I love the book of Acts, but I hate the way the lectionary employs it in the season of Easter. Peter's out-of-context testimonies to the resurrection don't do much for me, and I can't imagine that the 50% of the congregation that will appear on Sunday will get much out of the portion the lectionary appoints. Acts 10 is too wonderful a story to have it chopped up in this way on a Sunday when we can't possibly do it justice anyway.
Anyhoo. . . like most preachers I'm focusing on the Gospel this week, but choosing to go with Mark instead of John. Yes, it's a very odd story, but it's oddness is a great starting point, I think. I figure a good number of people who attend on Easter Sunday are NOT showing up for the sermon, and they may resent having to be there at all (But Grandma insisted. . . ). But that's all the more reason not to just reiterate the stuff they already know and act as if this story is anything but very, very strange.
So, Mark it is. The women hear that Christ is raised, and run away, saying nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. But we know, and Mark knows we know, that this is not how it ends.
I'm moved by what Rob Bell put together in his Nooma "You." He doesn't reference Mark, but this seems to be a case where the sermon does what the text intended, namely to turn the one overhearing the gospel into the gospel. It doesn't end in fear and silence. It ends in testimony. I can't prove anything to anyone on Sunday morning, but I can bear witness, which is the only way the faith has ever been passed on anyway.