A sermon based on John 11:1-45

“Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you open our minds to your powerful Word. May I be a voice to your people, to share your teaching to this community. In your Holy name I pray. AMEN”

I have to admit that I have been distracted in my preparation for this morning’s message. I found out early in the week that my aunt’s husband, was rushed to the hospital Monday night. As he entered the final days of his battle with cancer, he was not expected to make the weekend. I found out on Thursday night, that in fact he did not. Therefore, death has been on my mind all week as I reflected on the passages from John and Ezekiel, combined with the death of my uncle. In fact, while I have not changed my approach to these texts, my method in revealing the approach has changed drastically to what I had in mind the week before.

The raising of Lazarus has major implications on the life of Jesus. It is just after he raises Lazarus that the Pharisees decide that they have seen enough of this man from Galilee, and now commit to finding a way to get rid of him, through death. Next week we will celebrate as Jesus triumphantly returns to Jerusalem for the final time, and then somberly begin Holy Week leading to his death on the cross. As we proceed through Lent, and move closer and closer to Good Friday, we reflect more and more on death, and what Jesus’ death means for us.

But! The raising of Lazarus is not a story of death! This is a story of life! This is a story signifying the glorification of God through Jesus the Christ! There is a valuable teaching in this passage from John about the life giving power of Jesus.

As we heard the reading of the beautiful story of Jesus talking with Mary and Martha, how his emotions broke forth in tears and how he brought Lazarus back to life, we learn much about what it means for us to live with Jesus in eternity, and we can see how that unfolds as Jesus talks with Martha.

As Jesus approached Bethany to see Mary and Martha, Martha met him outside the city, and right away shows that she knows something about his connection with God. She says to Jesus “had you been here, Lazarus would not have died, but God will give you what you ask of Him.” She knows the healing power of Jesus, that Jesus is more than a prophet, and that God has gifted him. When Jesus tells Martha that her brother will rise again, she acknowledges him as many Jews would, that Lazarus would be raised on the final day, when God calls his chosen people home. Jesus then explains further. “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” And he asks her “Do you believe this?” Martha’s reply is one of acceptance. “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah (or Christ), the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” She has been transformed by her belief in Jesus. She has become something that will be named years later as a Christian. Interestingly enough, she is now the second woman in John’s Gospel to make such proclamation, to move beyond simply what they see Jesus do, to believing that he is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ, without first needing to see a miracle performed. The first was the Samaritan woman at the well, but that is a topic for another day.

Some people dispute whether Martha really did believe. Later on in the passage, she warns Jesus when he asks that the stone be removed from the entrance to the tomb. She warns that since he’s been dead four days, the would be an unbearable stench. Does this indicate that she really did not understand what she has said? Or is there another reason for her apparent change of heart? What if she never expected Jesus to raise her brother from the dead? If she believes that Jesus is the Christ, and if she knows where Lazarus has placed his heart, then why should she expect Jesus to resurrect him? She knows where Lazarus is, that he has eternal life through his belief in Jesus as the Son of God.

So then why did Jesus go through with this miracle? Why bring someone back from eternal life? Jesus explains this as he prays to God, that he does this for those around him. But not only those around him, but also those that would hear the story around the countryside, and also for us. Jesus raised Lazarus to show us that we can have eternal life, but also that when he believe that he is the Messiah, he also gives us new life on earth. That when we believe in Jesus, we are given the opportunity to start anew. When Lazarus hops out of the tomb, his hands and feet bound, his head covered, Jesus says “unbind him and let him go!” When we come to Jesus, that which holds us back is untied, that which keeps us from seeing, is removed from our vision, we are set free by Jesus. Set free to live a new life as a disciple of Jesus. What if we heard from Lazarus in this story, what would he have to tell us about this new life he has been given?

A few months ago I was watching 100 Huntley Street one morning, and I saw this story, and thankfully that they have extensive archives on their website so I could go back and watch the episode again. They interviewed a man by the name of Don Piper. Don Piper is a Baptist minister in the United States. One cold, rainy afternoon, Don was driving home to Houston from a denominational meeting, similar to a conference meeting in the United Church. When he left the meeting, he decided to take a new road home, for a change of scenery. As he crossed a bridge, an on-coming transport truck lost control and crossed the centre line and collided head on into his small Ford Escort. The combined speed of the impact was 110mph. Paramedics on the scene declared him dead immediately. As they waited for an official pronouncement of death, they covered the severely mangled car with a tarp. A fellow delegate at the meeting was driving across this same bridge shortly after, and stopped to see if he could be of help. An audible voice told him to pray for the man in the car. So he crawled under the tarp into the wreckage of the Escort and prayed over the corpse. He began to sing as he prayed. “What a friend we have in Jesus…” and the corpse began to sing with him! Shocked, this man ran to the paramedics and exclaimed that they had to get the body out of the car, he was alive! The paramedics did not believe him, and continued to prepare to leave. The man refused to give up, he told them that if they wanted to leave, they were going to have to drive over him. So they decided to entertain this crazy man and checked the condition of Don’s once lifeless body, and found him ALIVE! They quickly extricated Don’s mangled body from the mangled wreckage of the car and rushed him to the hospital.

As this was playing out, Don tells this story. He was in line outside the pearly gates, he was surrounded by a welcoming committee of the people who had influenced him as a Christian. His grandmother, teachers, friends who had all passed on before him. There were angels flying above him, their wings fluttering much like when you walk into the woods and hear the birds take off in the trees above you. There were thousands of praise choirs, each one singing praises to God, but it was not chaotic as you might expect. He said even though there were so many choirs, singing so many songs, it was more beautiful than words could describe. As he came to the gates, he was sent back to his earthly body. He did not want to leave, but he had returned to the car and his mangled body.

