I just can’t take that chance.  I wonder how many of us, in one way or the other, have said that to our Lord: “I just won’t take that chance.”  It is so much easier to stay half awake and half alive.  Today asks us the question – will you take a chance on the resurrection?  Will you take the chance that there is a power to this day that rolls away stones in our lives; that brings what is dead in us back to life; that sets feet a-running with Good News to share?  Will you trust that the one who raised Jesus from the tomb, also “dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy,” as we heard proclaimed in the Exsultet?  Will you take a chance on the resurrection? 

It is exactly what Mark would have us do in today’s Gospel story.  In this original ending of Mark’s gospel we hear simply that the women “went out and fled from the tomb, seized with trembling and bewilderment.  The said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.”  What an intriguing end to his gospel.  They are ‘bewildered and utterly confused.”  And I always puzzled about that.  Why? Why this ending?

Part of the answer is Mark’s way of handing on the message to the readers of his gospel.  He leaves you standing there, with the women, outside the tomb, with the choice – will you believe, and will you take a chance on the resurrection?

But I wonder if there is something else going on.  Does it perhaps reveal a truth about our human nature?  Sometimes, when we are caught in death, when “the stone (guarding the tomb) is VERY LARGE” as Mark reports – we only know that it needs to be rolled away.  But as far as where to go from there – we have no clue.  We know that life cannot go back to ‘normal’ – but we are at a loss as to how to proceed.  Bewildered, confused, but knowing and hoping that somehow we will get it right this time.  And, like Jesus, like the women, we need to be raised from our death into new life.  We need to be raised into a future that we can’t see, but that our love tells us we must embrace.

      Perhaps the stone is “VERY LARGE” for you this Easter.  We buried David O’Keeffe this past Tuesday – my heart still misses him a lot; the grandfather of a staff member was just diagnosed with liver cancer;  more people that I know were laid off. Large stones, huge realities that could easily bewilder the best and most faithful person.  Yet, the invitation of this day is to trust that these sufferings, these losses, these struggles are not the victors in the battle.  They exist – but they don’t triumph.  And then to make a choice.

 Last night, at the Easter Vigil, a young parishioner had an adverse reaction to some medication he was on, which triggered an asthma kind of attack.  I spoke with the mom this morning.  She said her son is fine.  And the she reflected – “I always knew this was a welcoming and friendly parish, but I never felt more like family then when so many people came around to help last night.”  It is true.  You all respond so well when people are in obvious need.  Taking a chance on the resurrection means to take what you do almost automatically and make it an intentional choice.  Don’t wait until someone is gasping for breath, struggling for air.  Be proactive and seek out those who are struggling.   

      Where Mark’s story leaves off, ours begins.  Like the women who faced with the choice of the empty tomb – Will you begin living new life, even though you are bewildered and unsure of what it might mean, or will you stay caught in death?  Will you take a chance on the resurrection?  That is the choice before us this morning, and that is the grace that is offered to us.  In just a moment, we will have our opportunity to make our choice - when we are asked to renew our Baptismal vows – our promise to live the pattern from the cross to the empty tomb.  Will YOU take a chance on the resurrection?