Today’s #LentArt is the piece I also used as the thumbnail for today’s online Circuit Service available on South & Central Belfast Methodist’s YouTube Channel, and I shamelessly am using material from that service as the basis of this slightly longer blog post today. So for those of you who have heard/read this before in different forms forgive me. But first a brief comment regarding the piece of art itself which is "The raising of Lazarus" by John Reilly from the Methodist Church Modern Art Collection. It caught my attention, not only because I am very familiar with the collection itself, but also because it both echoes some ancient renderings of this scene, but is also unashamedly contemporary in focus, and the swirl within which all the action takes place is reminiscent of the global and personal whirlwind that covid-19 has created. For today’s service we shortened the prescribed gospel passage that this illustrates and Barry and Claire Forde delivered it as a dialogue
Voice 1: On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was less than two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
Voice 2: ‘Lord,’ Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.’
Voice 1: Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’
Voice 2: Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’
Voice 1: Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?’
Voice 2: ‘Yes, Lord,’ she replied, ‘I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’
Voice 1: When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said,
Voice 2: ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’
Voice 1: When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked.
Voice 2: ‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied.
Voice 1: Jesus wept.
Voice 2: Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’
Voice 1: Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ‘Take away the stone,’ he said.
Voice 2: ‘But, Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odour, for he has been there four days.’
Voice 1: Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?’
Voice 2: So they took away the stone.
Voice 1: Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’
Voice 2: The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth round his face.
Voice 1: Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go.’
Voice 2: Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
John 11: 17-27, 32-45 (NIVUK)
Why did he delay? Does he not care? Is he more concerned with himself than the loss of others? What about the bigger picture?
These are questions that people have been asking about policy makers in recent weeks across many jurisdictions including our own. They are also questions that can validly be asked by people within and about this gospel episode. This story and todays Old Testament passage from Ezekiel about the “Valley of Dry Bones” from the lectionary for today, also both raise issues about the power of God and life and death that we dare not deal glibly with at this time.
Immediately before the passage above John tells us that Jesus delayed 2 days after hearing that Lazarus was sick. He said “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”
Those words aren’t exactly pastorally sensitive and had he said them in the current age of twitter and copy editors, then might have come across like some of Boris Johnston’s earlier comments about taking this current crisis on the chin and many of President Trump’s less comforting statements and tweets.
There is, however, a sense of Jesus seeing a bigger picture at play… And we do hope and pray that political leaders and their advisors, however their public statements may come across, do have both a more informed and strategic idea of what is happening. And if they don’t… or have a misinformed, or even malign approach… We know that God has a bigger picture still… and has a power beyond that of any human leader…
But for most of us, however much we may think we are better informed and would respond better than those in charge… Our actual sphere of influence is much more limited and the impact of the crisis is much more focused… Just as many of us have been confined to our houses and back gardens, these global issues come down to the impact that they have on us and ours… Our jobs, our families, our very lives…
And so it was with Martha, Mary and Lazarus… At the end of the day Martha believed in the big picture idea that Lazarus would, like other, rise again at the last day, she believed that Jesus was the Messiah…
But what really mattered to her that Lazarus was dead NOW… Mary who had previously earned Jesus’ praise for sitting at his feet listening to him, threw herself at the feet of Jesus in despair, saying, like her sister, that had Jesus been there Lazarus would not have died… Jesus doesn’t point out that isn’t necessarily the case… we are told of many healings and a couple of apparent acts of resurrection before this, but the gospels make clear that Jesus did not heal or prevent death in every situation where he was present… There is nothing in the gospels to say that the death toll in Capernaum and other places where Jesus taught were unusually low for the time that he was there…
But Jesus doesn’t enter into any sort of discussion with Mary… he simply asks to see her brothers’ tomb and according to that famously short verse, Jesus wept…
Now I regularly use this story at gravesides, but usually stop there… Reminding people that Jesus still weeps with those who stand by loved ones graves… And in coming weeks if restrictions get tougher we need to remember that he still stands and weeps with those who cannot go to their loved ones bedside as they die, or to the crematorium, or perhaps even to a graveside…
I usually stop there… because going on to tell of the story of this amazing resurrection in the face of grief might be seen as crass. I always refer to it, but reminding those present that Lazarus’ resurrection was only ever a temporary reprieve… And that it is only in the light of Jesus’ own resurrection that we can look to something more permanent that deals with death and mourning forever… But we are still in Lent… we’re not at even at Good Friday yet and the peak darkness that brings, never mind the hope that is ours in that Easter Dawn…
A couple of writers, offering a different perspective on this story, have asked what Lazarus felt like in being restored to life… was he fully restored once the grave-clothes were off him? Was he really glad to be back? Certainly his sisters would have been glad to see him… And we are told that many, unsurprisingly, believed because of this miracle, or sign as John calls it… Although if we were to read on we would discover that this sign was one of the final straws that convinced the religious leaders that they had to get rid of this trouble maker, Jesus…
Different people have different perspectives…
What's yours? Fearful? Despairing? Angry? In denial?
Or a perspective shaped by the hope of new life that God offers us in Christ?
Or a perspective shaped by the hope of new life that God offers us in Christ?
PRAYER (written by Leah McKibben, Student Minister)
Blessed are you, Lord our God,
For in your Son Jesus Christ
You have triumphed over darkness and death
And opened to us the way to eternal life.
Through Christ our Saviour
You have given us new hope and joy.
As we rejoice in his presence
May we give glory to you.
Blessed are you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Loving God, we pray for all who express your love in the way they care for others.
We pray for all doctors, nurses, paramedics, key workers, social workers, carers and good neighbours. For those putting themselves in danger to ensure the care of others. For those who are burnt out, worried, and striving for justice.
We ask for your blessing and provision, your strengthening and guidance.
Loving God, hear us and help us.
Lord, bless our homes and our loved ones.
May we show respect and care for the world around us
And not be caught up with selfishness and greed.
Help us through our love for each other
To reveal your love in the world.
Loving God, hear us and help us.
We give thanks that through Jesus
We can walk with confidence and hope.
We ask your blessing upon all who struggle
In darkness and fear,
All who feel lost
And those who are captives to vice and sin.
We remember friends and loved ones who are ill – those who are feeling the effects of the Coronavirus, and those with ongoing health problems
And all the struggling people of our world.
Loving God, hear us and help us.
Lord God, we ask your blessing
Upon all leaders of nations and peoples.
We pray for your guidance
In the decisions they make this week
Concerning the well-being of the world
And of the communities they serve.
We remember before you
All who strive for justice and peace in our world.
We pray for those who are called to share in ministry and in pastoral care
Those who seek out the lost and lonely.
Loving God, hear us and help us.
Lord, you care for us in life and in death
And you offer us life eternal.
We commend our loved ones departed to you.
May we come one day with them
To share in the fullness of your glory.
Merciful Father,
Accept these prayers
For the sake of your Son,
Our Saviour Jesus Christ.
AMEN
Shalom
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