Scene 1: Jesus and the disciples see this person blind from birth. The disciples want to discuss the guy’s personal tragedy theologically. They say, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this guy or his parents, that he was born blind?’ Jesus will have none of it. Jesus sees the occasion as one in which the works of God can be revealed. Like other healers of the day, he spits in the dirt, mixes up some mud and puts it on the blind one’s eyes. Jesus disappears from the story, till the end. When the man washes, he is able to see. Scene 2: The healed one is back in his old neighborhood, but he is not comfortable. There is no joy, no praise, no thanking God, only quarreling. No one wants to see what happened. Everyone is arguing, ‘This can’t be the same guy who used to sit here and beg.’ ‘This is impossible. Who could have done this?’ The healed man is put on the defensive about this person he hardly knows. All he can say is, ‘I’m the one who used to sit here.’ Scene 3: The poor guy gets hauled before the religious authorities, again on the defense, since the healing was done on the Sabbath. He tries a slightly stronger tactic, ‘I think this Jesus must be a prophet. Scene 4: The parents get brought in and they don’t want to be involved. They beg off and leave their son feeling very much alone. Scene 5: goes back to scene three. Pressure builds and the authorities insist that the healed person condemn Jesus as a sinner. The man gets just as hot, and says ‘I don’t know about that, All I know is I was blind, and now I see.’ When they persist, he catches them in a bind, “Why do you keep asking about it, do you want to follow him too?’ And they kick him out. Final scene: Jesus appears again - and the healed one becomes a follower, while those who refuse to see are condemned - not because they are blind, but because they refuse to see when they are given the opportunity.
I cannot help but ask myself, why did Jesus deliberately wait two days before going to Bethany? We often wonder why someone has to suffer, or why someone is taken from us in the prime of their life. Don't we all want to second guess God? Elwood in WI
Elwood:
Perhaps it is better for Lazarus to die first before he is resurrected. Many times God will NOT answer our pleads, for he knows what's better for us.
At our church, one of the ministry is entering its final stage. People's divided over what need to be done. "Let's save it! Let's reassign someone in there to revive the group!" some said. "Let it died, we have tried all sorts of stuff for the last 5 years and nothing seems to improve," others argued. They will make final decision this Sunday. On Saturday, I will meet with this group one last time to discuss their options.
John 11 guides me through this difficult facilitation. It's OK to let Lazarus die. After all, Jesus know what he's going to do. The problem is, am I really sure if God wants me to let this Ministry die out or not. In my particular case, and after much prayers, and after realizing there were no one called to minister the ministry, I think so.
"He cuts off the branches which does not bear fruits and prune the fruitful ones so they will be even more fruitful."
CoHo, CA.
Yes, we all want to second-guess God. And Martha does this. But I think that one of the hopeful messages in this passage is that Jesus does not in any way chide or rebuke her for her natural reaction of grief, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died." Instead, he comforts her. "Your brother will rise again."
Elsabeth Kubler-Ross taught us that denial and anger are natural parts of a grief reaction. Jesus knows that, too, it seems. It can be frightening for Christians going through this to feel angry with God. They feel frightened and disloyal. They wonder somewhere in the back of their minds if God will punish them for their reaction.
It seems to me that, just as Jesus did not get angry with Martha for questioning him, God understands our reactions of anger in our losses.
This is just one of the marvelous things I find in this text!
God loves me, even when I feel angry toward him, and can't understand what he's up to from my limited perspective. GOd understands. After all, God has been a grieving parent.
ST
One of my lectionary discussion group friends says "Life and death for us is of absolutely no importance to God. What is not negotiable is abandonment." I'm misquoting him (luckily he's not on dps) but you get the idea. A monk I know is praying for a woman with cancer - he's sure she's gonna die (though her statistics actually are very favorable), and that doesn't upset him at all - what he's praying for is absence of pain and fear - and that she will be constantly aware of God's presence. Whether Lazarus was dead or alive wasn't all that important . . but the growth in faith of M&M and all the citizens of Bethany, their conviction that God was with them, that was important to Jesus.
oops - that was me, kbc in sc
Jesus says "I am the resurrection and the life" and elsewhere John records the following I am statements from Jesus:
"I am the bread of life"
"I am the light of the world"
"I am the door"
"I am the good shepherd"
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life"
"I am the vine"
Exclusive claims. Confident ones. Notice the word "the".
It's defined as as a function word indicating that a following noun or noun equivalent is unique.
The uniqueness of Christ, once again this week, being proclaimed loudly.
Why can't we proclaim this uniqueness? Why can't we shout it from the rooftops or at least from the pulpit? What are we afraid of?
Be bold... Be courageous... Be Christ-like...
And proclaim to a world dying in it's relativism, succumbing to a cancer of pluralism, decaying in post modern thinking that denies truth, Who it is that Jesus claims to be.
Do you dare...or are you dying as well?
Rick in Va
It stinks, but its true!!!
My friend Robert Capon would remind us that God only resurrects dead things. I am not only dying, I am already dead in my sins and my trespasses. Per Capon, the last thing I do on a Sunday before I deliver a sermon is do what I can to find myself dead to self that Jesus might resurrect a message.
Doc in OK
ST -- thanks; there seem to be many who are guilty because they are angry at God because loved ones died, or didn't die soon enough while their bodies crippled in pain.i never really thought about Martha's and Mary's response being one of anger, but i see it now. Maybe we need to get some of that anger out, so we can let the joy in.
grace and peace, rachel
Why did Jesus wait so long? Maybe he didn't.
Maybe John has rearranged the details of the story a little--as he frequently seems to do (especially noticeable when there are parallels in the synoptic Gospels). Perhaps he even "invented" or "imagined" a few details, a practice both common and accepted in the ancient world; John seems to make frequent use of literary device and license in telling his wonderful stories.
And therefore, to focus too much on the details will lead us to ask questions that are at best unanswerable, and at worst, practically meaningless.
Finally, I think it's a mistake not to view any and all of John's stories apart from his major purpose: apology for Christ as Messiah, against his fellow Jews who had a different understanding of "messiah". John does not write with intent to convey history or objectivity in any sense that we understand it with our modern sensibilities.
This is not to say John is wrong. He is utterly right and convincing--for his time.
For OUR time, some careful reinterpretation seems a mandate. Even if the whole story were somehow proved a "fiction," there is great power and meaning here for us...apart (and maybe unrelated) to historical meaning.
Barry in OH
I would like to use a "visual" of burial garments to show how Christ frees us from what binds us and offers us life. What would the garments be? Except for the strips for the hands and feet, I don't know what it entails.
JD in AK
I heard that there was a sermon preached at a Southern Baptist Convention. The text came from John 11:39, and in particular, the verse which reads in KJV, "Lo, He Stinketh."
