TIME TO REACT: Silence We begin a new sermon series today, one in ...
TIME TO REACT: Silence We begin a new sermon series today, one in which I invite us to explore the simple question, what now? We’ve prepared for Easter Sunday, made our way through the various components of the week before Easter Sunday, experienced Easter Sunday itself, which this year included Ashlie’s baptism - right cool. What now? Worship attendance last week doubled and tripled and quadrupled in churches all over the country - probably all over the world. Today, attendance is half or a third or a fourth of what it was last Sunday, so what now? How do we react to the news of the resurrection of Jesus? Did what we celebrated last Sunday change anything for us or have we returned to the same old some old in the week since we were last here? Each of us has to answer those questions for ourselves, of course. But answer them we must. Did the resurrection change anything about the way you lived your week this past week? Did the news that God raised Jesus from the dead affect your spirit, your approach to people, your attitude, your outlook on life, your... anything? Did last Sunday’s good news affect the way you lived your life this week? Do you expect it to change your life in the week ahead? In this news series, which I’m calling “Time to React,” we will examine the impact the resurrection had on several people in the Gospels, people who either saw Jesus himself or saw the empty tomb, or heard about what had happened from an angel. It turns out that among those people in the Gospels, there are a wide array of responses. Perhaps you and I will find common ground with some of them. For today we look at Mark’s account, easily the oddest of the four Gospels because the book, in its most accurate form, ends abruptly, right in the middle of the action, as we will soon hear. But then if you look in your Bible you will see that added to that abrupt ending is something called the shorter ending to the Gospel, which is followed by something they call the longer ending. Our focus for today is what was probably the original ending. Mark 16.1-8. As we read this, notice how things go just as we expect them to go until the last verse, when everything stops in an instant.... The women fled from the tomb and said nothing to no one, for they were too afraid. ! They’d seen an angel, yet they said nothing. ! They’d seen the empty tomb, yet they said nothing. ! They’d received an assignment from heaven, yet they said nothing. Let’s talk about this kind of outcome, but include us who were here last Sunday: ! We heard the good news of everlasting life, yet we likely said nothing. ! We witnessed the explosive joy of Ashlie’s baptism into the body of Christ, yet we likely said nothing. ! We were reminded yet again that death is not an end, it is a transition, yet we likely said nothing. ! We discovered more evidence that what we say as we close our worship every Sunday is correct - God will never, ever, ever let us go - yet we likely said nothing. Let’s not stop with us, because there were other Christians who heard the news last Sunday, or who received some form of reminder during the week. ! God spoke to their heart through the holy spirit, yet they said nothing. ! God worked a miracle in their lives, they had another of what we call those god things - small moments or big deals in which they learned again that God is alive and on their side, yet they said nothing. Why in the world would the women in Mark 16 say nothing, when they were witnesses to the greatest, the most encouraging miracle of all time? Why would you and I say nothing when we can testify to the very same good news?
