The Rev. Frank Logue
Diocese of Georgia Clergy Conference
Honey Creek Camp and Conference Center
September 9, 2003

Note: This sermon is a bit different from others at this website as it was written to be heard by clergy—deacons, priests, and bishops, whose job includes preaching. It is a sermon for preachers. A sermon on this same scripture reading given to a regular congregation was preached at King of Peace on Easter Sunday 2003 and is linked here.

Can You Leave the Ending Open?
Mark 16:1-8 

I am a graduate of Virginia Seminary. For those who are now wondering, I’ll set the record straight right off. Yes, it is true that I was out sick the day they taught Liturgy and was never able to schedule a make-up day.  

Fortunately, we spent a bit more time on scripture. The main verse from those three years of seminary was “Go Ye into All the World and Preach the Gospel.” You can’t miss Mark 16:15 at VTS. In three years of worship in the VTS chapel I saw those words “Go Ye into All the World and Preach the Gospel.” The verse is painted on the wall behind the altar framing a magnificent stained glass window showing the resurrected Jesus with his disciples. 

The only problem is that the inspirational words of command from our Lord come from Mark 16, verse 15—the long ending of Mark’s Gospel. As you know, the witness of the oldest existing texts, and comments by the patristics including Eusebius, Clement, and Cyprian, all indicate that Mark originally ended at verse 8, where our reading stopped this evening.  

From Fall of my Junior year through graduation, I sat in the chapel under the words “Go Ye into All the World to Preach the Gospel.” From time to time, I couldn’t help wondering what it would take to replace those words with a verse that could gain more of a scholarly consensus. Imagine. Painted in the plaster arching over the stained glass, the seminary could boldly proclaim “And they told no one for they were afraid.”  

Why couldn’t the seminary go for the more honest approach? Emblazoned on the school’s library are the words “Seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will.” Why not take that approach to scripture and worship. The Bible is if nothing else, the most realistic of books, and the short ending of Mark is no exception. 

Think back to the scene that Easter morning as Mark tells it. The women enter the tomb to find an angel, a divine messenger, with the news that Jesus has been raised from the dead and has gone ahead of his disciples to Galilee. It would be wonderful to report that the women rushed away from the scene filled with the joy found in the early morning encounter with the angel. That would be a go-ye-into-all-the-world sort of ending. Instead, we are told that the Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome fled from the tomb seized by terror and stricken with awe. Rather than spreading the joy of resurrection, the NRSV tells us, “They went out from the tomb in terror and amazement, and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid.” 

Mark’s Gospel ended right there. That’s it. No more story. Small wonder that scribes added several more satisfying conclusions. The so-called longer ending of Mark, the go-ye-into-all-the-world version, seems to borrow themes from other Gospels to neatly smooth off the ragged edge of the short ending with a tidy conclusion. The short ending of Mark begged for an addition. Verse eight is fine as part of the story, but as an ending, it is too in-your-face challenging, if not down right disturbing. Right? I’m not so sure. 

Please note that I am not arguing against the canonical authority of the longer ending of Mark, which was after all in place by the time the New Testament canon was set. What I am trying to do is reencounter the faith of the earliest Gospel. Mark was willing to tell an open-ended story. In fact, Mark wrote a circular story. After the encounter with the wild prophet John on the verge of the Judean wilderness, the story begins with Jesus coming to Galilee to proclaim the Good News of God. Then Mark ends his Gospel in a tomb in Jerusalem with a messenger from God calling the disciples to go to Galilee where Jesus has gone on ahead of them. He ends by letting us know that these first faithful followers to hear the Good News of the resurrection “told no one for they were afraid.” 

What a startling unsatisfactory ending. It’s like hearing someone wrap shave and a haircut with their knuckles and hearing no reply. You want to fill in a satisfactory conclusion. You want the Good News of God to go on. At least that’s what I think Mark might have been up to. Maybe he wanted you to finish the story with your own life. 

Wouldn’t that be a better challenge to seminarians, or even priests and bishops. How much more challenging it would have been to worship with those realistic words emblazoned in constant sight. “And they told no one for they were afraid.” You have to admit that those who knew Jesus the best, his disciples, often misunderstood their teacher. They always seemed to get the wrong answer to his every pop quiz. Would we seminarians do any better than Jesus’ earliest disciples?  

What about you? Would you have the courage to leave the empty tomb and go back to Galilee to take up the task of being Jesus’ disciple now that you know the way of discipleship led to the cross and the grave? Even with the triumph of Easter, we can fearfully retreat to the certainty and finality of Good Friday. Once you know the cost of discipleship, do you really want to go into all the world to preach the Gospel? 

Jesus is still out there beckoning, “Follow me” to those who listen. We don’t have to smooth over the Gospel’s rough edges. Why not leave the questions in place? Why not trust, as Jesus and his earliest disciples trusted? It’s OK to leave the ending open. Those who have encountered the empty tomb are in a position to decide for themselves whether to go back to Galilee to start the journey over.  

What about you? Jesus has gone ahead of you too. You’ve already shown the courage to follow him or you wouldn’t be here this evening. But do you have the courage to leave the ending open? Do you have to smooth the Gospel’s rough edges and make the sometimes harsh honesty more palatable to the people in the pews? Or can you let those who hear the story from you fill in the ending for themselves?