From this verse this preacher developed a three point sermon: 1) there are always those raising a stink in the church 2) there are those who are always leaving because they smell a stink 3) there are some folks who just plain stink
The truth is not always relevant.
Fred in LA
"Unbind him, let him go"
Here there must be an illusion to Moses before Pharoah, demanding the liberation of the slaves. The unbinding of Lazarus is the setting free of what is dead, enslaved, and returning to life, resurrection. What parts of my being remain dead to God's grace (my resentments, my inordinate desires, my anger, my lack of sensitivity to the suffering of others), I pray for freedom and for new life, to be set free from the tomb of my own fears.
tom in ga
Do we believe THE WORD OF GRACE that we hear at funerals? "What Word of Grace" is that, we might ask? This Word of Grace: "Jesus said I am the resurrection and I am the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, yet shall they live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I hold the keys of hell and death. Because I live, you shall live also. Do we believe this? We need to hear and believe these words when there is a death in our community. But more than that, we need to hear and believe in these words long time before there is a death in our community.
In addition to my above post, I want to add we need to believe in the WORD of these words.
Above two posts --Randall from Summerville...sorry.
The posts about bindings, etc. remind me of one of those posters from the 70s - "You can fly, but that coccoon's got to go"! sk-MO
It is worthy of note that it is Thomas (the one we deride as doubter) who says to the other disciples, who have not wanted to go to Bethany, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." R.J. in ND
Three thoughts I have to offer:
When members tell me they didn't have faith in God because they were angry, I ask them, "Did you expect God to answer your questions when you were angry?" My reason is that if we ask or demand God answers our question when we are angry, that is showing faith because we are expecting Him to answer us one way or the other. It is those who do not expect an answer from God, but instead turn their backs on God because He doesn't fit into their ideas of how God should act are the ones who have lost their faith. At least the formers are expecting to learn something.
On a different subject, I remember reading (can't remember where) about a minster who was called to a hospital because a child was extremely ill and was in danger of dying. The mother asked the minister to pray for her child to be healed. But the minister took the mother aside and asked her if she would surrender her child to God. He said he could not pray for the child to be healed unless the mother was willing to surrender her child to God. At first the mother did not want to do so, but finally she agree to surrender her child to God. Then the minister prayed for her child. And the child was healed. I don't remember what the rest said and I'm not sure I am remembering the story completely correct.
Then there is another story I read (and I can find this one if someone wants more detail). I believe it was Killinger who told this story and he told about a woman in his church who had visited another church that was well known for its healing service. When she went, she discovered they did something different. They did not just pray for healing. They prayed for people to be whole. They explained that their purpose was not to just heal physical problems, but to pray for people to be whole. Even if a person is to die, at least let the person die whole. The woman said it changed her whole outlook on life and that became more important. That she be whole and be able to die whole.
Brandon in CA
Looking at this pericope through our human lenses we can see how the jews thought that Jesus wept because of his close friendship with Lazarus. But when I look through my spiritual lenses could it be that Jesus is weeping because of where he's bringing Lazarus back from. A place where Jesus will soon be. BM Pa.
In "lectionary Homiletics" for March, Thomas Troeger from Iliff raises the human fear of being brought back to life. He cites a series of poens for "the Gospel in Our Image" in which poets take seriously our resistance to moving from life to death. Seems a wonderful theme for a sermon on this text. In this community the signs are all around us: frantic life style, families with high incomes hanging on by their fingernails, abuse, addictions, feudes that follow generations even when the cause is not remembered, and the list goes on.
Marie
Death is not a barrier for Christ. Jesus deliberately waited 4 days to go to Lazarus. He does not weep for Lazarus...the Greek word used here is not the word usually used for someone weeping...in fact, it is the only time it appears in the NT- it is something like "dakruo". I'm no Gk. scholar, but this is weeping from a different view than sympathy or sadness for Lazarus. That word in Gk., I'm told, would be used to describe the snorting of a horse - it expresses more indignation than sorrow. Look at all the others in the passage....they do not understrand who Jesus really is, even after all they have seen and heard. I think Jesus weeps /sighs/moans/snorts at their lack of understanding. Jesus' great voice, in 11.43, is the same triumphant voice from the cross, "It is finished" (accomplished, completed). Jesus IS the resurrection,the new life, and the raising of Lazarus, like the healing of the blind man, the knowing of the woman at the well,etc. are signs of signs his identity/ power /love...so that all might worship him & that he would be glorified.
Death is not a barrier for Christ. Jesus deliberately waited 4 days to go to Lazarus. He does not weep for Lazarus...the Greek word used here is not the word usually used for someone weeping...in fact, it is the only time it appears in the NT- it is something like "dakruo". I'm no Gk. scholar, but this is weeping from a different view than sympathy or sadness for Lazarus. That word in Gk., I'm told, would be used to describe the snorting of a horse - it expresses more indignation than sorrow. Look at all the others in the passage....they do not understrand who Jesus really is, even after all they have seen and heard. I think Jesus weeps /sighs/moans/snorts at their lack of understanding. Jesus' great voice, in 11.43, is the same triumphant voice from the cross, "It is finished" (accomplished, completed). Jesus IS the resurrection,the new life, and the raising of Lazarus, like the healing of the blind man, the knowing of the woman at the well,etc. are signs of his identity /power /love...so that all might worship him & that he would be glorified. JZ in CT
Death is not a barrier for Christ. Jesus deliberately waited 4 days to go to Lazarus. He does not weep for Lazarus...the Greek word used here is not the word usually used for someone weeping...in fact, it is the only time it appears in the NT- it is something like "dakruo". I'm no Gk. scholar, but this is weeping from a different view than sympathy or sadness for Lazarus. That word in Gk., I'm told, would be used to describe the snorting of a horse - it expresses more indignation than sorrow. Look at all the others in the passage....they do not understrand who Jesus really is, even after all they have seen and heard. I think Jesus weeps /sighs/moans/snorts at their lack of understanding. Jesus' great voice, in 11.43, is the same triumphant voice from the cross, "It is finished" (accomplished, completed). Jesus IS the resurrection,the new life, and the raising of Lazarus, like the healing of the blind man, the knowing of the woman at the well,etc. are signs of his identity /power /love...so that all might worship him & that he would be glorified. JZ in CT
Death is not a barrier for Christ. Jesus deliberately waited 4 days to go to Lazarus. He does not weep for Lazarus...the Greek word used here is not the word usually used for someone weeping...in fact, it is the only time it appears in the NT- it is something like "dakruo". I'm no Gk. scholar, but this is weeping from a different view than sympathy or sadness for Lazarus. That word in Gk., I'm told, would be used to describe the snorting of a horse - it expresses more indignation than sorrow. Look at all the others in the passage....they do not understrand who Jesus really is, even after all they have seen and heard. I think Jesus weeps /sighs/moans/snorts at their lack of understanding. Jesus' great voice, in 11.43, is the same triumphant voice from the cross, "It is finished" (accomplished, completed). Jesus IS the resurrection,the new life, and the raising of Lazarus, like the healing of the blind man, the knowing of the woman at the well,etc. are signs of his identity /power /love...so that all might worship him & that he would be glorified. JZ in CT
Re: the definite article in "I am the resurrection" from Rick in VA It may be that the definite article is not ment to have as much theological signifigancde as you suggest. In french the articles la and le are simply there as part of the word. for example "It is time for THE supper". In english we don't use definite articles in this way. Greek is not english either. Another way to tread lightly here is to wonder if there is only one way, one truth, one resurrection, then all exclusive claims, christian or otheriwse point to the same reality.
