When I was taking classes at Virginia Theological, I had a professor who was the retired bishop of Bethlehem, PA. He was a very interesting guy and had taught at Yale and Gordon seminaries as well. He told us an interesting story about a mission trip they took with some seminarians to India. The mission trip was to work with the Sisters at a convent. This convent had a ministry to the dying poor. In the US, we tend to die in hospitals or in the care of hospice at home. In some places the desperately poor don’t have access to hospitals or things like hospice. People who are ill may be shunned and be alone. Think of lepers described in the Bible.
So the ministry of this convent is to make a clean set of garments for each dying person and to comfort and care for people in their last days. They would wash poor dying people with no one to care for them. These sisters gave the dying dignity. They gave them clean new clothes. They gave the dying a hand to hold and let them know they were loved. Someone was there for them.
One challenge is that the people checking in at the convent speak Bengali or Hindi. The seminarians did not, and the seminarians at Gordon were of an evangelical bent. One of them asked one of the sisters, “Why comfort people who are not saved? Shouldn’t we be telling them about Jesus so they don’t burn in Hell? How can we do that if we can’t even speak their language?”
The sister explained that the best they could do was be non-verbal witnesses to the love that Jesus has for us. They said that when one of these people died and stood before the judgment seat, they wanted him or her to be able to see Jesus and say, “Oh wait, I think I have met you before.” It was all they had.
The seminarian at Gordon had a specific understanding of salvation. He is making assumptions about his call and salvation. He was ready to quit the mission work because it did not validate his vision. I claim Jesus had work for him to do. It just did not look like the work he wanted to do. Things don’t look the way he wants, and he is ready to call it quits.
Hold that thought.
Yesterday I attended a funeral at a Roman Catholic church in South Bend. The mother of one of my colleagues at the Academies had died. In many ways it was sad for this to be the context for my crossing paths with her again, but I had been reflecting on death and resurrection all week since they are in the readings. In today’s Gospel reading Jesus hears of the death of Lazarus, and the Scripture tells us that “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.”
Now there is a temptation to tell people who have suffered a loss that we know exactly how they feel. The fact is that relationships are complex. Just because someone has lost a mother does not mean that I will know how they feel just because my mother died too. I think that someone who has suffered a loss of this sort has a better chance of appreciating the issues though. We get to see a very human side of Jesus as he grieves with Mary and Martha. The Gospel tells us that “Jesus began to weep.” None of us knows exactly what Jesus was feeling here, but we have all experienced moments like this.
I would like to point out that if anyone believed in the resurrection, it was Jesus. Jesus believed in the resurrection, and He cried in response to the death of his friend Lazarus. This suggests that it is not “unChristian” to grieve. If Jesus did it, it is n
ot a sign that we lack faith or anything. It is tough to lose someone we love, and here we are on All Saints’ Day remembering the saints of the Church. We also remember those who were saints to us. We remember those we love who have died. With those memories there is necessarily sorrow. One of the points in the Scripture is that this grief is OK.
Grief eventually turns to sorrow. The hope of the resurrection can help us with this process. We understand and believe that we will be resurrected in new and perfected bodies. My mother died in 1995, and I miss her, but I have every confidence that I will see her again. This is a comfort to me. My loss is not permanent, and my mother is not gone forever.
The reading from Revelation talks about a new heaven and new earth. We are not the only ones who are redeemed. Our world is perfected as well, and we get a glimpse of it from time to time. C.S. Lewis writes in the Last Battle about Aslan’s Country which is exactly like our world only perfect. This is what we have to look forward to, and it is a source of hope as well. All things will be made new.
We know people will continue to die. Jesus knows it too. Our prayer book has the beautiful words “In the midst of life we are in death” in the liturgy for Christian burial. The thing is that we will continue to find death in the midst of life. We will also find life in the midst of death. Those who die will live again. This is Christian teaching and it is why that the funeral service is an Easter liturgy. We are celebrating the resurrection even if it may not seem like it at the time.
I would like us to look for a moment at what Mary says to Jesus at the beginning of today’s reading. Mary says “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” I think this is such a common response that we don’t even reflect on it. How many people hold up evil or suffering in the world as evidence that Jesus is not present? Something bad happens and they decide to quit going to church.
How could the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center have taken place if Jesus lives and loves us? This is really what Mary and Martha are asking. They assume Jesus was absent from the situation. We know that Jesus is present to us in the form of the Holy Spirit. We know because we have read the backstory that Jesus was aware of what was happening in Bethany and waited two days before he left. Jesus was on top of things, and he had a plan with Lazarus. It was not that he didn’t care or was too busy to be involved.
God is not distant and reserved. God is close. He cares for us. He can grieve with us because he knows what it is like to lose a loved one. This morning’s Scripture tells us that the time is coming when God will wipe away every tear from our eyes and when even death itself will be defeated. We know this, and we hear it read in church. Not everyone believes it though. Some people see tragedy in the world or have some event in their lives that convinces them not to believe.
So people ask, “Where is God?” The answer is “with us.” God was there when the towers fell on September 11. We may not understand how, but God was there. God is there in the midst of suffering. He is there with those in pain.
Was God working through the seminarians in Calcutta? Was he present to those dying in the convent? God was there. We want things to fit our vision and God has another one.
Jesus knew suffering and he knew loss. Jesus knows what it feels like to experience the death of a loved one. Jesus calls “Lazarus, come out!” I think Jesus is calling out to Mary and Martha too. He is calling out to each of us. Grief is real, but we can’t be stuck in the grave. We have to come out of grief at some point, and Jesus gives us hope. We have hope in the resurrection. We have faith that all things will be made new. We believe that we will see loved ones again.
So I read this Gospel, and I see Jesus telling Mary, Martha and each of us to get over ourselves and our situation. It is not just Lazarus, although he was told as well. Jesus is telling Mary and Martha they can’t get stuck in their grief. The Gordon seminarian can’t get stuck on the Sinner’s Prayer when he needs to pick up a sponge and wipe someones brow.
Jesus gives us hope.
God is with us, especially when we suspect He is not.
We need to get over ourselves and have faith in God’s plan.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Sermon preached by Fr. Tom at St. Thomas, Plymouth
November 1, 2015;
All Saints Day – Year B
Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-9
Psalm 24
Revelation 21:1-6a
John 11:32-44