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EASTERTIDE
SERMON
Preached on 6 May
MARK 16: 9 – 16 and I CORINTHIANS
15:1 - 11
INTRODUCTION
The ending of Mark’s Gospel is a puzzle. If you look at it in your
Bibles you will see that it is generally believed that the Gospel
ended at verse 8. The women enter the tomb where Jesus’ body had
been placed after he had been taken down from the cross. They find a
young man there who told them that Jesus has been raised from the
dead. He goes on to give them a message for the other disciples.
They are to go back to Galilee and start again, and they would see
Jesus. Totally unprepared for this awesome experience the women run
off tongue-tied, too afraid to say anything to anyone. And there the
Gospel ended!
The verses
that we have just heard read are regarded as being separate, and not
part of the original Gospel. They are not in the most important and
trustworthy of the ancient manuscripts and they are written in a
different style. Therefore scholars have concluded that 50 years or
so after the Gospel was compiled, people tried to make it end in a
more satisfactory way, because obviously the women DID go and say
something.
These final
verses may be a later addition, making use of other traditions, but
nevertheless they make important affirmations.
FIRSTLY,
THEY AFFIRM THAT WHEN WE ALIGN OURSELVES WITH GOD, HOPELESSNESS DOES
NOT HAVE TO HAVE THE FINAL WORD.
After Jesus
had been rejected and crucified it was natural to assume that
everything was over, that God had been defeated. It was hard to
believe that it was possible that Jesus’ work could continue. The
Risen Christ finds such incredulity reproachful. After all that he
has taught them about God’s enduring power of love, they just give
up in despair. Haven’t they learned anything? God has the power to
do new things. God does not let go. God is not prepared to give
up.
Last week the
funeral of President Boris Yeltsin was held at the Cathedral Church
of Christ the Saviour, Moscow. The service was led by the oldest
member of the Russian Orthodox Church Holy Synod and it included
prayers and hymns and all the religious rites. Seventy years ago
this would have been unbelievable. After the Bolsheviks took power
in Russia in 1917 they did everything possible to remove religious
influence from society. Thousands of priests and believers were
tortured and executed and churches were destroyed, including the
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, which was reduced to rubble.
Religious persecution continued until the end of Soviet rule in the
late 1980s, when repressions began to be lifted and the Cathedral
was rebuilt. Throughout this time Christianity was kept alive by a
small number of faithful people who refused to lose hope. When we
align ourselves with God, hopelessness does not have to be the final
word.
Another
illustration, closer to home. At one of the recent meetings of our
monthly Guild, a member of the church and her friend spoke to us
about a charity that they have set up. It provides financial
assistance for the families of young people living in the West
Midlands area who are suffering with cancer. They were inspired to
do this in response to the tragic death of Jill’s son, Paul. In his
20s he contracted a virulent form of cancer that rapidly spread
throughout his body, and before he died he had his arm amputated at
the shoulder. Despite all this he remained cheerful, and as a
memorial to him the two women set about raising funds to help others
in a similar position. They meet on Friday evenings to read the
moving letters of application for a small grant and then they decide
how to allocate the money. No-one is refused. After Paul’s death
his family and friends could have fallen into despair. Instead,
Paul’s life and example and their own Christian faith motivated them
to do something to improve the quality of life for other terminally
ill young people.
When we
believe that God is always with us, always caring, when we trust in
God’s goodness, we are able to overcome our hopelessness and replace
it with fulfilment.
SECONDLY,
THE VERSES AFFIRM THE PLACE OF WOMEN’S MINISTRY IN THE CHRISTIAN
COMMUNITY.
It was the MEN
disciples who found it difficult to believe that God could do new
things. The women, and above all Mary Magdalene, were the first to
believe that, although Jesus was not physically around, he could
still be followed and his Spirit could empower them.
