Dear friends,
I pray this finds you well. My heart is with yours. And God is holding you close, holding you together.
I woke up this morning from a vivid dream that speaks to my grief these days. You can read my facebook post here: https://www.facebook.com/stacey.naleancarlson.
I’m happy to again be able to share with you a Sunday morning worship service in its entirety. Here’s the link to the bulletin: https://drive.google.com/
And here’s the worship service:
Many, many thanks to all who shared in worship leadership this morning!
Today’s sermon is based on the following readings:
Ezekiel 37:1-14
1The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3He said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
7So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” 10I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
11Then he said to me, “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ 12Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”
John 11:1-45
1Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4But 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.” 5Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
7Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9Jesus 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. 10But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” 11After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” 12The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” 13Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
17When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
28When 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.” 29And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31The 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. 32When 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.” 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus began to weep. 36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
38Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus 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.” 40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42I 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.” 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44The 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.”
45Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Beloved of God, grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
I first preached on this text as a senior at Luther College, a mere five months after my brother had died. I experienced, deep in my bones, the words of these sisters, Mary and Martha, as my own. Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.
Their anger was mine. Their grief was mine. Their despair was mine.
I imagine there have been times in your life when Mary and Martha have spoken for you. Times when your anger at God has been outmatched only by your sorrow. There are so many graves in which we find ourselves.
For the people God spoke to through the prophet Ezekiel, their grave was exile in Babylon. Stripped of all they had ever known, left without even hope, they were like dry bones–without life, without spirit, fallen apart, buried in a grave of shame and regret. What have we done to suffer so deeply? Can God still love us? Will God still love us? We’re bound in this grave. Will we ever get home again?
There are so many graves in which we find ourselves alive, but not living.
Our sin weighs on us. Our messed up relationships burden us. Our fear robs us of joy.
And now, in the midst of this global pandemic, as if we didn’t already have enough weighing on us in our individual lives, the whole world finds itself in yet another grave.
David Kessler, who has been described as the world’s foremost expert on grief, was recently interviewed by Harvard Business Review. He says, that right now we’re feeling a number of different griefs. We feel the world has changed, and it has. We know this is temporary, but it doesn’t feel that way, and we realize things will be different. Just as going to the airport is forever different from how it was before 9/11, things will change and this is the point at which they changed. The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air.1
Jesus, if only you had been here…
Both Martha and Mary cry out to Jesus. Remember, earlier, when Jesus is at their home and Martha is making sure their hospitality is what it should be while Mary simply sits at the feet of Jesus and listens to him? The two sisters have different ways of operating in the world and as a result have had different experiences of Jesus. And yet, both cry out to him in their grief. Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.
Even Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus and soaked up his every word cannot be silent when it comes to her profound grief. Her faith does not prevent her from feeling anger at God. It doesn’t insulate her from hopelessness. It doesn’t protect her from despair.
Martha believes her brother will rise again in the resurrection, but her hope is a long way off. It isn’t a hope for this life. It isn’t a hope for here and now. Jesus says to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Me. The one standing here beside you. The one who loves you. The one who loves your brother.
I am the resurrection and the life, which is to say that resurrection and life are here now. Even now. Especially now in this place of death, in this grave of grief, in this valley of dry bones.
Jesus doesn’t speak to Mary in the same way he speaks to Martha. In fact, he doesn’t say a word in response to her accusation. Instead, Jesus acts. Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, and he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He himself began to weep.
And if the story had ended here maybe it would be enough.
Jesus shows up at our graves of grief and fear and shame and regret. Jesus shows up for you and he weeps alongside you. He’s moved by your sorrow. Your tears are his own; your anger at death is his own. And somehow that’s enough.
And maybe, most of the time, that’s all we’re able to see and to experience.
But there is more.
Jesus goes to the tomb. He goes to the heart of Mary and Martha’s sorrow—the heart of this world’s sorrow—and he proclaims in word and deed that death will not have the final word this day. Death does not have the final word any day.
It seems like it does. It feels like it does. Jesus didn’t come to my brother’s grave and call him out in the same way that he did for Lazarus. But he did call Mike out, healed and whole and welcomed at the heavenly feast.
Jesus did come and call me out of my grave of sorrow and guilt.
Jesus did go to the cross and experience our graves as his own, so that no matter the grave in which we find ourselves we are never there alone. Jesus weeps for us and then call us out to life abundant. The graves of God’s beloved ones stand empty. Jesus is the resurrection and the life here and now.
Hear God’s promise for you this day: When your bones are dried up, when your hope is lost, when there are no words left but only tears, I will bring you up from your graves, O my people, and I will put my spirit within you, and you will live.
You will live.
Jesus is here. Now.
You will live.
The grave is not your home.
Jesus’ life is yours.
Amen.