Are You Bearing Good Fruit?

When I go to the grocery store I like to check where the fruit on the produce shelves is grown. Often it says Mexico, or if it is organic the label reads “Product of California.” At this time of year most of that fruit, shipped thousands of miles to get to our grocery stores is so dang expensive and not all that fresh, so I opt for something else. Sometimes though I will get a yearning for some fruit and so I will take a chance on some strawberries, blueberries, or raspberries, even when they are not in season locally. I have found that there is little in life that is less satisfying than biting into a strawberry that I paid too much for just to have it taste bitter, stale, or mushy. We all want good fruit, especially our vinegrower, but what makes good fruit?

At the age of 20 I took an outreach trip to Quito, Ecuador during Spring Break. Sewanee’s outreach department called it Alternative Spring Break. For nine days we stayed in a hostel, helped to build a school, played with children, taught a hygiene program, and processed our experience. One of the leaders, a woman named Cameron Graham Vivanco, explained to us a phenomenon in short term missions.

Cameron stated that most short term outreach, anything from a couple hours to twelve months of mission, is meant to inspire the persons who go on the trip to do something more. It was not to be seen merely as a trip, like a vacation, but rather a starting point that would change one’s life. She explained further that when one returns home he or she will go through stages of readjusting to home culture and one’s home life. There are commonly five such stages and they all begin with the letter F.

First, it is FUN to be back in one’s home culture. The language makes sense. One can order off the menu at a restaurant without hesitation. Home culture is comfortable.

Yet, home culture can seem strange and overbearing after being somewhere else. Therefore many people will FLEE that culture. This is when one starts to think, “The people in Ecuador have it right. They did it this way or that way. They live more simply or more positively.”

Often, this leads to the third F, which is FIGHTING. One might find home culture problematic and will do battle with that culture. Cameron told the story of going to Jamaica where there was not hot water, so to fight her home culture she stopped taking hot showers for a couple months.

Most people eventually give up the fight after some time and end up in the fourth F, as they FIT back into their culture. This is when the missional experience just turns into a photo album on one’s shelf or one’s computer. This is why most experts who work long term in mission say to short term mission groups, just send us your money. You will waste our time and your time if you just end up falling back into the same routines as before.

However, the last stage is the goal, not just of short term missions, but of our relationship with Christ, our relationship with God, and our life here on earth. The fifth F is FRUIT. If a short term mission experience was provocative, life-changing, and spirit-filled, then quite often it will lead to bearing good fruit.
Later I would return to Ecuador three times as an Alternative Spring Break leader. Each time we talked about the most important part of the experience was coming home. Each time the group worked on going through the first four F’s, so that we could begin to bear good fruit. Yet, still I find myself wondering, what is good fruit?

Jesus is our vine. He is the source through which we are fed. God is the tender of us branches. The vine tender will watch over our growth, will clean us off when we get to dirty, and water us with living water. Sometimes I worry about whether or not I am good enough. I focus on the times when I have grown in the wrong direction or taken more than my share of food or blocked others from the light. Yet, God does not worry about this, he finds those parts of us that are effecting good growth and with a kind heart clips away that which is not fruitful.

We can worry about whether or not we are good enough as we are. The message though is not about our being. We are already connected to the vine. We are already branches. We are part of God’s work in the world. God is calling us through Christ to bear good fruit, not just to fit into our culture, but to bring the love of God to those who need something sweet to eat.

Initial Thoughts on Emmaus

Read the text here.

“Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?"

On Saturday I had the privilege of running in my first half marathon. It was a blast and if you are in the least bit inclined to enjoy running and have not run in a big event like the Nashville half marathon, I highly recommend it. The fans, the support, the other runners, the after party, and the organization of that event was awesome! While I have been sore after races in the past, most notably the first time I ran really fast in track, what I forgot about running really fast is that afterward I pay for it. Yesterday and today I have been walking around like a ninety year old with achy muscles and creaking joints. To go so fast on Saturday means that I go so slowly today.

