Sermon Tone Analysis

*“Failure Doesn’t Have to be Fatal”*

Mark 16:1-8                                                                         Pastor Bruce Dick – BEFC

Easter 2007                                                                                          April 8, 2007

            It is a scientifically provable fact that everyone fails.

It’s a 100% guarantee, just like death and taxes.

Everyone fails.

I have failed, many times.

We all know what failure is like.

Our family experienced that recently.

In Mid-March, I took our oldest children snow skiing to Frost Fire near Walhalla, where we joined others from Bethel’s student ministry for the day.

The weather was great and we had a blast that day.

Trudy and Sasha had stayed behind because Trudy had a painting project to do while we were gone.

In planning to be gone, our two oldest, Landon and Mikaela, had to make a backup plan; they both have paper routes for the Daily Journal so they made arrangements to have someone deliver their papers for them; no problem.

That person shall remain nameless but happens to be the other adult member of our family, if you catch my drift.

Well, as I said, we had a great day of skiing, the sun was shining and the day was warm; we stopped in Langdon on the way home to have supper with Grandma Gigi and then headed home.

We roll into Devils Lake, stop by to rent a movie and figure we’re going to just crash on the couch and watch a movie; hopefully Trudy and Sasha are home by now and we can all just veg together.

So we’re tired but in a pretty good mood.

We get into the house with all our stuff and I just check the answering machine; that’s odd; there are 8 messages.

Now either someone died and they can’t get hold of me or who knows why all the messages.

The first one said, “/I’m 515 6th street and I didn’t my paper.”

/Second one, /“I’m such and such and was I getting my paper today?”/

Two were blank, but 6, count ‘em, 6, people called to complain that they didn’t their papers.

And all of a sudden I went into panic mode.

I checked out the front door and there were all of their papers; 57 of them!

The nameless adult in our family that was not me hadn’t gotten the papers.

Now understand that the papers need to be delivered by 5:30; if they aren’t, we have had calls at 5:35 p.m. before and this was 7:45 and dark!

I called the three kids and said, /“We’ve got a huge problem.

Someone who is an adult in our family and who isn’t here, forgot to deliver your papers.”

/And they just groaned and agonized.

We went into attack mode.

/“Get your papers into your bags and head for the van.

It’s 8:00 p.m. but we’re delivering all of our papers and we’ll do it together.

And we have to go to each door, ring the doorbell and when they come, give them their paper and apologize because we didn’t get their papers delivered on time.”

/I was angry and they were beside themselves.

We began with Landon’s route of 28; no one chewed him or Mikaela out and most was gracious.

Then it was Mikaela’s; by now it’s about 8:30 and very dark and our stress is wearing thing.

I am trying to decide what I am going to say to the other adult in our family who shall remain nameless.

On and on they go; I track with them as we work our way down the street.

Mikaela has one lady who tells her she was already in bed; that didn’t help.

With 3 papers to go, a vehicle rounds the corner and parks just across the street.

A little blonde girl sticks her head out the window and says, /“Hi daddy!”/

And another one, a nameless adult gets out of the vehicle and comes toward me.

My Grace-meter was just about empty and all I could say was, /“You are in big trouble.”/

She knew.

She was there when Mikaela and Landon returned to my vehicle and somehow we just went home.

It was 9:00 p.m.  Someone failed and others had to pay.

We were exhausted and humiliated and felt like failures – all of us.

I am also sure that you have found yourself in situations, hanging your head in failure too, haven’t you?

And for you maybe it wasn’t a silly basketball game.

For you it was, well, more “real.”

Your failure was a *marriage *that started out fun and exciting and somehow fell apart – it really didn’t even matter whose fault it was anymore; it was over.

For some of you it was a *date that went too far*; you never planned for it to happen what happened, but the phone call that said, /“I’m pregnant,”/ hit you like a ton of bricks.

Or this:   you did your best to be a *good farmer* and year after year you had to convince the banker that you’d do better next time; well, last year he finally said, /“Sorry, I can’t loan you any more money.

You’re going to have to quit.”/

Maybe you were taking the *ACT test*; you were all nervous; the school you wanted to get into required a score of 24; you did the best you could and when the envelope came back with your results, your hands shook as you slit open the envelope, looked desperately for the total score – 22.

No matter that other schools would accept that just fine; you were a failure because your dream education and all that went with it went up in smoke.

Failure.

Is anyone feeling a bit blue right now?  You’re thinking, /“Hey, I came to this Easter service to celebrate!”/

Well, hold on; that’s coming.

But let me say this:  /“You will never know how great a celebration Easter is until you understand how deep our failure was – and what it cost.

/Some of the greatest failures come after some of the greatest highs.

But the richest victories come after the worst defeats.

I am here to tell you this morning that *failure does not have to be fatal*.

Just because each and every one of us fails, that does not mean that all of our hopes and dreams have to die too.

Just because we tripped and fell doesn’t mean we have to stay down forever.

2000 years ago, it all looked like a failure.

Everything had gone up in smoke, or with wood and spikes.

Jesus was dead.

There was no question about t it.

The beating that he took was so severe that some were surprised he was still alive enough to be hung on the cross.

Yet he had been; he must have been a tough one, that Jesus.

He had hung there on that cross for several hours, heaving up and down, trying to draw breath.

Other than a few women and John, his followers were gone.

His body, ugly and blood-stained and torn was taken down from that cross, wrapped with cloths, using a mixture of myrrh and aloe as a powder to absorb the mess that was his body, and put him in a new tomb.

They laid him in there and a huge rock was rolled in front of the low opening.

Somewhere in the city, 11 disciples and other close followers huddled in terror and tears as John and others returned to tell them that Jesus was dead.

But one particular disciple hid his head in his hands in the farthest corner of the house; he couldn’t even bear to hear what he knew they were saying.

He was so ashamed.

Failure?

It was not only his middle name but his first and last.

If he were here today, he would say that the failures I just described to you were nothing compared to his.

And then he would have run and hid again, crying.

But the death of Jesus becomes the most powerful reminder in history that failure does not have to be fatal.

Failure does not have to be the end of the road.

And that’s what Easter is really about.

Friday finally ends; no one sleeps much that night.

Saturday, they simply stay out of sight.

It’s Sabbath for the Jews, but they are shattered; there is no song, no celebration, nothing.

At 6:00 p.m. the horn of a ram sounds to mark the end of the Sabbath.

Some of the women in the room have been talking a little bit during this time.

/“Jesus was buried; we saw where they laid him.

Joseph and Nicodemus took care of his body, but he wasn’t washed or anointed.

We have to do that; no we must do that.”/

They purchased some spices that evening and in the morning, they would take the oil and anoint his dead body.

This is where the gospel writer Mark picks up the story.

If you have your Bibles with you this morning, I want you to see this story that is a powerful reminder that *failure does not have to be fatal*.

Turn in your Bibles to the gospel of Mark, chapter 16, verses 1-8.

Mark 16:1-8.

For the sake of those of you who do not have Bibles, since we aren’t at Bethel where we have pew Bibles for you, I want to put the scripture passage behind me on the screen.

It is a familiar story but one that we will benefit from seeing again.