Raising of Lazarus

PUMC John 11 Raising of Lazarus

This is one of the longest gospel lessons we will ever read.

.and I’m sure that it would be worth at least a dozen sermons
I’ve preached on it a few times already.

What do you need to hear..this morning; which sermon is the one for you today?

...I’m sure you all don’t answer that in the same way
for some of you this morning..

as you heard the lesson
this is another clear and direct word
that Jesus is the resurrection and the life

and I have spoken those words
somewhere
in just about every funeral service
and memorial service that I have ever done.

I believe these words
I need those words

I depend on these words for ministry
they are gospel to me

resurrection and life....
life that is stronger than death ......the gospel of hope in Jesus Christ


as you know... I said that Gospel again this week

as we gathered to remember Dorothy Little on Wed


I said these words of resurrection life again
on Thursday
as we said good bye to Dean Prushek


. This Lazarus lesson is another chance for us to tell some of the Easter story

with revelation and power of Jesus Christ

yes..we can come forth from the tombs

I could say amen......
and sit down

and I think you would say amen also.

That would be one sermon
......
Another sermon is in this image of Jesus who weeps with us..

And of course
we get the shortest verse in the bible
in the King James version its
Jesus wept

You all have that one memorized don’t you ?.
(I can teach it to you)
repeat after me
. John 11:35 Jesus wept.

.. Really its not a bad verse to memorize


Jesus weeps with us..

Why does he weep
he weeps ...because he sees our pain

he see our fear... he see our ignorance.
.he s see our struggles he sees our lack of understanding

for all these reasons and probably more


Jesus wept with compassion

will you let God do that with you...don’t deny it.
..but let God be there with you...


We don’t have some impersonal God who does not join us
in the human anguish

maybe that’s the message you need to hear this morning
God who grieves with you..and with this world
our God...enters the pain with us.

but
now this morning
I am looking at this strange part of the story

sometimes it bothers us
you know what it is

it’s the delay..

Its all over this story
. What do you do with it?

They send for Jesus


and he does Not come running
when he hears that Lazarus is ill.

Jesus doesn’t come right away to the rescue

and it is an issue
or a question at least in the story

And yo can hear that ,,
confusion
frustration. anger.. Maybe.
.or at least some disappointment..

With Martha in verse .. 21

she says
Lord if you had been here
my brother would not have died
..
As if to say
where were you.?

.why didn’t you do something
don’t you care about your friend..

don’t you love him..?


but this isn’t just a Martha’s feeling

because Mary also says the same thing

in verse 32

Lord I f you had been here

my brother would not have died.

And then later
some of them said
well if Jesus loved Lazarus so much.
.why did he let him die..

You see how this is being underscored..

this disappointing delay....
one more example

when Jesus tells them to roll away the stone

they say
on no there will be a stench

it has been four days
again
emphasizing

lord .. You made us wait..and now..its too late....
And course

as you heard from the story

Jesus does raise up Lazarus

and they are called to unbind him... and set him free
so...

Here’s want I want to spend time with this morning

Lets talk about the delay

on the surface..
it’s a way
of demonstrating the power.
and giving glory to God...

se how great this really is .......power and truth


.Lazarus is dead //Jesus says

and he was so dead.
.that it stank...

But even that condition
that much deadness could still be resurrected.....


now
back up on this other issue
what’s the spiritual lesson

I think its this

new spiritual life and faith

doesn’t just happen in an instant..

Well sometimes it does... in some ways .,,,I know that..

But that just is not the whole story


We have to deal .
.in our lives..
We have to deal with..what looks like a delay

sometimes
we are going to be spending time in the tomb..\
like Lazarus
in the cold dark times of the soul

sometimes
you are simply going to have to wait for the process of life to unfold


And in fact ..if you get the point of this story

the greater miracles happen
or get learned..
And discovered

revealed....by the waiting process..

time in the tomb..

that’s what makes this such a powerful story..it’s the delay..

