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Sermon on Lazarus

SERMON ON LAZARUS

THE BIG SECOND CHANCE!

TEXT: READINGS IN JOHN

 

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Today the Gospel lesson is the story of Jesus and some of his best friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. The setting is a sad one. Lazarus is terribly ill and his friends send for Jesus for comfort and perhaps healing. Here is the Gospel Drama Group to give their interpretation.

HOW TO READ MIRACLE STORIES IN A SCIENTIFIC AGE
I went down to the Sunday school open house last week and was talking to Kathy LoBuglio about how to teach these miracle stories-especially something like bringing a dead person back to life. Some of the kids are a little skeptical; others are used to tales of magic and mystery and take them at face value. How do we hold both of these realities for the children (and, for that matter, for adults.) Kathy's solution, which I thought was very wise, was to allow for both possibilities-perhaps they happened just as they are told and perhaps they are symbolic stories.

I come down more on the symbolic side of things but many of my colleagues and parishioners take a different tack, and that's just fine. Scripture interpretation is a big tent indeed.

JOHN IS A SYMBOLIC GOSPEL
One of the reasons I choose to look at today's text as a symbolic story, is that this is John's style. John is the most mystical and metaphorical of the Gospels writers.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke emphasize Jesus' earthly/earthy life. The show him as what Marcus Borg calls, a "God intoxicated" spirit guide slogging about in the rocks and seashore of Galilee, bringing good news to the poor, trying to get his reluctant disciples to catch his spirit, and finally dying for his message of love. John is written later in the history of the early church probably around 90 to 100 CE. Although John makes it clear that Jesus was fully human, he emphasizes the divine aspects of his nature and presents him as a teacher of deep theological wisdom (Jesus talks more in John than in any of the other books). John's Jesus is a most exalted being-pre-existent with God before the world began-"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." As Krister Stendahl puts it, "In the Gospel of John, Jesus' feet hardly touch the ground."

None of the Gospels is biography. They all are collections of Jesus stories whose purpose is to bear witness to the meaning of Jesus in the lives of believers. John emphasizes Jesus as a divine figure, a rival to the god/emperors of the Roman conquerors.

I believe that first and second century Christians were not as literal-minded as we are. They lived in a world of mystery, paradox, legend, and myth. They could hear these narratives and be nourished by them. They were not troubled by empiricism that dismissed these deep stories because they might not be factual.

Lazarus offers us an intensely gripping tale. You notice the detail about how very dead he was-dead to the point of decomposition. As the King James Bible puts it, "He stinketh." But Jesus pulls him back from the depths of the grave. This is right out of the "Dawn of the Undead." I wish you could have seen the emails the drama troop were sending each other about how to stage it.

Oh, yes, coming back from the dead is the miracle of all miracles. As Woody Allen commented: When people gather around my casket, the words I most want them to say about me are, "Look, he's moving!"

Now, you have to admit, if something like that happened in real life, it would be not only good news but big news! And yet, the other Gospel writers do not refer to it. That is one bit of evidence that makes scholars believe that John intends for us to read this story metaphorically rather than historically.

My own belief is based on something more mundane than that. It is the image of Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb. "Come out!" And Lazarus comes out. But his feet are tightly bound together in linen cloth as you see on the cover of the bulletin today. How does he get out of the tomb? Andrea referred to it as the "Lazarus bunny hop." There is something so comical in that image that it mitigates against my taking it literally.

LAZARUS IS RAISED FOR THE GLORY OF GOD. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
The meaning of the Lazarus story cannot be, "If you have enough faith and you are lucky enough to have Jesus as a best friend, he can bring you back from a stinking grave and you'll go back to business as usual." We are told that Lazarus is raised for God's glory, not for the satisfaction of his sisters or for his own pleasure.

In the Gospel of John, God's "glory" is revealed through Christ's death and resurrection. Is this the glory that is in store for Lazarus too? Maybe.

We will later learn that Lazarus is targeted for death along with Jesus because he is living evidence of Jesus' power-a threat to the authorities. So the poor guy gets raised from one death only to face another-maybe even a horribly painful execution.

JESUS DID NOT COME TO RESCUE US OR KEEP US SAFE
This is the exact opposite of the lesson drawn from a superficial reading of the text. Jesus did not come to rescue us from dying or keep us safe and comfortable. Jesus came so that we can face the worst life can hand us, yes, even death, with courage and confidence.

God's power over death is not the ability to resuscitate a corpse. God's power over death is that God can impart resurrection and life to each of us. Now. In this existence we can be dragged out of a dark grave and unbound to live fearlessly as God intended. As theologian Sally McFague puts it, God is on the side of life and its fulfillment.

LAZARUS LAUGHED

In Eugene O'Neill's play, "Lazarus Laughed," all his friends and neighbors gather around Lazarus and ask what it was like being dead. Lazarus laughs and tells them that death is God's light and life and joy. As he tells this story to friends and neighbors, the laughter spreads. Soon the entire village bubbles over with laughter. But the Roman authorities become alarmed. The key to controlling people is to intimidate them with the threat of death. Without fear of death, conquered people are, in fact, free people. "I am the resurrection and the life." Now.


ARCHBISHIP OSCAR ROMERO ~ A LAZARUS FIGURE
Archbishop Oscar Romero is a perfect Lazarus figure. He began as a conservative cleric, a trusted ally to the repressive political structure of El Salvador. But Christ freed him from the bonds of safety and convention and he was raised up as a influential advocate for the poor. And then Romero raised up his voice against the powerful, raised his hand in solidarity with the protesters. As a result, he was machine-gunned to death by a right-wing death squad, who targeted him in his cathedral as he celebrated the mass. He fell at the altar, his blood mixing with the blood of Christ. But his spirit did not die. As he himself said, "I've often been threatened with death; let them kill me, I shall arise in the Salvadoran people. Let my blood be a seed of freedom." Bishop Romero, for life and its fulfillment.

FOR LIFE AND ITS FULFILLMENT IN SARAJEVO
During the siege of Sarajevo in 1992, a mortar shell destroyed the Opera theater and killed 22 people standing in a bread line. After this, for 22 days Vedran Smailovic, dressed in a formal tux, played his cello on the streets of Sarajevo, ignoring the shells and sniper bullets that continued to plague his beloved city. A CNN reporter asked him, "Aren't you crazy for playing the cello while Sarajevo is being shelled, Smailovic said, "You ask me am I crazy for playing the cello, why do you not ask if they are not crazy for shelling Sarajevo?" Vedran Smailovic, for life and its fulfillment.

COME OUT!
You can imagine the impact the Lazarus story might have in a prison. A chaplain at a state facility used Lazarus' story as he led a Bible study with inmates. I don't think you have to be incarcerated in a jail to find meaning what he did. In fact, I'm going to ask you to participate in that exercise. For a moment, be in a spirit of prayer.

Now, with your eyes closed imagine you are in the story and ask yourself:

Am I bound by something that limits my freedom? What needs to be released?

What stone needs to be rolled away?

Is Jesus asking me to help roll away a stone or unbind someone to set them free?

O God, you are the power of life and its fulfillment. We don't have to wait for Easter for this good news. The big second chance is available to us every day. Help us to come forth and claim it. Help us to be part of a community that sets the captives free. Amen.