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CONTROL YOUR LIFE"
Our ultimate one-way ticket to that "new location" - death - is the subject of this, the fifth and final installment in our Lenten sermon series: "Spicy Gumbo for the Soul: Hot Topics That Can Be Hard To Swallow."
Talking about death...even thinking about death...well, that ain t no chicken soup! Many of us will go to any lengths to avoid the topic. It's too frightening. It's the ultimate "unknown." I can remember as a little girl, whenever my family drove from Atlanta out to the country in Alabama to visit relatives, we would pass this one really creepy looking cemetery. It had a big ole dead tree in the middle of it. Every time we would turn that corner to go past it, I would cover my eyes and say, "Oooo...tell me when we've passed it!" Of course, half the time my older brother would say, "O.K. it's passed." I'd look up and we'd be right in front of it! But I never did get used to it!
Physical death is the one common human experience that no one has any experience with, really. Scientists, doctors and caregivers have learned a lot, but no one can really say for sure what it's like. It's been said that there are only two sure things, death and taxes. But let's be honest...taxves can be avoided! Death cannot. And face it...death is not pretty. Remember how Martha reacted in our Gospel reading (John 11:17-45) today when Jesus told them to open up the tomb that Lazarus was in? She said, point blank, "there will be a stench!" Upon death this physical body decays...there's no getting around that.
And that seems bad enough. But literal, physical death is not the only kind of death we can experience. There is also the condition of spiritual death in which one is technically alive but could most accurately be described as one of the "living dead." If you've ever experienced deep depression, unbearable loneliness, devastating illness or extreme substance addiction, then you know: it's very much like being dead. You're trapped in what feels like a small, dark place with no way out...and, frankly, it really stinks!
The good news is that whether we're speaking of literal, physical death or figurative, spiritual death, with Jesus Christ we can experience Resurrection. That"s the bottom line of our Gospel reading today. The whole story of the raising of Lazarus shows us both the Promise and the process of Resurrection.
''Jesus told her, 'I am the Resurrection, and I am Life: those who believe in me will live, even if they die; and those who are alive and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Jesus' words to Martha constitute one of the greatest proclamations of Christianity. I have spoken those words at many, many memorial services, and it never fails that the mourners who are gathered there look up and lift there eyes with an expression of hope and espectation. The promise of Resurrection from the dead is the foundation of our faith.
The well-known author and Christian apologist C.S. Lewls wrote, "These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies are given to school children. We must learn to manage: not that we may some day be free of horses altogether but that some day we may ride bareback, confident and rejoicing. those greater mounts, those winged, shining and world-shaking horses which perhaps even now expect us with ilnpatience, pawing and snorting in the Sovereign's stables."
The promise of Resurrection is our comfort in the face of physical death. But what about that spiritual death of which I spoke...that which everyone experiences at some time, to some extent? In the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead we can see at work the process of Resurrection that can happen for us in the here and now. The clues to this process come in the form of three things that Jesus said. First, when Jesus arrived in Bethany, he went with Martha, Mary and the other people who were there to the tomb in which Lazarus had been laid. "Take away the stone," Jesus directed. In other words, remove the barrier that separates me from the one who is inside. When we are trapped in the bondage of spiritual death, we too must "take away the stone" -- remove the barriers that have separated us from God. I;or some the barrier is in a bottle...for others the stone that blocks the way is hopelessness or the resignation ofdefeat. We must make some effort to remove whatever is blocking Christ from coming in and bringing Resurrection to our lives. Great spiritual teachers have always proclaimed this truth: that Christ will not and does not do for us what we can and should do for ourselves. We must be willing to let go of clinging to death...lening it control our lives...and be willing to make a place for Chnst to enter. And it doesn't take a seat big opening...often just a small space created for Christ can begin the process of Resurrection within us.
