The mass suicide up in Rancho Santa Fe provides a grim backdrop for the celebration of Easter this year. The breaking of the story during Holy Week invited comparison with the Christian celebration of Easter and its message of resurrection. But in my understanding of the event, its occurrence during Holy Week was a coincidence. The real precipitating cause was not the celebration of Easter, but the arrival of the comet that many of us saw during the last days of this week.

My understanding is that they did not anticipate a resurrection, but a transport to another dimension on another planet, accompanied by extra-terrestrial beings who arrived in this solar system in conjunction with the arrival of that comet.

When I realized this, I was impressed with the similarity to Steven Spielberg's famous movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which I personally found to be extraordinarily charming and moving. I saw it twice, I remember. I rarely see any movie twice. I was so fascinated with its lovely images.

I am intrigued with the fact that the movie was released in 1977, which was during that decade when Mr. Applewhite and Ms. Nettles were putting together not only the people who would constitute that cult, but also the ideas that were later formulated into what we have heard on television and read in the newspapers in these days.

As you remember, in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the earth is visited by aliens. Which is really something of a benchmark in movie science fiction, because the aliens in that movie were attractive, innocent and almost childlike. Whereas, up to that point, extra-terrestrials were generally hostile and fearsome.

They were different in that movie. Their spaceship was brilliantly illumined with light, as if they had come from the kingdom of light into this realm of darkness. Surrounding that spaceship were the most beautiful harmonies, especially when they opened the door to the spaceship, reflecting the ancient belief that the mathematical predictability and precision of the heavens was translated into harmony, into music. The ancients called that "the music of the spheres." The "spheres" meaning the planets.

Spielberg's movie dramatized that mythology that there is a better life for us someplace else in this universe in a most attractive and compelling way. If we could only free ourselves of the bonds of this earth, this temporal life, we would be able to experience that perfect life.

Apparently the members of the Heaven's Gate cult believed that their end would be like the conclusion of the movie, transported by spaceship, piloted by these wonderful, innocent and childlike creatures, to a better life on another planet.

If you had lived at the beginning of the Christian era, the beginning of Christianity, you would have known a lot of groups that looked like, and behaved like, Heaven's Gate. They were not called "cults" in those days, they were called "mystery religions." They believed that the world is essentially evil and beyond redemption. If you wanted to live the "real life", the "good life," then you would get out of here. You would have to leave this life.

The way that you left this life was to be transported to another dimension, to another planet as it were. That was done not by suicide, but primarily by mind-altering drugs, or by other acts such as sensory deprivation, or trances, or ecstatic speaking, in order to affect what all of us at some time or another have experienced, the strange feeling of being outside of your body.

Essential to the "mystery religions" also was the oracle. The oracle was someone who received information about the universe that was denied to other people. It was secret knowledge. The Greek word for knowledge is "gnosis." Therefore these people, in time, became to be known as "gnostics." At one time they came very close to dominating the Church. The earliest struggles in the Church over theology were struggles with the gnostics.

There were many differences between the gnostics and the Christians, but there was one essential difference. Those "mystery religions" talked about how to get out of this world. Christianity talked about how God had come into this world.

In that sense, what we believe is the opposite of what the mystery cults and their modern manifestations believe. They preach that supernatural beings will come and take us to another world. That is the way we will be saved. We preach that God has come into this world to redeem this world. Easter meant that now there is nothing that can prevent God from doing what God intends to do.

The text for this morning is taken from Mark's gospel, the 16th chapter, the first eight verses. That is Mark's resurrection narrative. It is just eight verses long. There are twelve more verses following the eighth verse, but everyone agrees that they have been added on by a nervous editor who didn't think that the gospel would sell if it didn't have a conventionally spectacular ending. So they added resurrection appearances of Jesus, the granting of supernatural powers to the Apostles, and a final scene with divine pronouncements. That is the stuff of popular religion. The last twelve verses of the gospel were pasted on to provide that ending. Even the most conservative biblical scholars agree with that, that the gospel ends with the eighth verse.

The eighth verse reads like this:

And they went out and fled from the tomb; for
trembling and astonishment had come upon
them; and they said nothing to any one, for
they were afraid.

It is a most extraordinary ending. It just ends by saying, they were astonished. Not because of a miracle. They were accustomed to miracles. They used miracles to explain all kinds of things that we today would explain by natural causes. Miracles were not strange to them, they were expected.

What was not expected, what would have brought about the kind of astonishment that the gospel says came to the women, was grace. Grace is what astonished them. That God, who came into this world to redeem it out of love and was rejected by this world, would continue to love the world. That is the Easter message. That nothing can stop God now from redeeming the world.

Look at the way Mark proclaims his gospel, this "good news." That is what gospel means. It simply means "good news." His gospel begins with the words:

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

That's who this is, the Son of God.

In the Gospel of John, it is put in more familiar words:

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

That is what was so astonishing. This man was the Son of God.

Mark tells the story of the Son of God coming into this world in a remote corner of the world, in Galilee, in a town named Nazareth, of which it was said, "Can anything good ever come out of Nazareth?"

That is to say, God came to us quietly, humbly, gently, not to overpower us. God came to us like a lover, to woo us. What happened? He was rejected. First, by the authorities. From the very beginning they plotted to do away with Jesus, because they thought he was a troublemaker. Then, by his family. They couldn't understand him. He was an embarrassment to them. Then, by the crowd. They chose Barabbas, whose name means, "son of God," rather than the real Son of God. Then, his disciples. They all forsook him and fled. On the cross he even wondered if God himself had forsaken him.

