At first the story sounds familiar to us. The women set out for the cemetery to complete the burial ritual for Jesus. Like a lot of the women workers here at First Moravian they think ahead to what kind of muscle power they need from the men in moving things, or fixing things so they can be about their tasks of serving our Lord.

The women arrive only to encounter an already opened tomb with a mysterious young man dressed in white, sitting inside at the right side. “Do not be alarmed,” he says. “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified? He has been raised. He is not here. Don't believe me? Look, here's where his body was laid. Now leave. Go tell his disciples, and Peter, that Jesus has gone ahead of you to Galilee . You will see him there, just as he told you.”

And what happens next in Marks account? If we were watching Mark's account on TV we would see the women grabbing up their skirts and running pell mell from the scene with looks of amazing terror on their faces telling no one what they had seen and heard.

Most New Testament scholars say that today's reading is the original end of Mark's gospel, because it is where the earliest and most reliable manuscripts end the gospel. A more literal translation of the Greek would read “To no one anything they said; afraid were they were for…” It is almost as if Mark was pulled away in mid sentence and never finished the story.

The early church saw this ending as problematic and two alternative endings were written in the second century and stuck onto the gospel of Mark. You can read the longer ending in your pew bible.

Now being a woman, I can understand perfectly why the women went away and said nothing to anyone. Who would believe such a story? We are used to not having our stories believed or even listened to, much less acted upon.

But we can from our own experience know something about resurrection. We can think back to times in our lives when we've experienced grief over the loss of what filled parts of our lives with meaning, love, happiness, a spouse or child, a good friend, a job or hobby that we absolutely loved doing, but cannot anymore. When we've lost what was life-giving to us.

Then gradually as we moved through our grief to become open to new life, new relationships, new ways of spending and using our time came into being, in ways we could not imagine. This pattern we've experienced of living, loss, and new ways of living is a taste, a glimpse of what resurrection means.

When we loose something that has consumed our lives---whether it be a young child's needs, or a demanding job,--- a space is made where something new can take root and grow. If nothing ever ended in our life, nothing new could begin! Beatrice Bruteau, a North Carolina author living in Pfafftown writes: We ourselves are constantly dying. Where are the children we once were? Where is even the self we were a minute ago? All passed away. But unless they do pass, the new cannot come.

But at the time when your loss occurred, could you even have imagined any kind of new life? If a young man in dazzling white had said to me, “stop your grieving. Get over it. Trust in what God has told you and God is going ahead of you to prepare you for new life.” I probably would have said a few choice words back before fleeing the scene in amazement that anyone could say such a thing.

What is clear in the gospel reading is that the women are utterly unable to cope with the news the young man gives them and the absence of Jesus' body. They remind me of family members in the hospital emergency room, unable to believe what has happened to their loved ones. It is only in time, as they sit with what they have been told and experienced that they are able to come to terms with what they have heard, and begin to deal with it in whatever way they can manage.

But why this unfinished sentence and unfinished ending in Marks's gospel? I wonder if Mark ‘s day job was writing first century mystery thrillers Have you ever read a mystery thriller, gotten to the end and are just totally surprised at the turn of events, and the narrator tells you the reader, hey don't you remember back when such and such occurred? Well, yeah maybe I vaguely remember something about that in the story, didn't understand it at the time…so what do you do? You go back and reread the story, you find what the narrator is talking about and now, just now are you able to put 2 and 2 together and figure it out.

Perhaps this is what Mark is trying to get us to do—to go back and reread the story for ourselves. When we go back and reread Marks' gospel in light of the unfinished ending we find not in just one but three times Jesus telling his disciples he would undergo great suffering be rejected by chief priests and scribes, be killed and on the 3 rd day rise again. The first time Jesus says this Peter argues him. The 2 nd time Mark tells us the disciples did not understand and are afraid to ask Jesus to explain what he meant to them. The 3 rd time, James and John come up to Jesus asking to be in the seats of honor when he comes into his glory. Jesus' words were just too weird at the time to be understood. It's only with 20/20 hindsight as Mark's readers go back and read the story that they begin to understand. Just as we, when we look back on our losses and times of grief then we can see how God has given us new life. Not the way things were before, better hopefully in some respects, and not as good in other respects, but new life just the same.

On Palm Sunday at our first congregational gathering, we went reached back into our memories and uncovered stories of life-giving experiences for us in this congregation. And you know what? Most of them involved doing what Jesus did when he was physically on earth—giving and serving in ways the brought life and wholeness to both us and the people we served. Operation in as Much and Candle Tea ran neck and neck as the number one best experience. Both involved working with other members to do something for the community outside these walls. Walking the talk of what it means to love. Of being on the giving or receiving end of a kind word, a warm hug, a sincere how are you doing? And like Jesus, we know that life is found in being a part of something greater than ourselves in giving of ourselves to our brothers and sisters.

And like Jesus who nurtured his relationship with the father, many of you mentioned being intentional about growing in your spiritual life, having a mountain top experience at the fall congregational retreat, or a life changing experience through Gemeinschaft, of being nurtured in the faith by a former pastor who taught you how to use your gifts in life giving ways of service to others.

And as is becoming more the rule than the exception lately, today's gospel reading gives us guidance as we move forward as a community of faith. The young man tells the women and us that Jesus has gone ahead into Galilee , there you will see him, just as he told you. Galilee was not the Washington , D.C. or Old Salem of Jesus' day. It was not the center of political or religious authority. It was simply a place where ordinary folks lived and struggled to survive. This is where the risen Jesus is found today. Among us working to bring home a paycheck that clothes and feeds our families and our neighbors in need. Among us bringing a smile and a warm hug or a helping hand to our sisters and brothers in need, and we are all in need at one time or another. None of us is self sufficient.

Unlike the women who were shocked into terror and amazement that morning, we have heard the story and witnessed the living Christ among us and in the midst of us. Jesus goes before us now, preparing the way as we continue to be a part of his ministry of love and healing to a broken and hurting world. As your stories last Sunday tell us, this is where life and love are!

One last word, I see many unfamiliar faces among us today. I urge you who are here most Sundays to reach out anew to these brothers and sisters who've been wondering what the heck is she talking about? Be evangelists! Tell them the good news! Work to involve or re-involve them in the life of this congregation in reaching out to both give and receive the love that is ours in Christ Jesus. For he is alive, and goes before us. Let us follow him.

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