Hugh in Gaspé
All you "contextual" preachers... help!
How are you dealing with this text? Specifically...
What do you make of the fact that John is the only evangelist who tells this story? It is the crowning glory of all Jesus' miracles for John, and its placement, its length, its content, all make it a centerpiece of his gospel.
Yet, if it so important and powerful, why don't the other gospels contain a version of the story? They don;t even mention it in passing! And Paul...nary a word that I can find.
So what gives? Do we ignore all this? Do we pass it off as an "oversight"? Do we try to buy that Matt, Mark, Luke, Paul, all find it not worth mentioning if it really happned...or try to buy that they simply didn't know about it? None of this seems at all credible.
So help! I appreciate several of the insights so far, esp. kbc, tom in ga, and rachel.
The Erie Preach-Creach
I am surprised, when I arrive in Bethany, at what a marginal place it seems to be, perched on the edge of the desert. Somehow I had expected an upscale suburb of Jerusalem, where people could well afford expensive ointment to pour on the feet of their honored guests. A church is here, built on the site (it is claimed) of the house where Jesus stayed with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. It's a pretty church, with nice mosaics around its dome, and relatively new (built 1954) for a church in the Holy Land. In the courtyard outside there are piers that survive from a fifth-century church and cuts in the pavement reveal its mosaic floor. Next door is a mosque. Just up the street, and under the foundation of the mosque is a dank hole in the rock purported to be the tomb of Lazarus. I work my way down the uneven stone steps, holding onto a rusty bannister, but there's really nothing to see at the bottom except a bored Arab woman with a plate of coins in front of her. On the way out I crack my head on the low lintel of the doorway. Nothing here is like I imagined it to be.
Outside in the sunlight an elderly blind man, with his eight- or nine-year-old granddaughter, is selling "widow's mites" for two dollars apiece. The genuine article, I'm sure.
I work my way through the throngs of tourists and find myself walking on the main road leading out of town. It's a dusty road clinging to the hillside, and the buses and trucks that pass me kick up white clouds in their wake. Yet here on the road I finally catch something of the story from John 11. Here, anxious eyes and longing hearts waited for Jesus to make his appearance. The stone and whitewashed buildings at the edge of town, the scraggly cedar trees in the distance present today a sight probably not much different from the one seen by Mary and Martha. Here they may have looked down the road until it bends to the right and is lost in the distance, for that approaching figure who could make all things right again. And here my heart is touched, for I, too, wait and watch as anxiously and expectantly as they.
Bill in SoMD
Sister Helen Prejean helped popularize the phrase "Dead Man Walking," the announcement that echos down the halls as the prisoner is led to his/her death. The person is alive, but as good as dead.
I wonder what goes throug this person's mind as they approach their death: fears, humiliation, regrets, sorrow, the million "if only's."
Some people seem to live lives under a death penalty. They are alive, but as good as dead. Something happened, or didnt happen, and now life will never be the same. A couple has a five year old daughter who drowns and they leave the church for a shame based, leagalistic religion, so full of donts and oughts, that there is no time nor room to consider God's power for new life. They are alive, but dead.
Death is easier than life. It is simple, painless, and asks nothing from us. There are no expectations and, therefore, no disappointments. There is no freedom and therefore, no responsibility.
Is it any wonder that the raising of Lazarus provokes a desire to kill Jesus? Unlike the synoptics, where the cleansing of the Temple is the fatal provocation, in John it is the resurection of a dead man, the power of life. It is the new and greatest weapon in a cold war gone hot.
Dead people resent life in others. The self-oppressed resent the God-liberated.
Who are the dead who are walking in our world? Are there dead church's walking, dead denominations talking? What are the fears, resentments, and comforting hopelessness that has bound us to the easy life of death? In what ways do we resist this one who has come that we might have life?
Fred from LA
Marie,
I am not familiar with "Lectionery Homiletics." Is it helpful? How do you subscribe?
Fred in La
Two thoughts at this point. The command to unbind him is given to the gathered community. Christ resurrects, but we have to do the unbinding of one another.
Second is that it's not only Jesus who becomes a threat to the officials following this act. Read on and you'll find that Lazerus himself was found to be a threat. And aren't always the resurrected ones? MaryS
Facinating to connect the discussion in Solomon's Porch to Lazarus's death. Those who look for plain talk will miss the signifigance of words and actions, because they are not Jesus' sheep.It ties to the last story, of the blind man. the Pharissees callthe good work that Jesus does on the Sabath bad because it is done on the sabath. This connects to the idea of the sin against the Holy Spirit, calling bad good, and good bad. When Jesus introduces the idea of good shepherd and sheep, he is speaking of those who are prepared to see good as good, even when it affronts their expectations, and mythic structures. (Loren Meade says that the Holy Spirit paints outside the lines.) Lazarus clearly is a sheep, as are his sisters because they are the ones who show clear signs of living openly outside the lines, Mary who sits with the disciples, and annionts Jesus for death, Martha who is the only one besides Peter to Confess Jesus As Messiah.Lazarus he hears Jesus vioce; even in death, "they follow me and I give them eternal Life" and " no one shall snatch them out of my hand" Except Lazarus is not raised to eternal life, but back into this one. He is raised bound, but Jesus, in his turn, is raised free of grave cloths. Lazarus is raised in 4 days, Jesus in three. Lazarus is raised as a single person, but one could argue that Jesus is raised as a whole race, or at least the potential for the whole of our race. This would connect with the Ezekiel vision of resurrection, not of individuals, but of a people. Ezekiel's resurrection is back into this life, a restoration of what was lost, heritage, national identity, land. This people are Lazarus. But if the people are raised to eternal life, then they are Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus takes the promise of both Ezekiel and Lazarus to a different level, using a yen to have things back as they were, as the beginning of transformation. Hope this is useful
Hugh in Gaspé
Fred in La asks "Who are the dead who are walking in our world? Are there dead church's walking, dead denominations talking? What are the fears, resentments, and comforting hopelessness that has bound us to the easy life of death? In what ways do we resist this one who has come that we might have life?"
