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‍Unwrap and wake up

John 11:43

When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

God who brings change greater than we can imagine, open our hearts to hear your word to us. Help us to unwrap the stuff of life from around our hands and feet. Help us to wake up to your life-giving power. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you our rock and our redeemer. Amen

I have been visiting the hospital frequently the last few weeks. My mother has been ill and suffered a fall, and I have seen her covered in all of these tubes and monitors. When one is in the hospital for an extended period, they get covered in all these things, all these lifesaving tubes bringing medicine into the body and taking unneeded things out of the body. It can be quite overwhelming to watch it all. The machines beep and the nurses come in and out of the room. If you have been in the hospital for any time, you know there is no real sleep. There are vitals checks every so often that wake you up. There are neighbors screaming in pain or in delusions. And, according to my mother, the tv channel options are terrible.

The hospital is not somewhere most people want to be. It is meant to be a temporary place to be fixed and sent away to home or to rehab. It is not meant to be a permanent home. Like our graves, it is a place we go and a place we leave different than before but still ourselves.

Mary, Martha and Lazarus did not have access to a modern hospital. Scripture doesn’t tell us what disease Lazarus suffered. It could be anything from typhoid to pneumonia to a staph infection from a tiny cut. We do not know because the manner of death is not important.

John records what we do know. Mary and Martha could see their brother was in failing health. He had been for sometime so they sent for Jesus. They knew Jesus could heal Lazarus if it was God’s will. They had seen him heal others. They assumed he would do the same for one of his supporters; one of his closest friends. And Jesus did not come. Jesus stayed where he was until there was no hope left, no reason to think that Lazarus could be healed because Lazarus was really dead. Just like Jesus was really dead before the resurrection. This was no coma. Lazarus had been bound with the clothes of death. He had been anointed. They had had the funeral, and they wept because he was gone. And then Jesus shows up.

They had been waiting on Jesus. They might have thought that Jesus just didn’t care about Lazarus. Hopefully, they had more faith than that but there are dark nights of the soul. There are times when everything seems hopeless and there isn’t even that tiny mustard seed of faith left to tie us to Jesus. Sometimes we really just can’t. We fall so deep into grief that there seems no way to rise up, no way to unwrap ourselves from despair, no way to wake up to faith once again. Sometimes the tragedy of life is simply overwhelming.

The sisters were in that place. They had given up on Lazarus being healed. Lazarus had attained the final healing. Lazarus was dead and all hope of having him with them was gone. And then Jesus shows up. Not on their schedule. Jesus shows up when God wants him to show up. In this case, he didn’t show up until Lazarus was dead, really, really dead. Four days in the tomb dead. This was no coma. This was death. But Jesus showed up.

Martha went out to meet Jesus. Even though her brother was dead, she had not given up on Jesus. She knew that God was with her even in this tragedy. We sometimes forget that God is with us. We get so angry that God has taken our loved one from us that we fail to see God’s love. We get that awful diagnosis or find ourselves in a terrible accident and we forget that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Martha did not waver in her faith. She held on to the mustard seed of faith. Not knowing why Jesus delayed. Not understanding why her brother wasn’t healed when so many others had been healed but believing anyway. She goes to meet Jesus and affirms her faith that if Jesus had been there her brother would not have died. She doesn’t seem angry. She just states that Jesus could have healed Lazarus but even now God will do whatever Jesus asks and Jesus will do only what God wills. Jesus tells her that her brother will rise again and she tearfully tells him she knows. She knows that at the resurrection she will get her brother back Her grief though is here in the moment. And then Jesus says “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die. Do you believe this?” Martha says yes. Then she goes back home to get Mary.

Isn’t it funny how every time someone understands Jesus more clearly, they run off to tell someone else? Jesus isn’t meant to be hoarded. Jesus isn’t pie. There is an unlimited supply of Jesus’ love, and we don’t have to try to protect it like a rare gem. Jesus’ love flows through the table we share and through the lives we lead that are intertwined with one another. Jesus is the reflection of God’s love and might and majesty that we can follow. And Martha does.

I cannot imagine that she or anyone else there could have seen what was about to happen. People don’t come back to life. There were cases where people appeared dead but revived before they were buried but Lazarus was not one of those. He had been in the grave four days. He was really dead until Jesus called his name.