The ones who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus were foolish and slow of heart, and Jesus lets them know that they are missing the point. Yet, even when he points out that they are foolish and slow of heart, they do not recognize the Risen Lord walking with them and opening the Scripture to them. I have to stand up for these disciples who do not get it though. Sometimes when so much has happened, like when these disciples spent the last few days in fear of their lives, like when these disciples were running away from the religious and political leaders who killed Jesus, like when these disciples were mourning the loss of their faithful leader, we can be slow to move.

Our society moves at a pace that is ridiculously quick. We want everything and we want it right now! Jesus wanted his disciples to believe in the words of the prophets, but they have been spinning the wheels of their hearts too much to understand that the Risen Lord is among them. When we rush through life at a ridiculous pace our hearts often do not have time to keep up, so they become bogged down and we turn into fools.

The good news is that Jesus walks with us still, that he makes himself known to us in other ways, and that in God foolishness becomes wise. In this fast paced life, take time to slow down, to walk with Jesus, to listen to his words, so that your hearts might be quick to believe in the Risen Lord.

Knock, Knock... Who's There?

Here slightly abbreviated audio of this sermon here.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Open up, Seth!” the voices were almost inaudible over the sound of the blaring music. I was furious, fuming, and fearful. Not for the first time in the last week, I had blown up at my two best friends and suitemates. In shame and rage I locked myself inside my room. There I sat, alone, and tearful.

“Open up, Seth! We’re not mad, even if you are.” I did not want to open the doors up to my room or to myself. I felt too ashamed at the way I had treated my friends. They had shown me their love through laughing with me at things I had done and teasing me, but I took it so personally that I blew up at them and closed myself inside. So there I sat, locked up inside as the knocks kept coming.

The disciples heard no knock at their door. On a day that perhaps should have been filled with happiness and joy, they kept up their guard for fear of the Jews. Of course, they themselves were Jews, so John means the Jewish leaders who put Jesus to death. Yet, earlier in this same day Mary Magdalene brought these same men the joyful news, “I have seen the Risen Lord!” Still, the disciples locked themselves away.

Perhaps it was not just fear of the Jews. Maybe they were ashamed, maybe they were anxious, maybe they were afraid of meeting the Risen Lord. Peter had denied him and the rest had deserted him. How could they face their teacher now? Yet, even in this fearful moment when the disciples locked the door to their hideout and the doors to their hearts, Jesus finds his way inside.

“Peace be with you.” Then showing his hands and his side, wounds indicating that this is indeed Jesus in the flesh and blood, not some ghost, he says it again, “Peace be with you.”

When we hurt those whom we love we often find it so hard to let them inside. I was not willing to forgive myself for the stupid way I had treated my friends. When we hurt our spouses, children, parents, friends, or neighbors we can so easily hold onto that taking it personally. When we feel shame we have a hard time forgiving ourselves. This was how I felt that day in college, and that is, I believe, how the disciples felt. They were so afraid that they had let Jesus down that they did not want Jesus’ peace to come into their lives, for they were ashamed of how they had acted.

Jesus, though goes beyond just saying “Peace be with you,” as he gives them an eternal gift. Jesus breathes on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This wonderful gift though is accompanied by something more. It seems that Jesus knows that the disciples locking themselves away is not just a physical response, but also a feeling of guilt associated with the act of betraying him just three days earlier. Jesus says, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Even if those sins are your own. If you hold onto sins, if you cannot forgive yourselves or others, you will have a hard time receiving the Spirit. Closed hands have a hard time holding onto a gift; a hardened heart has a difficult time receiving the Spirit. Yet even when we are stuck in our rooms with the doors locked, Jesus will come and find us.

Of course, there was one who missed this visit from the Risen Lord. Who knows where Thomas was, but he did not make it to this gathering. There is often much made of this disciples’ lack of faith, but he desires simply to have the same relationship with Jesus that his fellow followers did. What is amazing is that Jesus responds to Thomas’ need. Again the doors are shut, perhaps Thomas is still closed off, but Jesus greets him with “Peace be with you!” Then he offers something more, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Be not faithless, but believing.” Thomas responds with a statement that shows his remorse, his belief, and his relationship with Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”

We can of course, shake our finger at Thomas for lacking in faith, but we all struggle at times to surge forward in our belief. Jesus’ respond to Thomas is not accompanied by more shaming, but rather that we, and all who have come along as ones untimely born not present for the life of Jesus, are blessed when we believe without seeing. We are continuing to receive the Holy Spirit, and we continue to find Jesus though.