Fred, I believe your last question answers the first. The dead who walk in the world are those who resist Christ, whether by pride or ignorance. It is Christ alone who gives life. Our mission is and will be until He returns, to bring life to the walking dead.
Are we up to the challenge?
Rick in Va
I meant to include above the reference to Rom 6:11 where Paul writes of being dead(in sin) and coming to life (in Christ).
Rick in Va
To Susan in San Pedro (catching up from a couple of weeks ago): what does "chuffed" mean? I hope it means a positive response. When my now-grown daughters were younger, and I used "daughter-stories" as sermon illustrations, they threatened to charge me royalties for every use of every story!
To Rick in VA: Romans 6:11 actually reads: "So you also must consider yourselves dead TO sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus" (RSV; KJV: "to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God"). Anyway, it's an excellent verse to help interpret the raising of Lazarus.
To the Erie Preach-Creach: Raymond Brown writes in the Anchor Bible commentary on John that the story of the raising of Lazarus is "no harder to believe than the raising of the son of the widow of Nain, or the raising of Jairus' daughter (Mark v 22-43)....The Synoptic Gospels present Jesus' condemnation as a reaction to his whole career and to the many things that he had said and done....The Fourth Gospel is not satisfied with such a generalization....And so the writer has chosen to take one miracle and to make this the primary representative of all the mighty miracles of which [the Synoptics] speak....Moreover, the suggestion that the supreme miracle of giving life to someone leads to the death of Jesus offers a dramatic paradox worthy of summing up Jesus' career" (Anchor Bible, v. 29, p. 429). Alan Richardson thinks that John has taken a saying of Jesus ("neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead," Lk 16:31) and turned it into a story "in which someone actually does return from the dead--and the Jews do not repent" (The Gospel According to Saint John - A Commentary, p. 135). Don't know if this is helpful or not. I'm still struggling with these contrasts with Synoptic tradition.
To Bill in SoMD: Thank you for your beautifully written description of your visit to Bethany. I'd like to use your description in my sermon.
Doug in Riverside
Friends:
I don't know why the other Gospel writers don't include versions of such a profound and public event. Perhaps because it was written by John, the "beloved disciple," he had seared on his memory events that were of the most intimate and interior kind. I thank John for telling us a host of stories of these personal encounters with Jesus (Nicodemus at night, the Samaritan woman, the man born blind also among them). One irony of this story that touches me is that it is Martha who is out by the street corner ready to encounter Jesus with her grief, her anger, and her love. Mary is back at home (perhaps in the kitchen?). Just the opposite of the famous encounter with Mary and Martha at their home in Bethany. And it is to Martha that Jesus utters those immortal words, "I am the resurrection and the life." So there is hope for the Marthas of the world after all.
This is one of the standard texts for funerals. It is the Easter hope before Easter happened. It is the passage that lets us see Jesus' tears and his triumph. -- Tim in Deep River, where snowdrops are sticking out of the snow
The "ancient" churches used Lent as a period of preparation for the baptism of catechumens. The third, fourth and fifth Sundays were "scrutiny" Sundays, when the catechumens "had the devil chased out of them", in hopes that they would truly "die to sin and rise to new life". The Gospel readings read on these Sundays were always: the woman at the well, the man born blind and the raising of Lazarus. These were intepreted as relating directly to people being baptized: the waters of life, the opening of the eyes of faith, the rising to the new life of grace (life of Christ, life of the Spirit.)
The Roman church in recent years has returned to this practice of baptizing people. Since most of the assembly have already been baptized they "look on" and determine to "renew" their baptism faith: rejecting Satan, accepting God: Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and determining to cooperate with God's freely given grace to help us live a better Christian life.
So it is easy to "preach" on these Sundays by simply sticking to the theme. This Sunday I am also going to mention that at Baptism we also receive a pledge of the resurrection of our mortal bodies to be like the risen body of Jesus. Hence at our funerals the emphasis placed on the sacredness of the body, even though now dead.
Joe from Maine
Forgot to wish you all a "Gloriously happy St. Patrick's Day...and many more of them!!! Joe from Maine
I LOVE this text! The direction I'm going is to focus once again on God's power to redeem anything: even when we've given up, asked for the wrong thing, made mistakes. The obvious redemption is the raising of Lazarus. But what about the redemption of Martha? The last time we heard about her, she was "triangulating": complaining to Jesus because Mary wasn't hepling with the dishes! What happened between that encounter and this?? Is the part left out of the earlier text: "Martha, Martha ... Mary has chosen the better portion: so you, too, come sit beside me and let's talk. James and John -- see if you can't do something in the kitchen to be useful." Whatever happened, the Martha clinging to "how we've always done it" in the first story is not the Martha who leaves the house of mourning and goes out on the dusty road to greet Jesus before he even enters the village. What chutzpah! What faith! "If you had been here he would not have died." And in answer to the question "Do you believe?" We get what is essentially the "Confession of St. Martha." -- "Yes, Lord, I believe that you ARE the Christ." (Note that in the Episcopal calendar, Martha shares a saint day with Mary but Paul and Peter both get their own days for the "Confession of ..." Think we could petition to change that?) Like the woman at the well who is arguably the first evangelist, here it is Martha who offers the first confession of Our Lord. (Remember that the next time someone says, "Well, Jesus didn't call women to be disciples!) Could that be an answer to the earlier question of why this was left out of the synoptic gospels? Was the role of the women here too empowered to fit with the cultural assumptions of the gospel writers' audience? Did Lazarus end up on the cutting room floor along with his sisters? Could be! Blessings, ya'll. (And for Doug in Riverside, "chuffed" is indeed a positive response -- don't know if it's British but something my English inlaws used to say to describe feeling pleased with oneself.) Shalom! Susan in SanPedro
Can you get any deader than that?
Lazarus in the tomb for four days.....bleached dry bones in the desert.......
Can you get any deader than that?
Lazarus walking out of the tomb.....the bones coming together, having the Spirit breathed into them.....
Can you get any better than that?
Doug in Riverside--
Feel free to use my description of Bethany in your sermon. (It's a small--admittedly polished--piece of the journal I kept every day in the Holy Land.)
Bill in SoMD
Side note: Thomas's faith was earlier alluded to in the statement, "Let us go with him so that we may also die." This remark can also be taken as humorous sarcasm, an interpretation I tend to think more likely. As such it is an evidence of Thomas's wit. But elsewhere, of course, Jesus identifies wit as a form of faith so...
pHil
Doug in Riverside,
Thanks for the commentary on John...indeed, it helps a lot!
The Erie Preach Creach
I may call my sermon "Lazarus is Dead"...because he is. Even though raised to new life, he died at some later time (I assume!). It is easy to get into all manner of cliches and patronizing about death here. Quoting funeral scriptures, using a lot of "head stuff", without engaging the heart.