Jesus called him to come out. To wake up and walk out of that tomb, leave the place of death and step into the light because there is always light. Even in the darkest night of the soul when everything seems lost, there is a glimmer, a glimpse of light. We forget that God can do exceedingly abundantly more than we can imagine. Our frail minds cannot see all that God is and the depth of God’s love for us. It seems unfair sometimes that our loved one suffers but even in the suffering we can believe that God loves us. We can rest in the arms of Jesus knowing we are held in an eternal embrace. We can search for words of hope until the spirit whispers them in our ears, reviving us again. Reviving us to hope and faith and love.

Jesus told him to wake up and then Jesus told the community to unwrap him. See, some of the stuff of life requires us to take action, to wake up but other times we require the help of our community. We need each other to remove the burial clothes from our hands and feet. We need each other. It is through community that we are restored to life. We cannot unwrap ourselves. We need each other to help us grow in our faith.

Let us wake up this week. Let us look into the eyes of our sibling in Christ and see how they can help us to unwrap. Let us work toward a world where those traveling through a dark night of the soul can find the light of Christ. Let us be for the world the hands and feet of Christ. Let our voice cry out “wake up!” Wake up to the realization that God’s love for you is beyond measure. Wake up and live in the grace and glory of Jesus because there is more to life than death. There is more, so much more. Let us take the wraps off our sibling, freeing them to greater hope, greater love and greater joy and when we are all free, unbound and awake then all the world will say, thanks be to God Amen.

  Emerge Into Understanding

Luke 24 .” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. 

God of new understanding and new life, open our hearts to hear your voice. Open our eyes to see your truth. Open our minds to receive your comfort. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

               This week I was in Washington DC and went on a tour the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It was amazing. They had all these skeletons on display from massive whale skeletons to the tiniest rodent skeletons. There was also an exhibit on cell phones. Even after wandering through it, I still don’t have any idea how they work. I’m thankful I am not called to understand how the cell phone works. Thank God we all have things, gifts, we can give to the world.

               One part of the exhibit puzzled me. It was a display of all the minerals and elements that are used to make a cell phone. There were three completely transparent tubes. They were labeled as different types of gasses. And I just couldn’t help but wonder if the museum curators decided that it would be easier just to label those tubes and leave them empty. There was nothing to distinguish them from room air except that label.

               The disciples were having a hard time believing that Jesus wasn’t a ghost. This may be the most relatable thing about the disciples. They had heard about ghosts. Everyone had a ghost story back then I suppose like they do now. A ghost is a reasonable explanation for Jesus appearing out of nowhere. Their first reaction was fear. Again, reasonable. They had seen this man crucified. They had seen him buried. They started to hear reports of him popping up here and there but, in their defense, he kept showing up and disappearing. Certainly sounds like a ghost.

               Jesus wants them to know he is not a ghost. He tells them to come and feel his hands and feet. Ghosts don’t have bodies that can be felt. The disciples looked and touched, and they saw and they felt and they were filled with joy but they didn’t get it, not entirely. Jesus is trying to communicate something they cannot yet see. The resurrected body is not the same as we are now, but the differences are hard to pin down. There are no skeletal remains of a resurrected body. And I can just see Jesus lovingly rolling his eyes. He loves them. He really does but can they truly be this dense? He asks for something to eat. Not because he is hungry but because everyone knows ghosts can’t eat. They are still confused but are getting less so. There is a crack in their understanding, a little light beginning to shine behind their eyes.

               Jesus told them all of this would happen. And then, Jesus opened their minds to understand. All of this was layer on top of layer to bring understanding. They would not, could not have understood in one flash. If Jesus had just shown up in the middle of the group, they might have decided he just didn’t die, that he had escaped somehow. It took all of these pieces, little tiles in the mosaic, little glimpses of light for them to understand.

               I’m not sure what it would take for someone to convince me those clear tubes were really full of some kind of gas. I can’t blame the disciples for having a hard time believing that Jesus had been resurrected. That Jesus was like them. Jesus had a body. Jesus wasn’t a ghost, but that resurrected body was different. Jesus was resurrected and there was a whole new cosmos. A cosmos ruled by forgiveness of sin and of repentance.

