Encounters with God: Lazarus, Mary and Martha John 11 Belmont UMC—April 2, 2017 Ken Edwards, preaching

Every person, especially a person in the public eye, needs friends, the kind of friends whose home is a haven away from work and crowds, the kind of friends you can relax and be yourself with, the kind of friends who feel comfortable and familiar, the kind of friends who are filled with forgiveness and grace, the kind of friends who will hear your complaints and let you interrupt them with your good news, the kind of friends who will call or email if they haven’t heard from you for weeks.

The evidence is that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were friends like that to Jesus. The home in which they lived was likely a place where Jesus visited often and when he had no place to lay his head, he could go and stay with them. Jesus needed them. Jesus loved Mary, Martha and Lazarus like the closest of friends.

But Lazarus has died and Jesus has returned to Bethany to stand by the grave of a friend. As John tells the story, it is filled with all sorts of things we may not fully understand, but it is also filled with real human emotions that all of us know and feel. We have experienced loss and sadness in this community over the last few weeks and we have worked to keep our emotions in check when our spirits have grieved and taken us to the edge of sorrow and back again.

There is intense sorrow in this story. Can we imagine a more moving image in the New Testament that the image of Jesus weeping beside the grave of his friend? In Telling the Truth, Frederick Beuchner describes the scene in which Jesus weeps. “He has no form or comeliness about him that we should desire him, and as one from whom (people) hide their faces, we turn from him. To see a man weep is not a comely sight, especially this man whom we want to be stronger and braver than a man.” (p. 37) If Jesus can cry beside the grave of a friend, then we can cry there, also.

There is anger in this story. Martha and Mary both throw themselves into Jesus’ arms and we might imagine them pounding their fists into his chest and saying, “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died.” Some of the neighbors said, “See how much he loved him.” But others said, “He healed the eyes of a man who was blind. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

The answer to that question is “No.” Sooner or later, with or without Jesus, Lazarus will die. Sooner or later we all have to face our mortality and no one, not even Jesus, can keep death away from our door. And like us, Jesus weeps at tragedy which is inevitable. And on the cross, when all his tears have dried, he will cry out with the same sense of abandonment that was felt by Mary and Martha. “Why did you not come?” On the cross, “Why have you forgotten me?”

1 Then Jesus asks the attendant to roll the stone away. Ever practical Martha says, “Lord, he’s been dead 4 days, the smell will be awful.” That’s a crude but rational response. But Jesus responds, “Did I not tell you that you would see the glory of God if you believe in me?” As if to say, “Trust me, trust me.”

The unexpected happens. Lazarus comes out of the tomb, dragging his grave clothes behind him--reluctantly, like a person awakened suddenly from a sleep he walks out of the tomb and into the bright light. He is alive, and the unexpected unforeseen grace of God has broken through the inevitability of death.

We will all face death, but because of what Jesus does with death we do not have to be afraid anymore.

Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die (the predictable), yet will they live (the surprising grace of God).” (verse 25) And while this story foreshadows the crucifixion, Barbara Brown Taylor calls it the dress rehearsal for Easter.

When I was a young pastor I came across a copy of a play by Eugene O’Neill. The play is Lazarus Laughed. The play was written in 1925 has been performed rarely in larger settings and has been described as an obscure play by O’Neill, but it has some good moments. There is a scene at a dinner party, a week or so after the raising. Lazarus is sitting with some of his friends, celebrating his new found life. As one would expect they begin to recount their memories of the event.

One guest says, “I helped to pry away the stone so I was right beside him. I found myself kneeling, but between my fingers I watched Jesus and Lazarus. Jesus looked into his face for what seemed like a long time and suddenly Lazarus said, ‘Yes,’ as if he were answering a question in Jesus’ eyes.”

“Then Jesus smiled sadly but with tenderness, as one who from a distance of years of sorrow remembered happiness. And then Lazarus knelt and kissed Jesus’ feet and both of them smiled and Jesus blessed him and called him ‘My Brother’ and went away; and Lazarus looking after him, began to laugh softly like a man in love with God! Such a laugh I never heard! It made my ears drunk! It was like wine! And though I was half-dead with fright I found myself laughing, too!”

Later in the play, Lazarus remembers his resurrection: “I heard the heart of Jesus laughing in my heart . . . and my heart reborn to the love of life, cried ‘Yes!’ and I laughed in the laughter of God.”

So dear friends, here we are as deep into Lent as we can possible go and we have a resurrection story. May this story remind us that every Sunday is a day of resurrection, every Sunday is a day of hope and we are people who embody the great story of God’s hope for a hurting world.

2 Beloved friends, today, as a community we are living into the decision by our church to affiliate with the Reconciling Ministries Network, as a continued expression of our love and acceptance of everyone who is seeking to live in Christian community.

Today, let us be reminded that we are family and today we will do what families do. We will gather around this familiar table, where we hear the story of God’s faithfulness to us and where we are reminded, that though we are many and diverse, we share in this meal as an expression that we are one body.

In the words of one of my favorite Eucharistic hymns: “One bread, one body, one Lord of all; one cup of blessing which we bless. And we, though many, throughout the world, We are one body in this one Lord.” (Words and music by John B. Foley United Methodist Hymnal, No. 620)

Here around this table we are reminded of God’s deep love for us and we hear the call to love one another.

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