Endings and beginnings

Our four gospels give us four very different and distinctive endings.  Mark’s is the most abrupt.  He has the women flee the empty tomb where they encountered an angel telling of the resurrection.  Mark’s final words are, “And they said nothing to no one.”  Um two things.  One, thanks for that warm and fuzzy closure.  Two, at some point they said something to someone otherwise you wouldn’t have a gospel.  Luke ends with Jesus walking the road after the resurrection with two disciples who don’t recognize or realize it’s him and then walking through walls like Casper the friendly ghost.  But for Luke it is all just  a bridge to set up his sequel, the book of Acts. John gives us a couple of stories where Jesus cooks salmon and avocado toast for the disciples on the beach and appears to all the disciples except Thomas, because we’ve all had someone say to us, “You should have been here.”  Matthew concludes his gospel rather quickly.  In the final chapter of Matthew's gospel, the women had encounter and embrace the Risen Christ.  Jesus was all, “I thus proclaimth, that I am not getting-th the band back together-th.  But tell everyone to meet-th me on the hill-th.”  Not exactly telling them which hill or giving good directions. Matthew then cuts to a scene where some of the officials pay off the guards who were watching the tomb.  It is like they are handing the guards a $10 bill, "How about my friends Hamilton here helps you forget about that angel and the empty tomb?"  It is such a strange scene...that maybe reminds us that bribes and money have always been used as a way to buy silence.  Finally, we get four verses, often called the Great Commission.

Four short, succinct verses...that's it.  But there is so much in these four verse.  Let's start at the beginning because that is where we are at.  The disciples have left Jerusalem...walked back to Galilee, which is where it all began.  Galilee is where many of the disciples sang Bruce Springsteen's, "My hometown".  It was familiar...only I wonder if now the sights, sounds, and smells looked different?  I know when I go back to my hometown, it just doesn't seem the same.  I can drive past the school where I graduated...and feel both nostalgia and at the same wonder, "Did I really go there?"  I wonder if when the disciples walked into the village having lived through the devastating death of Jesus in crucifixion and now this rumor of resurrection (because in Matthew the disciples... the boys...don't go to the empty tomb at all) if nothing looks right.  I remember the first time I walked into our house after our kids were born...everything was in the exact same space ~~ only everything looked/seemed/smelled different.  It wasn't that my house had changed ~~ I had.  I was different.  I wonder if the disciples felt that as they walked into Galilee?

They go to some mountain...Matthew doesn't say which one.  Maybe they went to the mountain where Jesus preached the Beatitudes...or was transfigured....or one where they used to hang out together.  As they reached the top of the mountain...there! Is! Jesus!  This is the first encounter and experience of the Easter Jesus.  Is he glowing?  Is he hover a few feet off the ground?  Or does he look exactly the same?  Standing before them Matthew says, "When they saw him; they worshiped him, but some of them doubted."  Best. Line. Of. Scripture. Ever! 

Because let's face it, at some point, we all resemble that sentence. We all wake up some mornings, read the headlines, and think, "Um, God, anytime you'd like to fix this mess, that would be great."  We all wake up some mornings, sun shining and birds singing, thinking, "This is the day God has made."  We all wake up some mornings faith surging.  We all wake up other mornings faith sagging.  We all doubt and worship. And I love what Fredrick Buechner says, "Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don't have any doubts, you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving."

The ants in the pants of faith...classic.

Where do you doubt/question/feel curiosity stirring and swirling today?

And

Might there be a trace of grace as you wander off exploring where those questions and curiosities take you?

I pray it might be so for you and me.

Blessings