Lent 2011 - Online RetreatPart 5: We live in the LordOpen the bible and light a candle beside it. Recall the names of people you love who have died. Pray Romans 8.11:
The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us.
The one who raised Christ from the dead will bring our mortal bodies to life through the dwelling of the spirit in us.
When we bury those we love,
we lose all they learned in their lives - the quickness of their
fingers on a violin, their mastery of physics, their wisdom in
relationships, the way the holy showed through in their kindness. What
lives on? Every death raises questions about its meaning and makes of
our graves places where faith must begin.
Our graves call the
question - what do I believe about God? People's accounts of near-death
experiences hint at what lies beyond but no one returns to tell.
Sometimes the veil between worlds seems thin. We experience our loved
ones intensely present with us.
None of us knows what lies beyond death. We have only our experience of God in our world and in our holy history.
Christians
are companions in hope that the God who creates and sustains the world
will raise us up. We are companions in hope that the new life Jesus
promises will be our own. We live in promise not certainty. We walk with
Jesus, who did not sidestep death but trusted the God he experienced
beloving and inspiriting him.
Jesus grieves in Sunday's gospel
with three people he loves. His friends Martha and Mary believe Jesus
could have saved their brother Lazarus, but he didn't come in time. The
gospel sets a scene familiar: two sisters stand at their brother's
grave with a friend.
Before what graves have you stood and asked as Martha and Mary do, "Why didn't you save the one we love?"
What do you think resurrection promises?
Gospel: Jesus is resurrection and life.NARRATOR:
There was a man named Lazarus, who was sick. He was from Bethany, the
village of Mary and her sister Martha. The sisters sent word to Jesus
to inform him, "Lord, the one you love is sick."
JESUS: This sickness will not end in death; rather it is for God's glory, that through it the Son of God may be glorified.
NARRATOR:
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus very much. Yet, after
hearing that Lazarus was sick, Jesus stayed on where he was for two days
more. Finally he said to his disciples:
JESUS: Let us go back to Judea.
NARRATOR:
When Jesus arrived in Bethany, he found Lazarus had already been in the
tomb four days. The village was not far from Jerusalem - just under two
miles - and many Jewish people had come out to console Martha and Mary
over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to
meet him, while Mary sat at home.
MARTHA: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would never had died. Even now I am sure that God will give you whatever you ask.
JESUS: Your brother will rise again.
MARTHA: I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.
JESUS:
I am the resurrection and the life: whoever believes in me, though they
die, will come to life; and whoever is alive and believes in me will
never die. Do you believe this?
MARTHA: Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the messiah, the Son of God: he who is to come into the world.
NARRATOR: When she had said this, Martha went back and called her sister Mary.
MARTHA: The Teacher is here, asking for you.
NARRATOR:
As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and started out in his
direction. Actually Jesus had not yet come into the village but was
still at the spot where Martha had met him. The Jews who were in the
house with Mary saw her get up quickly and go out, so they followed her,
thinking she was going to the tomb to weep. When Mary came to the
place where Jesus was, she fell at his feet.
MARY: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would never have died.
NARRATOR:
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had accompanied her also
weeping, he was troubled in spirit, moved by the deepest emotions.
JESUS: Where have you lain him?
ALL: Lord, come and see.
NARRATOR: Jesus began to weep.
MOURNERS 1: See how much he loved Lazarus
MOURNERS 2: He opened the eyes of the blind man. Why could he not have done something to stop this man from dying?
NARRATOR: Troubled in spirit, Jesus approached the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across it.
JESUS: Take away the stone.
MARTHA: Lord, it has been four days now; surely there will be a stench.
JESUS: Did I not assure you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God displayed?
NARRATOR: They took away the stone, and Jesus looked upward.
JESUS:
Father, I thank you for having heard me. I know that you always hear
me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd, that they may
believe that you sent me. Lazarus, come out.
NARRATOR: The dead man came out, bound hand and foot with linen strips, and his face wrapped in a cloth.
JESUS: Untie him and let him go free.
NARRATOR: Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and saw what Jesus did put their faith in him.
