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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

What happens next?

Where shall we go and what shall we do? (Mark 16:7-8)

 

Context

• The BBC announced at the end of last year that their Question of Sport programme was being shelved for the foreseeable future. After more than 50 years the programme that brought us the ‘what happened next’ round?’ is finally, to quote Kenneth Wolstenholme, ‘all over’. Its demise could be linked with the plethora of social media video clips which means that everyone knows ‘what happened next’ in sports events.

• One of this year’s Oscar nominations for Best International Feature Film was German director Wim Wenders’ Japanese language film Perfect Days. It tells the story of Hirayama, a middle-aged man living in Tokyo who cleans many of the public toilets in the city. The film takes us through his daily routine of getting up, going to work, coming home and then going out on his bike to go to the public baths before stopping off at a station café and then returning home. Each day is the same and the film focuses on this sameness. It is like Groundhog Day except nothing much new happens each day.

• A contrast to Perfect Days is Netflix’s new comedy/drama Chicken Nugget. In this Korean film, a young woman steps into a machine that she thinks is intended to relieve fatigue, but instead turns her into a chicken nugget.

 

Reflection

The story of the resurrection as told in Mark’s Gospel ends in a strange fashion. If Mark was correct and the women who came to the tomb didn’t say anything to anyone about the empty tomb and what the angel had said to them, the Christian story would look very different. It is certainly an odd place for the story to end. There’s nothing more frustrating for someone invested in a story to find that they are left hanging at the end. Perhaps it is the unsatisfying nature of this ending that caused the production of two other endings, the ‘shorter ending’ and the ‘longer ending’. The ‘longer ending’ is usually printed in square brackets as it doesn’t appear in the earliest manuscripts. It does, however, answer the question, ‘what happens next?’

The ’longer’ ending suggests that many strange things would happen after Jesus ascended to heaven. These strange things would include surviving holding snakes and drinking poison … but not women turning into chicken nuggets.

The angel told the three women who came to the tomb to tell the other disciples that they should leave Jerusalem and go back to Galilee. As we know from the last chapter of John’s Gospel, those disciples who worked on the water went back to fishing. They went back to doing the ordinary things. While living a Christian life can be full of excitement, there will also be times when life is routine. Jesus is with us when we’re laying hands on the sick and when we’re cleaning toilets.

 

Questions

• Have you been disappointed that your life has been too routine and wondered, in John Wimber’s words, ‘when do we do the stuff’?

• Does a future that is unknown worry or excite you?

• In the spirit of Groundhog Day what would you like to be able to ‘do-over’?

Simon Carver is the Free Church Ecumenical Chaplain at St Albans Cathedral and a recently retired Baptist Minister living in Watford. He takes a particular interest in film, sport and politics.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

Chocolate eggs, fluffy bunnies, elaborately decorated hats?

You need all these things to be an Easter person, right?!

In the lead up to Easter there are many Easter events for families and children. Perhaps you have signed up for your local Easter egg hunt or the Roots Easter Egg Hunt Community Outreach? Does this make you an Easter person?

Try ‘Googling’ what it means to be an Easter person....  suffering and disappointment are some of the first buzz words which pop up! Quite far from fluffy bunnies?!

But it's also about love, hope and the promise of what is yet to come.

Being an Easter person does not mean we're on an exciting adventure where we find a chocolate egg at every turn. It means we are on an exciting but hard adventure with eternal life at the end! Now that sounds more like it!

As Easter people we are called to give hope to those who need it, to be a light in the darkness, even through our own suffering. My heart and thoughts turned to Princess Kate Middleton this week, with the news of her cancer diagnosis. In her darkest time she asked us to remember and love all of those who are also suffering – and our prayers are with our royal family as they journey through this. But they too are not alone, as they journey with Christ alongside them, who has already walked the path of suffering before us.

Our passage this week shows both suffering and unexpected joy. The women at the tomb are expecting the worst and discover the greatest news the world could ever hear! They experienced joy out of chaos.

This week spend some time in prayer for all those who feel they are living through suffering.

Challenge yourself to keep the joy of the promise of new life at the centre of your hearts.

No matter what happens on the journey, keep your Easter hope of new life rooted at the centre. Remember being an Easter person is for life, not just for Easter!

Natasia Bullock is Director of The B Tales theatre company

 

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