               And as we begin to understand this in our own lives, we begin to help others understand. There is no flash moment when our faith is made complete. Our faith grows. First a tiny egg. Then a larger caterpillar. A caterpillar wrapped in its cocoon. And then that crack occurs, the crack that changes everything. A butterfly emerges completely changed. Not just in stages like we grow from childhood to adulthood but actual, fundamentally changed metamorphosis. Like resurrection but not from death just dramatically changed form, like solid, liquid and gas. Everything completely different and completely the same and we are to bear witness to this in all the world, even our little part of Southeast Kansas needs to know that the world is not what it once was.

               There has been a fundamental change. No longer is life nasty, brutish and short. Life is opportunity after opportunity to repent for where we have failed to live up to God’s will for us. Every time we mess up, there is a chance to repent. We can live a life that is righteous and holy. We can strive to work for justice. We can decide that we will chose to live in this new world, new cosmos, knowing that in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, everything has been changed.

               We live in a world where our sins are forgiven. This does not mean we should run about doing harmful things all willy nilly. It does mean that when we mess up as we inevitably will, we are not trapped by our mistakes. We can still and always approach God because Jesus has absolved our sins.

               And on those days when the cocoon of our mind begins to crack, we begin to believe just as the first disciples did. We can believe that a man, the Son of God, was born in meager circumstances, grew up as a refugee and immigrant, lived in oppression. Refused to trade his morals for safety. Taught people what it means to love. Was killed by the Roman Empire with the complicity of the religious elite. Was wrapped in burial clothes and anointed with burial oils. Was really, really dead and did not stay dead. He rose and in some inexplicable way he opened the possibility for us to have life, life abundant and life eternal.

               We get to go out into the world and teach people. Teach them that there is more to life than the pain and hardship we experience. That there is a true savior who doesn’t need to threaten others. A savior who won victory over death not by violence but by refusing violence. A savior who did not threaten others with total destruction. A savior who did not judge but called. A savior who had no need of fancy titles or clothes or anything we value. A savior who traveled dusty streets and shared meals with ordinary laborers as well as with the wealthy. A savior who loved tax collectors, sinners, and the opposition party. A savior who chose to die rather than to destroy the empire that killed him. And it was in this act of revolutionary peace that the power of death was broken.

               We do not need to fear death because there is more to come. We do not need to fear that we will forever be bound to our sin. We know that sin’s power has been broken. We are no longer bound. We are free. And our job, as those set free, is to go and set others free. We are not meant to sit here in the comfort of our sanctuary while others have no comfort. We are meant to do what we can to alleviate the suffering in the world. We are meant to stand up for what is right, and good, and holy, and Christlike. The Christ who came to Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and not a war horse. We are meant to be different, to live a life poured out for love of others. We are to look at power with the same skepticism as I looked at that tube of air because some gases are real but others are not. Some forms of power are real and others are illusions. And Jesus will open our minds to understand and we will take the message to the world and for that we can say, thanks be to God amen ‍Mary Magdalene went and said to the followers, “I saw the Lord!” And she told them what Jesus had said to her.

John 20:18

Emerge Into Life

God who calls us to new life through the resurrection of your son, Jesus, open our eyes to see the beauty of transformation. Let the darkness of our struggles lead to the revelation of your glory. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

            The revelation of Jesus’ return did not happen all at once in John’s telling of the story. Bit by bit the disciples came to realize something amazing had happened. Their understanding emerged slowly.

            We begin with Joseph of Arimathea asking for Jesus’ body. There was no doubt Jesus was dead. This is an important detail. If Jesus were not really dead, then there was no resurrection. If Jesus was just in a coma, there would not be a miracle great enough to change all of the universe. Jesus’ resurrection did change the universe. Nothing is the same as it was before that first Easter, that first resurrection Sunday. Before Jesus, death won. The dark of night drowned out the light of day. The deepness of despair swallowed the joy of hope.

            So, it is important to note that Jesus was really dead. Joseph and Nicodemus, both secret followers of Jesus, took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in ointments and clothes, restoring his dignity and humanity. How people treat the dead tells a great deal about a society. Jesus was executed by the state. His dignity had been stripped away just as his cloak had been. His humanity was torn from him with each strike of the whip. But Joseph and Nicodemus took his body and in caring for it, restored his dignity. They also demonstrated that he was really, really dead. They anointed him and they bound him and they placed him in the tomb. Then, having nothing left they could do for Jesus, they left.