John 11.1-7, 17-45
Martha believes Jesus is the Messiah.Like
the Samaritan woman and the man born blind, Martha and Mary speak as
individuals but also as representatives of the Christian community that
gives us John's gospel. Between Jesus' death and resurrection (AD 30)
and the writing of John's Gospel (AD 80-100), this community told and
lived Jesus' story. The cycle-A Lenten gospels show us that this early
community faced its own later conflicts by reflecting on events in
Jesus' life.
The story of the raising of Lazarus is like a
double-exposed photo. The miracle is one exposure, a a tradition from
Jesus' lifetime, in which the relationship between Jesus and Lazarus is
the focus.
The dialogue between Jesus and Martha is the second
exposure. This conversation reflects on what Christians believe about
the relationship between the crucified and risen Jesus and disciples
facing death in the late first century.
When Martha and Mary each
meet Jesus, they say the same thing, "Lord, if you had been here, my
brother would never have died." The repetition tells us this statement
is important.
Martha and Mary raise a question in the life of the
early Christian community in which many expected Jesus to return in
glory within their lifetimes. Jesus' delay in the story provides the
reason for his dialogue with Martha, who speaks the faith of the
community that experienced this delay in history. Her brother's death
tests and transforms Martha's faith.
What questions about death do I have?
In
reflecting on Lazarus's death, the death of someone Jesus loves, the
community remembers Jesus himself suffered death and transformed its
meaning. The gospel inextricably links Lazarus's death with Jesus'
death, and Lazarus's new life with the promise of Jesus' resurrection.
Jesus'
journey to Bethany takes him just two miles from Jerusalem, where
mourners quickly carry the news Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead
to the high priests. These officials immediately convoke the Sanhedrin
and decide to kill Jesus (John 11.46-53).
This chapter that tells
the story of Jesus' raising of Lazarus ends with the officials deciding
Jesus must die. When he weeps with Martha and Mary over the death of
their brother and his friend, Jesus stands at the door of his own
grave. Raising Lazarus sets his passion in motion. Jesus leads Lazarus
and all his disciples through death to life.
When or for whom have I put my life at risk?
As
her conversation with Jesus begins, Martha believes Lazarus would not
have died if Jesus had been there. To her, Jesus is someone who cures
illness and has a special closeness to God that will get him whatever he
asks. She believes in a wonderworker.
When Jesus says, "Your
brother will rise again," Martha thinks he is talking about resurrection
on the last day. This is faith that Jesus is the apocalyptic figure
who will bring good to triumph on the last day. Early Christians
expected this day in their lifetimes.
But Jesus calls Martha to a
deeper faith. "I am the resurrection and the life," He says. "The one
who believes in me if he or she dies, will live." Jesus' words say that
he is I Am. This is the name of God in the Old Testament. Jesus calls
Martha to believe he is God. He is one with the giver of life. He who
was crucified is the one whom God raised up. He is the resurrection,
the risen one who died to extend God's promise of eternal life to us.
The
crucified messiah is the one who claims Martha's heart, not the miracle
worker or apocalyptic judge. "Yes, Lord," she says, "I believe that you
are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world."
She confesses the faith of later disciples who have reflected on all the
scriptures say about Jesus and who have faced the death of their loved
ones. The raising of Lazarus manifests God's same life-giving power
that raises Jesus himself from the dead and makes the grave a threshold
of divine promises for every Christian.
Practically in our lives,
the time above all to make Martha's confession is at the graves of our
loved ones. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. The gospel calls
us to find the ultimate meaning of our lives in the mystery of Jesus'
story, in the light he gives to life, in the hope he gives in death.
What helps me believe God can and will raise us up when we are in pain? When we face death?
What do I say to someone suffering the pain of a child or spouse dying?
Who is Jesus at this point in your faith journey?PrayConclude
your reflection on the Sunday scriptures. Name a sign of spring that
makes you personally aware new life is waking from winter death or
dormancy.
God who creates and sustains all life.
We are made in your image and likeness.
God of spirit and truth.
You call us into communion beyond our borders.
Jesus, light of the world.
We walk in the light of your life.
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