The delay even shows the greater glory of God

But
we don’t get that part of the story very well

in fact We could even be accused of Ignoring that part.... Of the spiritual life

sometimes we make Christianity just sound like it s all quick and easy....
a little too easy..


Bill Meier who is at St Cloud now..

talks about a TV commercial that he saw for some big church in a city

the commercial shows the senior pastor walking along the shore of a
lake in a beautiful park.

He stops

looks into the camera and
then says,

“If you believe, anything is possible.”

then He starts to walk towards the water.

He steps into this shallow water

and you get idea that he’s going to walk on water
as a demonstration of faith.

You know if you believe.....anything is possible..

But then,

as he goes into the water.

you see that his expensive suit is going to be ruined
..he is not walking on water..
H’s getting wet
he finally stops
when the water is over his knees.

Then, he looks at the camera again

and he says,
“Perhaps
there’s more to it than that.

If this is where you are at,
we’ve got a place for you to grow in your faith...”
and then he gives his pitch for the church.

“Perhaps there’s more to it ..than that.”


This lesson
with the raising of Lazarus is also saying Perhaps there is more to it.

Jesus doesn’t do a long distance quick miracle resurrection

sometimes the journey of faith
makes us wait
until it seems too long ..and we go under.

Sometimes the change doesn’t come
until things really stink in the grave

so to speak.

we know ....what Mary and Martha feel like

Lord why did we have to wait ?!
why did it take so long

where were you....

.when we needed you
in the hospital..
in that misery...or in that doubt..in that problem..

have you been there,

Im thinking of all the psalms

that talk about having to wait..

Psalm 119 says How ,long must your servant wait.

Psalm 130 Out of the depths I cry for thee. O lord
I wait for the lord
my soul waits..

Why are those words in there..?

You can find those words again and again in the bible..

and I think this lesson
of Lazarus is an illustration of that waiting..and crying out in the depth..in the low dark times,,



maybe this story
allows us
to tell our stories ...that also feel like that.


We all know ...in some way or another...

that our faith is not just
as simple as walking on water in an instant.


in our believing..we are still going to get wet.

Sometimes
it is more complicated.
or confusing.
.or mysterious.

.and we end up .and wondering...
What next ...why..
and what now? When..when..

Have you ever felt like Lazarus in the tomb
or Mary and Martha.....left to grieve and wonder.

We need to be honest and truthful about that..

---------------------------------------
The book study retreat
that we have rescheduled with the Pums the church seniors group

is using Sue Monk Kidd’s book When the Heart Waits..

In the book

she uses the example of caterpillars and cocoons and butterflies

those are a old symbols for Easter and the soul and the spiritual transformation process.

You know that you cant just skip from caterpillar to butterfly

and she talks about how
that cocoon time
is just necessary
for the growth process

or the transformation process..

And she compare the cocoon time
to those times

when we are growing through change..

It is a process.
Cocoon time
is the waiting time..
The time when we are maybe vulnerable

or in the dark..scared,,,maybe stuck..
or feeling like we are in a tomb

and we are not in control
we are having to wait.

Its Biblical
she says

.look at the story of Jonah in the belly of the fish for three days
kind of tomb or cocoon story

or the Hebrew people as slaves in Egypt
or 40 years...of wandering in the wilderness
or the time of the exile...

or even the stories of the beggars ..blind and
waiting along the side of the road..

..and even Jesus in the tomb ...three days

waiting

and one of the chapters has a very relevant message for us

she talks about the quick-aholic thinking that we have
in so much our faith and church..tall

She says we get caught up ‘Quickaholic Spirituality”
so we have to keep busy,
rush past our pains and doubts,
and we try to avoid our cocoon stages

she says

and I quote
"When it comes to religion today,
we tend to be long on butterflies and short on cocoons.

Somehow we're going to have to relearn that the deep things of God
don't come suddenly.

