Rev. Rachel Lewis Cooley
“Resurrection People”
Eastwood Christian Church, Nashville TN
March 22, 2020
Peace, Eastwood.
Thank you for joining us virtually this morning, as we lead with love and seek new ways of being church during this season. We're leaning into these changes together, trusting that God meets us however we worship.
The sermon I'll offer this morning comes with inspiration from Magrey de Vega's lenten study Embracing the Uncertain chapter 4. Our scripture is John 11:1-44, which I'll encourage you to either pause and read the entirety of now, or listen along with the portion I'll read in this video and perhaps reflect on the rest later. I'll read verses 17-35 in John's account of Jesus raising Lazarus.
First, will you pray with me:
God we come today with questions, and uncertainty in any answers
We trust that you, oh God, who sees our lives in the fullness of their joy and sorrow, will hold it all,
That we can bring it all to you, today and everyday.
We are not physically together today, in the sanctuary space we habitually come to you through, which helps us remember our faith and the lessons and community which have nourished us before. We ask that you help us bring those feelings of connection across time and across the space between us and others as we worship you today.
And now may the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all of our hearts, be faithful to you, oh God, our rock, and our redeemer.
Hear now John 11:17-35
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house consoling her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep.
Herein we seek wisdom and comfort.
Martha didn’t know how she possibly found herself in the situation she was in when she spoke with Jesus that day described in John 11. She and Mary had sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was very ill, and they had expected Jesus to come several days ago. Now, their brother had died, and they were left to grapple with questions about death and to wonder about their future. They did not know where Jesus was, or how they would carry on, or what their future would look like.
It surely must be divine timing that this scripture was assigned months ago for today. Our Lenten study “Embracing the Uncertain,” may speak to our “unsteady times,” as de Vega would call them, in powerful ways. We are like Martha and Mary – we are asking how we find ourselves here, recovering as a community from a tornado, anxious and unsure about what is going on around us in the world, and very uncertain as to how long this might continue and what the future could hold for us and our loved ones. From our experience with times like these before, we know they can hold both deep sorrow and fear, as well as love and trust. They can move us to both doubt and faith.
Jesus comes to Martha, and we hear ourselves in her protest: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." And with barely a pause, perhaps in the same breath, a statement of faith: "But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask." She trusted before that Jesus could help heal the sick Lazarus, and though she now has doubt she still has hope. Jesus affirms what she says, and goes one step further, saying "your brother will rise again." Martha is thinking of resurrection at the last day, or the coming of the end of time. Again, Jesus affirms what she says, and invites her further into belief, saying: “I am the resurrection and the life." In de Vega's Lenten study, he writes "In other words, in her grief, Martha hopes in the resurrection, and Jesus tells her that Resurrection is right there in front of her. He is the Resurrection and the life, and he is there."
Part of Jesus' being there, present, with Mary and Martha is through his grieving with them. They knew his love for their family, and he demonstrates it in feeling and expressing the confusion and anguish they experience as well. our scripture says that when Jesus saw Mary and others who had come to mourn weeping, he was "greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved." The New Interpreters Bible says this verse has given translators trouble over the years, however, and a translation closer to the original Greek would convey that Jesus experienced anger and indignation at the reality of death and the grief that follows it for his loved ones. When he is invited to "come and see" Lazarus' tomb, he weeps. Our God is a God who weeps with us in grief, and comes to us as a human, like a member of a family in mourning. In doing so, Jesus experiences what seems to be anguish and confusion like we feel in moments of doubt and pain.
Neither Jesus' trust that God will work through him to bring resurrection, nor Martha's hope in Jesus deny the pain and confusion they experience. Jesus sits in it with his loved ones, they together walk into the unknown, delving into the difficult and fearful emotions and holding on to hope anyhow.
It becomes clear that Martha cannot help but both lament and hope, Jesus cannot help but both trust and grieve. Could we also say that we cannot help to both doubt and believe?
De Vega asks us to write both "I don't know" and "I believe" statements in this week's chapter of study. I've found this practice calmed me - both in naming the things I fear and feel unsure about aloud such that they take up less anxious space in my head, and in bringing me back to those fundamental things which I believe anyway. I remember them in the midst of fear and doubt, indeed perhaps more profoundly because of my need and the needs of others around me.
We all need practices like this to ground us sometimes. Through it, I remembered my fundamental belief in the power of resurrection. I see resurrection in situations that juxtapose sorrow and light, pain and love, injustice and strength. When we respond to those we love by being present with their emotions and by offering resources, food, or options to help, we are RESURRECTION PEOPLE. When we adapt how we show love to a desperate need - practicing spatial distancing so as to protect each other from illness - we live the resurrection. When people all across Nashville come together to be with and help people who have lost much in the tornado, the reality of resurrection is present and beautiful.
I want to be clear that none of this is to say that the pain, sorrow, despair must be for there to be good in the world. I believe God is good, creation is good, we can create beauty and love in our world whether or not we are responding to some tragedy or sadness. So while I might say "I don't know why suffering exists" I will also say "I believe in the reality of resurrection and hope" "I believe God is ever-present with us and Christ is in our midst" and “I believe we can co-create resurrection with God, as resurrection people"
I know it's Lent, folks, and it is most definitely a time of uncertainty. We do not yet know what Easter will look like for our community this year, but we can know that it will come, and that the risen Christ is here with us every day, all throughout the year, experiencing with us human doubt and grief and inviting us to trust in ever-present hope.
Amen, May it be so.
Benediction:
Go forth knowing that God is for you.
God goes…
Above you, to bless you;
Below you, to support you;
Before you, to guide you;
Behind you, to protect you;
Beside you, to comfort you;
And inside you, to give you strength and joy.
Go in peace.