Before the second World War, there was a grave in Germany sealed with a granite slab and bound with strong chains. On it an atheist had inscnbed, "Not to be opened throughout eternity." Yet somehow a little acorn had fallen into some crack, and its outer shell "died." Years later, everyone saw a huge oak tree that had completely broken up the slab, which was still inscribed with those stubborn, stupid words. The new life of the acorn had openly displayed the power of life.
The power of the One who is Life can begin the process of Resurrection in our lives if, will offer even a crack of a way into our hearts. "Take away the stone," Jesus directed.
That's when Martha shuddered at the thought and warned ofthe stench within. She was expressing her doubt. It was hard enough that Jesus had come, she thought, too late to save her brother. But now must she have to see and smell his decaying body as well?
Jesus replied, "Didn't I assure you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" One of the most requested Scripture passages read at funerals and memorial services is from John 14: "Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Parent God's house are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you."
"Didn't I assure you...?" Jesus says to Martha and to us. We're being asked to accept and believe that what Christ says is true. We find that so hard to do...and yet, until we do, how can the process of. Resurrection begin? So we don't believe what Jesus promises? Why?
For centuries it appeared to human beings that the earth was stationary and that the sun moved around it. Then a man named Copernicus came along and proved that what seemed obvious on the surface was not, in fact, true. It was the earth that was moving around the sun, not the sun around the earth; and that discovery has changed our beliefs about our physical reality ever since. What Copernicus did to our perceptions of the earth and the sun, Christ can do to our understanding of death. Those early conclusions we come to as children, about death, are not the deepest truth, althlough they appear to be from the surface of observation. What we need here is a Copernian revolution at the image level. We need to hear and believe that what Christ has promised is true. Jesus said, "Didn't I assure you...?" We can choose to believe in the process of Resurrection.
And we can choose to trust what we have not yet experienced because of what we have experienced from God in the past. Everyone here this morning has some past experience of encountering God's presence and power - if not, why would you be here?
For the process of Resurrection to be complete, we may have to have faith today in something that has not yet happened. As a wonderful poster I saw once said, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future in the hands of a known God."
Notice what Jesus did. Before he called for Lazarus to come out of the tomb, Scripture says, "Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, 'Abba God, thank you for having heard me." The faith-filled gratitude came before the faith-confirming miracle occurred.
Too often we will grasp at straws out of desperation instead of trusting in God's faithfulness and giving thanks even when there doesn't seem to be anything to be thankful for. We often are much like the little girl who's mother was terminally ill. This little girl stood outside the bedroom door one afternoon as the doctor, along with her father, visited her mother. She overheard the doctor say, "Yes, I'II be frank with you. The time is not too far off. Before the last leaves have gone from the trees you will die." The little girl's presence outside the door went unnoticed.
Sometime later the father came to the breakfast table to find that his little girl wasn't there as he had expected. After searching for her he saw her out in the front yard. His heart was broken as he watched her picking up leaves that had begun to fall. She was using thread to tie them back onto the limbs of the tree.
Must we, in the midst of spiritual death _ or out of the fear of physical death _ do desperate, foolish things...trying to avoid the inevitable? Or are we willing to trust an unknown future in the hands of a known God? If we would experience the process of Resurrection, we must let Christ come in...believe what Christ promises...and gratefully trust God - even when nothing miraculous has happened yet.
The promise of Resurrection and the process of Resurrection are more than our human minds and hardened hearts can comprehend. But that doesn't mean they aren't real. We will never discover the truth about death until we go there. We can't really appreciate the idea of Resurrection in the here and now unless we have been to the land of the living dead and back.
What we can do is take control of ourselves and decide: do we want to live in fear or die in faith? Do we want to dwell inside a tomb or come out into the light? Don't let death control your life! Remember: What death did to Jesus was nothing compared to what Jesus did to death!
Jesus said, "I am the Resurrection, and I am Life: those who believe in me will live, even if they die; and those who are alive and believe in tne will never die. Do you believe this?" Do you? Amen.
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