As we approach the week of the Passion, I may focus on the reality of death and the reality of the way we deny it in our culture. Kubler-Ross helps. Thanks to whoever mentioned it, and to the other comments about facing death and darkness.
I still remember a day 20 years ago, when I was going thorough a standard kind of 2-day psych/career screening for ministry. The interviewer was throwing a bunch of hypothetical questions at me.
E.g., "You go to a home where a young couple has lost their only child. After a few minutes of tense dialogue, the wife explodes in anger, lashing out vehemently at you, refusing to be solaced. What would you do?"
I fumbled the question in my inexperience. But my wife--a nurse, even though young one at the time--pulled me out of the fire, suggesting that this anger was normal, to be expected, and not a personal attack. You do what you can, offer a prayer if they'll have it, embrace them and cry with them if they'll let you, give them your number, and leave, coming back at a later time.
Can we get our good churchfolk to engage the death of Jesus honestly? Can we use this story as a preamble to the Passion? Can we begin to describe what a gruesome thing crucifixion was? Can we do any of this without slick answers, cute and cliched pat theologies and worn-out propositions? And, without turning poeple off? It's an annual struggle for me. I experience a strange approach-avoidance conflict as we near Holy Week. I hate it... and I love it. I fear it, and I welcome it. I want to run away, but am paradoxically drawn into it.
Maybe "eternal life" grabs hold of me a little in this life, especially during Passion time. It starts now, MUST start now...not when we're starting to smell up the sepulchre.
Barry in OH
Thank you all so much for your insights. They've really helped. I am reminded of a snipet I read in one of Willimon's Preaching Workshops (on the back of Pulpit Resource) where he said that while we preachers keep trying to find new insights, new and exciting ways to say the 'same old things,' most of our people just want to hear the 'same old things.' They want to know that Christ will come and raise them from the dead, that there is hope, that God is constant, loving, judging, forgiving -- all those things. Sometimes its so very difficult to preach and repreach and rerepreach these same stories. But sometimes, that's what we need to do most.
Someone I read this week (and I don't remember who) said that Martha's words are not a reproach, but a statement of faith. Note that the sisters did not ask Jesus to come to Bethany. They knew that he would do what he would do, from wherever he was, such was their faith. They did not ask for Lazarus to be raised, healed, or anything else. They merely sent word to Jesus. Such was their trust in him.
sk-MO any more information on the poster would be greatly appreciated. I think I'll use it for my sermon title, and Bill's description somewhere in my sermon.
Thanks again, everyone.
RevJan
An addendum to my ramblings above...found these quotes in a book discovered at the library today-- "Teihard de Chardin: Album"...had to grab it as a long-time awed student of de Chardin. Not even sure what they mean yet, but they are speaking to me about death, life, and Christ.
"If you judge me worthy, Lord God, I would show to those whose lives are dull and drab the limitless horizons opening out to humble and hidden efforts; for these efforts, if pure in intention, can add to the extension of the incarnate Word a further element--an element known to Christ's heart and gathered up into his immortality.
I shall remind those who are successful and happy that their success involves something infinitely more lofty than the satisfaction of their own petty personality. They can and indeed must take delight--but in Christ, whose plentitude calls for a certain fulfilment in nature. And I shall teach them to discern, even in their joy, side by side with the selfishness that retires into itself and the sensuality that gloats, a FORCE of well-being and personal development that can be used for the activity of their soul in God.
And above all, I shall tell those who suffer and mourn that the most direct way of using our lives is to allow God, when it pleases him so to do, to grow within us, and, through death, to replace us by himself." -- `Le Pretre , 8 July 1918
"God must, in some way or other, make room for himself, hollowing us out and emptying us, if he is finally to penetrate into us. And in order to assimiliate us in him, he must break down the molecules of our being so as to re-cast and re-model us. The function of death is to provide the necessary entrance into our inmost selves. It will make us undergo the required dissociation. It will put us into the state organically needed if the divine fire is to descend upon us. And in that way its fatal power to decompose and dissolve will be harnessed to the most sublime operations of life." -- `Le Milieu Divine 1926-27
Barry in OH
Hi all.
One thought for now. Let's not get too stuck on Martha's statement/greeting of Jesus, without remembering that Mary greeted him the same way.
Yes, Martha got the challenging sermon last time ("You are too concerned about too many things...."). But this time she was given the comforting, and even incredible sermon ("I am the resurrection....").
Last time Mary got the comfort and affirmation. This time all she got was silence and tears.
Don't exactly know where to go with this yet, but I can't help but think it's important.
Rick in Canada, eh?
Marie
If you are out there. I'm with Fred in La, please send us more info on "Lectionary Homiletics"
Shalom
Pasthersyl
Lectionary Homiletics -- published monthly -- good in-depth commentaries from various perspectives -- One year $60. Phone 804-744-8631, address 13540 E. Boundary Road, Ste 105, Midlothian VA 23112. ******** from to life...from vapors to something worth wwriting about -- that is how I experience dps some of the time. From "writer's block" (or "spirit block") to "here's the makings of a sermon!" -- thank you all.
Bill in TN
that should have read, "from to life..."
Bill in TN
Thanks Marie and Bill in Tn for alerting me to Lectionary Homiletics. I just tried out a magazine called "Homiletics," but it seems limited for me. I'm hoping the magazine you mentioned will be more of what I want and need.
I would to comment more on what someone was talking about earlier on "Jesus wept." In the Interpreter's Bible, the writer wrote that in verse 33, the greek word connotes anger and indignation, not compassion. The writer went on to say that Jesus may have been angry at the people's lack of faith or even "that the 'Jews,' those who are not his own, have intruded onto the scene."
The reason I mentioned this is because the writer goes on to write, "Jesus' anger in v.33 informs the interpretation of his tears in v.35." It is Jesus public acknowledgment of the pain that death causes in human life."
Well, I'm still not sure where I'm going with this passage yet.
Brandon in CA
Re: Jesus wept... I'm intrigued by the "snorting" idea but am not a greek scholar. Strong's says it does mean "weeping," with root as "tears" (vs. weeping connected to wailing, grieving)... can anyone sort this out for us?
One of the sources I read (don't remember which, sorry) says that Jesus wept at the destructive power of death still at work. The pain of M & M's family reminds Jesus of the pain of the world/cosmos.
Re: objections the story raises to Laz.'s resurrection, esp. v. 39 (I think this may have come from the Women's Bible Commentary): The dilemma of all believers: Can one let go of the limits that one places on what is possible in order to embrace the limitless possibilities offered by Jesus?
For Jesus, resurrection = life that he offers as a present reality, not as a future event. This is a real change in eschatology for 1st c. Jews!
Thanks for great stuff this week. I'm quoting all of you, OK?
