Isaiah 25: 6-9
NPMC
Psalm 24
All Saints
John 11: 32- 44
November 1, 2009
Revelation 21: 1- 6a
Anita Rezlaff
Resurrection is Now!
Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the
Christ. In our moment of silent prayer this morning let us bring to God one
thing that feels like new life for us; one thing that we are thankful for; that
event or significant encounter that gives us renewed hope and maybe a moment of
joy. New life. Let us pray. We receive blessing from you O Lord for you are the
God of our salvation. We seek your face in the daily mercies that break into our
lives; your peace that fills us with the warmth of your presence. AMEN
Today is All Saints Day, a celebration of the world wide church that calls to
mind all of those faithful ones who have walked this earth before us and the
faithful ones who today still walk in the ways of Jesus’ good news. It is no
surprise then that on a day when all of God’s faithful are celebrated, our minds
will be drawn to those who have already died and we puzzle over the mystery of
resurrection, the promise of God’s eternal presence that our Lord has given.
And it is in pondering the raising of Lazarus that I might land in hot water.
Should I mess up in the interpretation that I offer today it might hopefully
pave the way for good conversation between us in days to come! I would invite
that. I don’t believe that the account of Lazarus, raised from death, is a
blueprint for what will happen in the future. I suppose it could be exactly as
is described in the Lazarus story but that is a profound mystery of which we
know almost nothing. Our bodies return to dust and fragments of matter that
replenish the earth. Whether on the Last Day, all of the billions of bodies that
have died over the millennia will be reconstituted from soil is not the point
for me. It could happen that way; with God all things are possible. But I am not
concerned about that in this particular story or “acted parable” as Robert Capon
calls it. The raising of Lazarus seeks to make a point quite different from what
we might imagine at the final trumpet. Rather, Jesus’ giving life to Lazarus is
about what becomes possible for those of us who believe in the power of God’s
saving love, NOW not at some time in a far off future. Resurrection is now!
Lazarus never utters a word because basically this is a story about a dead man.
Unlike other miracle stories Lazarus neither asks Jesus for anything nor does
Jesus in turn ask him what he wants because, of course, Lazarus is dead. It is
also important to note that Jesus wants Lazarus dead. In the earlier verses of
this parable, the gospel writer states that Jesus deliberately stays away for
two days after hearing of Lazarus’ illness and says “plainly” to those with him,
“Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may
believe, but let us go to him.” (vv.14-15)
This story is a part of the Gospel of John that is known as the Book of Signs;
stories in which Jesus does things that point to the ultimate truth of who he
is. As Jesus faces the death of Lazarus with family and community gathered in
grief he is at pains to show the people something very deep about death and
about life. In fact Jesus is agitated. Twice we are told that he is greatly
disturbed. To me this signifies that Jesus is facing something more fundamental
than merely the death of a man whom he called a friend. It is much bigger. This
is a story about the power of God confronting the powers of death that
insidiously make their way into every corner of human existence whether that be
an individual’s denial of hope in tough times or a community’s racial
exclusiveness or an empire’s greed and domination. These are all forms of death
present in the society of Lazarus’ time and present for us today.
What does it mean to be dead? How do we define dead? Physically in regards to
our bodies we would likely say that dead is to no longer breathe and the heart
stops beating. That is the physical description of dead. But, dead also means
the cessation of consciousness, the ending of awareness. It also can be defined
as inanimate, numb, stagnant, stale, being bereft of sensation or feeling. It
seems to me that Jesus is addressing all of these manifestations of death when
he encounters the dead man Lazarus. His agitation is palpable as he takes upon
himself the call to address his friends and followers about the other kinds of
death that occupy their world. Jesus is fighting a battle of life against death;
life as hope that turns the impossible into the possible pitted against the
deathliness of the world of abusive hierarchies, thoughtless violence and
personal greed. As Jesus comes to bring life to a dead friend he is also coming
to bring life to a deadened world.
