Title: “Surprised by Life”
Scripture: John 11:1-45
3/13/05 Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year A
Rev. Joy R. Haertig
There is a lot I want to tell you today - I have not been in the pulpit for a few weeks and I am eager to touch on a whole variety of things.
First I want to ask you how many of you are actually carrying around your small stone we handed out a few weeks ago as a reminder of your inner “God place” and the importance of taking time to connect to it?
Secondly -
It was wonderful to share worship with my dad last week - he turns 80 in August and I am aware that there are not many years left that we will be able to enjoy that gift. Thank you for welcoming him so warmly, your warmth and openness honors a man that has given 60 years of his life to the ministry.
I mentioned last week that dad did that for me in support of my work at Seattle University. I had just come off of three intense days where we continued our reflections on such light topics as: racism, sexism, classism and heterosexism.
These are absolutely vital topics for church leaders today for we live in such a pluralistic society and we are being challenged to live more consciously and to help our churches do the same. But they are not easy topics and they are often very personal, all 23 of us walked away from those three days with our hackles raised but our minds more released from the assumptions that often bind them.
Thirdly -
This last week I trust that many of you were aware that 19 same-gender couples who are suing King County for their right to marry, had their day in Olympia with the Supreme Court, as did thousands of protestors. One of the couples among the 19 are colleagues of mine, the Rev.'s Peter Ilgenfritz and David Shull from University Congregational in Seattle. This has also been on my mind and heart, as I am sure it has for others. We should know more this fall, what the outcome will be. This summer the United Church of Christ will hold its bi-annual National General Synod meeting, a resolution will be coming to the delegates asking for the Denominations support for the right of same-gender couples to marry. We will be discussing it at our own church council meeting next week.
And fourthly, this is my main focus for today -
It has also been one of those weeks when the reality and mystery of death was ever present. Within the first two days of the week I had learned of three deaths associated with our congregation - Leona Ridderbush's beloved sister Elsie, Linda Anderson's mother Olive, and one of our dear elderly members, Mary Harwood. I also had an already scheduled appointment with someone who is planning her good friends “Celebration of Life” service to be held here in April. Her good friend Melissa died of cancer at age 36, just this past December.
With all of this going on, it did not come as a surprise when I went to study the assigned scripture readings and found the reading from John on the death and raising of Lazarus. A powerful story of hope that reminds us that God can make a way when it appears that there is no way - no matter what kind of change or grief we are facing.
The Gospel of John is truly a work of art. The author is a master at metaphor and of weaving a tapestry of stories that creates a witness to his faith in Jesus Christ and a tool for teaching it. The first part of the book is known as the “book of signs”. It is a series of miracles that introduce metaphors that when understood through the eyes of faith, reveal who Jesus is. The story of the woman at the well reveals Jesus as “Living Water”; the feeding of the five thousand reveals Jesus as “The Bread of Life”. Healing the man born blind reveals Jesus as “Light of the World” and finally, the greatest miracle of them all, the raising of Lazarus, reveals Jesus as “The Resurrection and the Life”.
I want to take a brief side trip:
Now I know from conversations that some of you get hung up on Jesus for a variety of reasons (Was he God or a man? What do I do with him today? It is difficult to see a man as my savior etc.), and in doing so end up feeling “Un-Christian” or at least kind of wondering what to do with the central figure of our faith. I would like to humbly offer this reflection:
In the studying and praying I have done I have come to believe that Jesus did not point to himself, but sought to be a window into the mystery of who God and what a relationship and life lived with God might look like. Jesus was not God, did not see himself as God, but pointed to God. God is God and (for Christians) Jesus is the clearest window we have been given to look into the vastness and mystery that is God. It is not that we go through him to get to God, but that he increases our understanding so that we might find our way more easily than we would without him.
So when the author of John talks about Jesus being “the resurrection and the life” I hear Jesus telling me a message about God, not Jesus. I hear: Life with God (with faith) brings new life even in the most difficult of times and, a life lived with God never ends even after my physical self is gone.
Jesus is at the center of our faith as Christians, he holds us together, yet how we understand him may vary from person to person and that is okay, even if other people may tell you there is only one way to understand Jesus, that is just not true. (The Bible is proof of that!)
Okay, that was my side trip - now back to the main trip about Jesus and Lazarus.
Biblical scholars tell us that the core of today's reading is not the literal raising of Lazarus because it is tagged on at the end and given very little attention. We readers are the ones that latch on to it because it is so unbelievable and brings up all of those questions about why God would save Lazarus but did not save Melissa who died at 36 of cancer.
Biblical scholars and theologians will tell us that the heart of today's reading is found in verses 25-27 when Jesus said to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
The story of Jesus giving life to Lazarus is of utmost theological importance to John. (This is theology, not science) He believes and has discovered from his own experience as a human being wrestling to find meaning and truth, that life without God is dry and meaningless. He has also come to believe that a life lived with God is eternal - the body may die but the spiritual part lives on with God. Biblical scholars and theologians also proclaim that John purposely placed this story before Jesus' own death and resurrection in order for us to understand that eternal life is a gift for all who love God, not just Jesus.
When Jesus talked to Martha about this he asked her, “Martha, do you believe this?” And Martha said yes.
I believe it too. Do I know it as a fact like we know the existence of gravity? No, I don't know it like that. But I trust it in the depths of that God place inside me and that's enough for me.
I want to close with a personal story:
When my mom died 12 years ago next month I drove up from Portland to spend the week with my family in preparation for the memorial service. The day I arrived my dad told me about my mom's death. He had found $10.00 in my mom's purse that she had been given by a friend and when the home health nurse came to give him a break he decided to go shopping for a Peace Rose, my mother's favorite rose. Before he left they checked my mom's vitals and though she was very weak, everything seemed to be normal.
The nurse left my mom to sleep in the bedroom and went to the kitchen to do some cleaning when she heard a voice tell her to go to my mom's room. When she walked into the room she had a sense of a presence. She then heard a voice that said, “I'm taking her with me”, and my mother died. My dad returned from the store, peace rose in hand, and Kathy told my dad what had happened.
God had always been my mom's lifeline, long before she ever married my father or had us kids. She did not talk about it a lot, she did not have to prove it or debate it - she just lived it. When I was told this story the first image that came into my mind was the story of Martha talking to Jesus just before he raised Lazarus from the dead. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” My mother's death was a gift and an affirmation of her faith. After my dad told me this story, deep in my heart I heard Jesus asking me, “Joy, do you believe?” “Yes”, I responded. “I believe.”