Barry in OH, I've wondered long enough: VDS in the mid 80's?? (kayhv@juno.com)
Kay
I am particularly grateful to Fred in LA for the contribution alluding to the "Dead Man Walking." It gives a present-tense, here-and-now emphasis to a subject we usually consider in its future reference (the Resurrection of the Dead). In this, we are pretty much like Martha. ("I know my brother WILL rise again, in the Resurrection on the last day.") But Jesus asserts "I AM the Resurrection and the Life." His Resurrection has implications in the present. I have been thinking about this passage as it relates to what has been described as today's "culture of death." What does the raising of Lazarus have to say to the Kevorkians and the proponents of the abortion industry? Am I off base or is there a connection to be made here? Help me anyone? Steve in PA
I am particularly grateful to Fred in LA for the contribution alluding to the "Dead Man Walking." It gives a present-tense, here-and-now emphasis to a subject we usually consider in its future reference (the Resurrection of the Dead). In this, we are pretty much like Martha. ("I know my brother WILL rise again, in the Resurrection on the last day.") But Jesus asserts "I AM the Resurrection and the Life." His Resurrection has implications in the present. I have been thinking about this passage as it relates to what has been described as today's "culture of death." What does the raising of Lazarus have to say to the Kevorkians and the proponents of the abortion industry? Am I off base or is there a connection to be made here? Help me anyone? Steve in PA
just a few thoughts:
Lord, the one's you love are ill. ---- "If you had been here, he wouldn't have died...well yeah, that's the point - without christ we are all dead - Craddock says, "apart from God, the world's a cemetary." ---
also upping the ante- not just healing but resusitation signifies "hour has come", preparing us for what comes next.
--- if life from death ultimately, why not now: I'm Linda, I am raise from the dead.
--- God's not an enabler, but a savior - we want God to answer our prayers our way, pick up the pieces, fix things, smooth the way, let us go on being human. When was the last time God answered your prayer different than you asked? The sisters told God what they wanted, good thing God didn't listen right. Humans need to learn to get out of God's way.
Thanks Bill in TN
Shalom
Pasthersyl
Doesn't v.36 help define the kind of weeping Jesus does in v.35? Cry, weep, sniffle, or snort, the bystanders seem to see it as a response of love for Lazarus on Jesus's part.
pHil
I don't know pHil. My "Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary" says, "The crowd 'weeps and wails' (Greek = klaio -- a kind of formal funeral behavior; whereas Jesus 'cries' (Greek = dakryo -- a spontaneous bursting into tears)! Jesus' tears are certainly for the suffering of Lazarus, but they are also for the human situation of darkness, which leads to such faithless behavior. The crowd superficially recognizes Jesus' tears and reacts sympathetically, but with no understanding of who he is."
With the past postings on this site and the comment above, I am going to contrast the view of death by our culture at large and the Christian view. We have society that tries to hide from death and pretend death doesn't exist. Most Christian churches do the opposite. We admit that death is a reality and that we will die, but we then proclaim that we shall live forevermore because of our faith in Jesus Christ. We are not afraid of death because we know that God has the last word through Jesus Christ. Or maybe I should say that God has the last word through the Word.
My sermon title is "The Superficiality of Death." I think I'm going to really enjoy this one.
Brandon in CA
It was a wreck. No, it was worse. I simply could not believe the level of destruction. As I looked around the interior, I thought, "How in the world are we ever going to make this place livable? How in the world?" Had you seen it, you would have been asking the same question. It was an impossible task. There were great holes in the walls. The ceilings were collapsing from a myriad of leaks. Windows had been smashed by vandals and someone had broken in and turned over almost every piece of furniture. Animals had entered the house and the remains of their presence was everywhere. Feces. Feces was everywhere, littering the floor and covering what had once been a dirty brown carpet. Truly, it was awful, just awful.
I looked at my partner as if we were crazy to even attempt this. Leading a church group to repair a damaged roof was one thing, but this was outside of the bounds of sanity. No one, certainly no one relying on the good graces of volunteers, would even consider tackling this place. I looked at my partner and my stomach skewed into knots. I knew even before he opened his mouth that I was not going to like his answer. He looked at the young social worker, smiled slightly and said, "We'll do it."
In the end, I guess I couldn't blame him. In the end, I might have even said yes, too. For you see, this home belonged to a beautiful family, Chris, and her two sons, Tony and Will. They didn't have much, Chris being a struggling single mom whose husband had abandoned her. Nevertheless, she and her sons had managed a fairly happy life in this house until one awful night, when in a living nightmare, someone broke in and she was brutally raped and knifed. Of course, she had left this place of horrors and it had been vacant for several months. Yet, it was all they had and it was her home, and now she wanted to return. And so it was out of this context that we gathered, 16 church folks, 16 church folks who came to work on a house.
Our team, on arriving at the house, shared our initial response … disgust and disbelief. For long moments, all anyone could do was to stand and stare, stand and stare with mouths agape and stomachs churning as each person fought the overwhelming need to be sick. Yet, they did not stay frozen for long. Soon, one could hear the sounds of hammers banging on the roof, buckets of hot soapy water was being carried from room to room, dust filled the air from two buzzing skill saws. Little by little, the damage was undone and order was restored. Miraculously, little by little, the house once again began to look like a home.
Chris's son, Will, had been very subdued since the attack. He was slightly mentally handicapped and though all of them were deeply traumatized, Will's pain seemed the most unreachable. But here, among all the activity, he was beginning to open up again. Here, among all the activity he was again becoming a little boy. I had noticed him walking around with a bucket of soapy water earlier. He would rush from one side of the room to the other, sponge in hand, and he would happily tell everyone, "This is my job. This is my job." I thought that he was just mimicking all the folks who were rushing about … until a while later, when Dennis, our pastor, came up on him and there he was -- scrubbing the door jam.
And as he scrubbed, he looked at Dennis, smiled and said, "This is my job."
Dennis walked over to pat him on the back and then stopped dead in his tracks … stunned. For there was Will, scrubbing his mother's dried blood off the frame of that door. The blood she bled from her wounds as she desperately tried to escape her attacker. The wounds she received as her boys huddled in the other room, listening to their mother's screams.
He smiled and he said, "This is my job."
And as he scrubbed, Jesus invaded our midst. As he scrubbed, the Holy Spirit moved into that place and a damaged little boy was resurrected from the darkness of nightmares. As he scrubbed, Jesus stood before us and Will was released, unbound from the psychological blood that had been so horribly smeared on his soul.
Resurrection from the dead? Make no mistake, it happens still, even in the midst of 16 cynical church folk who only thought they were coming to work on a house.
We saw it and we …believed.
Shalom my friends,
Nail-Bender in NC
Jesus wept - he deliberately waited 2 days, knowing Lazarus was going to die. I think he wept for the misery Mary & Martha were experiencing. I think he wept because this demonstration of his power would help his friends survive the horror which was to come within 2 weeks.
