What Can You Say?

What Can You Say?

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

April 1, 2018

at Bethany Presbyterian Church, Zuni, Virginia

Mark 16: 1-8

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives

For your eyes show the way

Your mind knows the truth

Your being is the life.

Amen.

I want to take a moment before I begin to talk about the title of this sermon, “What Can You Say?”

Preaching on Easter is hard

Everyone knows the story, everyone has heard it before

Everyone has expectations, and the pressure is on,

And if you are worth your salt as a preacher I think you should preach the Resurrection every Sunday,

Every Sunday should have the Cross and every Sunday should have the empty tomb

The bottom of sin, and the high water mark of grace

Because I was taught, and I affirm that a good sermon should comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted

It should challenge as well as soothe, it should make people think, and if you are up there taking up people’s time, their family time, their celebrating time, their Easter Egg hunting time

Then you better have something to say. . .

But what can you say, that hasn’t been said.

What can you say that hasn’t been heard

What can you say

And not just me, but all of us, as Christians

I read a lot of Easter sermons this week, and watched a few, including the guy yall had here last year

His main message was come see, and go tell. . . but again. . .

What can you say, and who can you tell? And how would you say it if you found it?

I saw a great quote this week in my studies. . .

“Somethings are true when whispered, but become false when shouted”

I might amend it to, “somethings are true when said once, but run into trouble when they’ve been repeated.

Somehow becomes easy, easy to say because everyone is saying it. . .

Let me try something. . .

Christ is Risen!

You see we already know our lines.

There must be something more. . . .

So that is our question for today? If we are to say something, if we are to say something

What can we say?

Let’s begin then where we should, in the text. . . of all the gospel accounts of Easter, Mark’s is my favorite.

I love the details, how he brings it things to light differently than the others,

And then it just ends, it ends with so much in limbo. . .

Here is Mark 16: 1-8, what in the earliest manuscripts we have of this gospel concludes it all.

16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. ² Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb ³ and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

⁴ But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. ⁵ As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

⁶ “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, 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, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

⁸ Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

They said nothing to no one

The Marys and Salome, they are looking for Jesus,

they see a young man dressed in a white robe

Where Jesus is supposed to be

He tells them to go tell the disciples and Peter (funny thing Peter mentioned by name)

I’ve always wondered if Judas hadn’t killed himself, would Jesus have called him too. . .

You wonder what limitations grace has right. . . denial and desertion ok, but not betrayal. . . no too far

But anyway he says to them tell Peter and the desciples to him, Jesus, in Galilee

In other words, go get the band back together we are going on the road, back to where it all started

But they don’t do it according to this, instead they say nothing to no one.

And the gospel stops. Nothing more. . .

what happens, now they must’ve said something to someone at some point right

Otherwise, how would we know, how would the disciples know to meet him?

But it doesn’t say anything about that, it ends with nothing to no one,

And gives us that they were Trembing, Bewildered and Afraid. . .

Ya think?

Should we count up the freeky stuff they are witnessing. . .

How are we going to roll the stone. . . oh its already rolled, where is Jesus? Who is this guy, o an angel

Go tell Peter and the others,

Now you started on this road to dress the body. . . after doing nothing but observing. . .

Watching your world crumble in front of your eyes

It is finally safe to go and do something, after doing nothing. . . we got to do something right,

Always that impetus to act. . . but you don’t get to do what you were planning to do,

Instead you get told to go tell what you’ve seen, relay the message, and get on to Galilee. . .

What’s enough to render you silent?

Have you ever walked in on something, and just were awestuck. . .

Like you wandered into something sacred, and you didn’t want to impose

Like you walk in during a prayer, or a song that just makes you stunned to silence

You witness perfection and you just feel like you have no right to be there,
Who am I to be the one to get this information and to pass it on. . .

Maybe that is going through their minds. . .

But I don’t know, could you keep something like this silent. . .

We as human beings love to talk, take the most quiet person you know

And give them something like this to say. . . they couldn’t keep it quiet.

Now think about the loud type. . . I don’t know do you picture Mary Magdalene as kinda loud, maybe, that is the bad press through the years she has gotten, but I don’t picture her the silent type

But this renders her speechless. . . now I’m was a teacher for a long time, and now a preacher

So yeah I like to talk. . . I mean here I am right. . .

And if you’ve ever been in a meeting you know that people like to talk, they like to be heard

Our normal gear is to be talking, rather than not talking. . .

I remember sitting in faculty meetings,

where whatever being discussed is the most important thing in everyones lives

I mean it must be because everyone needs to be heard,

but then 2 minutes later, no one cares anymore

There is an old joke about a vestry meeting, couldn’t be a session,

 because we would lose it in committee, and talk it away before it ever got that far,

but they wanted to buy a new chandelier for the church,

And they opened it up for discussion. . . .

As much as we need some lights. . .

There is a lot of talking out there, and not much to say,

If we add in Social media, Twitter and Facebook, there is a lot that is being said, all day

Turn on the TV and you find these heads, they get paid to talk, they have nothing to say. . . ever

And they are all saying the same thing. . .

Passover Restrictions

⁴³ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal:

“No foreigner may eat it. ⁴⁴ Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, ⁴⁵ but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it.

⁴⁶ “It must be eaten inside the house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. ⁴⁷ The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.

⁴⁸ “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it. ⁴⁹ The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.”

⁵⁰ All the Israelites did just what the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. ⁵¹ And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.

13

¹⁴ “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵ When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ ¹⁶ And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.”

Crossing the Sea

¹⁷ When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.^[a] The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.

Knowing war, and turn back to the Egyptians,

And they do. . . look at the restrictions about Passover, all to preserve the memory

But look there is a villain in all this, the Egyptians right,

It is easy to vilify the other and raise yourself up as righteous,

What about Humility?

Death of Christ and Resurrection cannot be separated

Hosanna to Crucify

Own each one of those eggs

Each part of the story. . . it puts us right there with the Mary’s ,

with the disciples who fled, it reminds us that there is not a one who remained. . .

So What Can you say? It is alright to be trembling, frightened, and bewildered -- bewitched

Cal Ripken

Taking the Moment

Birds at dawn

Heading to Galilee

Following Christ

Show should we be silent?

April Fools

It doesn’t matter what we say, like Moses, he didn’t know what to say either

But if we return to Galilee, with the others, get the band back together

Jesus is there, Jesus is here, and if he is our words are not what is important

His are. . .