- From the Jewish Scriptures: Isaiah 25:6-9
- Psalm 118:1-4, 19-24 (VU p.837 Parts 1 & 3)
- From the Gospel: Mark 16:1-8
- 155 Jesus Christ is Risen Today
- MV 122 This is the Day that God has Made (insert)
- 173 Thine is the Glory
- 468 Let us Talents and Tongues Enjoy
The title of the Meditation is Resurrection – Feel the Fear, Believe Anyway
Early Thoughts: There is something terrifying about the resurrection stories, at least if you read them from the point of view of the women going to the tomb. The truth of resurrection in the Gospels has to deal with that fear.
Mark is the earliest Gospel we have. The writer is the first person to attempt a description of Easter morning (while Paul writes earlier and confesses an Easter faith he never talks about what we call Easter morning). And in the earliest from it ends with the women running away in fear, telling nobody anything.
Obviously the story doesn't stop there. Obviously Mark's community knows that there is more to the story (and in fact there were verses added to the ending later that included an appearance by the Risen Christ). But this is where we get left. Not with joy and celebration but with fear and wondering.
And I think that is a good entry into being an Easter people. Too often we pass over that aspect of the story because we know how it ends. But as I look at it one of the miracles of the Easter event is that a group of terrified people found the faith to believe anyway. Easter isn't about debating what "really" happened. Easter is about finding the way to move beyond the fear of death into new life.
There is a lot of fear in the world right now. What will push us to feel the fear and believe anyway? What draws us into resurrection?
--Gord
We're going similar directions with the fear piece. I'll be interested to see where we both end up!
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