please take away the pain

As Brené Brown puts it in her video "Jesus Wept"

“I went to church thinking it would be like an epidural, that it would take the pain away . . . But church isn’t like an epidural; it’s like a midwife . . . I thought faith would say, ‘I’ll take away the pain and discomfort, but what it ended up saying was, ‘I’ll sit with you in it.’ ”*

Everyone has suffering in their life.  If you haven't by now, just wait because someone you love will die, someone you know will be caught by a deadly disease, someone you know will have their job disappear or their marriage dissolve.  To be human is to suffer because our bodies are time stamped and our psyches are fragile and our will power is often used to consolidate our advantages rather than choose for the greater good.

So I believe that the question of higher powers and divine intent and human culpability and just plain luck are always lurking on the corners of our attention.  Is someone to blame?  Could it have been avoided?  Could someone have stopped it?  We relentlessly ask the question, "Why?" which will often turn us to the question of "Who?"  For people of faith, the answer is God (whom we call by different names).

In the 11th chapter of the gospel of John, a friend of Jesus' named Lazarus dies.  He was 'sick unto death' and Jesus tarried a bit too long on the road and in the end, Lazarus was dead.  Wrapped in a shroud dead.  Four days dead.  Dead.

And his sisters, also good friends of Jesus, each in turn cried out, "Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died."  It is the cry of the recently bereaved.  Then Jesus asks to be taken to the cave like tomb where Lazarus had been laid to rest.

And at the tomb he wept.  He wept even though he had known Lazarus was already dead.  He wept knowing that he would call Lazarus back into life in just a few moments.  He wept knowing that the Divine Father offered Lazarus a place at an eternal table that exceeded all expectations.   Even though he knew the end of the story, he wept. He wept because he loved and he could not ignore the pain that surrounded him.

There are many powerful stories told in the scriptures, and they speak to me at different times in my life.  But for me, there is no more stark image of incarnation than Jesus standing before a tomb that he would soon empty, weeping.  From this I know that Jesus weeps with me, and my friends whose lovely daughter took away her own life, and the anonymous mothers whose children were caught in a war zone, and the myriad of others who this day will confront a tomb and weep.

It is the sound of love.  God for us in Jesus.  Us for our beloved.  It is the sound of all humanity.

*“Brene Brown: Jesus Wept,” video, 6:00, The Work of the People, www.theworkofthepeople.com/jesus-wept (accessed 13 October 2014). as quoted in Evans, Rachel Held. Searching for Sunday (p. 209). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

Jesus, Lazarus and two sides of the stone

This is a reflection on the story of Lazarus found in John 11.  It is the gospel reading for All Saints Sunday.

A day will come when three women will go to the tomb and ask one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"  But not today.

Today we stand before another tomb, immersed in the grief of two sisters who have lost their brother; we stand before a stone which holds at bay the stench of death.
And we want to believe.

We want to trust, that this tomb is not just another dead end, and the promises we have learned and then taught others are real and to be trusted.  We want to know that our loved one: a spouse, a friend, a child a parent, rests in the arms of a merciful Creator.

Yet it is is even deeper than that.  We want to know about the deep dark places of our world - our places of fear and loss, our places of worry and powerlessness - we want to know if these too can be redeemed, if these too can be healed.

We are all too familiar with this side of the tomb.  Some days the brokenness of this world overwhelms us; deaths pile up around us in our personal lives, our community, our nation: opioid addiction, gun violence, evil and terror, relentless diseases, and toll of poverty.

As we stand before the tomb today we know that this is no place for slapping smiley face stickers.  We want to know where is Jesus in all this misery and suffering.  We want to know if this is as good as it gets.  We want to trust.

But it is hard.  Very hard.  Because we only know what we know: this man Lazarus who once was is now no more.  The life has drained out of him and now he lies behind that great stone, beyond our reach.  We only know that there seems to be no end to the wounds we are willing to inflict on one another, the wounds we both give and receive.

