Doom-Scrolling or Stone-Rolling

Doom-Scrolling and Stone-Rolling Mark 16:1-8 This last year has seemed like doom and gloom with all the imposed rules and regulations. We sometimes didn’t have much to do but watch the latest news and hibernate, so it seemed, and the news wasn’t good news either. But we don’t have to dwell on doom and gloom. What if we turned away from the negative times and looked for new possibilities? Jesus rolled the stone away and called His followers to Galilee. And He is still rolling stones away and calling us forward. There’s a new name for those who spend too much time in front of their computer scrolling through various media platforms. They are called doom-scrollers. Doom-scrolling is the act of endlessly scrolling through news apps and social media, reading all the bad news, and there is plenty of it. I tend to check out the news online from time to time only to click off and check out as it is not refreshing or helpful. One psychologist says, “The pandemic has exacerbated these habits in many ways, including the fact that there is no shortage of doomsday news.” If doom-scrolling is part of your daily routine, you are not alone. Thousands upon thousands of others have upped their screen time by thousands of hours over the last year. Doomscrolling is an “unsatisfying addiction,” says one psychologist. Instead of making us feel safer, it raises our level of fear, anxiety and stress. This binging on bad news is eroding our mental health. But we are not the first to experience this. The three women who visited the tomb on Easter morning were some of the very first doomscrollers. Mark tells us that when the Sabbath was over, “Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Jesus. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb.” What were they feeling? Doom and gloom. Their Messiah had been killed in a humiliating death on a cross. His body had been laid in a cave-like tomb, and a large stone had been rolled against the opening. They were feeling grief over the death of Jesus, stress about the future, and anxiety about how they would remove the stone. As they were walking along, they had been saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 2 Anxiety is a feeling of fear or apprehension about what is to come, and that’s exactly what the women were experiencing. Minute by minute, their mental health was eroding. But when they arrived, “they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.” Their doom-scrolling was met by an act of stone-rolling. Finally, some good news! But as “they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and, now, they were alarmed.” Their good news didn’t last long. They didn’t expect to see anyone, so they were startled. The man said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised.” Their doom-scrolling had conditioned them for only more bad news, but the words of the young man gave them reason to hope, again. Will this roller-coaster of emotions ever smooth out? The man ordered them to go “tell His disciples and Peter that He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.” He changed their focus from doom and gloom to a new possibility for the future. He promised them that Jesus was going ahead of them, and that they would see Him in Galilee. So the women fled the tomb, filled with both fear and amazement. Since negative emotions can be hard to overcome, Mark admits that “they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.” Yes, the fear that had been gripping them was not easy to throw off. It took time. And what was true for them is also true for us. You can turn off your computer screen with the flip of a switch. But escaping fears and anxieties is not that simple. Experts say that the solution to being down in the dumps is to break out of the “vicious cycle of negativity.” That’s the message for the women and for us, when we see large stones in our path and feel alarmed. The good news of Easter is that God has acted in our lives to bring forth a new day. We are invited today to see that the stone has already been rolled back, to believe that Jesus has been raised, and to focus on the future where our risen Lord is ahead of us and waiting for us. The stone is gone, the barrier has been broken. Most of us have fears about the future, and we often focus on worst-case scenarios. This was what the women were doing as they approached the tomb; fixating on the enormous stone that they feared was going to block them from entering the tomb and anointing the body of Jesus. But guess what? Fear is usually worse than reality. We tend to think the worse and hope for the best, but what takes precedence in that process? What do we mention first, the worst. Our brains are funny things with what we are predisposed to focus on. 3 The women were so afraid of the stone that they never dreamed that God would take action to roll it away. Their brains were focused on how terrible things were and how bad things were going to be. But then God replaced their doom-scrolling with stone-rolling. God can do the same for us. Don’t be convinced or persuaded that the stone you fear, the obstacle in your way of happiness and peace, will always stand in your way. Whatever you are anxious about, or fearful of, whatever failure or loneliness or health issue you may have on your mind, don’t be a pessimist. Open your eyes and see that the stones, the obstacles, the adversities, misfortunes and hard times are cared for. Jesus is no longer dead. The young man in the tomb sensed that the women were not going to believe what he was saying, so he invited them to see for themselves. Jesus “is not here,” said the man. “Look, there is the place they laid Him.” See for yourself, he told them. He is alive. He is alive, still, in people who are showing His grace, His love, His forgiveness, His healing and His justice. Jesus is alive and well whenever a stranger is welcomed, a child is loved, a friend is forgiven, a patient is healed, and an injustice is made right. A hymn, “Christ Is Alive!” was written by a pastor named Brian Wren for Easter Sunday 1968, just ten days after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Wren wanted to acknowledge this terrible loss while also proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus. “Christ is alive!” he wrote. “Let Christians sing. The cross stands empty to the sky. Let streets and homes with praises ring. Love, drowned in death, shall never die.” Yes, a terrible crime had been committed, not only upon Dr. King and for the world, but ever much more for the King of kings, on the cross. An awful injustice had been done. But now the cross was empty and love would never die. The risen Christ, says Wren, is “saving, healing, here and now, and touching every place and time.” Jesus comes into contact with human suffering whenever it is experienced. In the face of today’s racism and violence, Jesus “suffers still, yet loves the more.” The hymn ends with the encouragement of “justice, love and praise” being found in His followers. We are challenged to look to the future, not to the past. Our risen Lord Jesus is not simply with us — He is ahead of us, calling us into the future that He is preparing for us. Our job is to figure out where Jesus is leading us, and to follow Him there. 4 What if we replaced a vicious cycle with a virtuous cycle? What if we turned away from the bleak and looked for the bright possibilities of the new day? This is what Jesus was doing by moving ahead of His disciples to Galilee, and what He is doing by going ahead of us today. Jesus is rolling away stones and calling us forward. Let’s move toward the promise of this new day with deeper connections with family members and friends, with new possibilities for vital ministry and mission in the church and in our communities, and new potential for justice and peace for one and all. For their loving perseverance and courage, these women at the tomb are rewarded with the honor of being entrusted with the most important news in the history of the humankind. These women, and many women who have come after them, can rightly be called history's “midwives of hope.” And they become for us, on this resurrection morning of Easter, the primary example in the story of what we too are called to be — deliverers of hope. Now hope is not simply a feeling, or a mood, or an abstract idea. It is a choice, a decision, an action based upon faith. Hope is the very dynamic of history. Hope is the engine of change. Hope is the energy of transformation. Hope is the door to a better life. For Christians the resurrection is that door of hope. The stone was rolled away. Jesus goes today, ahead of us, and prepares the way for a bright and hope-filled tomorrow.