What a time to be alive!

What a time to be alive! With Pentecost we have entered a whole new part of the Christian year. This is the qualitative second half of the year when the future spiritual evolution of the earth and humanity is handed over to human beings. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany; Passiontide, Easter, Ascension, and finally Pentecost are festivals resulting from the gifts of the spiritual world. The second half of the year, two festivals: St, Johnstide and Michaelmas, framed by three “in-between the festivals” times, is a time when human beings are gifted by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and then the question rests upon us: What will you do with your one wild and precious life? (to quote the poet Mary Oliver) — What will you do with your freedom, O Human Being?

The reading that we hear today is really the perfect reading to begin this journey. In it we hear the question of Nicodemus: “How can a human being be born anew when he is already old? Surely he cannot enter into his mother’s womb a second time?”

This is our business at hand: “How can we be born anew from above?” This is indeed at the heart of all spiritual seeking. Indeed, Christ answers him: “No one can enter the Kingdom of God unless they are born of water and of the Spirit.” And he describes then an incredible state of freedom that one experiences when this spiritual birth happens: “The wind blows where it will. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit!”

We stand at a great moment in our human evolution. We are so free that we could choose not to seek this spiritual birth from above. But we can see—through the incredible bareness of human souls who have been three months under lockdown, who now rise up and come together to lift up the human being to a higher state through the protests that have swept all fifty states and 18 countries besides. There is a state of emergency for a large percent of our population in this country. There has been a systematic stripping of the humanity of people of color in this nation going back to even long before its founding. But this dehumanization of black people and all other people of non-white races is not just a dehumanization of them. This is a big part of why people are taking to the streets. But it is a dehumanization of anyone who can look out of their own white body and see black bodies as not fully human. It is dehumanizing to be able to do that, and for most of us, not even realize it.

Now, many of us might respond to that and say: But I am not a racist. Not even a little! I love all people. It is why many white people have tried to turn the slogan #blacklivesmatter into #alllivesmatter. Of course all lives matter. But it is a grave misunderstanding of the deep inculturation we have ALL had over centuries that has told us: that black lives are worth less than white lives.

The scholar and professor Ibram X. Kendi says:

“The opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'anti-racist.' What's the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an anti-racist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of 'not racist.”  

“The good news is that racist and antiracist are not fixed identities. We can be a racist one minute and an antiracist the next. What we say about race, what we do about race, in each moment, determines what — not who — we are.” 

In his work, he points out that we are all soaking wet with the ideas of racism—white and black people alike. We have had these ideas poured on us for so long, we do not even know that we are wet anymore. But we are being offered an umbrella, something to help us stop for a moment and realize we have been being drenched with hateful lies, that make themselves insidious in our perceptions, in our cultural policies, in our daily and personal tolerances of racist incidences, in our in-actions as much as our actions. What in religious life we call sins of omission. To be non-racist is just saying: I am not willing to put in the work. But it is time to put in the work. For the sake of our humanity.

We have a great opportunity right now to humble ourselves before this moment in history and admit all that we do not know, and do not yet know how to do. Humility allows us to look at our fellow human being and say: “Tell me who you are.” This is what is described as the I-Thou relationship. It differs immensely from the I-It relationship of seeing others as object. Racism and classism are based on making fellow human beings into an It. This is a lie that hurts everyone, though in different ways. This is why it is right to say until it is no longer necessary: Black. Lives. Matter. Anti-Racism is the active work of restoring everyone to the sacred I-Thou relationship that God intended in our Creation—so that yes, all lives can be seen to matter.

To remember our Creation is one way we can help ourselves and our fellow human beings be born anew from above for God created all of us in God’s image and likeness.

