Year A
\u00a0Ezekiel 37:1-14
\u00a0Psalm 130
Romans 8:6-11
\u00a0John 11:1-45<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Place me as a seal over your heart\u2026 for love is as strong as death\u2026 many waters cannot extinguish its fire\u2026 and many rivers cannot wash it away<\/em>\u2026 that’s from the Song of Solomon 8:6-7\u2026 and in this passage we understand that water of any kind\u2026 is unable to extinguish love\u2026 that love can never die\u2026 but while water cannot extinguish the fire of love\u2026 water can also bring life\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n On Ash Wednesday\u2026 the church went into its room to pray\u2026 on February 26 we heard about the temptations of pride\u2026 power\u2026 and possessions\u2026 those qualities and things we are called to resist\u2026 as Jesus did\u2026 on March 5 we were reminded about Nicodemus and the womb\u2026 being born of water and the Spirit\u2026 being born again from above into the Kingdom of God\u2026 on March 12 we heard about the Samaritan woman and the well\u2026 baptismal waters gushing up to eternal life\u2026 last Sunday we read about the man born blind washing God’s mud out of his eyes so he can see\u2026 and today we hear about a tomb\u2026 about death and stench\u2026 which have been overcome by Jesus’ love\u2026 and today\u2026 Romans reminds us that we are not in the flesh\u2026 that we dwell in the Spirit\u2026 and the Spirit dwells in us\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mortal\u2026 can these bones live\u2026 O Lord God\u2026 you know<\/em>\u2026 these are bones that have laid out in the scorching sun\u2026 bones that are ready to be put into an ossuary\u2026 which frees up space in tombs for other bodies\u2026 but God can bring life from death\u2026 God can restore Israel from its corporate sin\u2026 God says\u2026 I am going to open your graves\u2026 bring you up out of them\u2026 bring you back to Israel\u2026 and put my Spirit within you\u2026 and you shall live\u2026 and have real life\u2026 and you shall again be My people<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now a certain man was ill\u2026 Lazarus of Bethany\u2026 but Lazarus wasn’t just a certain man\u2026 he is one who is ill\u2026 this means that his story is not his alone\u2026 but is the story of all who become ill\u2026 and Lazarus’ name means God helps<\/em>\u2026 and Bethany means the house of the afflicted<\/em>\u2026 but even further\u2026 the message that Martha and Mary urgently convey\u2026 is that the one whom the Lord loves is ill\u2026 and Fr. John Shea raises the question\u2026 how will the love of God in Jesus\u2026 respond to the illness and death of one whom God loves<\/em>\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n We cannot know all that Martha and Mary knew\u2026 perhaps they knew about the man born blind\u2026 and how Jesus healed him\u2026 that may be why the two sisters sent word to Jesus that their brother was ill\u2026 so Jesus would hurry and heal\u2026 but Martha and Mary were thinking too small\u2026 they each said to him\u2026 Lord\u2026 if you had been here\u2026 my brother would not have died\u2026 they had hoped that Jesus would heal their brother BEFORE he died\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Jesus wept\u2026 for the death of his friend\u2026 in empathy for Martha and Mary who grieved\u2026 for the fragility of life\u2026 and maybe even for his own impending death\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastor Christine Chakoian wrote\u2026 one of the most vivid\u2026 realistic aspects of this passage in John\u2026 is that sorrow and grief are allowed to emerge full bore\u2026 Martha is resentful of Jesus\u2019 delay\u2026 yet in the same breath she trusts in the power of his compassion\u2026 there is also an undercurrent of blame in Mary’s words\u2026 but at the same time\u2026 she kneels at his feet\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But like in last week\u2019s story\u2026 where Jesus said that the man was born blind so that God\u2019s works might be revealed in him<\/em>\u2026 Jesus is increasingly interested in demonstrating God\u2019s glory\u2026 that\u2019s why\u2026 in spite of how conflicted he must have felt\u2026 he didn\u2019t arrive until the fourth day\u2026 of course\u2026 if he had made a bee-line for Bethany\u2026 he could have prevented Lazarus’ death\u2026 but that would not have helped those gathered gain the spiritual understanding of how love conquers death\u2026 it would not have facilitated a change human consciousness about God\u2026 and God’s Son\u2026 and elicit human worship\u2026 because the fullness of God’s glory is for God to give God’s own life\u2026 for us\u2026 because today\u2019s Gospel ends with\u2026 many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did\u2026 believed in him\u2026 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done\u2026 so from that day on\u2026 they planned to put him