Reading the Gospels for Lent

 

Read ~ Mark 15-16, Luke 1

 

Mark ends rather abruptly.  In fact, the original ending of Mark was the women went away saying nothing to no one.  Not exactly a happy, neat, and tidy ending.  We think, “Thanks for that uplifting note, Mr. Eeyore.  I’m going to so see if the jellybeans are on sale at the store now.” 

 

Yet, sometimes I wish that we didn’t have the extended ending. Wait, you think, why? Thank you for asking. 

 

Because life is messy.  Or, at least my life is.  I don’t have neat and tidy ending where I see resurrection every day.  To be sure, I get glimpses of God’s grace often.  I experience and encounter God’s love in ways that feed and fuel my faith.  And there are desert-like/wilderness wandering moments in my life too.  There are days that I am like the women at the empty tomb having just encountered the angels of God, but I have lost my voice.  I have misplaced my courage.  Where I say nothing to no one, because it is better to be quiet and have people think you are foolishness, then open your mouth and remove all doubt (thank you to Mark Twain for that gem of an insight).

 

Where is life messy for you?  Where don’t you have “it” all figured out?  Where do you recognize that life is often like the invisible algorithms online, we don’t see/understand/know as much as we’d like?

 

There is hope in the empty tomb when we realize that we don’t have life all figured out.  There is love in the empty tomb that invites us to pause before racing off.  There is peace echoing in the empty tomb when we are open to a mystery that we will never fully understand, but God isn’t going to quiz you!  The point is not that we “get it”, but that we are willing to admit that in our beautiful brokenness, in our less-than-perfectness, maybe I stop relying on myself and start letting grace lead the way.  Grace, by the way, that I don’t control!  This is the promise of resurrection, new life, and God’s emphatic, “Yes” to another way that we are preparing to celebrate in April.  For now, be in that tomb of uncertainty and mystery and God’s work in this world, with openness and curiosity and even some confusion that keeps us faithfully caught up in our Creating God today.  Amen