Don spent 105 days in the hospital, battling serious infections, torturous procedures to stretch his bones to make up for the crushed bones lost in the accident and over 30 operations. He lives with the pain every day, a reminder of the accident that took his life, and the life God that gave back to him.

What has he done since then? He has turned this mess into a message. He has taken it upon himself to spend the rest of his days on this world bringing people to Jesus, to get as many people into heaven as he can. He tells his story whenever he can, he has a book called 90 minutes in Heaven, detailing his experiences.

We don’t know what happened to Lazarus, but Don Piper has taken advantage of his new life. Don didn’t want to come back to this world, heaven was too beautiful for words. He has seen the mansion with many rooms that Jesus has gone on to prepare for us, and he can’t wait to go home.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have been given a new life here on earth. Take advantage of it each day, live each day with the love of Jesus Christ in your heart, and someday you will spend eternity with him. Remember how God used Ezekiel to blow breath into the dry bones of the valley. How can he use you to blow breath into the world around you.
AMEN.

On John 14:15-21

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.”

What a great promise to be given. “If you love me…” Jesus does not assume that everyone will love Him, but what if we DO love Him? What if we DO keep his commandments and are obedient disciples? What will come of this obedience? Jesus promises that He will talk to His Father about sending an Advocate, a Comforter, a Helper in the form of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth as recorded in John. This Spirit will come and abide in us, to help, to comfort and to guide us.

In verse 18, Jesus says “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.” This must be a puzzling comment in the ears of the disciples. Isn’t Jesus already with them? But we have an advantage, we know the rest of the story. Jesus is promising His return after He pays the ultimate price for our unloving, our sins. He makes this payment on the cross, He has made it for all who love Him, who try so hard to follow His commandments. And because we love Him, he comes back to us in the Holy Spirit, to help us in our daily struggles, to comfort us when we fall short, to bring us back into a right relationship with God. The Holy Spirit is there for us, all we have to do is listen to its call in our lives.

We are all called by the same God. We are also called to follow the same commandments, but each of us follows these callings in a different way. As we all follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we use our God-given gifts in ministry to those around us. Each of us are here as a result of a calling by God. Each of us have a place in our communities where we are working with other people who are called by God to make a difference in the lives of the people they interact with. It is through the Holy Spirit that we discern and re-discern what that calling is, and how we might carry out that calling in our environment.

We have just taken part in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, a week that reminds us of how we should look each day for ways in which we can work with others in our community to further the Kingdom of God, regardless of their own faith background. For it is through our unity in the Christ Jesus that we can work together, sharing our own unique gifts to spread the glory of God. As we are led by the Holy Spirit in and with our communities, much work can be done by the glory of God in the name of Jesus Christ.

As I close, I ask that we take a moment of quiet reflection to remember what Jesus has given us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, giving thanks for all that He has done. Also, let’s take a moment to recentre ourselves on what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do in our current circumstances, where we are in our lives and in our communities. Let us now take a moment to ponder these thoughts.

[pause for reflection]

“They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

Remember the gift that has been given, and continues to live within you.

Prayer:
Holy God, we your servants are here, gathered at your feet. Speak now, we are listening. Amen.

All last week I was pondering what the story of Martha and Mary could be saying to our community here at AST. In fact, around mid-week I had already formed much of my reflection, and was working on how to shape the service around it. But, much of that message changed over the weekend.

This weekend I completed the chapter of the life that was who I was before accepting the call into ministry. Saturday morning, my family, and Helga, watched me cross the stage at Acadia accepting my Bachelor of Computer Science degree. A degree that I will not likely be using in professionally again, but is symbolic of the person that I used to be before I knew Jesus Christ.

When I started that degree in 1992, there was no way I would have believed, or even kept a straight face, if someone had told be that 12 years later I would be standing here sharing a message of Christ with a Theological school community.

It was 1998 when I left Acadia to work for Nortel in Ottawa with only one credit left to complete my degree. But, the busyness of life took over at that point. I was working towards management in a large company, so I was busy with working with my staff, upper management, clients, reports, requests, email, and all that other fun stuff. All that time I was working 10-12 hours a day, exhausted. My wife, Beverley at the time was busy too, she was working on her faith, learning, reading, praying, listening to what God was sharing with her. When the high tech market crashed in 2001, so did my prospects in management.

Everything was frozen, half of my employees were laid off, others were outsourced to another company, I was moved to another department. The busyness and distractions were no longer there. I began to search out a new direction, finding out more about my wife’s faith journey. I started to explore some of this as well. This exploration led me to Jesus Christ, and his teachings.

I have been both Martha and Mary, and many days I still switch between the two. Martha was obsessed with preparing a perfect meal for her guests. Maybe getting out the fine china, or even digging out the cloth napkins instead of paper towels! Mary though, she knew that this would most likely be her only chance to be to sit and listen to Jesus, to hear some of the great teachings in person that she has heard so much about. In her busyness, Martha has missed out on this opportunity.

And who are you today? Are you like Martha, worrying about all the work you have to do for school, for church, for family and friends, or for a coming internship or graduation? Or are you like Mary, still aware of what needs to be done, but instead choosing to spend time in the presence of the Lord, to create a balance where you can discern God’s will for you in this place, so that you might go out and do all that you have to do with Jesus as your focus. This scripture is not telling us to drop all of our responsibilities, but to strike the balance between our work and our relationship with God through Christ. For me, it was when I had quiet time a few years ago, that I could finally hear what God had in mind for me over all the other noise and distraction in my life. What keeps you from hearing God’s will for you today? I remind you of Jesus’ words: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” If we choose to listen to Jesus, to be balanced with the Word of God in all we do, it can never be taken from us.