John 7:37-52
The Sermon can be found starting at 5:00Sunday, March 25, 2018
Sunday, March 18, 2018
The 7th Sign
John 11:1-44
Listen Here.
Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Listen Here.
Grace to you and Peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
This is the last sign.
The 7th sign that shows Jesus power and purpose. Here he is, a man as real as you or me, but
God, fully too. He changed water to
wine, he healed the royal officials son without even seeing the child, he told
the man to get up and walk, he fed the 5000, he walked on water, he healed a
man blind from birth, and now, in this final sign of what God is up to here in
this body of Jesus… he raises Lazarus from the dead.
Now. Lazarus will die again, this is a temporal raising, not
the eternal raising we will receive when the kingdom comes in all its
glory. But this isn’t just about
Lazarus, the person, receiving a gift of life.
This is about Lazarus, the person, being a sheep. One of Jesus sheep.
This is what we have been talking about over the last few
weeks, starting when Jesus healed that blind man. Jesus is busy walking around finding lost
sheep – just like you and me – and bringing
them into his fold. Lazarus, like the
blind man, does the one thing sheep do in John.
They hear Jesus voice. Lazarus –
a DEAD man. Can’t get much more crystal
clear than that… this guy can’t get a single shred of credit for getting
himself up and out of that grave.
Lazarus, just like you and me, did not a single thing to earn himself
into life again. Nope. Lazarus just died. And it was tragic. And even Jesus, who knew this was not the
end, knew the tragedy and sadness of it! Lazarus died, and the God who made
him, who was present at the beginning of time, the God who has embodied himself
in the same dust you and I live in, the God who heals and feeds and belongs with
us – defies – at every turn! – the evil of separation, pain, brokenness and
now, even death.
Lazarus hears the voice of his creator calling him back to
life, the voice of his shepherd, the one who knit him together in his mother’s
womb. The one who knows him like no one
else. Lazarus hears that voice, and he
is full of life.
When we talk about having a “relationship” with Jesus – this
is what we mean. It doesn’t have to be
some strange “Jesus is my best friend, I need no other” kind of statement. Having a relationship with God is Listening
to God’s voice. And I can tell you from
experience, it is a heck of a lot easier to hear if you slow down every once in
a while – maybe get quiet, read some scripture and contemplate what God’s will
and kingdom look like.
This crazy story about a man getting up out of a grave after
four days is not some zombie apocalypse, though the world as Lazarus knew it
certainly ended. It is not some wild
fantasy of those who love someone so much that they wish him back into being,
if that were possible, it would be so common, it wouldn’t even be news. This is a sacred, holy, story about God
coming face to face with death and the pain of people he loves and being deeply
impacted by it. This is a sacred, holy, story about God coming face to face
with the reality of death, the ultimate separator, the ultimate brokenness, the
ultimate evil in our lives, and saying, “Actually, that’s not the end of the
story.”
If God can do this, what might God do with your pain? Your loss? Your struggle?
This is a God who overcomes evil in very // unexpected
ways. This is a God who calls his sheep
to follow him into a fold, a family, a life that is lived so differently from
the death and destruction around us.
This is a God who is strange compared to the usual behavior we expect –
like those in power plotting to kill the guy, as that happens in the background
of this story. We will dive deeply into that next week as we hear the epic
story of God vs. evil here at Bethlehem.
It starts on Palm Sunday, but you won’t hear the whole story there. You will have to come on Good Friday to hear
about evil’s major conquest. That is,
until 3 days later, when the conquest is upended. Not by a last-minute strategic maneuver, but
by a triumph that leaves the enemy destroyed more completely than ever could
have been imagined.
I look forward to hearing voice of the Good Shepherd in the
Epic Story – with you.
I am starting my Holy Week a day early. This coming Saturday I am going to March for
Our Lives in Boston with my husband and kids and a couple of other
families. We want to show up on the
street to say, clearly, that we see God’s love in the efforts to spare the
lives of children, and adults, in our schools, movie theaters, churches,
etc.
It is positive, it is productive, to take part in a march on
the street for an issue that we care deeply about – moving towards
nonviolence.
For this is what holy week is about: the epic story of God
vs. evil. It is a story of a conflict
from the beginning of time, and yet, God does not battle it out with
AR15’s. God confronts the evil of the
world and willingly goes toward it in love.
Love that cannot be stopped by betrayal, denial, or even death. This is the love that is For Us. The love that comes to us in baptism, when we
are washed into this family of God. The
love that comes to us in every Communion, the meal that knits us together as
the Body of Christ. The love that we live in response to every day, in gratitude
and generosity with others. Knowing we
have been given a gift so incredible and beyond our comprehension, that we are
compelled to show love in return.
Whether you agree with me or not about guns in America, I
know that we are blessed to be together in this church and in this world,
working God’s good works for the sake of the one who loves us so much he dies
for us. I hope you will find your voice
in the many crucial conversations our country is having right now about
violence, and find a way to reconcile our faith in a God who defeats evil, not
by a military victory, but by self-sacrificial love that is stronger than
death.
Amen.
Sunday, March 11, 2018
Sunday, March 4, 2018
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)