            I often think about those days between Jesus’ death and his resurrection. I think about how the disciples must have felt. They were like sheep without a shepherd, wandering the streets of Jerusalem in that fog that comes with grief. They had followed Jesus, left everything to follow this man who did all these signs and wonders. They believed he was the Messiah, the very son of God and now his body lay in a tomb. Surrounded by the darkness of death, covered in the ointments of death and wrapped in the strips of linen.

            They did not realize what Jesus meant when he said he would return. How could they? This was the stuff of fairy tales. Who could raise Jesus from death when only Jesus could restore life? The questions would have haunted them. Their doubts would drive them to hide together in an upper room where no one could enter while they tried to figure out what to do next.

            Then, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb.

            When she saw the stone was rolled away from the entrance, she turned and ran to the disciples to Simon Peter and the one Jesus loved. She told them the stone was moved. Maybe she hoped it meant that Jesus was alive but that was too much to ask for. Like when we ask for a miracle but can’t quite believe it will happen. We can see no way, but God suddenly makes a way despite our lack of faith or abundance of reasonableness. The disciples run to the tomb. They may be believing the impossible too and they have to see for themselves.

            Their understanding begins to emerge the way a butterfly emerges from a cocoon, slowly, with tiny movements. The disciple Jesus loved looked into the tomb and saw the linen strips. Then Peter came and walked into tomb. He saw the cloth that Joseph and Nicodemus had so carefully placed on his head, neatly folded.

            They emerged from the tomb understanding that Jesus was no longer dead. But they didn’t quite know what had happened. The realization was still too much to imagine. They went back to join the other disciples.

            But, Mary stays. She cannot imagine anything but grave robbers until she bends down to look in the tomb. There in the darkness two angels in white were sitting where Jesus’ body had been.

            Like the angel Gabriel dropping in on Mary, Jesus’ mother, these angels dropped in to warn Mary Magdalene that she was about to see Jesus.

            And she turns around, still not completely believing still not comprehending until Jesus speaks. He calls her name and she comprehends.

            Jesus is alive but different. He is not a reanimated dead body, not a zombie, not someone who appeared dead. He was dead and now he is living. She runs back to the disciples and tells them “I have seen the LORD.”

            She preaches the gospel “Jesus lives!” Jesus is risen! Jesus is not dead. Jesus is alive.

            And our understanding of what that means will continue to emerge, slowly. We think we understand but I don’t think we can.

            We can say, Jesus is risen and death is defeated but we still see death every day. We can say, Jesus is risen and sin is defeated but we still see sin every day. Even in the light of understanding we are waiting for our comprehension to emerge.

            But, and this is the big but, when we proclaim that Christ is risen we are proclaiming the greatest mystery. We are proclaiming that death cannot win. Just as Jesus has risen from death so will we. We are proclaiming that sin has been defeated. There is nothing in heaven or earth or under the earth that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

            Nothing. They thought death would keep Jesus from walking with his followers. They were wrong. They thought they could stop the reign of heaven from coming to earth but not even death could stop heaven’s plan. They thought God could be controlled but not even the Romans could stop the Messiah, God’s own son. There is nothing in death or in life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow-not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.

            Did you hear that beloved? There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God.

            Despite all the pain, all of the suffering, all of the shame, all of it, Jesus has overcome it and through Jesus, we can overcome the world. We can live a life that is focused on what Jesus would have us do. We can be peacemakers in a world of war. We can feed the hungry and cloth the naked. We can visit the sick and care for those who are hated by society. We can do all these things because Jesus is not dead. Jesus is alive.

            Hallelujah we are learning what it means to live as those set free because Jesus is alive. He is risen. He is risen indeed

            And for that we can say, thanks be to God amen.

Emerge Into Faith

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6 In this you rejoice,[a] even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

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Lord of light, we pray that you will illuminate our understanding. Help us to see who we are in your eyes. Let us look toward that future time when Jesus the Christ is revealed us in his full glory. Help us to withstand the testing by fire. Let us hold onto faith. And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to you our rock and our redeemer. Amen      

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            Peter was there the day Lazarus was brought back to life. Peter had walked with Jesus through all the dusty streets, had eaten the fish and the loaves, had seen the people healed and seen those mourning for Lazarus. He saw all that and then wrote that even if we have to suffer various trials and test our faith, the substance of things hoped for, we will emerge from the testing with more faith than we thought possible in the beginning.