Franciscan Richard Rohr points out the difference between God’s image and God’s likeness, however, a difference that outlines the Way that is the religious path. Objectively it is a fact that we are all born in God’s image—the spark of God’s love is in each one of us. But to become those who individually become God’s likeness is to surrender to, allow and practice God’s love—this is the personal path, the work of the path of freedom in seeking the spirit. To look into humanity and see and feel God’s greatest work and greatest longing and greatest love waiting to unfold—this is the practice of the Christ-following human being. This is to live in Christ: to look upon the world of others and see someone we are meant to be in holy connection with. It will take work to grow an inner anti-racism in us so that we can no longer be duped into thinking anyone ever is less worthy of love, respect, dignity and fair treatment. To look upon our brothers and sisters in humanity and say in all humility, with our hearts on fire:  “Christ in you.”

Words for Whitsun

Words for Whitsun (Francis Edmunds, May 1975)

They sat all silent in the Upper Room,
Soul-benumbed and sorrow-laden,
Memories surging up within them.
Seeing, they had not seen,
Hearing, they had not heard,
Living in His Light,
They yet had groped in shadow,
And in the hour of darkest perfidy,
They all had fled.

They sat all silent in the Upper Room
The world was still
Save for the tumult in their anguished hearts.
Memories wrenched a channel through their souls,
He, the Risen One, had been with them,
Had walked and talked with them,
Had taught them, charged them,
Had brought them Light and Life and Love renewing,
Measure beyond measure—
And then had vanished.

They sat all silent in the Upper Room.
Bereaved, benighted, knowing not whence nor whither,
Torn with grief, adread with expectation,
Yet tender with the Light and Love new-given.
They sat all silent,
Watching, waiting.....waiting.

Sudden the heavens broke upon them,
The seven-fold lightnings flashed,
A whirlwind swept all darks asunder
And tongues of flame descended on them.

Baptized they were with Fire and the Holy Spirit
The Word of Christ was born in them.

And so they rose,
And went out to the multitude,
Disciples of Christ, His Life, His Life beyond Death,
Bearers of the Word to all mankind.

PENTECOST Sunday Sermon

John 14 • Pentecost

Dear Community of Christians,

Today is the Pentecost, the fiftieth day after Easter, Whitsun! This year, we are more in sync than we ever have been with the circle of the disciples who had to experience the loss of “life as they knew it,” and go and wait, and pray, and try to remain connected with their fellow human beings as best they could without the presence of He who called them, united them and given them purpose. Watching and waiting. the community of Christ, holding their breaths. What should come next?

At this Fiftieth Day, their longing and their waiting and their praying was answered with the descent of the Holy Spirit, who brought them understanding, who transformed their deep inwardness into a readiness to go out into all the world and become Apostles and share the message of the death and resurrection of Christ, of His Ascension to embrace the whole world, and His now sending of the Spirit. The Christian religion began on that day.

Still, many hundreds of years later, it seems as though we are just still at the beginning. One of the most difficult festivals to understand is the Pentecost. Most people today do not even know what it is—and the only outer images we have for it in traditional art—where one can often gain much insight through the artist’s inspired depiction—really all we see there are the Disciples gathered, and tongues of flame appearing above their heads. Sometime there is a dove above them, just as is depicted at the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, when the Holy Spirit descends into Jesus, and He becomes the Christ.

Who is this Spirit, who is so often if depicted, as a dove, a graceful bird of the air? But who comes on the wings of a great and holy wind?

In the languages of the Bible, there is no distinct term for the Spirit; rather the idea is expressed metaphorically using the word for wind and breath. In Hebrew—RUAH, and in Greek—PNEUMA. Our word in English, spirit, comes from the Latin word for breath—SPIRITUS. This great breath within the world we call wind: wind is a great force of nature. And how wonderful that the wind suddenly picked up last night as the evening turned from Ascension to Pentecost, continuing today, as the wind whooshed through the leaves of the trees. Wind can completely be an unstoppable, uncontrollable force of change—as with a tornado or a great storm. But it can be harnessed also to fill a sail and propel a boat forward; it spreads the seedpods of a tree across many miles, carrying the pollen of the flowers, and gives the birds of the air currents to fly upon, and even, in its most delicate form—as the breath—it keeps us alive, and the trees alive, as well as all living beings—and in relationship with the world around us. We can recall the very beginning of the human being on earth: 

