by Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “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. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So 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?”
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
—John 11:1-45 (NRSV)
This morning we are talking about waiting. It seems we do a lot of that but I suppose we are doing even more of that these days. So here’s a funny to start the conversation.
Three fellows were sitting in the waiting room of the hospital where their wives had gone into labor and the nurse walked out and said to the fellow sitting closest to the door, “Congratulations sir, you’re the new father of twins!”
The man replied, “How about that, I work for the Doublemint Chewing Gum Company.” The man then followed the nurse to his wife’s room.
About an hour later, the same nurse entered the waiting room and announced that Mr. Smith’s wife had just had triplets. Mr. Smith stood up and said, “Well, how do you like that, I work for the 3M Company.”
At that same moment the third fellow got up and started to leave. When the nurse asked him why he was leaving, he remarked, “I think I need a breath of fresh air. I work for 7-UP.”
Personally, I hate waiting, for anything. Folks who know me really well recognize that I am more than a little impatient. I try not to be as it’s a particularly unwelcome trait for a priest but there you go. Nobody’s perfect. But then after all these years together you are well aware of many of my imperfections.
Sometimes waiting is just a nuisance and sometimes what you are waiting for is so important that your heart is in your throat by the time the waiting is over. One of the things we all have to do occasionally is wait in a line. These days, even more often than in the past, we are made stand in line. I have now seen on two occasions incredibly long lines of people waiting to get into Costco. So, I thought I would do a little research on the subject of waiting.
Americans spend an estimated 37 billion hours waiting in line each year. On the other hand internet users are an amazingly impatient bunch. They are willing to wait an average of only two seconds for what they are seeking to arrive. After 5 seconds the abandonment rate is 25% and by 10 seconds half are gone.
When we are unoccupied the time seems to go slower. Therefore, waiting in line with nothing to do seems to make the time seem to almost come to a standstill. This promotes impatience, stress, and anxiety. So what do we see these days when people are waiting in line? They are looking at their cell phones.
On the other hand, what if we used these times to take a break and promote our inner peace and happiness? The Japanese have a term called “ma” which refers to a gap, a pause or negative space between things. Thinking about that concept can lead us to use these lulls in our lives for our inner benefit.
Here are some ideas about waiting in line. Smile at somebody. Take a look around and become aware of your surroundings while settling into the space. Let someone who is in a rush cut in front of you. Make a mental list of things you are grateful for. Take some deep breaths. Daydream. Send a kind thought to someone you love. Pray.
But then there are times of waiting that are excruciating. Most of us have experienced them. You have your own examples that are occurring to you right now. Today’s gospel story is one of those, I think.
It’s that famous story of Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life. We have all seen it on TV and at the movies. No decent Bible flick would be without it. But like in all the miracle stories much gets overlooked. One of those things in this story is the waiting.
In the gospel story Jesus has been asked to visit his sick friend Lazarus. When asked to come Jesus said that he would be ok, that he wasn’t going to die. By that we are led to understand that Lazarus wasn’t going to die.
But he did.
This is the first century. If Lazarus is sick, it’s serious. There are no drugs, no vaccines, no antibiotics. If you picked up a virus or another type of bug as often as not you were in deep trouble. Think coronavirus on steroids.
Now consider Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus and two of Jesus’ best friends. They have had Jesus in their home. They have witnessed some of his miracles. They know he is incredibly special, that God works through him.
Martha and Mary were positive that Jesus would be able to heal their brother. Can you imagine their disappointment when it is relayed back to them that Jesus said he was going to wait to visit them? What! Wait? He is going to die if you wait!
And he does die.
Can you imagine their sense of loss? Can you imagine their regret and, honestly, their anger with Jesus? Please remember the resurrection hadn’t happened yet. The immortality of Lazarus was not assured. The story hasn’t been written. Game, match, set, done. His life is over.
Finally, Jesus did get there. The mourning was in full swing. Martha met Jesus as he approached. Her words were accusatory. I can hear the tone in her voice. “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.”
Imagine her state of mind. Was she ready to dump Jesus? Had she lost faith in him? Was she angry with him? Was her grief magnified because she knew Jesus had delayed coming, that the death of her brother was unnecessary?
And then Jesus started to weep.
Weeping comes from deep inside. It comes from empathy, compassion, and grief. We are told that Jesus was deeply moved, disturbed in spirit. Jesus, who is the physical manifestation of God, is not some far removed deity, but rather a God that cares deeply, is moved to tears, and empathizes deeply with our pain.
And so we hear the rest of the story. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life. And I think it’s worth asking an important question. Why? Why did he do that?
The first answer is his great compassion. He was deeply troubled by the grief his friends were feeling. He cared deeply about their pain. It was the same compassion he had felt for the woman who had lost her husband and then her son and was alone in a first century world. He brought that woman’s son back to life too if you will recall.
But I don’t think love and compassion are the final reason he did what he did. You see pain and loss are never the end in God’s world. Resurrection is the end in God’s world. We are a people of resurrection, not resuscitation. People suffer a loss they think they cannot recover from but they do and enter a new life. We reach the end of our lives here on earth but find life isn’t over, only changed.
This pandemic is a great opportunity for all of us. We are all waiting for Jesus to get here, just as Martha and Mary were. But our time isn’t God’s time. Our ways are not God’s ways. Yet this we do know. Hang on. Jesus is going to get here. His tears are real for us are real. And we will have resurrection, new life. It’s how things are done in the Kingdom of God. It’s going to be ok.