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            Most likely this letter was not written by the Peter who walked with Jesus. If it had been the focus on faith may not have read quite the same. Most likely this letter was written by a second-generation disciple who was taught by Peter. We might remember that in the beginning of the Christian story, the disciples and Paul thought that Jesus would come back immediately from his father to establish the kingdom of God on earth. As the days, weeks, months and years passed the Jesus believers had to change how they imagined Jesus’ return. No longer could they hide in upper rooms. They had to find a way to live in the world as it was and hold on to their faith. Their faith was emerging. Faith does not pop out fully formed. Faith grows through all the situations of our lives. When tragedy strikes we get to choose if we will leave our faith behind or hold fast knowing that faith is the substance of things hoped, Faith is the reason we cling so tightly to Jesus we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the very son of God, sent to us so that we may understand how God would have us live.

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            But Peter would have been there with Jesus walking those dusty dry streets and seeing miracle after miracle. Even after all that Peter’s faith had to grow.

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            Remember how Jesus got the message that Lazarus was sick. I am sure the others with him knew that Lazarus was sick. I wonder if they were worried. They had seen Jesus save so many others, surely Jesus would save their friend. So, they all waited until Jesus said Lazarus had died. That’s when they got up and went to visit Mary and Martha. And I imagine Peter questioning Jesus. Maybe not out loud because if he had, Jesus might have snapped at him again, maybe just in his thoughts. How could Peter have faith that the dead would live again even after seeing Jesus raise many from death. Poor Mary and Martha would be distraught. Peter and the others would be walking into a funeral, into a room so full of grief that time stood still. Grief that could have been avoided. They all knew that. Mary and Martha and Peter and James and John and all of them knew. They  had faith, that Jesus could have healed Lazarus. They just didn’t understand why Jesus would let him die.

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            We know what happens next. Jesus calls Lazarus out of the grave. He tells Mary and Martha not to grieve but to have faith. And yet, could any of them have believed what Jesus would do? Who restores life to bodies that have lain in the grave for days. Just like Jesus was really dead before the resurrection, there was no doubt that Lazarus was dead. Four days in the tomb. That is dead. It is as dead as some people’s faith.

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            Faith is hard to maintain. Faith runs into problem after problem. This life is so full of sin, full of things that wound us so deeply that we wonder if all this Jesus stuff is real. Time after time we wonder, if God is loving why does this or that happen. Why if God is all powerful do tragedies happen day after day. Why on earth does our faith have to be tested?

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            I could lie to you and say that God does all this just so that we can rely more and more on Jesus. I just don’t think that is how it works. I think it works more in the other direction. This world is not exactly our home. This world is full of sin and doubt and death. We walk through it carrying our crosses and helping others to carry theirs. We walk through it waiting to be called back to life. Using the times of trials as means to grow in our relationship with Jesus. Learning to trust Jesus with all that we have and all that we are. Working out our salvation with fear and trembling reaching toward the light of heaven, not just heaven after death but God’s kingdom here on earth.

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            There is so much more than we can see. God is at work in many ways most are beyond our understanding.

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            So, Peter is there with Jesus, weeping with Mary and Martha and wondering just what Jesus is about to do. Will Jesus offer comfort? Maybe turn some more water into wine so they can sit around and tell stories about Lazarus? What is Jesus going to do after he waited so long to come to help? Did Peter have faith something would happen?

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            Peter, or Peter’s student, tells the listeners to his letter

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3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice,[a] even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Although you have not seen[b] him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.[c]

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            And Peter saw what Jesus did. Peter saw Jesus command Lazarus to get up and come out. Peter saw the impossible done yet again. Peter’s faith grew but Peter’s faith was not yet perfected. When Jesus was arrested, Peter denied him, three times. Even though Peter knew Jesus so intimately he lost sight of his faith. But now he reminds us that we who have not seen Jesus in person, those of us who love Jesus and believe in Jesus and rejoice with indescribable and glorious joy, are emerging into our faith.

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            We do not come to Easter all at once. Living in faith is an ongoing process. We walk for awhile in strong faith and then we falter. We believe with all of our hearts and then we are devastated and we lose a bit of our assurance. We start out just barely believing and grow into those whose faith is so strong it cannot be destroyed. We emerge from our fears and into the joy of strength. We emerge from our sin and grow into our righteousness. We emerge from the power of death and into the light of life. We emerge and we continue to emerge as long as we live.

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            And it is for this we say, thanks be to God Amen

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