Then the Lord God formed the human being of dust from the ground, and breathed into ADAM’s nostrils the breath of life, and ADAM became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

Breath is the primal essence, even more so than water, which keeps us alive. This is also to say then, oozing to this passage of our very creation, that the breath and the Spirit of God are the very same thing. So is this to say that without the Spirit, we also would not live, as we cannot live without breath? For many seem to live on earth in a kind of spiritlessness… or do they? This is perhaps part of the mystery of our freedom—that we can appear to be able to live cut off from all spiritual reality—at least as far as we know, as far as we are conscious of. In truth however, we cannot live without the Spirit. Why? Because there is much in our own being which is carried and supported by the spirit. Where do we go when we sleep? We are having a spiritual experience. Who is carrying the functions of our most holy vessel: the human body, but spiritual beings greater than us? Where do our thoughts arise from? Our good ideas? Our bad ones? And how does healing truly work in the human being? Prayer to the Spirit has been shown to have a decisive effect, an increase in our healing. There is still so much, even with our great scientific achievements, that we do not know about the mystery of the human being. One thing we do know for sure: we have not reached our enlightenment—we are not yet fully permeated by the light of the Spirit, by the all-encompassing consciousness that knows the fullness of truth. This is the task of the Spirit, as we find it described in the Act of Consecration of Man: that the Spirit God enlighten us…we pray—and not only once, but eight times throughout the service.

The very constitution of the human being is made to be developed in the direction of this enlightenment. Breathing in and out are the ground of our existence. This breathing in and out is our foundational relationship with the world around us. From the world of spirit, all the way down through our relationship with other human beings, and to the realm of the pants and the earth, this breathing out and in is what gives us life and sustenance. 

This great crisis of an illness which manifests itself in large part in a breathlessness, is this not also expressing that the human being, as we live more and more materialistically, is running out of breath? AS we live more and more selfishly is running out of breath, as we live more and more in disregard of the health of the earthly realm is running out of breath. And we have to note the amazing response to the coronavirus, whatever else we may think of it, this amazing response of shutting down the world, has been to create a kind of “breath-therapy,” by slowing down all our manic doing, all our manic consumption of the earth, all our incredible over the top busyness, and reestablishing breath. People forced to stay home, given the opportunity of resetting the breathing one usually has with the great wide world. And allowing us to rise to a questioning what kind of breathing our life before the coronavirus allowed among people, between people and the earthly world, between ourselves and that which is most important and essential to us.

In reality, we have been gradually suffocating ourselves for years. It is time to  learn to breathe anew. Can the Spirit be brought into the center of our considerations as we recreate the world to be more truly human, to breathe in harmony with our fellow human beings and with the Creation—to recognize the Holy Spirit in all beings?

Pentecost is an essential festival to challenge and inspire us to become increasingly conscious of the breath of the Spirit. To understand what Spirit is, how it lives in us, and how it could live in us all the more, to help us to become truly and fully human.

In our Creed, we hear of two aspects that can also lead us to an experience that the Holy Spirit is transformed…becoming the Healing Spirit. Before Christ, the Holy Spirit still worked with humanity by ‘overshadowing’ us…as in, working into human destiny through the Unconscious, through the Will, creating destiny through the process of reproduction. We hear in the Creed the great final acting of the Holy Spirit in this way described: 

The birth of Jesus upon Earth is a working of the Holy Spirit, who, to heal spiritually the sickness of sin within the bodily nature of mankind, prepared the son of Mary to be the vehicle of the Christ.

The Holy Spirit aided humanity by working from outside into the most intimate depths. But something changes through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ, for later we hear, speaking of the Christ:

Through Him can the Healing Spirit work.

Humanity now has access to the working of the Healing Spirit—we now, through Christ, have access to healing in a new, deeper way. Christ can bring a renewed breath into the center of the human being. We can become co-creators of healing, for ourselves and others. It is up to us to change our lives so that we can facilitate this new healing that is possible. It is up to us to come to know CHRIST IN US, and through this to breathe out an awareness of Christ in the Other, that through Him in US, we can make a new relationship to the world through which the Healing Spirit may work.

