Last of All As One's Untimely Born, April 12, 2009

Mark 16:1-8
I Corinthian 15: 1-11
LAST OF ALL, AS TO ONE UNTIMELY BORN, that's us isn't it?
We know the characters of the Gospel so well, Mary and Joseph and their baby. King Herod, the Wisemen and Shepherds, John the Baptist, Simon Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John the sons of Zebedee, Phillip, Nathaniel and Matthew, Judas, another Mary, another King Herod, Pontius Pilate, BUT the Apostle known as Paul was not one of those. He is at least a generation different. He like us, never knew Jesus of Nazareth but had a life changed by the resurrected Lord

The Gospels are written differently than other stories, different from history, different from myth. The Gospels are told in a series of PARABLES, making us question if the real parable is the RESURRECTION?
The Gospels are told in a way that includes us, the Gospel is incomplete without you and I as receivers who pass on the faith. We have a role to play in faith, even though this part of the story was begun over 2000 years ago in a different time and place. We did not see the 10 Lepers cured, or the 5000 people fed, we did not sit at his feet as he told parables, or sit in the boat during the storm when Jesus said PEACE BE STILL and even the waves and sky obeyed, we were not even there when he broke bread or when he died on the cross. No, like Paul, we are from a different place and time, who must work harder to try to see ourselves there. AND yet, this has been passed down as our Spiritual Inheritance, making the GOSPEL our own as much as had we been kneeling there.

In many ways, the responsibility of faith is more difficult for us than for Jesus' first disciples. They were able to look him in the eye, they were able to witness what he had done. We hear the story and we question is this historically the way it happened, or is this another parable, like the PRODIGAL SON who comes home and is loved by God; like the PEARL of great value for which you would sell everything else, like the planting of seed that grows WEEDS AND GRAIN. This PARABLE, this simple story is as drawn on our Bulletin covers: God came down to us, to be one with us. We harm one another and ourselves, we caused Christ to die on the Cross. The Body of Christ was Buried. Easter morning God raised him to heaven. He will come again! What I love about EASTER'S RESURRECTION is who did what. We so often believe we have to be in control, we have to do everything and make life perfect. Instead: GOD came down to us. JESUS, like we are, was faithful, suffered and died and was buried. GOD raised Jesus, and he will come back for us. Our role, is not perfection, we like Jesus: are to be FAITHFUL, sometimes to SUFFER, all of us to DIE and Bury one another. But this is PROOF of the reality of God, that as a man Jesus could not have RESURRECTED HIMSELF, Resurrection required that God Raise him up, that God who created life, granted new life.

We are not worthy to be called APOSTLES, because we did not live in that time, and because we have done wrong in our lives... AND YET, as Paul and Popeye describe, I AM What I AM that's all that I am, though God makes us Apostles. The title APOSTLE means sent out into the world to be ourselves sharing faith with others. SO more than a Parable, hearing this story, being moved by the death and resurrection of Jesus, we know there is nothing more to fear in life or in death. Life is to be lived, to make the most out of, not for our possessions, not for what our stock portfolio says we are worth. Our lives, like Jesus' life, like the lives of each of the Apostles, are that we are sent by God for others.

The phrase that fits here, is that we are CALLED TO CONVERT THE CONVERTED. Is there a man or woman among us, who has never heard the story, that Jesus suffered and died and was buried, and on Easter morning the tomb was empty? YET we go through our lives, still harming one another, and by so doing wounding God. FAITH is more than knowing the story, more than making a contribution, or volunteering in this way or that. FAITH is the struggle to live our lives for others. To live our lives as if RESURRECTED.
There is a translation problem, from GREEK to English. In Greek, “Faith” is both a noun and a verb, where as in English we have the Noun FAITH as a thing but translate the verb as BELIEVE. Paul perceives FAITH is the relationship we have with God. This is not DOGMA, a set of ideas, but a dynamic relationship, a struggle for acceptance by God, a calling to serve others.

FAITH is this unfinished story, that requires our involvement.
In the original ancient copies of the Gospel of Mark, the oldest of the Gospels, this was the Easter Story. The Women went to the Tomb to complete his burial, they were afraid because they had not been able to do for him what the Law required, had not been able to finish due to the Sabbath, afraid because three days had passed, afraid because they knew there were soldiers who had put him to death, afraid because there was a stone blocking their access to him. YET in answer to their fears, the tomb was open and he was not there. An ANGEL explained it all to them, and told them what they must do, how they must go, find the disciples, go to Galilee of the Gentiles because Jesus would be waiting for them there. INSTEAD the women were frightened and ran away, telling no one.
HOW WOULD YOU FINISH THE STORY?

And I one of the women, have written this for you to be able to tell the story!

AFTER THEM, Peter and James and John happened upon the tomb, and seeing he was not there suddenly everything Jesus had said made sense to them, so they went out into the world and ministering in his name to others, they experienced his presence with them over and over again in every generation.

Simon Peter was despondent, filled with sadness at not having been able to claim Jesus when tested. Peter decided he would return to his earlier live and go fishing. The others thought it not a good idea for Peter to be out in a boat by himself, so went with him.