Mary Magdalene who came to the tomb and found it empty.  Later in the story, the most dramatic part occurs while she wept alone because Jesus’ body was missing, and he himself appeared to her in his risen state and called her by name.

We all like a happy ending at the conclusion of a story, a more fulfilling one.  Sometimes when a television show or a movie or even a novel ends, you want to know just a bit more.  Did they get together and find true love after all?  Was she cured from her illness?  Was the mission successful?  What’s the rest of the story?

But Mark, the earliest of the Gospel writers and the briefest, doesn’t tell us everything.  Some scholars believe then that his writings might be the most authentic, the ones least embellished with colorful details such as the weeping Mary’s conversation with Jesus in the garden after the resurrection.  Mark’s Gospel throughout imparts a sense of urgency and brevity.  Right from the beginning, we hear that the time is short, that the need to respond to Jesus’ message is urgent.  A new story begins now.  The disciples must return to the place of call and begin to live out the meaning of the gospel as they have learned it from Jesus.  Speaking to the ending of Mark, biblical scholar N. T. Wright says that perhaps we are being invited to complete the story ourselves – to take our understanding of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and live out that story in our own lives.

As you gather here on Easter morning and hear once again the story of Jesus’ resurrection, I imagine that you might have one of four possible reactions:

1. You believe he had a bodily resurrection from the dead.
2. You believe he had a spiritual resurrection from the dead.
3. You’re not sure, because you weren’t there and it was so long ago.
4. You don’t believe any of it at all.

Those are all reasonable reactions, and all ones I have heard before.  And the good news for you this morning is:  it doesn’t matter!  It doesn’t matter whether Jesus’ resurrection was bodily or his body was spirited away by forces unknown and he had a spiritual resurrection, or you’re not at all sure.  It doesn’t matter because something happened as a result of the empty tomb, and that’s the rest of the story.

A young man robed in white, sitting at the right side of the empty tomb—the customary dress and posture of divine messengers—tells the women that Jesus is not there, but has been raised.  The women are alarmed and amazed in the presence of this mystery.  Perhaps they are filled with “terror and amazement” because they do understand that—from now on—life will be utterly changed.

From the other Gospel accounts, we know that the word did get to the rest of the disciples.  Hiding behind closed doors on that Easter morning, for fear that they might be identified as followers of Jesus and crucified themselves, the account of the women and Jesus’ eventual appearance to them convinced them that he was raised from the dead.  At his ascension into heaven forty days after Easter, he gave them the Great Commission:  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:19-20)

It doesn’t matter if you’re unsure of the rest of the story because those disciples, the first generation to hear the story, believed it, then the second generation, then the third, and on and on until the Christian church exists today.  It is a story of changed lives.  Jesus’ life was changed and transformed from its human form into his resurrected presence.  The lives of all those who heard and believed were changed, and those who believe today find their lives changed too.

The Easter story reminds us of that.  Easter means that Jesus is not just remembered; he is experienced.  We have a Jesus who is alive.  The God who has the power to raise his Son from death has the power to change and transform our lives.  The risen Christ comes to deal not just with our after-death circumstances, but with our in-life circumstances as well.  We can meet Christ in the experience of living.

That doesn’t mean all our dreams will always come true.  It means we stand in a different relationship to them, pulled forward by hope rather than dragged down by despair over past or present circumstances or mistakes.

On Good Friday, I received a phone call from Dixie Dohrmann, executive director of Christian Outreach in Action downtown, where we will feed the hungry and homeless this Wednesday evening.  She wanted to send me a copy of an e-mail she received last week.  Her accompanying note read, “This was sent like I said totally unsolicited.  It was such a gift to me.  COA cannot do its mission without the generosity and continual support of Bay Shore and others.  This is one of the results and I wanted to share it with you.” 

Here is the text of the attachment:

“Dear COA,     I am so grateful for all the wonderful help that is offered to me and my children.  This past Sunday, April 5th, my eight year old daughter Serena had her cheerleading competition.  This was the first time since I’ve been clean and sober that I was able to accomplish something for one of my kids.  This was an amazing experience for me and my family.  I mean words cannot explain how wonderful it was to see my daughter cheer and to top it off they won 3rd place.  I mean it wasn’t about the winning, but just to make my daughter’s dream come true of one day becoming a cheerleader was a dream come true.  When she went up to do her cheer with her group, I could just see the joy in her face...I was crying like a baby and people probably wondered why I was crying...I thought about COA because if it wasn't for EVERYTHING I MEAN EVERYTHING that all of you do for us I would of never been able make her dream come true.  Today I am filled with so much gratitude and I just can’t explain how much you all mean to me and my children.  The best thing that happened to me on Sunday was that on our way home from the competition, Serena looked at me and said ‘Thank You Mommy, I love you’ and that was the best feeling in the whole world!!!!  Thank you for simply just being there for us and for believing in us. 

                                                                       Love,  Cindy and Serena and all the kids”

Now there’s no word about religion or faith in that letter, although Christian Outreach in Action by its very name has a faith component.  But it is a story of a life changed, just like the lives of the women and the disciples who came to believe in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead were changed.  And I cannot believe Cindy made those changes in her own life without faith, hard work and determination.  Look at the reward she and her family experienced last Sunday, and imagine the future that is ahead for them!

A scholar concluded his commentary on the Gospel of Mark with these words:  “It is only fitting that just as the tomb will not contain Jesus, neither can Mark’s story.  Jesus is not bound by its ending; he continues into the future God has in store for the creation.  In the meantime, there is only the Word, the bread and the wine, and the promise that ‘you will see him.’  We walk by faith and not by sight.  We can only trust that God will one day finish the story, as God has promised.”  (Donald Juel, Augsburg Commentary, Minneapolis, 1990.)