Dragged from our Graves to Life.

This sermon can be listened to here

 Gate Pa – Year B  Easter Sunday 2021

Readings:

First Reading:             Isaiah 25:6-9                           

Second Reading:        Acts 10:34-43                         

Gospel:                        Mark 16:1-8   

What I want to say:

Why is Mark’s account of the resurrection so short. Is something missing, or did Mark do this deliberately? Is he inviting a conversation about how Jesus went ahead to where his hearers were and are?

Nadia Bolz-Weber says that “Easter is “a story about flesh and dirt and bodies and confusion…. God is interested in making me new. And new is not perfect. In the Easter story itself, new is often messy. New looks like recovering alcoholics, and reconciliation between family members who don’t actually deserve it. New looks like every time I admit I am wrong and every time I don’t mention it when I am right. New is every fresh start, every act of forgiveness and every moment of letting go of what we thought we couldn’t live without and then somehow living without it anyway. New is the thing we never see coming, never even hope for, but ends up being the thing we needed all along. It happens to all of us. God simply keeps bending down into the dirt of humanity and resurrecting us from the graves we dig ourselves through our violence, our lies, our arrogance, and our addictions. And God keeps loving us back to life over and over” (Pastrix, chapter 17.)

We stand on a site where God reached down in the dirtiness of our lives, into the graves we had literally dug ourselves, and offered life in acts of mercy, compassion, love.

What I want to happen:

What are our stories of God reaching into our lives and loving us back to life?

The Sermon

       1.     Introduction:

Mark’s version of resurrection story heard this morning

is very different from others.

ð Ask what are some differences?

what heard this morning is all we have of Mark’s account

lots people feel is too brief!

can’t stop there!

So many contradictions

-         Hope and disappointment

-         Blindness and insight

-         Silence and proclamation

This is not a very satisfying ending.

What do you think?

Did Mark intend to finish here or not

And if so why?

ð Discuss

ð Plenary

       2.     Let’s talk about that ending.

reason is thought to be that Mark didn’t want people to just think that risen Jesus only found in Galilee

or that true disciples were in Jerusalem and Galilee

But wanted to affirm that risen Jesus went ahead of disciples - women and men

Ü everywhere

including to Rome – where Gospel Mark traditionally said to have been written

instead of listening to stories of risen Jesus from Jerusalem and Galilee

inviting them to tell stories of risen Jesus in Rome

            or wherever people were who had gathered to listen to his gospel

            including us here in New Zealand

and  tell stories of those shaped by risen Jesus

Ü that same invitation is given to us this morning.

Ü what might those stories look like

       3.     Dragged from death into life.

Nadia Bolz-Weber says that

“Easter is “a story about God who “simply keeps bending down into the dirt of humanity and resurrecting us from the graves we dig ourselves through our violence, our lies, our arrogance, and our addictions. And God keeps loving us back to life over and over” (Pastrix, chapter 17.)

Some her examples are huge and dramatic

-         Her experiencing of attending AA to learn to drink like a lady

o   Realising she was alcoholic

o   In process becoming recovering alcoholic encountering God infinite love

o   Reached down into the grave she had dug herself and dragged her into life

-         Resurrection!

-         Parishioner who tried kill himself but was found before he bled out

o   Care he received from brother

o   people loved him at Nadia’s church

o   God he met every time received communion

o   Even though he wasn’t sure about this Jesus dude

o   Met God who reached down into the dirtiness of his life

o   Into graves that he had dug himself

o   Dragged him back into life

-         Resurrection!

We stand on a site where God reached down in the dirtiness of war,

-         Literally into the graves that had been dug

-         In story of Henare and or Heni’s lifegiving acts of mercy, compassion,

-         God loved

A moment of resurrection.

       4.     What are our stories?

After this year of death

-         Covid

-         US election cycle

-         Hong Kong and Myanmar

What are our stories of God reaching down into our graves and loving us back to life over and over?

What are your stories of resurrection.