to death<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resuscitating Lazarus became the motive to put Jesus to death\u2026 but here\u2019s a question worth pondering\u2026 since all of creation\u2026 the galaxies\u2026 the stars\u2026 the gaseous nebulae\u2026 the comets and meteors\u2026 the planets\u2026 the moon\u2026 and particularly our human lives\u2026 arose first and foremost\u2026 out of God’s love\u2026 then why is it so hard for us to get our heads around the idea that resurrected life could arise out of that same love\u2026 and since Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead\u2026 then how could the authorities possibly think\u2026 how could they possibly think that killing him\u2026 would be the best and most permanent way\u2026 to stop him\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In today\u2019s story\u2026 Jesus says to the crowd\u2026 unbind him\u2026 and let him go<\/em>\u2026 so I wonder\u2026 what it must have been like for Lazarus\u2026 to be resuscitated\u2026 to come back to awareness\u2026 to realize where he was\u2026 of being bound in death’s clothing\u2026 what was he thinking for those four days\u2026 if was he thinking at all\u2026 did it take a moment for him to realize who was calling him\u2026 called by God to come out of the place of death\u2026 and to be unbound\u2026 to be freed of both literal and symbolic death-clothes\u2026 and maybe to feel as though he\u2019d been given another chance\u2026 at being truly and really alive\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The promises of the Gospel are not so we can live the American Dream\u2026 or assert our own agency\u2026 the promises of the Gospel are so much bigger than that\u2026 Lazarus wasn’t raised so he could expand his market share\u2026 improve his golf game\u2026 buy up more property\u2026 invest in new startups\u2026 protect his hedge funds\u2026 or even spend more time with his sisters\u2026 he was raised so that the spiritual strength of love could be made manifest in the physical world\u2026 so he could participate in God’s abundant life\u2026 of course he would die again\u2026 because everything that’s incarnate must die\u2026 but death does not have the final word\u2026 in the Eucharistic prayer at funerals\u2026 we affirm that\u2026 life is only changed\u2026 not ended<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n In today\u2019s story\u2026 Jesus says to the crowd\u2026 unbind him\u2026 and let him go<\/em>\u2026 Jesus asks the community to pitch in in unbinding Lazarus\u2026 physically unbinding him\u2026 but today\u2019s story is also an Exodus story\u2026 it’s about the unbinding of political and religious oppression\u2026 it\u2019s about the unbinding of our own fears\u2026 the unbinding of our limitations\u2026 and about our re-binding\u2026 about being born again from above in water and in Spirit\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So what does it mean to voluntarily enter our own tombs\u2026 and see what death is\u2026 to smell the dead things that no longer serve us well\u2026 what are the things in our world\u2026 our country\u2026 our communities\u2026 churches\u2026 families\u2026 and ourselves\u2026 that need to die\u2026 how can we move into the increasing boundlessness that God has prepared for us\u2026 unless the boundaries which have kept us from boundlessness\u2026 also die\u2026 Jesus said to Martha\u2026 I AM the resurrection.. and the life\u2026 those who trust in me\u2026 even though they die\u2026 will live<\/em>\u2026 do we really believe it\u2026 do we really trust that once we leave this place\u2026 we will be re-united with God\u2026 even if we can only imagine what that will be like\u2026 death is not the end\u2026 so how do we live now\u2026 unbinding each other and our world\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A\u00a0Ezekiel 37:1-14\u00a0Psalm 130 Romans 8:6-11\u00a0John 11:1-45 May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Place me as a seal over your heart\u2026 for love is as strong as death\u2026 many waters cannot extinguish its fire\u2026 and many rivers cannot wash it away\u2026 that’s from the Song of Solomon 8:6-7\u2026 and in this passage we understand that water of any kind\u2026 is unable to extinguish love\u2026 that love can never die\u2026 but while water cannot extinguish the fire of love\u2026 water can also bring life\u2026 On Ash Wednesday\u2026 the church went into its room to pray\u2026 on February 26 we heard about the temptations of pride\u2026 power\u2026 and possessions\u2026 those qualities and things we are called to resist\u2026 as Jesus did\u2026 on March 5 we were reminded about Nicodemus and the womb\u2026 being born of water and the Spirit\u2026 being born again from above into the Kingdom of God\u2026 on March 12 we heard about the Samaritan woman and the well\u2026 baptismal waters gushing up to eternal life\u2026 last Sunday we read about the man born blind washing God’s mud out