Jamey's Newsletter: Sunday, April 9, 2023
“For they were afraid” is how Mark ends his telling of the resurrection story. Three women come to the tomb and find it empty. An angel tells them that Jesus is risen and instructs them on what to do.
And Mark says, “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” (Mark 16:8).
The story seems incomplete. It feels unfinished. Mark has been drawing us into the center of the action from chapter one when he said, “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). We feel the raw emotion of being with the women at the tomb and find the ending empty. “For they were afraid,” it feels like Mark was being pulled away from his writing desk before he could finish the story.
And yet, the oldest Greek manuscripts stop at this point. No one, ancient or modern, has been happy with this ending, and the manuscript history of Mark’s gospel shows repeated attempts to finish the story.
We can approach Easter from one of two perspectives. One way is to focus on the grief, the struggle, and the death. You can let fear be your focus. If this is your approach, then Easter is a place of arrival. It is where you show up in your Easter outfits to pay respects and move on as quickly as possible.
Or you can view it as where you are being sent out from. “He is risen!” means Jesus is not here. It means God is on the move. He has gone ahead of us. It means we can never outrun Jesus. It means light has invaded darkness. Hope has overcome despair. Death has lost its sting.
It is really up to you this morning. Will you decide Easter is a place of arrival? If so, you might find your way back next year. Or is it a place you are being sent out from? One is tame. The other is filled with adventure.
If Easter becomes where we are being sent from, expect it to be a wild ride. Following a God on the loose will take you places you never thought you would go to hang out with people you never thought you would hang out with and do things you never thought you would possibly be doing.
If the world is going to be rescued and made right, we don’t need safe.
If the Church is going to go victorious in the future, we don’t need a God who is made in our image. But we need a God who defies the image we try to mold God into. If your marriage is going to be saved, you don’t need a God who will tell you what you want to hear. You need a God unafraid to tell you want you need to hear. If your child needs to be free from addiction, you don’t need a God who fears death. You need a God who has defeated death. If racism, social division, and chaos around us are going to be resolved, we don’t need a God who will appease us. We need a God who is not afraid to tell us the truth. If our lives are going to have purpose, meaning, joy, and hope, we don’t need tame. We need Jesus. And he is on the loose.
If you are looking for a safe, controllable God that fits in your controlled tomb, you are in the wrong place this morning. He is risen! He is risen!
Jamey
Four-Part Series: Why Stay Christian? I will answer these four questions: 1. What do you feel is compelling about the Christian faith? 2. What do you find challenging about the Christian faith? 3. What encouragement would you share if someone struggles to stay in the faith? 4. What currently gives you hope about how the church lives out the faith?
What do I feel is compelling about the Christian faith?
What is compelling about the Christian faith is the person of Jesus. Jesus changes lives because he can get people to change how they view themselves and the world around them. He dares us to imagine that a stranger can be a neighbor, an enemy can be a friend, a child can be a teacher, and someone with no power, prestige, or influence can change the world.
Jesus taught us to look at the Creator as a parent figure and that the most important person is not the person at the head of the table or the person first in line. His healing restored humanity to individuals, and his teaching challenges us to consider what is possible.
His death shows the power of love, and his resurrection gives us the power to live out His love in the world. I am Christian because the story of Jesus is the story I am willing to risk being wrong about.
What do you feel is compelling about the Christian faith?
Jamey
Meme of the Week
Dad Jokes
Why shouldn’t you tell an Easter egg a good joke? It might crack up!
Why was the Easter Bunny so upset? He was having a bad hare day!
Book I am reading this week
Broken Signposts: How Christianity Makes Sense of the World by NT Wright
Top Ten (This is a little brain exercise I do - since I don’t do Wordle). I have a notebook where I make a list of ten things that serve as sort of a brain dump for me. It is random but fun. I plan on sharing it with you in 2023
This week, I was in the grocery store and started thinking, “What else besides Starbucks should be inside a grocery store?”
A safe space for children. Maybe an area where an updated version of Veggie Tales can be shown on television (just kidding, or maybe not) and plastic fruits and vegetables can be played with.
Weekly cooking classes. Sign-up for an email and receive an update on what will be on the menu for that week.
On-staff dietician. She/He would be available to answer questions.
An outdoor garden area…….maybe, even a community garden space.
A bulletin board where recipes can be shared by the community.
Live music from local musicians.
An area designated as a drop-off for the community food bank
Educational space for awareness of food scarcity and needs around the world.
This is controversial……get rid of Starbucks and put in a local coffee shop that serves ice cream.
Or let’s just make a map of the store that pulls up in the grocery store app where you can download your grocery list, and it can tell you the best route to take to get all your items and estimate the time of completing your list and checking out.
What did I miss?
MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Family Promise is in need of volunteers who would like to support families. There are many ways to serve and many ways to support. Needs include; providing welcome bags for the family members, gift cards to Walmart, grocery stores, restaurants, and gas cards. GFUMC also provides dinners on Monday, April 10th; Wednesday, April 12th; and Friday, April 14th of the week we host, and we always need volunteers to prepare and serve dinner, provide games or crafts for the families, and fellowship with them during the dinner hour.
Interested? Contact Susan Wright at susanwright58@gmail.com. Gift cards can be dropped off at the church office.
Happening at Gainesville First United Methodist Church (Gainesville, Georgia)
Sunday, April 16 / 11 am / Lakeside
We’re kicking off the Lakeside season with one combined worship service at 11am Sunday, April 16. Invite a friend to join you!
Weekly Blessing and/or Quotes