Sunday People in a Friday world

Easter Sunrise Service, April 8 2012, Jones Beach, NY.
Reading: Mark 16:1-8

A printable PDF file can be found here

We are Sunday people in a Friday world. What do I mean by that?

We live in a world that declares “Thank God it's Friday”. A whole restaurant chain defines itself with such words. We live in a world where people live for the weekend. And the weekend is for family and driving children to events and watching sports and washing cars and reading newspapers. We live in a world where most of our time is spent doing things we have to do in order to find the room to do a few things we would like to do and the remainder of it is spent sleeping and dreaming. We live in a world where our identity and status is tied in with our job description, where for many their past is defined by whose they were and their future will be defined by who they come to know.

It's a Friday world. We are born. We get by. We die. So eat, drink and be merry. Find love. Find meaning. Buy a lottery ticket now and again. Because despite the odds, somebodies got to win. After all, immense riches are the only way to escape the Friday world in which we live and move and have our being.

But we are Sunday people in a Friday world. We claim to be governed by a different set of priorities. Our statement of faith speaks of a kingdom whose citizens shout 'hosanna' and claim that only 'Jesus is Lord'. We belong to a community of people who believed that what had happened in an empty tomb 2000 years ago was of such significance that they changed their day of worship from being the traditional Saturday, the seventh day, to an eighth day (that was actually the first day) that we call Sunday. We are an Easter people and Hallelujah is our song.

Here in this place, at this time, we share in something ancient and authentic. Meeting around the rising sun, on Sun-day, to sing the praise of one we believe to be God's son, Jesus Christ, and seeking that the light of God's Holy Spirit may illuminate our day, just as the sun will spread it's rays upon our path. We know we are not a majority. We know there are many who will think us a little crazy to be out on a beach at this time in the morning. And who can blame them? After all, what has all of this to do with the life and aims and ideals of a Friday world? We are Sunday people in a Friday world.

Our reading came from the gospel of Mark. In the earliest manuscripts that have yet been discovered the Gospel of Mark ends where we ended our reading. Later traditions gave us alternate endings. These days Hollywood does the same thing. You buy the DVD of many a popular film and often are given an alternate ending that does little to change the story but does leave us with different questions swirling around our minds.

I like the way the earliest manuscripts of Mark yet discovered conclude. We are left breathless for a sequel. We wonder who that young man in a white robe sitting in the tomb might have been. We wonder what will become of those who run from the tomb in fear and who will believe the message that has been entrusted to their care.

They were Sunday people in a Friday world. Not just any Friday... but the darkest Friday of them all. The day the sky tuned black and the chosen one of God cried out to His Father, “Why have you forsaken me?” That Friday. The one that retrospectively we call Good Friday but at the time nobody could perceive anything good coming out of it.

I'd like us to stay with Marks story and I'll offer to you some of the things that it speaks to me, as it relates to being 21st century Sunday people in a Friday world. Staying true to my Presbyterian tradition I'll pull out three headings Mark offers us. 1. This story speaks to our disappointment. 2. It challenges our disbelief and 3. it sends us out into the world with our doubts intact. As such it offers a framework for being Sunday people in a Friday world.

1. This story speaks to our disappointment.

Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?" But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.

If you belong to a mainline denomination that is in decline, such as my own Presbyterian denomination, then I'm guessing you can identify with disappointment. After all at the dawn of the previous century we were going to save the world. We saw mission as something global, we built churches that had room to grow, and despite two world wars, even into the nineteen fifties, into the nineteen sixties and for some even into the nineteen seventies, our congregations, if not growing, at least maintained an active life. But for many, many congregations today the whole ball game has changed.

Our mission has gone from saving the world to keeping the doors open and paying the bills. The certainties that we took for granted are no more. We can identify with these women in Mark who are doing what they believe is right, but, boy, it's hard. The glory days are over. There's this huge stone that they expect will make their job even harder to do. And it's scary when they arrive to find the stone has been messed with. They travel to anoint a body that they might not be able to reach and discover that it might not even be there. I think disappointment pretty much defines their experience.

But... on the positive side... they are Sunday people in a Friday world. They are not, like the so called disciples, hiding out because of their fear. They are not allowing their disappointment to paralyze them from taking any action. They may be disappointed but they are not destroyed. There is a tenacity to their actions that surely can speak to our current situation. There is an impudence, that says, 'Look I know the odds are against us, I know you think what we are doing is futile, I know you think it's all over, but we are going to to honor our Lord and our Savior'. That to me sounds like the actions of Sunday people in a Friday world. Despite disappointment, Sunday people carry on. And look what happens.

2. Disbelief is challenged.

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'"

They didn't see that one coming! A dude dressed in white telling them “Don't worry. Be happy. Every things going to be all right.” Say what? The sharply dressed young man speaks right to the center of their dilemma. 'I know what you're up to. You're looking for Jesus. You saw Him crucified. He's not here. He's risen! Look. No Jesus. Here's where they placed His body. So go and tell Peter and the rest.. get to Galilee because Jesus is going to to meet you there! And... by the way... if you remember... Jesus told you this already.”

Being Sunday people in a Friday world is not a burden. It is a challenge. Mark reminds us that to be Sunday people means that along the road we get to see stuff and hear things the Friday world never experiences. The challenge is how to put those experiences across in ways that make sense to a Friday world, especially when some of our fellow Sunday travelers, like Peter's and Thomas's and John's, may not get it. Here is Mark challenging, not only our disappointment, but also our disbelief.

And then this.

3. Mark sends us out into the world with all our doubts intact.

Talk about a cliffhanger. The women leave the empty tomb with a whole lot of different questions then when they arrived. There's a different perspective but still a great deal unresolved. They still have their disappointments. They still have their disbelief. The wonderful thing is, that with all their doubts intact, they get on with the job. They do, in fear and trembling, tell Peter and the others to get over to Galilee to meet the Risen Jesus. They do begin to remember. They do, still trembling and afraid, start to believe that Christ is Risen.

When the Israelite people were in exile in Babylon the Psalmist wrote “How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land?” We may wonder “How can we be Sunday people in a Friday world?” And all that this ancient ending of Mark offers offers us is to say that you just get on with it.

You remember what Jesus said and did and you do it. You reach out with love. You feed the hungry. You lift up the poor. You seek justice for those who are denied it. You bind up the broken hearted. You proclaim that this is the day of the Lord's favor. You help the blind to see and the deaf to ear. You give yourselves to being Sunday people in a Friday world. And as you do, you discover that He is Risen and that His love is with you and that God still turns deserts into places of living water, and inspires people to seek peace and motivates people to hope and things really can change and the love of God, in Jesus Christ, is discovered through the gentle yet powerful activity of God's Holy Spirit.

Early in the morning they went to the tomb and found the stone rolled away. And they came away from the tomb not really knowing how all this was going to work out. They just got on with doing the next thing.

That's all it takes to be Sunday people in a Friday World. Just do the next thing we know God is asking of us. We don't see the whole picture. We are not guaranteed anything other than that His living, loving, presence will be there for us. We are Sunday people in a Friday world. We are Easter people and Hallelujah is our song. And today is our special day to proclaim to the world, that even though we face disappointments, that even though we sometimes struggle to believe, that even though we sometimes have our doubts, nevertheless we are going to live and work and act out of an attitude for gratitude. For God so loved the world that He gave His son that we may live in His love.

We are Sunday people in a Friday world.
Amen.


Rev Adrian J Pratt B.D.