At this year’s
Spring Harvest gathering of Christians, one of the leaders, Phil
Wall, pleaded with women to take on more responsibility in church
leadership, and he challenged men to be more willing to surrender
their authority and influence. To us that seems strange. Because
we have become used to the participation of women on an equal basis
to that of men, it’s difficult for us to appreciate that it wasn’t
always so, and it’s easy to forget that in many denominations
women’s callings are still denied. Around forty years ago there was
a movement of the Spirit as unconnected groups of women began
looking at the Bible and perceiving that Jesus did offer them full
discipleship. They set off for theological colleges, engaged in
ministries and challenged the masculine language that excluded
them. It was not easy, because they were ridiculed and trivialised,
even by other women, who hadn’t experienced the same revelation.
And Mary Magdalene was an important role model for those of us who
believe that ministry is dependent upon God’s choosing and not upon
our gender.
In 1980 a tomb
was discovered near Jerusalem, containing ten 2000-year-old
coffins. The name Jesua, son of Joseph, is carved into one of
them. Another bears the name Mariameme. Archaeologists say that
this is the tomb of a Jewish family, with names that were common at
that time. But the film director James Cameron saw that it could be
turned to good commercial advantage by claiming that this is the
tomb of Jesus and his wife Mary Magdalene and their family.
Similarly, Dan Brown’s novel, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ says that Mary is
Jesus’ wife. There are no grounds for this. It always amazes me
that people who find it difficult to believe the Bible can believe
anything else. Another groundless story about Mary Magdalene, which
has been put about by the church, is that she was a prostitute who
repented of her supposed sin. Again, there is nothing whatever to
support this. The Scriptures say that Jesus healed her, maybe of
epilepsy, but it’s not clear. More importantly the Gospels
consistently show Mary as the leader of a group of women who
followed Jesus and indicate that without her there would have been
no Christianity! Unlike the men, who deserted Jesus and ran away,
she is present throughout all the events of the death and burial of
Jesus. She stayed as close to the crucifixion as possible, she saw
where his body was laid and she returned to anoint it. Each Gospel
makes her the first witness to the empty tomb and the first to
receive the news that he had been raised. Each Gospel says that the
Risen Christ appeared first to the women, headed by Mary Magdalene.
Each Gospel tells of the male disciples hearing the news of the
Resurrection from her. She is the Apostle to the Apostles! Without
her there would have been no Christianity. And yet, in Paul’s
letter to the Corinthians, when he lists those to whom Jesus
appeared, Paul fails to mention her at all. Why? Early Church
scrolls, including a Gospel of Mary Magdalene dating from the mid 2nd
century, show a conflict developing between Mary and Peter because
of her gender. Peter demanded her expulsion from his group, and so
she was side-lined and her significance played down by the powerful
church authorities.
The fact
remains that GOD does not exclude women, and we need to stand in
solidarity with those women whose congregations still deny them
equal opportunities in ministry on the grounds that Jesus chose only
men disciples.
THIRDLY,
THESE VERSES AFFIRM THE IMPORTANCE OF SPREADING THE GOOD NEWS.
Having been
made aware that God has not been defeated and that Jesus’ work could
continue in them, Jesus’ followers came to perceive that God’s love
had no racial or territorial boundaries. The movement that began in
Israel is to be taken out to all nations.
On Palm
Sunday, 1 April, two of our stewards, Barry and Angus, played an
April Fool joke on minister Paul. They told him that Barry was
going to lead a donkey into the church and Angus would walk behind
with a bucket and shovel. They thought that Paul would realise that
they were pulling his leg and hadn’t realised how convincing they
had been until in the service Paul asked the congregation to stand
up while the donkey was brought in. Paul says that the news rapidly
spread around the Circuit, until all the churches had heard about
it. If only we were so quick to communicate our faith!
God wants all
people to know that the guiding principle behind creation is LOVE.
When everyone’s actions and thoughts and decisions are motivated by
love, then the world will operate in the way that God intended and
all will live in peace and harmony, free from oppression and
exploitation. All will be held together with a wholeness that comes
from acknowledging God’s reign. This seems an unbelievable dream,
but we see in the Resurrection and in subsequent events that God’s
purposes will not be thwarted. Those of us who DO believe in the
potential of God’s power to transform individual lives and societies
are charged with transmitting this Good News, until all the world
appreciates it. Until that time, it is condemned to continue in its
present state of alienation. But when people believe this, God’s
salvation will have come!
by Margaret
Bradley
©2007
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