March 17, 2002
|
|
|
| Hearing
Through Tears: The Ears of Christ Prayer: Eternal and loving God, help us to feel and acknowledge the breath of your love for us now, in this place. Bring vitality and purpose to our gathering; energize us. Hear our voices, lifted in praise and crying out from our need. Be attentive to our prayers, otherwise we will be separated from you. Only you can unbind us and set us free. Through Jesus Christ, amen. (Adapted from the Invocation for the 5th Sunday in Lent, Taught by Love, by Lavon Baylor. United Church Press) As we think about the body of Christ, and dry bones, and Lazarus, we hear through the ears of Christ a word of hope as we are confronted with our own feelings about grief and death. The story of the raising of Lazarus can be summed up this way. Even when it all looks bleak, there is cause for hope, because God wills life for us. As one writer puts it, “Jesus persists in the face of a number of deterrents to bring life to the dead. “After a couple days delay, Jesus upon receiving word of his friend Lazarus’ illness, goes back to Judea, even though it is dangerous. The disciples misunderstand Jesus’ [symbolic] use of ‘sleep’, and decide that Lazarus will be just fine. When Jesus arrives at Bethany, Martha does not at first get what Jesus is saying about being the resurrection and the life. The Jewish mourners are so irritated that Jesus did nothing to prevent Lazarus’ dying, that they cannot see what he is about to do. At the tomb Martha worries about opening the grave after it has been closed up for four days. No one understands. No one expects that life can come out of death. No one grasps that Jesus is the life-giving power of God. “But Jesus persists because he knows that to be united to him means to be a recipient of eternal life. The unheard-of claim of God’s renewing power in Jesus is then acted on, as Jesus calls Lazarus from the tomb. Deed follows word. Amid the symbols of death - intense grief, a skeptical and somewhat impatient audience, the odor of a decaying body, the tightly wrapped grave clothes - Jesus speaks and acts, and there is life.” (Texts for Preaching, Year A, WJKP, p. 226) New life comes and in the renewal there is an intimate encounter with God. Can these bones live? Lazarus is dead, and the feeling is that Jesus could have prevented this death from taking place. But just wait, listen, hear and feel what God will do. Hear with human ears and through your own experience of grief, loss, and hope how it is that these examples of hearing through anguished tears might bring us into a closer relationship with God, especially as we think about death and resurrection. Many of you will remember that several years ago, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross identified five stages of grief. They are denial (this cannot be happening), anger (the urge to resist, fight back, and get even), bargaining (it happens before the loss, when we beg, plead, pray for a different result, “if you do this, then I’ll do this”), depression (feelings of hopelessness and bitterness, and finally acceptance (coming to terms with the reality of loss). The thing about grief is that its stages do not move in a straight line. It is not the case that today we feel denial, then anger, then we bargain, then we are depressed, and finally we reach acceptance. The stages of grief wash over us as memories come to us, or as events occur, on holidays and birthdays, anniversaries, at the time of the trip not taken, or at countless other times. Sometimes we will experience several stages at the same time. We know that grief is not only about death, but about any major loss or change in our lives. All of us struggle with grief and death. The loss of a loved one, even when it brings peace and release to the one who dies hurts those of us who survive. We can commend our loved ones to God, but we still feel the loss, and we will grieve, that is we will feel distress, a sense of sharp sorrow, and painful regret. We will not only feel it in our spirits, but often we will feel in our bodies like a punch to the solar plexus. We feel it and we know its reality even though we in the church do not like to talk about grief and death, except at Easter and at funerals. As I say that I am mindful that this afternoon we will remember the life and death of our oldest member. But not talking about it may be a mistake because by our silence, the church loses a teaching opportunity. One writer says this about the church: “The church preaches about death and resurrection at the time of death, but shies away from such topics in the midst of life. Yet it is in the everyday rhythms of life that the church most needs to talk about Jesus’ power as the resurrection and the life, so that death can indeed lose its sting. To proclaim the power of resurrection only at the time of death is both to impoverish the proclamation and to weaken the power of its witness in the face of death.” (The New Interpreters Bible vol. IX, p.695) We can speak of these difficult things in the church because as people of faith, we have a context that tells us that death is not in fact the last victor in our lives, but that it ultimately must yield to God who ushers us into life eternal. The poet John Donne understood that when he wrote his poem, “Death Be Not Proud”. The writer James Weldon Johnson understood it when he wrote “Go Down Death.” As a matter of full disclosure, I have to tell you that I have never not been in the church so I have heard the words of Jesus, “I am the resurrection and the life” all of my life. It is not strange language to me. But I also know that among the things said about Christians and the way we deal with grief and death is that we are either totally death obsessed, or death denying. What does our death obsession look like? Did you know that the second chapter of each of the four gospels deals in some way with death? Matthew 2 tells the horrible story of Herod ordering the deaths of infant males in order to end the life of the newborn Jesus. In Mark 2 Jesus speaks symbolically of his death when he says that the day will come when the bridegroom, a metaphor for himself will be taken away. Luke 2 brings the righteous and faithful Simeon to the edge of Jesus’ bassinet, and then leads him to pray, “now let your servant depart in peace…for my eyes have seen your salvation.” And in John 2, as Jesus cleanses the temple, he challenges his opponents to tear it down and see if in just three days, it will not be raised up again, again referring to his own death and resurrection. And at some point in each gospel, Jesus begins to talk about his death and