Yes, so be it.

North America Newsletter 2020

The Christian Community of North America Regional Newsletter is full of beautiful sermons from many priests, information and a letter from Lenker Craig Wiggins about priests' sendings: 

Spring 2020 click on the link to open the PDF!

Dear Community!

I hope all of you are safe and well. Please feel welcome to reach out anytime to let us know how you are doing, or if you need anything. We will also be reaching out to all of you in the coming weeks, so please let us know if your contact information has changed.

Please find below a letter from Rev. Craig Wiggins, our Regional Coordinator and Lenker.

Love and Courage to All, 
Faith

Office of the Lenker   
5108 N. Leavitt Apt. 1
Chicago, IL 609625                                        
April 20, 2020
 
 
To The Christian Community in the Taconic-Berkshire Region
 
Dear friends,
 
In my letter of March 8, 2020, I informed you that Rev. Liza Joy Marcato would be leaving your community. With intense gratitude for all that she has been able to do here, the Circle of Seven (our central leadership) has determined that her energy and many gifts are needed elsewhere, where she and the new community will be able grow and develop in new ways. The decision has been reached that Rev. Marcato will be sent to New York City. As a transition, she has requested a short sabbatical between placements, which the leadership fully supports, and which will begin on August 1 and run through the Fall. The leadership expects that she will begin her new assignment at the beginning of Advent.      
 
Although the current world situation makes it difficult to plan far in advance, we expect that the farewell festivities will take place on Sunday, July 26. Your Events Committee will keep you informed.
 
With my best wishes for the further growth and development of our work in your region,
 
Warmly,
Rev. Craig Wiggins

The forty days of Eastertide

Dear Community,
The forty days of Eastertide... the time during which Christ walks with the disciples, and reveals to them many things about the Kingdom of God which has drawn near. We will also continue walking with Him as He walks with us, bringing to us renewing power and new life in His name! 

And while life under the coronavirus brings so much uncertainty, grief, anxiety, and constriction--how can we also celebrate Easter--even more intentionally? And even joyfully, as William Blake wrote in his poem Auguries of Innocence: 

                               ... It is right it should be so 
                                Man was made for Joy & Woe 
                                And when this we rightly know 
                                Thro the World we safely go 
                                Joy & Woe are woven fine 
                                A Clothing for the soul divine 
                                Under every grief & pine 
                                Runs a joy with silken twine...

This Sunday, join me "after church" at 12:00 PM for an Easter contemplation: Cultivating Joy. You will find a link below to join the Zoom call, either on your computer, or via telephone. The first part of the call will be an offering from me, and will be followed by fellowship and conversation! Those who attended our Holy Week contemplations were happy for the feeling of community. I encourage you to give it a try, even if you think you are "not very technological." It is quite easy to join in.

Also, Parents and Children are welcome to call in at 9:15 AM for the Sunday Children's Gathering via Zoom for an Easter story.

As for going forward... The current forecast is that May 15 things may start to open up, but it is also possible this date will be pushed again. How can we develop strategies for finding community, getting a break, and taking care of ourselves and our loved ones during this time of isolation, quarantine, uncomfortable restrictions  and face masks? 

I will continue to offer a weekly Sunday gathering on Zoom at Noon…Ongoing theme to be announced this Sunday! I will also send out a Weekly Sermon by Sunday evening. If you know someone who would like it by post, let me know.

If you have any other needs or longings for how I might help support or spiritually nourish you/our community during this time, do not hesitate to call 413-854-8875, or 518-325-1166; or email: lizamarcato@gmail.com.

Sending greetings especially to those who are battling illness or who have loved ones who have crossed the threshold during this time. I am ready to bring communion to anyone in need. Just say the word.

Thank you for continuing to pray together with me at our altar and throughout the week! I feel your presence.