I spent far too long locked away in shame for my actions on that day long back in college. We can spend a lifetime withholding forgiveness for ourselves and others. Yet, when we are not open to God’s Spirit and its ability to help us forgive and be forgiven, then we miss the gift from God. Do not lock the doors to your hearts, but instead open up and allow the Holy Spirit to come inside.

Go. Tell. See.

Listen to sermon audio here.

In the beginning of the first day, Mary Magdalene sits in darkness. Her eyes can cry no more tears, so she just is, with the other Mary. They spent all of yesterday, the Sabbath day, weeping, unable to eat or sleep. Whenever the woman from Magdala stopped sobbing long enough to lay down to sleep, the images flicked on again in her memory: the soldiers mocking, the criminals groaning, and his body sinking. She could not stand to watch as he breathed his last on that horrible cross, so she collapsed in a puddle of humanity beneath it. There is nothing left for these women, except each other. They put all their hopes, their dreams, their future in him. Now he is dead.

As the flood of emotions continues to pour over them, the vessel keeping them afloat, their faith in him, feels like it is being tossed and blown away by the storm of the last forty-eight hours. Mary Magdalene in desperation suggests that they go to the tomb. The other Mary thought, “Why? There’s nothing we can do. He is dead, his body has been anointed, and buried. Are we to just look at the sealed tomb?”
Yet, she was too exhausted to put up any fuss. And, maybe this would give them some finality. Nothing though could deliver them from this hopelessness; nothing could bring them out of their painful captivity. Early in the morning Mary and Mary walk on not buoyed by hope, but drawn by their love for their teacher. They went simply to see the tomb.

In the bleakest darkness Mary and Mary slowly near the place where he lay. As they grow closer, Mary Magdalene hears the snoring and snickering of the guards whom the high priest had dispatched to ensure no followers would steal the corpse. Just as she begins to worry about what they will do when the soldiers see them, suddenly an earthquake startles the placid night. The entire earth shakes in the darkness. At the same moment an angel flies across the sky to the resting place, forcefully flinging wide the entrance to the tomb. The messenger’s appearance blinds those nearby like a lightning bolt. The Marys hide their faces, but instead of a tremendous thunder clap they hear the toppling of the guards.

Trembling out of fear and exhaustion Mary and Mary lie faces down on the ground. “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for him who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples.”

The women timidly approach the gapping entrance. Mary Magdalene steps inside to see the linens that once enveloped his body. The other Mary touches the massive stone, which had stood sentinel sealing in the Savior. “Where is he?” she thinks, but before they can say anything, the messenger speaks again. “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” Not wasting a second, Mary and Mary sprint away from the surroundings of death.
They had never known such conflicting emotion. Great joy wrapped in fear pushes them to run with a reckless abandon through the darkened streets of Jerusalem. In the pre-dawn haziness Mary nearly runs into a figure so familiar that he seems foreign. Before the women can catch their breath he speaks, “Greetings!” Immediately they know.

Jesus Is Alive. Living, breathing, speaking to these most courageous disciples. They walk to him, take his feet, and worship him. The messenger had told the truth, then Jesus echoes the angel’s words, “Do not be afraid, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Go. Tell. See. This is the simple message of Our Risen Lord. And, through the journey of Mary and Mary we discover the fullness of this good news.

We still experience deep hopelessness, as we endure this life’s flood and our own sinful captivity. We are invited to bravely walk with Mary and Mary to the tomb. All their broken dreams and shattered dreams rested inside. Every bit of our sorrow, shame, despair, and sin rests inside that tomb with the dead body of Jesus. To approach the place where all our brokenness lies is like revisiting our darkest moments, those actions we pray will never meet the light of day, and those times when we did not do what we could have done. To know that our Savior is dead, locked away, and guarded makes it seem as though that hopelessness wins.

