Every once in a while (too often for me, I'm afraid) preachers get a strong sense--usually after a sermon--that it was not quite the sermon they should have preached on that particular day to this particular people. This Easter Sunday, I must confess, this happened to me.
Partly it was the exhaustion of the Three Days, partly it is the sheer weight of attempting to preach on Easter Sunday, partly it was not enough careful time spent with the text, partly it was an ambitious desire to preach all there was to preach on the "shorter ending" of the Gospel of Mark (i.e., 16:8).
So, in response to this, I offer you these brief reflections on the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark:
During your reading of the Passion According to St. Mark during Palm/Passion Sunday, who else noticed that naked guy in 14:51-52? Upon hearing the Passion according to St. Mark this year during worship I was struck by these strange verses about a guy running around in a linen burial shroud after the disciples deserted Jesus. As quickly as he enters the picture he disappears--or so it seems--for the rest of the Gospel.
What's up with the naked guy?
After these verses in chapter 14 we hear the moving story of the Passion, a narrative squarely focused on one Jew from Nazareth named Jesus. He suffers, is crucified, dies, is acclaimed "Son of God" by the centurion at the foot of the cross--and then is raised on the third day.
And who gets to announce the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Mark but the naked guy! Well, actually, it's "the new guy" (Greek neaniskos).
There is speculation that the entire Gospel of Mark was meant and written to be performed as a drama at the early Church's Easter Vigil rites. If so, this neaniskos plays a prominent role in the liturgy and the church. It is he who loses his burial shroud and runs away while Jesus Christ completes the work of his Passion and Resurrection. But it is this very same guy who, dressed in new digs (baptismal garments?) gets to announce our Lord's Resurrection: not the most faithful members, not the disciples, not even the women at the tomb, but neaniskos, the "new guy."
May all those new to the faith proclaim with Easter joy the triumph of Christ's death and resurrection to the faithful and to the rest of the world: ""Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you" (Mark 16:6-8).
[Note: Dr. Frederick A. Niedner of Valparaiso University was the first to point out this connection to me. I am thankful for this further explication at our synod assembly this past May.]
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
5 Easter and Mother's Day
As the Fifth Sunday of Easter approaches, here are some reflections on the national holiday of Mother's Day.
1. Mother’s Day is a relatively recent holiday, attributed to Julia Ward Howe, who began the holiday after the Civil War celebrating the inherent pacifism of mothers in her Mother's Day Proclamation (1870). In popular terms, the holiday is now a celebration of motherhood. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day. (This information courtesy of en.wikipedia.org.) What might it mean to be peacemakers in the name of our Lord Jesus?
2. A friend of mine who is a huge NASCAR fan tells me that this is the only weekend in the season without a NASCAR race, so that none of the drivers’ mothers lose their child in a crash on Mother’s Day. Perhaps this practice gives us a chance to mourn with all mothers who have lost a child through death at any age.
3. In Holy Scripture, mothers feature prominently. The most famous mother is Mary, Mother of our Lord, who nourished the Christ child in her womb and gave birth in a humble stable. In many parts of the church, Mary bears the title Theotokos: God-bearer. She is also known as “Mother of God.” This wonderful title has always been understood to be a word about Jesus Christ: that in addition to being truly divine, he was also truly human, born in the flesh, born of a woman.
4. The church throughout history has been described alternatively as our Mother (Have you ever heard the phrase “Mother Church”?) and the womb in which the Baptized are nourished in the Faith, particularly through the sacraments. How can the church, especially particular congregations, be communties where the faithful are nourished?
5. The Hebrew word for womb (raham) in its verb form means “to have compassion, to love deeply, to show mercy” (see Deuteronomy 13:17). What a wonderful thing: God has “womb-like” compassion for us!
1. Mother’s Day is a relatively recent holiday, attributed to Julia Ward Howe, who began the holiday after the Civil War celebrating the inherent pacifism of mothers in her Mother's Day Proclamation (1870). In popular terms, the holiday is now a celebration of motherhood. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day. (This information courtesy of en.wikipedia.org.) What might it mean to be peacemakers in the name of our Lord Jesus?
2. A friend of mine who is a huge NASCAR fan tells me that this is the only weekend in the season without a NASCAR race, so that none of the drivers’ mothers lose their child in a crash on Mother’s Day. Perhaps this practice gives us a chance to mourn with all mothers who have lost a child through death at any age.
3. In Holy Scripture, mothers feature prominently. The most famous mother is Mary, Mother of our Lord, who nourished the Christ child in her womb and gave birth in a humble stable. In many parts of the church, Mary bears the title Theotokos: God-bearer. She is also known as “Mother of God.” This wonderful title has always been understood to be a word about Jesus Christ: that in addition to being truly divine, he was also truly human, born in the flesh, born of a woman.
4. The church throughout history has been described alternatively as our Mother (Have you ever heard the phrase “Mother Church”?) and the womb in which the Baptized are nourished in the Faith, particularly through the sacraments. How can the church, especially particular congregations, be communties where the faithful are nourished?
5. The Hebrew word for womb (raham) in its verb form means “to have compassion, to love deeply, to show mercy” (see Deuteronomy 13:17). What a wonderful thing: God has “womb-like” compassion for us!
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