So it is easy to laugh at Jesus' words, just like the neighbors did in the ancient story.  He promises life when the evidence is right before our face.  It is so easy to stand with Mary and Martha's neighbors and mock this so called Savior.......when in fact we are longing for a truth which makes fools of us and all we think we know.

It is so easy to doubt when one is standing before that giant stone which is a monument to the place where it all ended; a monument to our forever powerlessness.  It is so easy to let go of hope.

"If only you had been here our brother would not have died."  Jesus was Mary and Martha's hope, right?  Jesus who claimed to be one with the Creator, who claimed to be the way, the truth and the life.  Standing before that stone it is easy to feel foolish for having invested in this Jesus, believing that the great feast that God was preparing for God's people would include them and us.

We are led to ask ourselves, "Are we the greater fools for believing in a reality beyond the one we see here?  Are we the greater fools for using whatever power we have to build up others, to care for our neighbor and to forgive the offenders.....instead of grabbing all the fun and wealth we can now? Have we not hoped that this one called Jesus could hold us fast in the face of all the forces who daily deal death?

Is it not our hope that this one called Jesus would call our name and pull us out of the deepest darkness where there is no life at all?  That Jesus would hold our lives as precious?

Jesus cried out, "Lazarus, come out" and we watch as Lazarus stumbles from the tomb with the shroud of death still covering him.  So Jesus commands again, "Unbind him, and set him free."

Free.  From death.  Free to live.  Free because of Jesus.

On this side of the tomb and on the other.  Unbound and set free in Christ's name.

On that first Easter morning, three women go to another tomb and ask one another. "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"

For all the saints: those who draw breath today; those who are yet to be born, and those who now live beyond our sight, there is is only one answer and his name is Jesus.

and if that wasn't enough...

One of the challenges of the Resurrection Story is the task of living out a new way of being.  How do we take the information of the resurrection and allow it to shift to an actual life of resurrection we can live today?  How does/can the Resurrection of Jesus transform our lives on Monday morning?

Although all of us need the deep assurance and comfort of God's abiding love through Jesus - an image so perfectly depicted in the 23rd psalm, in this fourth Sunday of Easter, we still need to wrap our heads around the impact of God's amazing resurrection of the Son, Jesus.  We need a picture to help us understand the power of the phrase 'I am doing a new thing' and the concept of 'bringing life out of the heart of death'.

A perfect image for this is the story of the raising of Lazarus, good friend to Jesus.  In fact, the Lazarus story bookends the assigned text for Good Shepherd Sunday, appearing in chapter 11 of the gospel of John.

Who is not moved when Jesus weeps outside the closed tomb of his friend?  We have done this, no?  We have had to say final goodbyes to people we love deeply and whose very existence we will miss.  We have had to confront the possibility of living out our lives without this beloved person.  For those of us who are widowed, we have had to figure out who we are now that we are not one half of a couple.  We have to learn how to be single again, but in a new way.

Lazarus gives us all this.  "Lazarus, come out!" Jesus cries.  Humans have rolled the stone away from the front of Lazarus' tomb, but Lazarus himself must respond to the command of the Son of God, the command to walk from death to life, the command to live yet again. He must hear the Lord's voice and follow.

Deep in the damp darkness of death, Lazarus hears the Savior's call and steps from beyond the veil back into the bright sunlight of his old life.  Yet, it will never truly be life as he once knew it, for he has tasted death and come again into the world of the living.  Lazarus has stepped out.

Jesus then commands, "Unbind him, and set him free".  Of course Jesus is talking about the burial cloths that are wrapped around the corpse, the bindings of this world which will forever keep him among the dead and restrict his ability to walk and live and move and jump in this new /old life of his.

"Unbind him and set him free!"  Leave behind all that is death to you - shuck it off and step out into a new life, a new being, a new power, a new relationship with this God who has given you life yet again.  Whether it is addiction or anger or deep wounds or resentment or any other prison of death that holds you captive, step out of your tomb and throw off all that binds you to death.  Live.

Now Lazarus is not a resurrection story in that Lazarus is resuscitated rather than resurrected.  Lazarus will, in fact, die again another day.