Yet, in the predawn we encounter not only a messenger, but our Savior. The angel from God brings light into the darkness and opens wide the place where all that we fear was buried. The tomb though is empty. All that keeps us paralyzed in a straightjacket of shame has been transformed by the power of Our Resurrecting God! Jesus whom we then meet says, go, tell, and see.
We must go. We cannot just keep this good news to ourselves. We cannot keep Jesus in the Church, just like we cannot keep Jesus in the ground. We must leave here and tell others!
We must tell. We must share the good news with all whom we meet. Jesus is not in the grave, and neither is all that stuff that we keep locked away in our tombs of shame. Everything that we find wrong with our lives is not somehow magically fixed by the Resurrection, but once and for all we are certain that nothing can keep us from God. This is the good news. Nothing, not shame, not sin, not death, not a single thing keeps us from God.

We must see. Mary and Mary almost run into him. They recognize him though, and they kneel down, touch his feet, and worship him. We can almost run into him as well. We meet Jesus out on the way to Galilee or Birmingham or the grocery store. He is in every stranger we meet and every friend too. He is in all of us for he has redeemed all of us. We see him in those we run into.

The tomb is empty… empty of our sin, our shame, our death, and Our Lord. He is not here. He is risen. Go and tell the good news, and see the Risen Lord! Amen.

Friends, Don't Just Imagine Love

For this sermon's audio click here.

Take a moment, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine the last time you felt loved. What was that moment like? Hang on to it. Now, think about the last time when you truly felt that you loved another. You have it? Keep these memories of love handy. You can open your eyes.

Tonight, Jesus gathers his friends for one last meal before he will face the pain, suffering, and death that he knows is coming. John lets us know that Peter, Judas, and the beloved disciple are gathered around the Table with their Teacher. Others certainly would have joined in this last supper too. We have met them throughout our Lenten journey: the outcast Samaritan woman whom Jesus restored at the well in Sychar and some of her converted friends; the blind man whom Jesus told to wash in Siloam restoring his sight; Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. At the start of this last meal, Jesus welcomes his former followers into the fathomless depth of spiritual friendship. He gathers them together not with the familiar words of our Holy Eucharist, but instead with a simple, profound act:

“Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.”

Jesus then explains this action to his gathered friends saying, “You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example that you should do as I have done to you.”

Yet, it is not just about performing an empty act washing one another’s feet. This gesture is the start. When you wash someone’s feet you do so as they are coming into your home. Washing someone’s feet is a way of welcoming her or him into your life. We know it is about being a servant to another, but it is also about getting into the mess of life with one another and it is about providing God’s healing to one another by washing away the dirt from each other’s lives. 

Tonight is bigger than washing each other’s feet. We call tonight Maundy Thursday because in the messiness of removing dirt from each other’s feet, we receive a new commandment “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” If we take Jesus seriously, Love is the law of gravity that keeps us connected to God. Love is like oxygen or water to us. We will perish without it. Love is life in Christ. Yet, love is not something found in a romantic movie, produced by Hallmark, or just a feeling. 

Jesus’ love creates. “Jesus was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” He was the Word, the Light, and the Love that created.

Jesus’ love heals. Sitting at the well with the Samaritan woman, a pariah in her own culture, he provides living water that “will become in her a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” He helps to restore her to wholeness in her community. (4:5-42) 

When he sees a man born blind it is not about sin, it is about God’s glory. Jesus shines as the light of the world giving sight to the blind man, as he washes in Siloam. (9:1-4)

Jesus’ love raises the dead. After weeping with Martha and Mary, Jesus cried into their brother’s tomb, “Lazarus come out!” (11:1-45) His love overcomes death. He loves into creation, he loves into wholeness, and he even loves back to life. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. God did not send him into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be redeemed through him.” (3:16-17)

Our world is in dangerous peril. We continue to fight and fear one another, heckle and hate one another, enslave and exterminate one another. We as a people are love anemic, we seriously lack this love for each other. We started by imaging being loved and loving. This is a good place to begin. Hold onto this! Yet, we cannot stop with merely happy feeling. With God we have to go further. Love one another, as Jesus loves us. Create with each other. Heal one another. Give Life to the dead. They will know we are Christians by our love.  

Are You A Good Fish or A Bad Fish? Better Bring Out The Treasure!

