Living In Resurrection Time

Daniel 6:6-23  Mark16:1-8

One of the most important things I have learnt about God is that he does not operate according to the lunar calendar. He is no respecter of the 24 hour clock and for him it is of no account whether Tuesday follows Monday or Thursday.

He is not restricted to the confines of history and chronological order cannot contain the way he works.

I am still only just beginning to understand that God is “all over the shop” in his dealings with people.

The reality of the resurrection is captured in a story beside an empty tomb two thousand years ago, but also resurrection has been lived out in people’s lives since time immemorial.

So it is that on the first resurrection morning, in Mark’s Gospel, we have a group of disciples behaving as if God is far away from them. The whole story, in Mark is dominated by their sense of fear.

Then way back in the pages of the Old Testament, when God’s people were in exile from their homeland, deprived of the trappings and practice of their faith, we find Daniel behaving with the grace and confidence of one who knew the risen Lord.

It’s as if since the world began, the truth about resurrection has been within touching distance, and sometimes God’s people hold it fast, whilst at other times they let it slip through their fingers. On one day, the blessing of God is simple to find on another day it is conspicuous by its absence and within all this our lives are not on some smooth gradual ascent towards the kingdom, rather we are on a somewhat bumpier journey, running into his loving arms one minute, then wrestling ourselves free the next.

When I look back at my life I see this pattern emerging.

Days in my childhood where God seemed so very close and I may have done something simply for the good of it, rather than any motive of reputation or manipulation.

Days in more recent years when I wince at my spiritual immaturity and my motives and actions have been somewhere on a sliding scale between cowardice and plain stupidity.

So I love the choice of readings set before us this evening for in them I see my own life continually swaying back and forth between the confidence of Daniel and the timidity of the disciples. Not able to pin down where resurrection is going to happen next.

The attitude of the women who go to the tomb in Mark’s Gospel is in complete contrast to that described in John’s Gospel last week. Like them,  Mary Magdalene began that day tentatively but before the sun was up she was bursting with joy. The women in Mark do not seem to progress at all. Not surprising when they are only given eight verses in which to do it.

I think what Mark gives us in these few verses is a picture of our lives when we do not let resurrection life touch us, when we live as if this great thing had never taken place.

You can almost see them tip toeing to the tomb in great caution.

On their lips is the big unanswered question about how they would move the stone.

They bring with them the spices with which to anoint a dead body,  their minds totally caught up in loss.

They are confused by what they see and hear, the angel and his words and his quick fire instructions.

Their peep inside the empty tomb only heightens their anxiety and before anyone can stop them, they flee in fear.

Our lives when resurrection life is not permitted to touch us.

Caution. Questions without answer. Concerned with loss. Confused about what those around us are saying and doing. Anxiety about what is expected of us. Fear.

Compare all this to Daniel.

A man on his own and in a far off land, from a culture totally alien to the court of King Darius. He is forbidden to pray to God and flagrantly disobeys the command. He does not disobey in secret, he flings open the doors of his chamber and openly worships.

He does not back down when questioned, he does not flinch even when the lions den is set before him. His dogged witness amidst intense suffering wins over the king and in fact the entire nation.

Our lives when resurrection life is allowed to have its way with us.

Personal integrity. No fear only a desire to worship God. Unafraid to be provocative in the cause of righteousness. Finding blessing amidst difficulty. Trust. Faith. Love.

Becoming a courageous evangelist without realising it.

And see right there in the pages of the Old Testament a man bursts forth from a rock hewn tomb just as if he were Jesus of Nazareth.

We bounce to and fro, you and I. Our lives a chaotic mish mash of the experience of Daniel and the disciples in Mark’s Gospel.

We touch him in a fleeting moment we were not expecting.

We grasp for him where we expected we might find him and he’s gone on ahead of us.

We surprise ourselves in the way we respond when the lions den hangs over us

We disappoint ourselves when, there’s the empty tomb , right before us and we can’t seem to take the blessing.

Perhaps it’s time to stop looking at life from our own perspective.

Defining God in terms of our diaries and our calendars, our timetables and almanacks.

Perhaps it’s time to see things from God’s point of view for a change.

These are the days of resurrection life. They always have been and always will be.

RH  30.3.08