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“Like Birds in a Snare” Sermon by Brian Russo June 21, 2009, Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill Ecclesiastes 9:1-12 John 11:1-43 Now, I have to be honest. When I found out I was preaching on Lazarus, I was thrilled. I thought, well that will be nice and easy, there’s a lot of hope in that story, and perhaps its even one that I could make appropriate for Father’s day, and hey, at least I wont get into trouble this week. So I told friends and family to come out, who are sitting right now in these very pews, thinking this would be a crowning success, a sermon that would both glorify God while leaving you feeling positively moved in the process. But I’m afraid to say, I don’t know if this will be true. For this passage… I’m sorry, but what is going on in this passage? I mean, Jesus. Jesus, your friend, the one who you love, is sick and dying! But you say, “Oh, I’m going to wait me a couple of days. I’ve got some things to do. That guy, Lazarus, eh, he’ll be alright. Sure some people might cry, and Martha and Mary, okay, they might be a little bit upset with me, but hey, this is all about the glory of God and my exaltation baby!”? Now obviously those probably weren’t the exact words used by Jesus, but if you’re like me, then this is also not how you remember, or at least were told about the raising of Lazarus. In Sunday school, we were taught the David Copperfield version, where everything is magical and in the end Jesus’ good friend is brought back to life. Everyone is happy, and there’s not a tear to be found. But this, clearly, is not what scripture lies out before us, is it? No, John tells us that Martha and Mary both wept and challenged Jesus. They said, “if you were only here, than our brother wouldn’t have died!” And amazingly, what is Jesus’ response? Does he break down and say, “you’re right, my sisters, I pray your forgiveness!”? No, what we get from Jesus is pure and simple indignation. The words used in our Bibles are “deeply moved in spirit and troubled,” yet most commentaries agree that the original language more accurately translates into annoyed and angered. Jesus, you see, was angered. For even his closest of followers couldn’t grasp the intentions and meanings of his workings. And even though Jesus declared that he would raise Lazarus from the dead, thereby glorifying both himself and God, his disciples just couldn’t grasp it. But really, who could grasp that? Who could stand behind anyone who was simply out to prove his own merit and self-worth? Don’t we verbally crucify those people today? One need not look any further than the recent steroid scandal in baseball to bear witness to this point. No, we as civilized people, more, we as civilized and well-mannered Christians are virtually at direct opposition with those whose actions are based purely out of self-gratification, especially when it comes at the cost of the innocent; are we not? Thus, this is certainly not the Jesus that you, or I, or perhaps any of his followers had come to love; this was not the selfless perfection of a man who was blameless on all accounts. So what is going on here? Is this merely then another parable, a theological treatise, disguised in a narrative as authored by the mortal John? Well, I actually think it is, and I believe it’s the only way to make sense of it all. But there are some who would disagree, arguing that this story is a verbatim; an actual account of those four particular days. Moreover, they might say that every word in the Bible is and ought to be taken for historical fact. That God ordained Jesus to wait until Lazarus had died; that God sat by passively as a river of emotional pain flooded the hearts of the bereaved; and yes, even that God did all this, merely so that Jesus could be glorified through the miraculous. And this, my friends, is the God that many worship day in and day out all across the globe. And you know this. For how many times have you been around a death, and have heard, “well God must have had a plan;” “God needed another angel in Heaven;” “that your cancer is a test, a test of faith;” “son, your father died for a greater purpose.” In the final week that I worked as a chaplain in Princeton, my colleague Megan was on call. And on one fateful Saturday night, her phone rang. She stumbled out of bed, scrambled around for her clothes and rushed out as fast as she could. And even though she was given a short abstraction of detail, nothing could have prepared her for the horror that awaited. A 7-year old girl was innocently playing catch her father when she suddenly felt ill. She said, “daddy, my arm kinda hurts, can we go home?” “Of course pumpkin.” And as he took her hand, in one sudden motion, she dropped, collapsing to the ground in complete human frailty. She had suffered a massive heart attack. And even though her father was a doctor and rushed her to the hospital knowing what had to be done, she died. At seven, she died... Megan wept, just as Jesus wept; and just as I think God weeps. For this poor man, this poor son of God is alone today, somewhere in a barren house, in an empty room, on a Father’s day… God weeps. My friends, if God is out there, I truly believe that God does not want this. That God does not ordain death. That God is not guided by some misplaced sense of gratification for the healing or “better” purpose that may or may not come afterward. God is not the puppeteer at the end of a long string, apathetically keeping watch awaiting our disaster. No, it is my faith that God would want us to live, for all daughters and all sons, for all fathers and all mothers, to live; and God weeps for all of those who have and will be snared. As it is written, we the living know we will die. This is just a bitter fact that we have all come to accept. Some of us therefore have chosen to focus our eyes on the next life, on a grand conception of Heaven and the Eternal. We believe that we will be made new and go on forever across the infinitude of time and blissful wonder. And how great that would be! What a hope that is, and one that all should be so fortunate to inherit. But, as a friend recently charged me with: what will perhaps make me a decent pastor, your genuine pastor, are my doubts – and I just don’t think that this is what John is calling us toward in his allegory of Lazarus. For Lazarus, my friends, was raised again in this life. In this life… Therefore, I say, we should not endlessly raise our heads and look toward the next, but that we ought to straighten our vision and look more closely at this. That we should seek, always and forever, for as long as we have, to live in this world, which is but a gift to us, once, here and now. My friends, as Ecclesiastes so timelessly speaks to us, none of us know when our disaster will come, when we will meet the day of calamity, nor do any of us know if anything truly awaits us, so let us not let experiences or people pass us by; do not live like birds caught in a snare, but live life fully before time and chance catch up with us all. Live as if every day is the day of our resurrection. Because in many ways, it is. After all, Jesus is, IS, the resurrection and the life. Thus, our resurrection can be and is happening right here, right this very moment. The ability to change, the ability see life anew, to go out as lights in this world and inspire people with hope and love, is exactly what Jesus in his ministry was calling us to do and become. Praise God! Of course it is not as easy as that, of course there are certain things that will simply never wash away. Of course there are people who will never feel born again, who never be able to sing Hallelujah, for this life has simply done them wrong. Of course, there will always be pain, there will always be longing, and there will always be a lasting memory of all those who have been lost. But, hear this, God would not desire death. God would not wish to be glorified through pain and emotional agony, no God would only seek glorification by and through those who are fortunate enough to make the most out of the new breath that they luckily have been given. And my friends, this, for us the living, is something we need to rejoice over, for time and chance, at least right now, is on our side. So try, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. Take each breath with gratitude and enjoy life with the wife you have been blessed with, with the husband who you have found; and perhaps, if able, with the father you celebrate today. And do this always, with all whom you love, all the days of your life that are given to you under the sun, because that right now is your portion. Amen. |