Mark tells us the women said nothing because they were afraid. I guess meeting an white-robed angel inside an empty burial tomb might freak ya out; I get that. But what’s our excuse? Why have millions of the people around the world who heard the good news last Sunday said nothing or next to nothing to next to no one since? What explains your silence, my silence, in the aftermath of the resurrection - the greatest event in human history? I don’t think it’s that we’re afraid. There was nothing scary about our worship last Sunday. I think it was something far more significant: For lots of us, the news was either so familiar that we can’t think of anything new to say about it, or the news we heard last Sunday hasn’t yet sunk in, or more troubling, the news we heard last week didn’t do much for us, didn’t and won’t have much of an impact. So it’s worth our time this morning to revisit the tomb. Jesus was dead; all life forces gone. But then he was alive again. People saw him. People talked to him. People ate with him, as we will see in this series. And people committed their lives to him, and later lost their lives for him. The God who did THAT, who emptied a tomb of death is our God. The God who reversed an outcome no one else has ever reversed, is our God. And a God who can cast out death can beat back your and my demons and change the course of our lives. How dare we be silent! So if we want to break our silence, how do we speak? How do we tell this magnificent story? First and foremost is worship. Here, with God’s people - singing praise, saying thanks, expressing our awe and wonder that the God who defeated death is on our side. A second way we can speak to break our silence is to use the life we have been given. God raised Jesus out of the tomb to glorify him in heaven, and that’s good. God also raised Jesus out of the tomb to give you and me a reason to live - not just breathe! Live. Your age doesn’t matter. Your mobility doesn’t matter. This week you will encounter someone with whom you will have to opportunity to share the love of Jesus. Take that opportunity if you want to break your silence about the resurrection. You are not the person you used to be, or the person you would have been, because you have the power of God in your life. Say so by living this week with kindness, with expectation, with hope. Say something about the new life God has offered you by living it. A third way we speak, that we break the silence, is the most challenging - that is to actually say something, to say here’s my power. Here’s my hope. Here’s my authority. This is my song. Tell people about your God things. We had to have some serious home improvement/repair work done. Serious meaning expensive. We had a terrible time getting someone to call us back. But the people we ended up working with were just the right people, particularly one of the contractors we worked with. I told him, you’re a God thing for us, you’re a blessing. There was a reason we didn’t hear from any of the other people we contacted. Because God was leading us to you. He then shared some of challenges of his life with me, and we had a moment.... all because I wasn’t silent. God raised Jesus to life so that we could have life. This week, live that life! Say something to somebody. And be here next Sunday to offer your praise to the God who has given you life.
Mark tells us the women said nothing because they were afraid. I guess meeting an white-robed angel inside an empty burial tomb might freak ya out; I get that. But what’s our excuse? Why have millions of the people around the world who heard the good news last Sunday said nothing or next to nothing to next to no one since? What explains your silence, my silence, in the aftermath of the resurrection - the greatest event in human history? I don’t think it’s that we’re afraid. There was nothing scary about our worship last Sunday. I think it was something far more significant: For lots of us, the news was either so familiar that we can’t think of anything new to say about it, or the news we heard last Sunday hasn’t yet sunk in, or more troubling, the news we heard last week didn’t do much for us, didn’t and won’t have much of an impact. So it’s worth our time this morning to revisit the tomb. Jesus was dead; all life forces gone. But then he was alive again. People saw him. People talked to him. People ate with him, as we will see in this series. And people committed their lives to him, and later lost their lives for him. The God who did THAT, who emptied a tomb of death is our God. The God who reversed an outcome no one else has ever reversed, is our God. And a God who can cast out death can beat back your and my demons and change the course of our lives. How dare we be silent! So if we want to break our silence, how do we speak? How do we tell this magnificent story? First and foremost is worship. Here, with God’s people - singing praise, saying thanks, expressing our awe and wonder that the God who defeated death is on our side. A second way we can speak to break our silence is to use the life we have been given. God raised Jesus out of the tomb to glorify him in heaven, and that’s good. God also raised Jesus out of the tomb to give you and me a reason to live - not just breathe! Live. Your age doesn’t matter. Your mobility doesn’t matter. This week you will encounter someone with whom you will have to opportunity to share the love of Jesus. Take that opportunity if you want to break your silence about the resurrection. You are not the person you used to be, or the person you would have been, because you have the power of God in your life. Say so by living this week with kindness, with expectation, with hope. Say something about the new life God has offered you by living it. A third way we speak, that we break the silence, is the most challenging - that is to actually say something, to say here’s my power. Here’s my hope. Here’s my authority. This is my song. Tell people about your God things. We had to have some serious home improvement/repair work done. Serious meaning expensive. We had a terrible time getting someone to call us back. But the people we ended up working with were just the right people, particularly one of the contractors we worked with. I told him, you’re a God thing for us, you’re a blessing. There was a reason we didn’t hear from any of the other people we contacted. Because God was leading us to you. He then shared some of challenges of his life with me, and we had a moment.... all because I wasn’t silent. God raised Jesus to life so that we could have life. This week, live that life! Say something to somebody. And be here next Sunday to offer your praise to the God who has given you life.
