Easter Musings

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Resurrection of Our Lord, Easter Day

Midweek Musings

Reflection by Pastor Macholz

INTRODUCTION

This year may be the one in which John's resurrection account is likely to be chosen over Mark's, perhaps because Mark's gospel ends so abruptly, with astonishment and fear rather than joyful proclamation. Yet Mark may speak to our experience more directly than the other gospels. Corinthians and Acts fill out the story by telling of appearances of the risen Christ. Peter says we "ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead." And so do we, in a foretaste of the mountaintop feast where death will be no more.

PRAYER OF THE DAY (ELW)

O God, you gave your only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption, and by his glorious resurrection you delivered us from the power of death.

Make us die every day to sin, that we may live with him forever in the joy of the resurrection, through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

FIRST READING

Acts 10:34–43

Peter crosses the immense religious and social boundary that separates Jews from Gentiles in order to proclaim the good news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, so that God’s forgiveness in Jesus’ name would reach out to the Gentiles just as it had to Jews.

³⁴Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ — he is Lord of all. ³⁷That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; ⁴⁰but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴²He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."

PSALM (ELW)

Psalm 118:1–2, 14–24

This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps. 118:24)

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for the ^| LORD is good;

God's mercy en- ^| dures forever.

²Let Israel ^| now declare,

"God's mercy en- ^| dures forever."

¹⁴The LORD is my strength ^| and my song,

and has become ^| my salvation.

¹⁵Shouts of rejoicing and salvation echo in the tents ^| of the righteous:

"The right hand of the ^| LORD acts valiantly!

¹⁶The right hand of the LORD ^| is exalted!

The right hand of the ^| LORD acts valiantly!"

¹⁷I shall not ^| die, but live,

and declare the works ^| of the LORD. R

¹⁸The LORD indeed pun- ^| ished me sorely,

but did not hand me o- ^| ver to death.

¹⁹Open for me the ^| gates of righteousness;

I will enter them and give thanks ^| to the LORD.

²⁰"This is the gate ^| of the LORD;

here the righ- ^| teous may enter."

²¹I give thanks to you, for you have ^| answered me

and you have become ^| my salvation. R

²²The stone that the build- ^| ers rejected

has become the chief ^| cornerstone.

²³By the LORD has ^| this been done;

it is marvelous ^| in our eyes.

²⁴This is the day that the ^| LORD has made;

let us rejoice and be ^| glad in it. R

SECOND READING

1 Corinthians 15:1–11

The core of the Christian faith and Paul’s preaching is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As the crucified and risen Christ appeared to the earliest of his followers, so we experience the presence of the risen Lord in the preaching of this faith.

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, ²through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you — unless you have come to believe in vain.

³For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, ⁴and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, ⁵and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. ⁷Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them — though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

GOSPEL

Mark 16:1–8

The resurrection of Jesus is announced, and the response is one of terror and amazement.

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. ²And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. ³They had been saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?" ⁴When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. ⁵As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. ⁶But 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. ⁷But 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." ⁸So 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.

The Shorter Ending of Mark

[[And all that had been commanded them they told briefly to those around Peter. And afterward Jesus himself sent out through them, from east to west, the sacred and imperishable proclamation of eternal salvation.]]

The Longer Ending of Mark

Reflection

Terror and amazement had seized them. I suppose I would have had the same reaction had I been there. They expected the tomb to still contain the body of Christ. They wondered on the way how the stone would be rolled away. They also had to thinking the 'what next' question. Now that Jesus' ministry was over and it had not panned out, what were the next steps? They were in for a surprise!

The stone was moved and a young man in white awaited them. Their entire world was about to change in ways they could not imagine.

So it is with the resurrection and our lives. Our world has changed, been turned upside-down as the promise made so long ago is fulfilled in the death and resurrection of God's only son. We live not in the past but in God's future which is filled with promise and hope. Hope is a constant companion and death no longer is the end of the story, rather it is a new beginning. How we live in that hope and allow the resurrection to inform and change our lives is what our story is about. It's time to write the next chapter as we live into our new and wonder-filled life.

Let us pray for:

· Those who live in fear

· Children who seek homes and love

· Eyes able to see Christ, especially in our enemies

· A desire to share our resurrection story

· Thankful hearts and lives

Quote

Our Lord has written the story of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf of springtime. Martin Luther