To the Erie Preach-Creach and any others who might be interested in something off beat regarding this passage.
One suggested reason for the fact that this story does not turn up in the synoptics is that at the time of their writing the principles in the story, or at least their direct descendants where still active in the community. Ergo - the story was a still a little to hot. Since John is (at least) compiled later, a sufficent amount of time has passed for the story to be told. This line of thought has Lazarus and family very highly placed in Judean society. One source provided evidence to indicate a priestly connection.
The really interesting idea that connects with this is that the beloved disciple is not John, but actually Lazarus. This isn't anything original from me. I read it elsewhere (can't put my fingers on it now). If you read the appropriate sections of John's gospel with this in mind you will find that it works rather well.
Its fun stuff - unfortunately it doesn't preach very well
Ralph, in TX
Brandon's use of the phrase, "last word," triggered my memory of this quote from William Stringfellow which powerfully reminds us that we don't wait (as Martha was tempted) till the Last Day to experience Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life...
"Of all the wordly powers, death is the most obvious, but death is not the greatest power active in the world. Death is not the last word. Nor is the last word some nebulous, fanciful, fake promise of an after life. If you have been told or taught anything such as that in church, what you have heard is heresy. The last word is not death, nor life after death, but the last word is the same as the first word, and that word is Jesus Christ. He has, holds, and exercises power even over death in this world. And His promise is that we may be set free from bondage to death in this life here and now. "In the face of death, live humanly. In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word, amidst babel, speak the truth. Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and efficacy of the Word of God. Know the Word, teach the Word, nurture the Word, do the Word, live the Word. And more than that, in the Word of God, expose death and all death's works and wiles, rebuke lies, cast out demons, exorcise, cleanse the possessed, raise those who are dead in mind and conscience."
I'll post the source later, if I find it.
pHil
Thanks to Nail-Bender in NC. I would like to use your story on Sunday. By the time I get to this site it is usually Friday and I go in looking for confirmation that I have not been on another planet this week. Deciding to preach on "Being unbound" by Christ of the grave clothes that only bring death, this story is great. Thanks sb
Bill in SoMD, thanks for your description of Bethany. I was there two years ago, but you reminded me of things I'd forgotten. Barbara Brown Taylor in her book on preaching about suffering (I've forgotten the title) also describes the "Lazarus tomb" site, going down, and especially, coming back up out of the hole. Bill, I'd like to use your description, as well.
Nail-Bender, as always, your story hit me in the pit of my stomach. I'd like to use it also.
Thanks to everyone for the good discussion. This site helps me more in sermon preparation than any commentary or publication that I read. Thanks!
Dot
am the Resurrection AND the Life
This is my first time posting to the DPS dialog. I have found many helpful thoughts here in the past and offer these notes to the discussion. A long time ago a Priest friend (who died two months ago at the age of 86) told me about a saying that is relevant to today's Gospel. "Everyone wants to get to Heaven but nobody wants to die to get there!" If Jesus is to be our Resurrection and our Life, we have to die to ourselves here and now in order to be raised to newness of life now and for all eternity. Baptism carries with it the promise of 'eternal life' but we need to live up to our Baptismal promises. The Spirit of Jesus must be alive in us so that "the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you."(Romans 8: 11) DeaconTom Summerville SC
Nail-Bender to the rescue again!
What a powerful story...they just keep getting better. I used your story about Izlika last week, and the congregation was profoundly silent afterwards...moved deeply, and blessed by a stunning word of truth. I will use this one as well, because it captures as well as anything I've seen the essence of the good news in John 11, in terms that are immediate, practical an transcendant all at the same time. Thank you very much, Nail-Bender. If there are all truly stories form you personal experience, what a blessed person you are, a disciple and a teacher for all of us...and if they are from other sources, I bless your wisdom on sharing and shaping them for us. I'd like to meet you or hear you preach sometime. If willing, e-mail me your church address.
Barry in OH revbarryb@aol.com
A SOUL INVENTORY:
Have I come to terms with my fear of death? How do I feel about taking risks that might shorten the length of my journey on earth? Risks that might result in personal rejection?
(Larry from cny with gratitude to Ed White of Alban)
A SOUL INVENTORY:
Have I come to terms with my fear of death? How do I feel about taking risks that might shorten the length of my journey on earth? Risks that might result in personal rejection?
(Larry from cny with gratitude to Ed White of Alban)
Erie Preach-Creach, In the parables of Jesus, his characters are "a certain farmer", a rich man, or a woman, etc. Only once is a character named. That is in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. That one ends with the decalration that even if someone came back from the dead, that would not bring the rich man's brothers to belief. In this account from John, the raising of Lazarus does not lead to the authorities coming to believe in Jesus, but they make arrangements to kill him. Could these two be related? Patty
From The Cultural World of Jesus, Year A:
"Like other New Testament communities, that of John experienced a great crises of faith when any believer died. If Jesus gave us eternal life, why must we still die? . . . Martha represents the community with its real but inadequate faith: 'Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died." If only Jesus had not left at his ascension, he would still be with the community and believers wouldn't die. After all, whatever Jesus asks if the Father will ge given, won't it?
John's Jesus must correct this misunderstanding. He is indeed 'the resurrection and the life'. But resurrection does not mean the restoration of life to a corpse, it entails rather a transformation of life..
Moreover, the eternal life that Jesus gives his followers does not abolish death but rather transcends it. . . .
Faith in the risen Jesus is not fully developed until it enables a believer to face physical death with the firm confidence that the present possession of eternal life is not simply a pledge of resurrection on the last day but is rather a present and continuing participation in the life of the ever-living Jesus, now, at this moment. Those who believe in Jesus never truly die."
Sorry it took so long to post this. I forgot which book I read it in!
RevJan
That's
whatever Jesus asks of the Father will be given
RJ
"JESUS WEPT"
JESUS didnt break down and cry until he saw that mary didnt get it. his buddies the deciples didnt get, even though he told them plainly what he was going to. Martha didnt get even though he told her plainly and later on he would even say "mary dont you belive that that he will be resurrected?" "Oh sure" was her typical religouse reply, "a million years from now." and in the other gosple he says "i am the resurrection and the Life" another words "im here right now" what are you waiting for?" but Jesus I believe hoped that Mary would understand. Evry time tyou find Mary you see her sitting at the Lords feet. but she didnt have a clue. 11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.
11:34 He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see."
11:35 Jesus began to weep.
How it breaks the Lord's heart not to be able to include us in on the wonderfull things he's doing!
Troy in TX
pHil -- Your long quote ("Of all the worldly powers...") is right on the money. Please do post the source if you find it. Thanks!
Patty -- That is an excellent and wonderful observation that I’ve not heard before. The "two Lazaruses" may well be related--how can we ever know the vagaries of textual and oral transmission among those early Christians? Neat insight...and it WILL preach, I think.