It's as if we imagine
that all of our spiritual growth potential is dehydrated contents
to which we need only add some holy water to make it instantly and easily appear." (p. 26)


Maybe Mary and Martha
represent that quickaholic thinking in the story..

Jesus fix it ...we prayed ...
quick now..
we have the faith
we are calling for you Lord..
We know you love us..
now what!

Lord if you had been here.

Sue Monk Kidd gives this example

.... .A 20 year old college student who came to see her in a crisis.

After years of denial,

this young woman was finally facing the realization
that she had been sexually abused as a child.

This whole thing of course
had her in a lot of pain and confusion

. As she told Sue Monk kid
that she already
"turned it over to Jesus" three weeks earlier.

She asked Jesus to heal her wounds,

take away her pain, and resolve her torment.

To put it simply

she wanted God to come with an eraser and make it go away.

God hadn't done that.


Kidd says
she could understand the urgency
that this person felt to have everything okay again.


But The college student said
"If I can't trust God now, when I need Him the most,

how can I ever trust Him again?"

this was causing a real faith crisis for her

“If not now,,how can I ever trust him again”

Sue Monks Kidd goes on to say.. It wasn't a matter of whether God could be trusted, but whether or not she could wait.

She didn't understand that there was a journey to be made here
. A waiting.
A gestating.
A slow and uncertain birthing.

That is where God would be found. Not in the erasing of the experience, but in the embracing of it.
Archbishop William Temple once said that one of the mistakes Christians are fond of making
is trying to be more spiritual than God..
. When Jesus was in pain,
he didn't try to squirm out of it. He embraced the pain. He let it happen. He experienced a sense of God's absence. He cried out "My God, where are you? Why have you forsaken me?"

What that college student didn’t know .at that time in her life

Was that to be spiritual is to confront our pain,
instead of just making an enemy out of it

When Jesus told us to love our enemies
, maybe he was also talking about our inner enemies too.

He knew that love was the only means by which to transform them.

...
Finally Kidd in her words again
says
How did we ever get the idea that God would supply us on demand
with quick fixes?
that God is merely a rescuer
and not a midwife? "


Can you see that same kind of lesson in Raising of Lazarus?

process .....time... time in the emptiness...in the pain
in the tomb
waiting ..transformation..
The longer time of trusting.

Yes the resurrection still comes

The calling forth still comes
the new life still comes.
.the unbinding and the setting free

but sometimes it doesn’t come until ..its almost seems too late.

Do you need to hear that part of the story today.///?

Maybe you have been struggling with something for years and years
or maybe just a few weeks or months..

Maybe your getting impatient..
About something in your life

and wondering if Jesus will ever show up
if the help will EVER happen
if you will get through IT
get free OF IT
and the problem will ever BE over
r..

I cant promise that it will be easy


/so maybe as a pastor and a s a church

we need to help each other
to wait
to listen
to be together.
.to feel with each other
to pray
and to be in silence

sometimes to share the grief
to share the dark...

to do what Jesus did

to weep

...to feel the situation..

And yes sometimes it will just plain stink as if its hopeless

Do you think we need to need to a better job of teaching this lesson
teaching people how to do this..

spiritual .waiting
.and trusting God in this kind of way..

Listening in our wounds.
.. Listening to God in the dark.....
.discovering God at those shadowy places of our lives..as well

can we .as the Gospel lesson says ,,,let that that too.. lead to the glory of god..

Of course
the waiting is not the only part of the story

because as I said...
When we think nothing can be done as if the problem and the grave
really is the last word.

.we still
can share the promise
that Jesus is the resurrection and the life..


Maybe its it s in the waiting...this long long
deep
waiting
that we really discover
the greatness of God....

Maybe after we have given up hope
.beyond what we thought was possible
we find ...
Resurrection can still happen..

I think that is the Lazarus lesson
............................

Sue Monk Kidd When the Heart Waits