of his eyes so he can see\u2026 and today we hear about a tomb\u2026 about death and stench\u2026 which have been overcome by Jesus’ love\u2026 and today\u2026 Romans reminds us that we are not in the flesh\u2026 that we dwell in the Spirit\u2026 and the Spirit dwells in us\u2026 Mortal\u2026 can these bones live\u2026 O Lord God\u2026 you know\u2026 these are bones that have laid out in the scorching sun\u2026 bones that are ready to be put into an ossuary\u2026 which frees up space in tombs for other bodies\u2026 but God can bring life from death\u2026 God can restore Israel from its corporate sin\u2026 God says\u2026 I am going to open your graves\u2026 bring you up out of them\u2026 bring you back to Israel\u2026 and put my Spirit within you\u2026 and you shall live\u2026 and have real life\u2026 and you shall again be My people\u2026 Now a certain man was ill\u2026 Lazarus of Bethany\u2026 but Lazarus wasn’t just a certain man\u2026 he is one who is ill\u2026 this means that his story is not his alone\u2026 but is the story of all who become ill\u2026 and Lazarus’ name means God helps\u2026 and Bethany means the house of the afflicted\u2026 but even further\u2026 the message that Martha and Mary urgently convey\u2026 is that the one whom the Lord loves is ill\u2026 and Fr. John Shea raises the question\u2026 how will the love of God in Jesus\u2026 respond to the illness and death of one whom God loves\u2026 We cannot know all that Martha and Mary knew\u2026 perhaps they knew about the man born blind\u2026 and how Jesus healed him\u2026 that may be why the two sisters sent word to Jesus that their brother was ill\u2026 so Jesus would hurry and heal\u2026 but Martha and Mary were thinking too small\u2026 they each said to him\u2026 Lord\u2026 if you had been here\u2026 my brother would not have died\u2026 they had hoped that Jesus would heal their brother BEFORE he died\u2026 And Jesus wept\u2026 for the death of his friend\u2026 in empathy for Martha and Mary who grieved\u2026 for the fragility of life\u2026 and maybe even for his own impending death\u2026 Pastor Christine Chakoian wrote\u2026 one of the most vivid\u2026 realistic aspects of this passage in John\u2026 is that sorrow and grief are allowed to emerge full bore\u2026 Martha is resentful of Jesus\u2019 delay\u2026 yet in the same breath she trusts in the power of his compassion\u2026 there is also an undercurrent of blame in Mary’s words\u2026 but at the same time\u2026 she kneels at his feet\u2026 But like in last week\u2019s story\u2026 where Jesus said that the man was born blind so that God\u2019s works might be revealed in him\u2026 Jesus is increasingly interested in demonstrating God\u2019s glory\u2026 that\u2019s why\u2026 in spite of how conflicted he must have felt\u2026 he didn\u2019t arrive until the fourth day\u2026 of course\u2026 if he had made a bee-line for Bethany\u2026 he could have prevented Lazarus’ death\u2026 but that would not have helped those gathered gain the spiritual understanding of how love conquers death\u2026 it would not have facilitated a change human consciousness about God\u2026 and God’s Son\u2026 and elicit human worship\u2026 because the fullness of God’s glory is for God to give God’s own life\u2026 for us\u2026 because today\u2019s Gospel ends with\u2026 many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did\u2026 believed in him\u2026 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done\u2026 so from that day on\u2026 they planned to put him to death\u2026 Resuscitating Lazarus became the motive to put Jesus to death\u2026 but here\u2019s a question worth pondering\u2026 since all of creation\u2026 the galaxies\u2026 the stars\u2026 the gaseous nebulae\u2026 the comets and meteors\u2026 the planets\u2026 the moon\u2026 and particularly our human lives\u2026 arose first and foremost\u2026 out of God’s love\u2026 then why is it so hard for us to get our heads around the idea that resurrected life could arise out of that same love\u2026 and since Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead\u2026 then how could the authorities possibly think\u2026 how could they possibly think that killing him\u2026 would be the best and most permanent way\u2026 to stop him\u2026 In today\u2019s story\u2026 Jesus says to the crowd\u2026 unbind him\u2026 and let him go\u2026 so I wonder\u2026 what it must have been like for Lazarus\u2026 to be resuscitated\u2026 to come back to awareness\u2026 to realize where he was\u2026 of being bound in death’s clothing\u2026 what was he thinking for those four days\u2026 if was he thinking at all\u2026 did it take a moment for him to realize who was calling him\u2026 called by God to come out of the place of death\u2026 and to be unbound\u2026 to be freed of both literal and symbolic death-clothes\u2026 and maybe to feel as though he\u2019d been given another chance\u2026 at being truly and really alive\u2026 The promises of the Gospel 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