What makes a fish good? It’s big, it’s got good meat on it, and it’s healthy. What makes a bad fish? It’s too small, it’s bony, and it’s diseased or poisoned by mercury. Hearing this passage in light of the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred on this day 69 years ago, makes it hard for me not to wonder am I good fish, like Dietrich, or am I a bad fish, like Adolf Hitler, whom Bonhoeffer protested against most of his adult life.

Bonhoeffer was born in 1906. By the age of 24 he had published his doctoral thesis. At age 27 he had two Confessing Church congregations living abroad in London. During this time he began to speak out and protest the Nazi party, which was just coming to power. Two years later he was called back to his homeland of Germany to establish and run a Confessing Church seminary in Finkenwald. It was here that he wrote two works Life Together and The Cost of Discipleship focused on living boldly as a Christian Community.

Soon though as things in Germany escalated politically, Bonhoeffer spoke out increasingly against the Nazis. At age 33 he began working with groups that were focused on overthrowing Hitler. When violence and persecution escalated further he contemplated escaping to the United States, yet Bonhoeffer resolved that he would stay in Germany and fight against the oppressive government.

In 1943 he was arrested and imprisoned in Berlin. Seventy years ago today, April 9, 1944, Bonhoeffer attempted to take Hitler’s life. As the plot was discovered and the conspiracy linked with him, Dietrich was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp. After a Sunday service on April 8, 1945, two men summoned, “Prisoner Bonhoeffer… come with us.” His last words recorded by a friend saw both the truth of the pain of this age and the hope yet to come, “This is the end. For me, the beginning of life.” He was hanged April 9, 1945.

To read a summary of Bonhoeffer’s life is to see courage personified; prayer, faith, writing, and action unified into one stream of complete trust in God and pursuit of deeper relationship with God. Yet, Bonhoeffer’s life was not without regret. A pacifist theologian, Dietrich repented of the violent act that he attempted to commit against Hitler. He accepted the guilt he felt, knowing that if he had not acted in this way though, he would have felt it more harmful, as he had sought to end greater evil in this world.

Bonhoeffer clearly was a good fish scooped up by Jesus and put in the bucket. Yet, whenever we talk about evil collectively we point to figures like Hitler. He was surely a bad fish. Jesus would have thrown him out. What makes a fish bad though? It’s abused as an egg? It grows up where there was an oil spill? It was picked on by other fish?

We can so clearly point to Bonhoeffer as a modern saint who was willing to die standing against an evil regime of his day. We can so easily look at Hitler as the paragon of evil personified. Yet, will we find ourselves in the furnace of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth will we find or will we be scooped up by the angels?

So much energy can be spent worrying about where we will find ourselves when we die. Billboards, church signs, televangelists all proclaim this question, do you prefer smoking or non for the afterlife, heaven or hell? Yet Bonhoeffer’s life and today’s gospel point not to spending time worrying about where I will spend eternity, but rather that I bring out my treasures both old and new now.

We cannot add a single day to our life by worrying. God who knows us infinitely more closely than we know ourselves sees our heart and knows our experiences. God who loves us infinitely more than we can ever know or imagine sees us not through our faults and failings, but through the love of Jesus Christ. God frees us from the worry of what will happen in the next life through the love of God’s only Son. Yet, this is not something that should be regarded as a cheap gift that one receives and simply forgets about its value, rather this is the most costly gift you or I will ever receive.

God’s grace is given to us, but it comes with a cost. Once we receive it we are called to respond by giving our most costly treasures in serving God and one another. We are not fish, good or bad, we are children of God who receive the gift of grace through Jesus. Bonhoeffer gave his greatest treasures in response. How will you respond?

You Might Be Afraid of Public Speaking and Death, But Jesus Isn't!

John 11:1-45

Sermon audio click here

“Just as Jesus has met us at our tombs so we must follow him now to his own.” Meda Stamper

Sometimes I hear people say, “Public speaking is my biggest fear. Most people would rather die than speak in front of a crowd, at least that’s what I read in a study!” As someone who spends a large chunk of time speaking in front of people, and as one who every once in a while finds his foot in his mouth, I tend to say there is not much to fear up here. What I receive in return for any blunders is mostly grace upon grace from those listening. Of course my perspective is limited to my own experience, so I began wondering, “Are people really more afraid of public speaking than death?” What I discovered is there is not much evidence that talking in front of a group is more terrifying than death.