Your priest,
Rev. Liza Joy Marcato

Gospel Reading for the Week

John 20 

The Empty Tomb

1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” 3 So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. 4 The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; 5 and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. 6 And so Simon Peter also *came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he *saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. 9 For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 10 So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

11 But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene *came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

Jesus among His Disciples

19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

Why This Gospel Was Written

30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

Happy Easter

No despair of ours can alter the reality of things,
nor stain the joy of the cosmic dance,
which is always there.
-Thomas Merton (1915-1968)

Dear Community of Christians,

A blessed Easter to you all! Today we have come to the tomb and have found it empty. An angel tells us: He is not here. He is Risen!

Can we feel this right down to our bones? Are we ready to say it to the whole world?

It is may be easier to permeate ourselves the fact of Easter when we can gather together at the altar, covered with flowers and the brilliant red. When we can be carried along by the joyful prayers of Easter and the Act of Consecration culminating in Communion with the Risen One, we can feel the presence of the Risen One. Yes! And when we can gather all together for a great Easter brunch, standing in a circle to bless the meal and hold hands with our neighbors as we sing, and bustle into the line for our deviled eggs and grain salads and fresh Easter breads… Oh it will be a glorious day when we can get there again.

But we are in a different moment. We are being pressed into a different set of experiences. What shall we make of them?

The women who go to the tomb are completely shaken to find the stone rolled away; at not finding Him there; at being met by an Angel who knows what they have come for, who sends them on a whole different path to find Him—He is Risen! We too are shaken, trembling, amazed but also fearful. We do not know what this means!

Or do we? Throughout the Act of Consecration, a word rises to our consciousness… the word confess. In a Christian context, this word does not only mean to own up to the wrongs one has done. It also means to stand up for what and who one believes in.  To confess, as Simon Peter did, that “You are the Christ.” The whole service itself begins with a statement of confession in the form of a prayer: We pray to fulfill this holy act through the fact of Christ Jesus’ ongoing revelation, and our reverence and mindfulness of Him. We confess Him, the being of Love! We confess to Love, who transforms a grave into an altar, who vanquishes death, who brings healing and breath and comfort to us and to the world. We praise Love! We call Christ Jesus, as Bearer of Love, the meaning of the earth.

During the Transubstantiation is expressed that unity is given to those who confess Him. Clearly this cannot mean only speaking words of confession but living them! Are we unified with ‘all true Christians who are born’? And who are they? Do we know? Do we live up to His words in John 13 when He says, Love one another as I have loved you…people will know you are my Disciples by your love for one another.?

When we can confess—that is, know into our heart of hearts, and act and speak and live with courage out of that knowing—and we lift up this confession to Christ, we pray to Him that He feel it as a blessing. Can WE bless Christ?

Think of the pure joy Christ expresses in the Gospels whenever someone confesses their faith in the healing power He bears forth. The Roman officer who says: But I am not worthy to have you come into my house, but just speak the word and my servant will be healed!  (Matthew 8). Another example: the woman suffering twelve long years of hemorrhaging, who touches the edge of his garment that she might be healed (Luke 8). Woman, your faith has made you well! 

How do we confess to Christ in our own lives? And as we struggle to make sense of this great event happening right now in our lives, can we steady ourselves in the great sea of unknowing with our faith in Him who holds all things? He, who after Easter speaks to humanity through the Disciples and says, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matt 28:20)

Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, expresses his confession in this way:

2: 2 Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. 3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What is yours?

We follow the Risen One. We follow Him who makes all things new. We can think of the children’s song: He’s got the whole world in His hands. And though we cannot for the moment gather at His altar in our church and commune with Him through bread and wine, we can find communion with Him if we also try to hold the whole world in our hearts, and confess to all that is revealed through Him, who is Love, and turn ourselves in a movement for religious renewal to Love whose Word makes our souls whole.

He is risen! Hallelujah! Let us confess joyfully to His world-renewing Love!

Yes, so be it.

Your priest,
Rev. Liza Joy Marcato

Mark 16 

The Resurrection

16 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him.2 Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. 5 Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. 6 And he *said to them, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. 7 But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.’” 8 They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

9 Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping.11 When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.

12 After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country. 13 They went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe them either.

The Disciples Commissioned

14 Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”