Sermon:Who Will Roll the Stone Away?
April 12th, 2020 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Mark 16:1-8
Mark’s version of the Easter story seems like the most fitting one for us on this Easter morning. It lacks any face-to-face meeting with the risen Christ. It lacks the social interaction of the women running to tell the disciples and the disciples running to the tomb to see with their own eyes. It lacks any gatherings of disciples in small rooms (even with Judas gone, there still would have been more than 10).This is how Mark’s gospel ends. It ends without really resolving what has happened, or what will happen. On a podcast I listened to this week out of Luther Seminary, someone said, “The reality of suffering still hangs over the scene in Mark; fear and incomprehension fill the story.” (workingpreacher)
As we awoke this Easter morning, the reality of suffering hangs over us in ways that have made this Easter like no other. Even in times of world war, there has never been this worldwide shuttering of churches and cathedrals. The pope celebrating mass alone. Fear and incomprehension fill cities and hospitals and homes. This is an Easter when we are called to gather without the smell of monkey bread and coffee. This is an Easter when we are called to celebrate without the sounds of children hunting for eggs or the choir practicing the anthem. This is an Easter when we are called to worship without the sight of lilies filling the front of the sanctuary. This is an Easter when we really have to lean in to the description of Christ’s people as those who “walk by faith and not by sight.”(2Cor.5:7)
Jesus had been crucified on a Friday. The day of Sabbath rest began on Friday at sunset and lasted until Saturday at sunset. The Sabbath regulations meant that they could not go out of their homes, could not go to the market, could not do a whole multitude of things that they normally would on other days of the week. And it was a special Sabbath, the Passover Sabbath. However, for Jesus’ followers there was no celebrating, only grief and prayer and a deep sense of loss and loneliness. As dawn broke on the first day of the weekfollowing Jesus’ death (Sunday morning) Mark tells us that the three women who had been the last to leave Jesus at the cross, were the first to go to complete the rituals of death for him at the tomb. They needed to express their love and care for their Teacher, their Leader. All their hopes and dreams and expectations lay dead in a tomb and they needed to go through the motions of finding some closure so they could to move on.
As Mary and Mary and Salome walked to the tomb, carrying the spices, they knew a huge, heavy stone had been rolled in front of the tomb to seal it. They knew there was no way the three of them would be able to move the stone by themselves. Yet they went anyway. They walked by faith and not by sight, asking each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb for us?”
There are many ways and times in life that people experience situations of great loss, the death of their dreams, of what they hoped the future would hold. We have quite a number of folks in our congregation who have experienced the death of a spouse, and for at least a time, stared into what looked like a tomb of loneliness. Some have lost a spouse in other ways, perhaps in being told “I don’t love you anymore” and entered a tomb of rejection. Who will roll the stone away?
Some of you have had the experience being told by your doctor, “Your tests show that there’s a problem, but there’s not much we can do about it,” or “what we can do will not be easy.” And you faced a tomb of uncertainty. Who will roll the stone away? In this COVID-19 crisis it has been especially hard. I watched the news story of an elderly woman whose son lived with her and cared for her. He was being loaded into an ambulance as he struggled to breathe. The camera captured the sadness and uncertainty of the mother as she stood in the driveway – she could not go with him. Would she ever see him again? What would happen to her? Who will roll the stone away?
Many in our community and in our families have recently been told by a boss, “I can’t pay you anymore,” or “You don’t have a job anymore.” How will bills be paid? Do I need to look for another job? Who will roll the stone away? In this moment when our only protection against a potentially deadly disease is distancing and hand washing, I think about the homeless and the poor around the world, especially those in refugee camps with families pressed together in tents, no sinks to wash hands, no hospitals or clinics. Who will roll the stone away?
I know some of you have felt the walls of depression’sdark tomb, of loneliness, closing in. You may have struggled with this before, but it seems ten times darker under stay-at-home orders. Who will roll the stone away?A good number of you may not be feeling shut up in a tomb yourself, but like Mary, Mary, and Salome, you may be trying to tend tosomeone else who is in a dark place.
The Bible passage never does answer the women’s question: who did roll the stone away?Instead, Mark just says, “Then they looked up, and lo and behold, the stone was already rolled away.”The Greek word Mark uses when he says they ‘looked up’ is the same word he’s used several times already as he tells the story of Jesus. When Jesus is faced with 5000 hungry people, he takes the 5 loaves and 2 fish and he ‘looked up’ to heaven. When divided, they fed the entire crowd.When faced with a person who was deaf and mute, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue, and ‘looked up’ to heaven before sighing, “Be opened!” The man could hear. Both of the stories of Jesus restoring sight to the blind, include the mention that after Jesus’ touch or word, they ‘looked up’ and lo and behold, they could see!
In situations that seemed impossible, that were dark or hopeless, people, even Jesus, looked up – looked up to God in prayer, looked up to God in hope, looked up and behold, God had already moved the stone. They knew it was God, not by sight, but by faith. There were signs of God’s hand at work, signs of healing and hope.
For the women at Jesus’ tomb there was the presence of the young man in white, a messenger from God. There was the empty place where Jesus’ body had been laid. There were the words of assurance and hope. “Don’t panic!” they are told. Don’t be afraid, don’t be alarmed. You’re looking for the wrong thing – you’re looking for a dead body. There is no dead body here. Jesus is risen! He’s alive! Not just that, he has gone ahead of you. Jesus is leading the way, he will meet you there. It is all happening just as he said; every word he spoke was trustworthy and true! Go, tell the others, tell Peter. Peter, who feels especially bad, especially sad, who feels he failed. Tell even Peter, there is hope, there is love and friendship and life again, for God rolled the stone away!
If you are feeling the dark walls of a tomb around you, if the threat of sickness and isolation and financial uncertainty are a place of fear and hopelessness, then hear these words today. God is still rolling away stones. God is still raising up new life in dark tombs. Jesus is out there ahead of you preparing the way. He will meet you. Look for the signs of hope; listen for the words of assurance.
In this tomb-like time of pandemic, I have seen and heard signs of hope. I have heard that the world is shaking less as people slow down. I have heard that after 10 long years the pandas of the Ocean Park Zoo in Hong Kong have finally mated now that the park is quiet. I have heard that the skies of Wuhan and Los Angeles are clearing of smog. I have heard that Oregon is sharing its ventilators with New York. I have seen my grandson over Facetime taking his first steps, strong and steady. I have seen the spring flowers coming up. I had an Easter bunny hop right up to my window, about 3 feet away, and look me square in the eye. I have felt peace, not panic, in my heart.
Who will roll away the stone? God is faithful and true! Death has been defeated! New life is being given! Love has conquered! Go and tell the world!For we walk by faith and not by sight.
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