Sunday, April 1, 2018

Resurrection of the Lord

First Reading: Acts 10:34-43
Or Alternate First Reading: Isaiah 25:6-9, Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Second Reading: I Corinthians 15:1-11
Or Alternate Second Reading: Acts 10:34-43
Gospel Reading: John 20:1-18
Or Alternate Gospel Reading: Mark 16:1-8

The liturgical color for the day is: White

The readings for the Resurrection of the Lord provide the preacher with plenty of options.  A word about the “First Reading.”  Ordinarily that is a reading from the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament), yet in Eastertide (the season of Easter that is seven Sundays prior to Pentecost), a long-standing tradition of the Church is that First Reading is from the Acts of the Apostles.

In addition to the First Reading having an alternate reading, the Second Reading and the Gospel Reading for the day also provide for an optional choice.  Preaching the account of the resurrection from the Gospel of John is quite different than preaching it from the Gospel of Mark.

Many will shy away from the Gospel of Mark with its abrupt ending of verse 8: “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

The writer of the Gospel of Mark stops writing right there—what a place to stop!  Early on in the Gospel’s life there were ones who added other endings.  It is the struggle with Mark’s account of Easter Day—it ends with terror and amazement; it stops with saying nothing to anyone for they were afraid.

One must retreat a few verses, however, and hear the voice of the messenger at the tomb all dressed in white.  That one says, “He has been raised.”  It is the passive voice of the verb—Jesus is the object of what has been done by another.  The action is not on the part of the one raised or on that of the messenger, or even Mary, or Salome.  The action is on the part of God.

To take that in there is a three-fold reaction.  First, that gasp of breath, then that pause of silence, and finally that question: “What just happened here?”  Terror and amazement is the way Mark describes that.  Terror and amazement because they knew what we know—they knew that the only one with such power is God.  Only God.

Only God…and so we take a breath, we fall silent, and we ask the question of faith.  “What just happened here?”  It is not a long stretch that terror and amazement are in the mix when we take it in: “He has been raised.”

Daris Bultena
General Presbyter