But we get it, don't we?  We understand that image of being closed in a tomb from which we see no escape.  We long for a time when all that binds us is pulled away and we can live a life we could never have imagined before.  Lazarus teaches us the possibility of living a transformed life as a transformed person.

Between the healing of the man born blind and the calling out of the dead Lazarus, we get the good shepherd.  Perhaps after these two extra stories of resurrection we are now ready to figure out who it is who is calling us out, what life with him will look like and whether, in the end, we can trust him at all.

If you had been here...........

"If you had been here my brother would not have died."
Both Mary and Martha say these exact words to their close friend, their brother Lazarus' close friend, Jesus.

You've heard them said in similar ways by friends and relatives:
If only........we had gone to the doctor's office earlier
If only........he had watched his sugar
If only........the ambulance had come sooner
If only........I had called that morning to check on her
If only.......we had the right doctor

The foundation for these words is a deep grief and the stark reality of someone's death.  Winding through these words is the sense of being abandoned, lost, alone.  We all hear the overtone of blame and guilt.

Releasing a loved one into the hands of a merciful God is difficult beyond measure.  Jesus waited four days before showing up at Lazarus' door.  Jesus wanted to be sure Lazarus was truly dead before he came.  It not only looks intentional, it was intentional.  Lazarus had to be really and truly dead for Jesus to do what needed to be done; to bring him back across that threshold of the tomb to resume his life.  It was not easy for Mary or Martha or Jesus for that matter.

But it really wasn't easy for Lazarus.  He would have to enter the place of death again.  He would have to really and truly die once more.  For those following Jesus, Lazarus was the final example of the power of God present in Jesus.  The power to bring back into life that which is dead.

God doesn't stop there.  Easter morning God will show us that returning to this life is but a reprise of this created life while resurrection is a gift of life beyond the power of death.  Jesus rose to die no more.

That's the promise he makes to us as well.  "Follow me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places so where I am you can be also."  It is time once again for us to do our best to grasp the undiluted power of that message and that gift.

It's all theory until you stand at death's door.............

How many times have you heard that faith is a journey?  Well, we've journeyed through the gospel of John this Lent and watched as faith morphs from early possibilities to astonishing miracles.  

                Nicodemus came in the middle of the night because he had some questions.  

                Jesus travels into enemy territory to invite a Samaritan woman to taste living water and

                                    she starts proclaiming the good news.

                A man blind from birth has the most incredible gift imaginable dropped into his lap and

                                    knows he has encountered God.

We too have journeyed in our faith life from times of questioning, to taking a risk speaking with a stranger about Christ, to recognizing the astounding gifts that God has given to us in this life.  Thought of this way, we can see faith unfold and this faith will take you quite a distance.  Right up to the door of the tomb as a matter of fact.  Because it all changes at the threshold of death.  

Once you cross the threshold of death everything changes.  The one who has died moves into a world we do not understand.  We don't know what it looks like nor what it feels like and that frightens us in many ways.  Those who are left behind come to experience the extreme alone - ness of death; now they truly understand that we come into this world alone, and alone we will leave it.  

Martha and Mary struggle, they question, they grieve.  Their neighbors grieve with them.  Even Jesus weeps before the starkness of death.  So we learn that even when we walk with Jesus we cannot leap over death, we cannot ignore the reality of it all. We all stand before the door of death.

For years we have been able to share the good news of God's love for everyone and all of creation.  For years it has been so easy to talk about God's great invitation to all to have a seat at the table, to become one of the insiders.  For years we have depended on the gift of forgiveness, that mending of the broken places and healing of the wounded soul. 

Right up to that stone door, we have reflected the compassion of God in our lives by feeding the poor and clothing the naked.  We have shared our abundance with others and told anyone who would listen that God has changed our life and filled it with Spirit.  Right up to that stone door.

Where theory is no longer enough, and the question becomes DO YOU BELIEVE?

We watch as Lazarus exits his own tomb.  Why?  Why when Lazarus was going to die again?  Why when he was already in the hands of a merciful God?  Was it to give comfort and assurance to those left behind?

