Journey's Weekly Homilies

June 1st, 2003
Seventh Sunday of Easter
(Using Ascension Day Readings)
Homily by Laurie

Acts 1: 1-11
Ephesians 1: 15-23
Mark 16: 15-20

I’m sorry to inform you that I have just received a letter from the Pope.  In this letter, in the most pastoral way, he wonders where all of us were for the most recent Holy Day of Obligation, The Ascension.  I have to confess to you, that I didn’t mark this past Wednesday in any particular form or fashion. If you did, you are more Catholic than most.  For reasons that I can’t explain I chose this night for us to hear the readings for Ascension and not for this Seventh Sunday of Easter.  Maybe, it was because the gospel for today is from John and is this year of Mark, I wanted us to share more Mark. 

The Mark we have been reading is a succinct storyteller, who sees no reason to state the obvious, or to feather his story to make it more remarkable. What scholars believe was the original ending of Mark was the reading we heard at the Great Vigil.  “Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He has risen, he is not here; see he place where they laid him.  But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.” The women went out and fled the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid. 

This first gospel ended with out the neatly packaged explanations of Matthew, Luke and John.  Both Jesus’ appearances to the believers and his ascension into heaven are later additions. The problem with the ending we heard tonight is that some of the promises seem more like magic than faith in action. Snake handling and drinking poison without harm.  Where in these two so called tests of faith are the justice and reign of God made any more real? We have not examined them, sought to test them, but rather attributed them to an over zealous redactor, grasping for words to explain the wonder of the man of freedom that he had come to know.  And that, I think, is adequate explanation for poisons and snakes.  The Jesus of Mark advocates trusting in his Abba, even unto death, his and ours. 

The fear of the disciples, the fear of the early Christians, our fear wants further clarification. But, then what happened?  How do we know he rose from the dead? How do we know what lies ahead for us if we should chose to follow after?  Uncertainty in life is difficult to bear. Complete uncertainty in death is nearly intolerable for us human ones.  

Scholars would argue that the appearance and the ascension of Jesus are apologetics; further arguments for the real death and resurrection of Jesus.  The story was embroidered to answer the questions of the nay-sayers.  How do we know that someone didn’t just steal the body from the tomb?  That question gets asked and answered at least once a generation, by one writer or another who claims insight and new information. Why would the first centuries of Christianity have faced different questions, different doubts? 

Do we need the stories of the appearances and even the ascension of Jesus?  Is the story made less without them?  This Holy Day of Obligation came and went without notice for most of us. Despite the letter from the pope, I don’t think we are going to lose sleep tonight worrying about our souls and this sin of omission. I do think we might worry about death. 

My faith is not shaken by the thought that archeologists might find the body of Jesus some day. My faith is threatened by the idea that Jesus didn’t appear to his followers after his death.  If that were true, is his message diminished, is the power of resurrection made any less real? Not in my mind or spirit. What then is the fear?  That if Jesus didn’t appear then, can he be here now?  Can we know him in human faces; can we name him in the breaking of the bread? When I breathe, when I remember faith, these questions fade.