Thinking Outside the Tomb Mark 16:1-8 April 4, 2021
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Thinking Outside The Tomb Mark 16:1-8 April 4, 2021 Mark 16:1-8 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “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.” 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. Thinking Outside The Tomb Mark 16:1-8 April 4, 2021 Rev. Michael Catanzaro I. Did you every have that feeling, or thought, that you were somehow missing something? That’s what was happening to me all last week. I kept moving through my usual routines, going from day to day, and I couldn’t shake the sense that I was missing something but I just couldn’t figure out what it was. Thursday morning I drove over to Ogdensburg, to the “Golden Dome,” to receive my second COVID vaccination. I arrived to find two people from our church, Heidi Ames and Linda Potter, serving as volunteers at the clinic, and quite quickly moved through the process of ID and temperature check, pre- screening questions and the “Fauci Ouchie” all in the span of a half-hour; 15 minutes of which was spent waiting in the “time out” area to be sure there I had no immediate adverse reaction to the vaccine. II. Afterward, and because I had a little time, I stopped off at Lowe’s to shop for some new drill bits which were much needed and long-over due. Though I certainly could have been in and out of the store in just a few minutes, it actually took me an hour; twice as long as it took to get vaccinated. That is because I decided to indulge myself by lingering in the expansive Tool section to peruse the aisles, dreaming and scheming about drill presses, bandsaws, tool boxes, and imagining what it would be to upgrade to a more powerful and lighter 20 volt battery system to replace my cordless drill which, strictly speaking, doesn’t need to be replaced but would allow me to purchase any number of other, cool accompanying tools. Standing there in front of the reciprocating saws, I thought to myself “I’m like a kid in a candy store”; and, suddenly, I realized what had been niggling at me, what I’d been missing… candy! III. Every year for the past 23 years I’d always gone to the store the week before Easter to purchase bags of different kinds of candy to fill plastic eggs and, then, hide them around the sanctuary or church for the kids to find during the Children’s Sermon on Easter Sunday morning. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined not doing this. So much so, that the practice of this annual rite of spring has been etched upon my brain, with something deep inside of me that kept telling me there is something more I’m missing. Given this week’s experience, and owing to our scripture passage for today, I’d like to speak to you this morning about the unimagined and the unimaginable. IV. In studying Mark’s account of the first Easter morning found in the verses 1-8 of chapter 16, we can call to mind an image of three woman, sometimes referred to as “The Three Marys,” walking and talking early in the morning as they brought spices to anoint the body of Jesus who had been crucified three days prior. One of these women was Mary Magdalene, a devoted follower and beloved disciple (and, perhaps, even more) who is featured prominently in Jesus’ life, death and, here, in his resurrection; so much so that every Gospel account relates that she was the first person to whom the risen Christ appeared. Another was Mary the mother of the Apostle James. Though little is known about her, we are sure she was a witness to the crucifixion and, obviously, part of the tight inner-circle of Jesus’ followers. The third woman with them was Salome, or Mary Salome, who, likewise, witnessed the crucifixion and was a follower of Jesus, ministering to him both in his life and, now, in his death. V. What strikes us when reading this passage, though easily missed, is that none of these woman could even begin to imagine what they thought they would find once they arrived at the tomb beyond that which they already assumed: the dead body of one they loved so much, and in whom they believed so deeply. More poignantly, they represent the human habit and tendency to approach our religious lives as unimagined; sometimes, even in the face of the unimaginable. I choose today’s sermon title as a play on the more familiar phrase, “Thinking Outside The Box,” both in reference to what the Three Marys were thinking as they journeyed toward the the tomb and stood, physically, outside of it but, also, in deference to trying to get outside of our normal ways of things when it comes to considering our faith; especially, today, on Easter Sunday morning. VI. Though now quite ubiquitous in use and occurrence, the phrase, “Thinking Outside the Box,” only came into common parlance within the last century. Popularized in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the phase was adopted by many in the business world to emphasize the value of looking for solutions outside of, or beyond, the box which we typically inhabit and within which our problems arise. However, the origins of the phrase can be traced back to Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles, Tricks, and Conundrums (With Answers), which was published in 1914, and includes what is now referred to as the 'Nine Dots Puzzle', which I’ve included in this morning’s bulletin opposite the Call To Worship. The challenge of the puzzle is to connect all the dots using the fewest straight lines to do so, which would be four. VII. Not to be cruel about it but, rather, to give you something to do in the event you find the rest of the sermon to be a tad boring, I’m not going to give you the solution to the “Nine Dots Puzzle.” However, I will include the solution at the end of the written sermon which I email out to everyone on Sunday. I will say, though, (hint, hint) that the solution to the puzzle involves getting, and thinking, outside the box. Returning to today’s scripture reading, and applying the analogy derived from the “Nine Dots,” the solution to the puzzle of Jesus’ death lies not inside the tomb where his body was placed, but outside the tomb where the risen Christ is to be found. VIII. The claim we make as Christians, particularly on Easter Sunday morning, that the Son of God was crucified, dead and buried and, then, rose on the third day, is simply not something which can be understood within the parameters and limitations of our reasoning brains or day to day experiences. Really, though, would we want it to? Would we actually desire a hope that was confined and containable within the box of human understanding? Phrased in such a way, we would all certainly seek a much larger hope. And, yet, like the Three Marys on the way to the tomb that first Easter morning, it is within our nature as finite beings to live with a finite hope; a hope that is small, restricted and thoroughly unimagined. IX. Still, no matter how far we stray from imagining a hope so complete, so far- reaching and, seemingly, so impossible, God persists in giving us a trail to follow strewn with the bread crumbs of grace such that each one of us has this niggling sense, or thought, that there is something we are missing, or forgetting, even as we continue to insist on living our lives within the confines of a box of our own making, and stubbornly refusing to imagine what might lie outside the box and outside the tomb. Easter is that occasion which interrupts our usual routines and day to day lives, and invites us to waken from the cycle of our existence such that we might finally honor that sense within us that there is more hope in this world than we ever tend to imagine; even when the unimaginable happens. X. Let us acknowledge, that for his followers, the arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus was utterly unimaginable. For the three years of his ministry, this community of believers witnessed Jesus perform miracles, heal the sick, cast out demons, feed the multitudes, raise one of their own from the dead, speak with authority in proclaiming the good news of God’s love and forgiveness, cleanse the temple, and herald the long awaited and prophesied arrival of the Kingdom of God on earth.