10:30 am, Sun, March 26, 2023 - JGWhite / FBCA
(Ezek 37:1-14; Jn 11:1-45)
Life and death. This is a
matter for religion, as well as other disciplines. We are coming to prime time
in the year for looking death in the face. Good Friday and Easter are on the
horizon. Today, we went to scripture for two scenes of death, and life after
death. The famous ‘valley of dry bones’ is a vision the Hebrew prophet Elijah
had, at a time when the whole nation was destroyed, and many of the people were
captives. The story of Jesus and Lazarus is a dramatic miracle story that John
the evangelist tells us. In it, we have now famous words, such as, “I am the
resurrection and the life. …everyone who lives and believes in me will never
die. Do you believe this?”
If I were to survey us, here
today, about our beliefs on the afterlife, I’m sure I’d hear a wide variety of
thoughts. I have been hearing many things for years, just from faithful people
in Baptist pews. I remember Leota, who at Bible study would say she did not
think we would recognize other people in Heaven. I remember Ruthe, who confided
to me that she disliked funerals because of all the talk about eternal life
– she didn’t believe in it. I remember Blair, who prayed at Bible study for the
salvation of the Deacons and other members of the Official Board of the Church,
presumably because he thought some might still be destined for hell.
125 years ago, two large Baptist
groups of Churches in the Maritimes were talking about joining together – and
they did unite, naming themselves United Baptists. In our official
statement called The Basis of Union, we declared this about death: At
death our bodies return to dust, our souls to God who gave them. The righteous
being then perfected in happiness are received to dwell with God, awaiting the
full redemption of their bodies. The wicked are cast into Hades reserved unto
the judgement of the great day. And about the Judgment, it says, There
will be a judgement of quick and dead, of the just and unjust, on the
principles of righteousness, by the Lord Jesus Christ, at His second coming.
The wicked will be condemned to eternal punishment, and the righteous received
into fullness of eternal life and joy.
Plenty more could be said about
what Baptists believed and taught, back then. Now, more than 120 years later,
ways of understanding the afterlife, and of putting it into words, have
diversified. There are a variety of teachings on how the afterlife works within
Christianity, not to mention among Baptists, just as there was more than one
thing taught and believed in Judaism, even back in the time of Jesus. The
Jewish group called the Pharisees believed that there was a resurrection to
happen, one day, for those who had died. The Jewish group called the Sadducees
did not believe in such life-after-death, not to mention believing in angels,
or maybe even human spirits.
Looking back to all the talk of
death John gives us in the Lazarus story, I find so many viewpoints, questions,
hopes and fears. Just take a peek, with me… First, there is the experience of
expecting a death, or not expecting it. “This illness does not lead to
death” Jesus said, about his friend in Bethany. In our lives, we have the
question of is someone going to die of this? What a big question mark in
our lives.
We see in John 11 the threat of
being killed, something we can hear in the news every day, if we listen
to it. 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to
stone you, and are you going there again?” Here is the threat of being killed
by enemies. And Jesus made some!
We see in this story how people
face death head on. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15
For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go
to him.” 16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let
us also go, that we may die with him.”
When Jesus used the term, ‘fell
asleep’ about their friend, the disciples didn’t get it. Lazarus was dead.
I am a person who prefers to use the word, ‘died,’ instead of ‘passed away.’ If
I die, don’t put in my obituary ‘Jeffrey George White passed away.’ Please say
I ‘died.’
So, to the town of Lazarus Jesus
and his disciples will go – which is where Jesus had been threatened. So,
Thomas, bravely, says, ‘let’s go and face death too.’ We don’t often face
people who we expect might kill us. Others in this world do.
Next we see the big question that
nags us in the face of death. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had
been here, my brother would not have died.” A bit later, when her sister,
Mary, meets up with Jesus, she says the exact same thing. And later, some of
those standing by wonder why this miracle worker had not prevented Lazarus from
dying in the first place. Here are the ‘what ifs.’ So often, in death, there
are ‘what ifs.’ If only I had been there. If only they had gone to the doctor sooner.
If only they had not been in that place at that exact time. If,
if, if.
Another issue around or mortality
is simply: what is death? How final is it? 25 Jesus said to [Martha],
“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they
die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do
you believe this?” Some of what He
says can sound like contradictions. Here again is the question of when is death
death? When is it final, when is it not? An old hymn speaks of: Death of
death and hell’s destruction.
Land me save on Canaan’s side.
Billy Graham used to say, in
sermons, “The death rate is still very high. 100%!” Maybe death counts and is
final, sometimes, but could also not count, not matter anymore?
Then for us, there is how death
impacts us, even if we feel confident our beloved one will be OK, and we will
be with them again. 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he
loved him!” Here is an expression of real grief that goes with loosing
someone through death. Even with Lazarus about to come back to life, Jesus is
visibly upset, even angry, as well as tearful.
Of course, there is the key
question of eternal life. What is it, really? 44 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.” Life after death. It
happens. Apparently. Some people are not expecting it, not looking for it. And
the raising of Lazarus is not quite the same as the rising of Jesus – who we
think can never ever die again.
We are in a place – in a
congregation – for sharing our spirituality and growing together in our
understanding. The vision of the Valley of Dry Bones was, for Elijah, a message
of hope not to individuals, but to the whole people of Israel,
scattered as they were, away from their Promised Land. And it was a dream
sequence, a parable or sorts, seen before his eyes. It was not saying that a
large group of dead Hebrews would be coming back to life. It was telling that
the lost and scattered nation was going to live, going to get back to their
land, going to be together, going to be free to worship God and be a light to
the nations around them.
I know some believers now take
the story of Lazarus, raised to life, and that of Jesus – alive after being
crucified, dead and buried – and hear hope for more than individual people. Resurrection
is for groups, it is for people who have not died yet, it is for families that
had been broken. It is for so many and so much.
Some of you who go back in this
church fifty years know of whom I speak when I tell of a man whose fiancé
suddenly died in a car accident just before their wedding. Years later, that
man spoke of ‘resurrection’ when he told of his dearest friends, who took him
that summer and travelled with him, and spent a lot of time with him, and got
him moved to a new church where he was due to move. Roger called it resurrection.
Thanks be to God. I could say: God
alone resurrects. Yet God does not do this alone. Relationship is needed. When
Ezekiel prophesied to the dry bones, God put flesh and skin on them, and
breath into them, yes. But Ezekiel had his part to play in the vision. When
Jesus raised Lazarus, in was in the context of the family, and the tears of the
community. And, Jesus prayed to His Father God. Their communication was part of
the moment.
“I am the resurrection and the
life,” said Christ. ‘When you die, you will live. When you put your hopes in
me, you will never die.’ “Do you believe this?”
Artwork by C. W. Shelley and Cynthia McCarthy.
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