Call To Worship
Adapted In Part From 1 Corinthians 15 and Colossians 3
L: Christ is risen!
R: The Lord is risen indeed!
L: Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
R: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
L: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.
R: When Christ who is our life appears, then we also will appear with him in glory.

Prayer Of Confession
We praise you, O God, for those who have not seen, yet have believed. We thank you for Good Friday people who were not afraid to follow your Son from cross to grave. For the centurion who crucified him, yet believed; for Joseph of Arimathea, who condemned him, yet claimed his body for burial; for the women who stood by his cross when all the men had fled. Forgive us, when we need the glory of Easter morning to bring us to faith; when we need to see in order to believe. Grant us the faith of those who believed even before the resurrection. Amen.

Scripture: Mark 15:37-47 and 16:1-6

Hymn: [Tune: Sine Nomine, often sung as "For All The Saints")

1. Sing to the Lord, on resurrection day;
From cross to tomb, we follow on Christ’s way,
Your faithful people, here to praise and pray.
For Easter wonder! Alleluia!

2. For three sad days our lives were full of fears.
Behind closed doors, our hopes were lost in tears.
Now with the dawning, Christ our Lord appears.
For Easter wonder! Alleluia!

3. Through all our days, God’s love for us is strong,
Our past and future to the Lord belong.
Unto our God we raise this resurrection song.
For Easter wonder! Alleluia!

4. Sing to the Lord, resounding hymns of praise;
May all our days be resurrection days!
Now let us join, and all our voices raise.
For Easter wonder! Alleluia! Amen.

Sermon: "Good Friday People In An Easter World"

"the centurion ... women ... who followed him, ... Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council" from Mark 15

He was a good friend of mine. "I’ve got a problem," he said. "I don’t know what to believe. I don’t even know if I believe. You see," he said, "I’m a pretty average sort of person. I’ve lived a pretty normal sort of life. Nothing much bad has ever happened to me, but nothing all that miraculous has ever happened to me either. So I don’t know what to believe; I don’t know what to believe about God. If I could experience some kind of miracle, then I could probably believe."

In the gospels, there are two kinds of people who believe. There are Easter people, those who experienced the wonder and mystery of the empty tomb, and believed: "My Lord and my God!" Most of us, including my friend, would like to be Easter people. The excitement, the spiritual uplift, the vibrant certainty of an Easter morning seems to be what we need to bring us to faith or to solidify our faith. But, like my friend, most of us have never been given the opportunity to experience Easter first hand. Most of us have lived pretty normal lives; pretty normal lives spiritually as well, with little first hand experience of the miraculous. Most of us must believe in a different way; believe without proof, believe with a faith that does not wait for Easter. In this we are in good company, for in the Gospel of Mark this morning we meet some people who did not need to experience Easter morning in order to be faithful. Mark introduces us to some Good Friday people who lived with Jesus through the pain, not the triumph; and, for them, that was enough, enough for faith.

Who are these Good Friday people in an Easter world? Think back for a minute. Remember the events of that Friday we now call good. Who stood by Jesus through the darkness of the cross? His disciples? Most likely his disciples, Peter and John and the rest? Yes? ... NO! Mark’s gospel is very definite in telling the tale when Mark says:

• all the disciples drank the cup in the upper room,
• all the disciples promised to die for Jesus,
• all the disciples forsook him and fled.

They ran away. They all ran for their lives and left Jesus alone. Did none of those who followed Jesus on the long road from Galilee also follow him to the cross? Well, yes, there were followers of Jesus faithful enough to stand by the cross. Mark mentions them in chapter 15:

There were also women looking on ... among whom as Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome ... who, when he was in Galilee, followed him and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem (Mark 15:40, 41).

Only the women, who were not even thought worthy in their time to be called disciples, stood by Jesus at the cross. The men were full of brave words, but when the time of testing came, they were not there. While the women watched, the men were hiding away, waiting. They were waiting for Easter and for faith. The women of Good Friday were already faithful.

But there were others who were full of faith that day. The most unlikely others you could possibly imagine. The only person at the cross to speak of faith was a Roman soldier who proclaimed: "Truly, this was the Son of God!" Why was a Roman soldier at the cross? The only reason a Roman soldier was at the cross was to crucify! The only words of faith at the cross were spoken by the soldier who crucified Jesus! Can you think of a more unlikely person to speak words of Good Friday faith? Yet he did!

And finally, another faithful person came to the cross that day. He came when Jesus was dead. He came to claim Jesus’ body for burial in his own tomb. His name was Joseph of Arimathea, and he is honored in our memories for his Good Friday faith. Yet, who was Joseph? Mark states that he was an honored member of the council. And in the previous chapter, Mark says twice, just to be sure that we have heard, that the whole council condemned Jesus to death. The whole council condemned Jesus? Including that honored member of the council, Joseph of Arimathea?

These are the Good Friday people. These are Mark’s faithful witnesses at the cross: a Jew who condemned Jesus, a Roman who pounded in the nails, women who were not afraid to watch him die. These unlikely people did not need the resurrection to call them to faith, for they were filled with the power of the cross. These Good Friday people were transformed by that power, a power great enough to turn even the most unlikely people into followers of the way.

I think Mark worried about the disciples of Jesus who ran and fled and hid away on Good Friday; disciples who needed the experience of Easter morning to call them back to faith. I think God worries about all Easter people, like those who were intrigued and attracted by Jesus’ miracles, ran from the pain and despair of the cross, and then were drawn back to faith by the miracle of the resurrection. I think God worries about us, when we look to Jesus for a way out of our troubles, as a path to self-fulfillment or a guide to successful living; when the presence of God in our "normal" life just doesn’t seem to be enough and we go off looking for some spiritual excitement or enlightenment, some spiritual high which will "help us believe."

Mark’s gospel contains very few words about the resurrection, but chapters about the cross. To be sure, Mark believes in the resurrection of Jesus. Mark believes in the resurrection completely, but knows that the cross, not the tomb, is at the center of faith. The resurrection did not "complete" the cross, to give the story a happy ending. The resurrection simply confirmed the words of the Roman soldier: "This man was the Son of God." The resurrection is like the light bulb flashing on in the brain, the "ah-ha!", the "yes, of course!" to let others see what Good Friday people already knew. The resurrection is the bridge from the cross to a future of cross-bearing. That future is open to all, not just to the insiders, the experts in faith, those who have experienced a miracle. For the insiders, the disciples and friends, they all ran away before the cross. They left Good Friday people, people just like us: normal people, plain ordinary peoople. They left unlikely followers, the Roman, Joseph, the women - people who, without the miracle of Easter, discovered for themselves an extraordinary faith.

So what do I say to my friend? That we are, all of us, Good Friday people in an Easter world. That in a skeptical world which wants to see proof, which says, "give me a miracle and I’ll believe," we are called to have faith in the Lord of the cross. For that Lord comes to us when we hurt, stands by us when we weep, lifts us up in our pain and comforts us in our loss. Oh, and who is also, by the way, the Lord of Easter, of empty tomb and alleluias!