(An old saying goes, “There are lies, there are damn lies, and there are statistics.”) The often misunderstood statistic about public speaking, death and their correlation with fear originates from a 1973 questionnaire circulated by Bruskin Associates. In this study the researchers asked respondents to list their fears. Researchers gave no choices of scary things to select. Instead, those surveyed wrote down whatever came to mind. “Public speaking” was the most common answer. A distant seventh on the list was death, just behind sickness and just ahead of flying. This study with a small sampling size and an open response has made a huge impact on us. Even though it does not say that public speaking is scarier than death. We still believe that speaking in front of groups (heights, insects and bugs, financial problems, deep water, and sickness) are more to be feared than death. Yet what this research shows is that when asked blankly “What do you fear?” we will respond with a commonplace, everyday fear (public speaking or spiders).

Yet the top six responses on this list all have one thing in common. They are preventable or curable. If you are afraid of speaking in public take speech lessons. The King’s Speech chronicles the life of King George VI who suffered from Glossophobia (fear of public speaking). King George overcame this fear to deliver comforting words to England during World War II. If you are fearful of heights, you can avoid them, or get over it by doing a high ropes adventure course. Scared of insects and bugs? Squash them or call Cook’s! Financial Problems? Dave Ramsey would love to help you with that. Deep water? I hear personal flotation devices or swim lessons work pretty well these days. Even sickness has become something that we can almost completely avoid. Yet, there is one thing that is unavoidable on this list… death.

There is a 100% chance everyone in this church will die. I hope that this is not shocking news to you. I love my life. I love my family. I love Kim. I love my friends. I love working at St. John’s Church. I do not want to face my mortal demise, but I know that one day I will meet the cold kiss of Death. Even though I can consciously comprehend this, I still find myself fearful of what lies in death and beyond.

I believe we are all, to some degree, afraid of death, even more than public speaking and spiders. Yet, what happens in Bethany, the place where Jesus’ friends live, (Just like the part of Camp McDowell that is going to be talked about today right after this service at a wonderful lunch!) tells us something very different about this undeniably fearful end that we all must face.

Martha and Mary were all followers of Christ. The sisters trusted in Jesus verbally in today’s gospel lesson. They believed in Resurrection through him. Still there is doubt expressed, “If you had been here, Lazarus would not be dead.” The word here is not just death like the body ceasing to produce breath and life, this dying is all encompassing. Their brother is physically dead, but he is also spiritually dead.

In the total of John’s gospel account we hear of many signs that point to Jesus being the one through whom all things were created, the Son of God, the one coming into the world! We can get so swept up in this that we miss that part of being Incarnate God meant that Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine. Death, even to God, is something that is tragic and depressing. When Jesus walks to the tomb of his friend Lazarus with the beloved Martha and Mary he cannot deny his humanity. Jesus weeps.

I have loved this verse since I was a child because it shows Jesus’ humanity. He is empathic for us human beings because he is one of us. He may know what is about to happen. He may know that everything will be okay. He may know that God will resurrect the Faithful. Still he weeps.

Then, in a way that only God can, he goes further than just empathizing with Lazarus and the bereaved. Jesus goes beyond our human understanding, he responds to this moment of deep sadness with an overabundant love that will remain a mystery to us on this side of the grave. Jesus goes to the entrance of the tomb, the place of a rotting corpse, the mouth of Death, and in this realm of reeking, dark nothingness he calls life. Jesus calls life from death.

Jesus, the God of the living, does not fear death. He walks into his friend’s tomb to be with him in the realm of that unknown mystery that awaits all of us. For those who believe and those, like Lazarus, who are spiritually dead Jesus is always present. He will go walk with us everywhere we go. He will journey with us when we are well, when we are scared of public speaking, and even into our tombs. He is our partner in life and death. As we approach Holy Week, let us respond to his partnership, his walking with us, and let us go with Jesus to his death and tomb. Amen.