resurrection. How then does the church deny death? Aside from our reluctance to talk about it except at funerals and at Easter, three stories come to mind. The first is when Jesus meets a funeral procession just outside the city gates and raises from death the only son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7.11-15). The second is when Jesus revives Jairus’ daughter after receiving word of her death (Mark 5.35-43). The third is the gospel lesson for today as Jesus raises Lazarus from death. The witness of John is that Lazarus was dead, but lives again. It is a story that is strange to our ears, but is part of our faith story. And our faith is about life and not death. So how is it we can not a word of death denied, but of life affirmed? How do we hear a word of life in the middle of death in the raising of Lazarus? Briefly we hear in five ways. First, as in last week’s lesson of the man born blind, we hear that the reason some things happen is so that God can be glorified in them. Even in the difficult grief-filled moments, we can see the character and identity of God who is loving, comforting, peace-bringing, and present. Seeing the glory of God in all circumstances may help us begin to understand the answer to the question, ‘why do bad things happen to good people?’ The first part of the answer is that being good is no protection against tragedy, suffering, disappointment, or unfairness. None of us is immune from the down side of life, we know that. The second part of the answer is this. When it looks like the wicked and evil do well while the good and innocent suffer, life is just not fair and it is depressing, maybe even grief inducing. But that is exactly the time, when our spiritual resources are low, that we can look to God. When we do, we can acknowledge that there is indeed evil in the world, and we can discover that bad things are not about the will of God, or punishment by God, or of God’s abandonment of us. “If you had been here, if you really exist, you could have protected me…” Hear the voice of God and the voice of Jesus says to us again, “I am with you always, and will not leave you or forsake you.” Maybe things happen to help us turn to God and focus our faith in God as that presence and life force that can get us through when nothing else will. Second, we hear that situations are not always as hopeless as they seem. It strikes me as strange that Jesus would wait two days to travel the two miles between Jerusalem and Bethany. Walking at a moderate rate, he could have been there in an hour. It goes against our natural instinct to rush to the bedside of a critically ill loved one. Listen to Jesus as he teaches us patience and a lack of paralyzing fear. He knows his life will be in danger in Bethany, and he takes his time going there. But as he does we come to understand with the disciples that there is hope when things appear otherwise. Earlier in his gospel, John says of Jesus “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1.5).” Jesus brings with him real light, real presence, and real hope. Third, we hear that even though it is not all hopeless, it is still hard. The recently deceased father of a friend told his family that he was not afraid of dying, he just wanted to live a little longer. His family’s grief is real. The grief of Martha and Mary, Jesus and their friends was real, and raw. Yet out of their grief, hope was made possible. Martha who in other scripture lessons busies herself in the kitchen proves once again that cooking and cleaning provide good thinking time. She may not have understand fully at first, but she is thinking. Listen as her faith grows. She says, “if you had been here, Lazarus would still be alive, but I know that God will do whatever you ask.” Jesus tells her that her brother will live again. She knows about the promised general resurrection, and is sure that he will be raised then. But then Jesus startles her. “Martha, that day is here because I am here. The resurrection, the promise of life eternal, all the hope your spirit can hold is here in me. We have been friends a long time, do you believe me?” Martha is led to confession. “I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God who comes into the world.” As he hears the same words from Mary, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died”, Jesus is disturbed, the word used here indicates anger, and moved by Mary’s tears, he cries his own and then does what only he, empowered by God can do. He prays, he calls Lazarus out of the tomb and he instructs the crowd “to unbind him and let him go.” Fourth, we hear that this real revival from death helps us to cope with the reality of losing someone. We also hear that it is time to unbind and let go of what is still alive in us. Is there something in your life that seems dead? Do you have a relationship, a dream, something unfinished that is bound up and put away. Give it a chance to live. See what it can do when it is let loose. Cry a bit if you need to, roll away the stone, pray, call it out by name, unbind it and let it go. Fifth, we hear that this miracle of life restored led people to believe that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. If we keep reading we will see that this miracle also so disturbed people that they wanted to kill both Jesus and Lazarus. Eventually, Lazarus will die. We know that for Jesus there was a cross and his own tomb. He will have another miracle to participate in and if we belong to him, then so do we. I know that both Ezekiel and Lazarus raise a fundamental question, can these things really happen? Scientists and others can have that debate, and it might be interesting to listen as they do. But we are not talking science here, we are talking about faith. So while we might be tempted to ask could this happen, “the only answer to the question of whether this miracle could have occurred is another question: can we believe that God, acting through Jesus, has power over the course of life and death? (The New Interpreters, p. 693) Today we celebrate that the answer is yes! Dry bones do live, one who was mourned and who was prematurely bound up and buried is alive, and renewal of life is possible for us. And now we know that “the promises of God in Jesus offered in the face of death can equip the church, [and us] to understand the promises of God in Jesus offered in the midst of life.” (The New Interpreters, p. 695) Do you believe this? To God be the glory for dry bones clothed with sinew, flesh, skin and breath; for stones rolled away and lives unbound and let go. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
|
Broad
Street Christian Church
|