And wouldn’t you know it? Upon his appearing Jesus is met by the very accusation
that most of us would level, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not
have died.” God, why do you allow death in the first place? Why do you let bad
things happen to your faithful ones? Why don’t you intervene before it is too
late? How can you allow such pain? There is something really wrong with the way
you created this world. Where are you when I suffer? Where are you when
thousands die in a war of genocide? Where are you when a defenseless child dies?
Right here, in your midst. Jesus says to Martha, “Did I not tell you that if you
believed, you would see the glory of God?” We accuse the Divine Creator of
having bound us and curtailed our freedom but it is we ourselves, the way we
think, the way we treat others, our tendency to live deadened and in despair
that binds and limits us. Our perspective is simple; God, you should not allow
death and God’s perspective is equally simple: I am the resurrection and the
life, if you believe in the possibilities that love allows, you will never be
dead. In other words, the heart of Jesus’ message will make us alive forever.
Life in the heart of God is not without pain or hardship but it has a different
quality. It is infused with hope. That is the power that Jesus has over the
powers of death. Think of it! There is nothing more powerful than hope. Hope is
not bound by the past and or looks back with regret, “If only you would have
done such and such God…” Hope looks ahead to possibility acknowledging the pain
of the past or present but aware that as of this moment things can be different.
There are ways in which we are all slaves to the dead weight of the past.
Holding a grudge means that we are bound to a past that has more power over us
than any self-confidence that we can muster in the present. We act as though we
are powerless and as though God can’t do anything with us. Whenever we live with
regret we are succumbing to powerful memories of a past that we cannot change.
Now, today, the grace of God gives us the courage to take a grudge and make
things right or bring something we regret into the light and transform it into a
positive action in the present. That is the hope in Christ that is given us. If
we catch on to the gospel, the good news, we will never be dead. Eugene Peterson
uses these words from verse 25: “You don’t have to wait for the End.” Jesus
says. “I am, right now, Resurrection and Life… And everyone who lives believing
in me does not ultimately die at all.”
And so just as in the beginning God created the world with a word, God now in a
word brings life out of death. “Lazarus, come out!” Jesus shouts. The shadows of
death are cast off. The dead man comes out. Or as Robert Capon writes, “Jesus
never meets a corpse that doesn’t sit up right on the spot.” (Parables of
Judgment, p. 66) Jesus has that effect on death; he casts aside the unconscious,
unaware, lifeless, helpless realities that we get caught up in and commands new
life into being.
We too are set free by that word now, today. Resurrection is not some time in
the future. It is now. New life comes to us today. That is the truth. There have
been several families in our congregation that have experienced multiple losses
these last days. The Froese and Peters and Forrester families have lost a mother
and grandmother June Forrester, a daughter-in-law, sister-in-law and cousin
Lydia Peters and a brother and uncle Art Froese and if I am correct the three
funerals were all on the same day, Monday of this past week. If we didn’t
believe in the healing powers of God in the now, today, a raft of losses like
this could be our undoing. But death does not have the last word.
The dead man Lazarus walks again. Jesus makes the point that God has ultimate
power over lifelessness and numbness, violence and terror, lack of awareness and
self-centered preoccupation. Jesus transforms thoughtlessness into compassion
and hope. Lazarus is four days dead; that is really and legally dead in the life
and times of the Ancient Near East. Christ turns death on its head; his way of
enacting the truth that love has power far surpassing the power of death.
Our challenge is to live as though we believe that - just as Martha was so
reminded. It means we are called to be conscious, aware, alive and engaged in
our world. Resurrection is now. It is a gift of hope that is ours, strengthening
us daily and an offering to share with others. Three weeks from today we will
remember those who have died in the past year. In Memoriam Sunday will provide
an opportunity to reflect on the heartache of losing good friends and loved ones
but it also provides the holy space in which to give God thanks for the many
ways in which the Spirit restores our lives daily. We have been unbound, our
consciousness raised, set free upon this earth to go out and testify to the ways
in which new life meets us every day of our lives. May the grace of God make it
so! AMEN