No, Lazarus was not raised so we could be assured that heaven was real

Lazarus was raised so we would know that Jesus is real.   

That's the faith that sustains us until the resurrection.  Amen.

#3 God works in mysterious ways................

God is in control....has a plan.....works in mysterious ways.
Come on, when you don't know the answer, be honest.  Say, "I don't know."

When your life has taken a nose dive, this is the last thing you want to hear.  Even though you probably believe this is true, what good does it do when you say it?  It only proves what the listener suspected in the first place, you haven't got a clue.  So admit it.

The problem is not that we have described God inaccurately.  God does work in mysterious ways.

Take the story of Lazarus, a friend of Jesus and brother to Mary and Martha.  Lazarus is very sick.  Jesus is informed and dawdles so much that Lazarus is dead 4 days when Jesus arrives.  Lazarus is already in the tomb (a cave not a grave).  Jesus, with the grieving Mary and Martha trailing along, goes to the tomb and Jesus weeps. (John11.35)  Then in just 11 verses, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

How mysterious is that?  Jesus weeps even knowing that in a few moments he will give Lazarus back his life.  [Why Jesus weeps has been the source of much rich conversation over the ages.]

It doesn't do any good to tell folks God has a plan.  Right now, this moment, they are grieving, afraid, lost, angry, betrayed.....and a thousand other things.  People are drawn to the Jesus who touches the lepers and heals the demon possessed and sits down with the outcast woman at the well.  Be Jesus to them.  Sit, listen.

We are not required to answer for God.  Say you don't know why .....only that Jesus was there with lots of folks who were on the receiving end of some rotten stuff.  Then do what you can do: be with them,  pray with them and for them, regularly.

The Grand Canyon of Life

In this week's parable Jesus talks about 'a great chasm.'  One of my colleagues pictured it as the Grand Canyon.  The people on one side can't get to the other.  Really quite a poetic image, but the reality of living on the wrong side of a great chasm I couldn't cross is much less so.

Jesus builds up this image of the chasm between a rich man and Lazarus.  The rich man is clothed in purple (very expensive!) cloth and fine linen .....and Lazarus is clothed in 'sores that the dogs lick.'  The rich man lives in a mansion with a gate to keep out the unwanted ones; Lazarus lives outside the gate. He is one of the unwanted ones.  The rich man has sumptuous feasts every day; Lazarus would have been satisfied with the crumbs from the rich man's table.  Luke 16

Now that's a chasm.  This rich man is very, very, very rich and Lazarus is equally poor.  Jesus doesn't want to leave any doubts in the hearer's minds.  He describes a chasm of wealth which leads to a chasm between God and the rich man.

What do we do with this old story?  First, we don't try to convince ourselves that the same conditions are unheard of today.  Great chasms exist today and wealth is often the underlying source.  Second, we are to see how the rich man's blindness to his neighbor (because, in fact, Lazarus lived right outside his gate) built a great chasm between him and God.  The rich guy saw Lazarus only as someone put there to serve his needs....not as another human being with needs (overwhelming needs!) of his own.

Most importantly, the rich man was blind to God's purpose for this world from the beginning, but especially in the life and ministry of Jesus.  Jesus came to mend this world - to heal it - to make it whole - to bring it again into perfect relationship with God the Creator.  Anything which keeps us from being a part of this great healing of the world also keeps us from God.

N.T. Wright, a biblical scholar has written "What you do in the present- by painting, preaching, singing, sewing praying, teaching, building hospitals, diggings wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself - will last into God's future."  Or as one blogger writes, 'Whatever we do to mend the world has lasting value.  Everyone contributes.  God blesses each and every gift.'

Great wealth can lead to great blindness and a mistaken trust in the protection that wealth provides.  But it is not only wealth that can pull us away from contributing to God's vision of a redeemed world.....it is just that most of the time it does.  Money too often makes us blind.

The rich man had so much with which he could have balanced the scales of justice for Lazarus, and possibly for many others as well.  He wouldn't have reversed the spin of the earth but he would have contributed the blessings he had received to God's holy plan through his care for one neighbor.  One neighbor.  One.