Ralph In TX -- Also good insights--hard to preach? Maybe, but great stuff for a Bible study on this text. Thanks.
DeaconTom -- Welcome to DPS. Good words...keep ‘em coming. I too am relatively new to DPS, though I lurked for awhile and have posed under another name.
Dot-- I also agree whole-heartedly with you: DPS is now the FIRST (and sometimes only) place I look in sermon prep.
RevJan-- Can you give more info about that source "The Cultural World of Jesus?"
The Erie Preach Creach
I have read that Mary's reaction to Jesus' declaration "Your brother will rise again" was a reaction of disappointment. Evidently, to say, "Your [loved one] will rise again" was probably a standard greeting to mourning families, just as today we say things like, "he/she's better off now," or "they're not really dead you know, just sleeping." How disappointing would it be for us if we thought that Rabbi Jesus was consoling us with easy platitudes. So when Jesus speaks to Mary, her reaction to what she perceives as unconsoling truisms is disappointment. "Yeah, yeah, she is really saying, I've heaerd that all my life. I may believe in the 'last day,' but what does that do for me now?" Then Jesus forcefully reminds her of whi it is who says, "Your brother will live again." In his mouth, the most homely platitudes and old saws of faith become, like Lazarus, vibrant and alive! So we know, when Jesus says life, life is what will happen. Later, in his Resurrection appearances, Jesus gives the common Jewish greeting, "Peace be with you [Shalom!]. But, from the Lord, the words are no mere greeting - they are words of grace, full of hope, full of life, which truly bring God's peace to the hearts and lives of those greeted. God never speaks mindless platitudes. It always speaks words of power & grace & life. Ken in WV
Thanks to all for your offerings ... I'm new to this site The story of Will, for me, captured the role of baptism in this passage. I imagined Will, in his busyness going from wall to wall, dripping soapy water all over himself and the house. Just as we pass through the waters of baptism from death to new life, the house and Will's psyche were brought to new life through buckets of cleansing water ... and in the midst of a gathering/community of the faithful. Thanks Nail-bender. Kim in Canada
I think "Jesus wept" out of genuine, heart-felt grief. John holds in tension the fact that Mary "hadn't quite got it yet" (do you believe this (Mary?)with the fact that Jesus was in the presence of a family who may not have been emotionally ready to handle the reality of who Jesus was so soon after the loss of a brother and a friend. John posits the human-ness of Christ in his emotional reaction while emphasizing the fact that death really isn't an end, but a beginning for those who believe in him.
In the economy of language, I believe that John was illustrating the fact that Jesus was going to demonstrate the Glory and love of God and was pretty darn upset about the fact that his friend had died.
Jesus weeps for someone he loves, he weeps for us too!
JR, in GA
I saw this at another website. An epitaph over Lazarus grave: "Caution! Do Not Block Doorway!" Sometimes we feel very much like our churches are in the grave. But when Christ comes into the doorway and calls us, we will walk out casting off the grave clothes if we listen to his call.
UMC Pastor
My mother is trying to die. It's hard to die in a hospital, isn't it? Yes, I am suffering, but for me and not for her. I will miss her if she does not recover. I do not just believe that she will be in a better place, I *know* it. I really do. Thank you, Deacon Tom, for showing me a way to share what I know with those whom I love, but who are struggling more than I am. 'We all want to get there, but we all must first die!' Yes, Lazarus lives. Lazarus lives in each Will who steps up to the mark and lays claim to God's calling -- "it's my job!" Thank you, Nailbender! Why have I not seen it so clearly before. Jesus lives! Jesus lives in each and every one of us when *we* step up to our calling, and to those who are sick, or isolated, or poor, or in other distress, proclaim with all our heart the love of God by saying, "it's my job!"
Jim
I haven't read all entries yet, and maybe someone has already mentioned this. I'm planning to play Carman's powerful song, Lazarus, Come Forth. I think it's on a tape named Bethlehem. Anne in Providence
This sickness is not unto death! The paradox of living death is grounded in the despair, the hopelessness, of going on and on and on in the chronos time as if it is all over..., "paralyzed force" without a future, yet bound in death while forever moving toward the "not yet" end of endings. The eschatological message of this post-resurrection narrative carries the "good news" of the "ending of endings" which is at hand making divine intervention into our darkness of death's on-goingness that goes no where except into ceaselessness of unending "living death". As we move toward death, rather than life, death has power over our every moment by moment existence until we let go and dare to die. The grace of the gospel in the "kingdom come", in the Presence of Christ, is found in the Living Christ coming to the tomb of our present, filled with it's death and absence of hope and courage and faith and love and joy and God, and calling us forth to life where we are unbound from the wrappings/clothing of death. Death is real and we cannot live life fully until we die in the present, until we stop living for death somewhere in the future. As long as we move toward death, rather than life, we will not be alive to life in the present or the future. This gospel of the liberation of Lazarus from the dead, I believe, is a disclosure/unveiling of our autobiographical faith journey in baptism, participation in the life of Christ, as Christ's Presence comes to live in us via the Sacraments, the Biblical Revelation, the practicing the Presence of Christ in the daily bread of covenant service to others in the common place. PaideiaSCO in LA
Thanks to all the contributors this week. There was great insights shared.
I am one who has been helped by the work of Bernie Segal (Love, Medicine,Miracles; How to Live Between Office Visits, etc.). Segal says it so well, that we need to go ahead and die. Get that over with and then live.
Even joggers and vegetarians die. But have they lived?
I sat in the ICU waiting area this week with the families of two of my members and a friend: one was having a brain tumor removed, the second was recovering from 5 by-passes, the third was having complications from a liver and pancreas transplant. We filled up the waiting room.
Before I left, I had the whole group stand and pray. There was such and awesome feeling at that moment. Life is so precious yet so fragile. I left that hospital ready to live like I have never lived before. But on my own I am not able to live like that. I keep getting entangled in the insignificant.
I need to be given life, real spiritual life support. I need Jesus, every day, breathing in me, showing me the way, the truth, the real life. To believe in Jesus is to live.
I love the saying someone has already mentioned: "You can fly, but you must get rid of the cocoon" Unbind him, and let him Go!
Fred in LA
Earie Preach Creach, or others interested in the William Stringfellow quote posted above. I managed to locate the second paragraph ("In the face of death...") in AN ETHIC FOR CHRISTIANS AND OTHER ALIENS IN A STRANGE LAND (ch.6). The first part may be in their, too, or I may have found it in another of his books and combined the two. It was too long ago that I used this for me to remember, and too late now to keep looking. But, hey, I'd like to read all of Stringfellow in order to find it again. What a mind and heart for the Bible he had! And grasp of the times. Isn't it funny how lay people make the best theologians!
pHil