The first verse of the Gospel of Mark reads:

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Do you know what the last words of the crucifixion scene are, which are in a real sense the last words of Mark's gospel? The Roman centurion who is there to officially witness the crucifixion, says, "Surely this was the Son of God!"

This was the Son of God: rejected, betrayed, scorned, humiliated, finally killed. This was the Son of God.

You know what the world should expect to happen if this is truly the Son of God? I think it was Mark Twain who said, "If I were God, I would give the world a good swift kick right in the equator." He was talking about punishment for ordinary sins. How would God react to the rejection and the crucifixion of God's own Son?

Jesus himself told a parable which reflects the common expectation of how God, at least a self-respecting God, would act in such a situation. He said, a man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants. After a while, he sent his servant to check up on the tenants. The tenants beat up the servant. So he sent another, and they treated him shamefully. So he sent a third, and a fourth, and many more, and some they beat and some they killed. So he said, "I will send my son. Surely they will respect my son and receive him." When the son came, they took him and killed him. Then the parable asks, "What will the owner of the vineyard do?" It is a rhetorical question. You don't have to answer it. But Jesus, in fact, answers it. He says, "He will come and destroy the tenants."

That is what was expected. If truly this was the Son of God, then look out. Get ready for retaliation.

Many of you are veterans. Some of you are still in active military. You know the response of proud nations to provocation. It is elementary, it is in the book--a quick, rapid, swift and decisive retaliation.

The Gospel of Mark begins, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

The Gospel of Mark ends with this testimony, "Surely, this was the Son of God."

Any doubt about who this is? If I were you, I would look for cover. Which is exactly what the disciples did. Everyone of them ran for cover, including Peter, who had boasted repeatedly, "I will never leave you." The last boast came Thursday night. This is now Sunday. It was Thursday night, after the Last Supper, Jesus said, "They will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter." Peter protested, "Not me! I don't know about these other guys, but I will never leave you." They struck the shepherd. Peter was the first to flee. He led the pack.

Only the women stayed. They followed him to the cross. After the Sabbath was over, when the sun was rising on Sunday, on this day, they went to the tomb to prepare his body for burial, because there had not been time before the sun set on Friday, the beginning of the Sabbath. The Law prohibited burying anyone on the Sabbath, so they just put his body in this tomb.

Now these women came to do the proper and decent thing. They did it, I suspect, out of habit. They were the kind who just take care of those things. They assumed that it was all over. It had ended on Friday. They got to the place where he was laid, Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. He is not there. An angel is there. The angel announces, "He is risen. Go tell the disciples and Peter that he is not here, and he will meet them in Galilee."

And they went out and fled from the tomb; for
trembling and astonishment had come upon
them; and they said nothing to any one, for
they were afraid.

That is astonishing. They were trembling and afraid because the empty tomb could mean only one thing: God isn't finished yet. They gave up on Jesus. God has not given up on us.

That is affirmed in this story in the most lovely and beautiful way in the instruction that the angel gives to the women, "...tell his disciples and Peter to meet me in Galilee." That is to say, to meet him in the daily activities of their normal lives.

You will notice that Peter is singled out. "Go tell the disciples and Peter." Peter tried the hardest and failed the worst. If I know Peter, which is to say, if Peter is like me, Peter now feels the worst. So the angel tells the women, "Go tell the disciples and be sure you tell Peter. Especially tell Peter that I will not give up on him. I will come and be with him in Galilee."

This scene has a name. It is called the "Rehabilitation of Peter." It appears in several gospels. The Gospel of John has a much more elaborate rehabilitation of Peter. It is wonderful. Let me tell you about it.

Jesus is resurrected now. He meets the disciples back in Galilee. They have returned to their former employment, which is fishing. They are out on their boat fishing. A stranger approaches them on the beach. "Catch anything?"

You can imagine how much fishermen like to hear that. Peter says, "No."

"Then cast your net on the other side of the boat." They bring up a net filled with fish.

John says, "It's the Lord. It's has to be the Lord. He's the only one who can fish like that."

They come to the shore, make a fire and have breakfast. After the meal, Jesus asks Peter, "Do you love me?"

"You know that I do."

"Then feed my sheep."

Three times that was repeated. "Do you love me?" "You know that I do." "Feed my sheep." The three times correspond to the three times that Peter denied his Lord. The rehabilitation of Peter consists of forgiveness.

Mark does the same thing, only more subtly and simply. The angel says to the women, "Tell the disciples and Peter I will meet them in Galilee."

In Greek the word "and" can also mean "even." So it can read, "Tell the disciples and even old Peter that I will not abandon him. I am not through with him. Tell him that I will meet him in his daily life."

They were astonished that the God who had been betrayed would always be faithful to us; that the God who was rejected will never abandon us; that the God who was crucified will give us new life.

I think it was something like this that Theodore Parker Ferris said that he thought he knew a good friend of his. But one day he had lunch with the man's son. He knew the father to be a successful businessman, the kind that is able to make decisions without thinking about it, and for whom business is business. He never let emotion enter into making decisions.

Over lunch the son revealed something about the father that Ferris hadn't realized before. It seems that the son had been in the Army, and he had made a terrible mistake. He got into trouble. He was given a dishonorable discharge. He said that he knew he had disgraced the family, and that his father would be enraged when he heard about it, and was sure the father would reject him. He also knew that he had to tell the father. So he sent his father a telegram and told him what had happened.

The same day the father sent a telegram back. The telegram read like the message the angel gave to the women. It is almost as brief. There are only three sentences:

"I will stand by you no matter what happens."

"I will be there tomorrow."

"Remember who you are."

In time the resurrection of our Lord came to mean many things to many people. But this is what it meant at the first: God came into this world to redeem the world, and nothing can stop God now.