Building God’s House

A word about how I go about preparing sermons. I prefer to preach from a specific text than on a specific theme. I have my favourite themes of course, and the theme that emerges from today’s texts is one of them. It is, therefore, all the more important that I begin with Scripture. I use a lectionary that Lee Hiebert, our senior pastor at SMC, uses, and it gives us the two passages I work with this morning. 

My basic process is to consider each passage of Scripture, and then to search for common themes, which form the basis of the sermon. We begin then with 2 Samuel 7, proceed to Ephesians 2, and then seek a synthesis. The lectionary also adds Mark 6, but I have omitted the gospel reading from this morning’s texts. 

 

2 Samuel 7: 1-17 

The story in 2 Samuel 7 is set in the time after David has brought relative peace to his kingdom. In his earlier reign, David was in conflict with various enemies who sought to enslave or obliterate the Children of Israel. Now the land is at peace, and David begins to think about what should come next. He is sitting with Nathan, well known as a prophet. (Note that prophets in the Old Testament are known as “the mouth of God”.) 

 

David floats an idea that has been brewing in his mind. Now that his own throne is secure and he is at peace in his palace, he would like to build a house for God, a temple to the Lord. At first, Nathan says, “Go for it!” Then God speaks to Nathan, and Nathan acts out his role as one who speaks for God. God says, “Do you think I need a house? I don’t need a house. You are the one who needs something, and I will give it to you. I will establish your son on your throne, and he is the one who will build a house for me.” 

 

In 1 Chronicles 17, we have a parallel passage that tells essentially this same story, and then in 1 Chronicles 22, David gathers the materials necessary for Solomon to build the Temple. It is in that chapter that we are given a reason that Solomon and not David should build the Temple – that David was a man of war and had blood on his hands, while Solomon was a man of peace (witness his name: Solomon, derived from the word “Shalom”, or peace). But that explanation does not appear in our text. What does? 

 

Our text suggests something else: That God must first establish (build) David’s house before David builds God’s house. The point is simple: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it” (Psalm 127: 1). Genesis 11 and 12 make the same point. In Genesis 11, the people say, “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower … Let us make a name for ourselves.” God rebuked their efforts, because they left God out of their plans. Then, in chapter 12, God says, “I will make you a great nation [I will build you], and I will bless you, and I will make your name great.” Human efforts to do anything must follow God’s plans to work in our lives. David needed to step back and wait for God to work, so that he could join in what God wanted to do. 

 

Ephesians 2: 11-22 

Our second passage makes it clear what God wants to do. The first ten verses of the chapter describe God’s gift of life – “By grace you have been saved through faith”. Our text describes that gift of life more fully. 

 

Paul describes two groups of people, the “circumcised” and the “uncircumcised” – that is, Jews and Gentiles. Jews were “close to God” through the old covenant, which reminds his readers of the whole story of the Old Testament. Gentiles were “far way from God”, because, as Jesus puts it to the woman at the well, “salvation comes through the Jews” (John 4: 22). 

 

Now someone might think that the Gentiles’ condition excludes them from God’s presence. Indeed, the Jews of Paul’s day looked down on Gentiles. The barrier between Jew and Gentile was perhaps the strongest barrier in the New Testament world, but Paul makes clear what is really going on. God came through the Jews not just for the Jewish people, but for the Gentiles as well. Christ has broken down “the dividing wall of hostility” to make one new group of people that we call “Christians”. This was, if you will, the original “All Peoples’ Church”. Everyone was welcome! 

 

The way Paul puts it is important: “So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.” (2: 17-20) The essence of God’s salvation is peace, restored relationships between us and God and restored relationships between people. The dividing wall of hostility describes this world; “Peace” describes life in God. 

 

Working it Out 

I teach world religions at Providence, and I have been to the mosque in Winnipeg many times. Islam has a basic problem in that it honours Jesus only as a prophet. Muslims cannot say that Jesus is “the Son of God” and they would find it difficult to talk about Jesus the way that this passage does. At the same time, Islam has an important insight about how we relate to God. 

 

Islam divides the world into two groups of people – Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb. Dar al Islam means “House of those who submit” (Muslims are “people who submit” to God); Dar al Harb means “House of those who are at war” (infidels are “people at war with God”). Now surely this is an accurate depiction in Christian terms also. The world outside of God is filled with people who are at war with God and with each other. 

 

Listen to the news and see how we live in a world at war with itself. This week there were riots in South Africa, especially in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal. Our own country struggles with the relationship between Canada’s indigenous people and those of us who now live in the land. Our neighbour to the south is consumed with the debate over vaccines, with people on both sides convinced that the other side is trying to destroy them. We are even at war with the planet itself, as we face heat waves in the northwest of North America, floods in Europe, and drought on the Western plains of Canada. We are indeed a world at war. 

 

Paul suggests that the road to peace is found in the person of Jesus Christ. If we want to become Dar al Salam (the house of peace), we must become Dar al Islam (the house of those who submit to God). The true path to this peace is faith in Jesus Christ, who saves us by his grace. 

 

Synthesis 

Let’s bring these two passages together.

        1) David wanted to build a house for God. God said, “First, I will establish you. You need to get with my program if you want to worship me.” 

        2) Paul shows us how God wants to establish us and what God’s program is.

        3) God’s program is comprehensive – the healing of all the problems in our world, beginning with the church, that is, starting here with you and me. 

 

Together, then, these passages tell us that, if you want to worship God fully – if you want to build a house for God, you begin by seeking peace with God and asking God to build that full salvation and peace in your life and mine.  

 

Application 

What does that look like in our world? I find it interesting that this wonderful passage in Ephesians 2 follows immediately on the reminder that salvation is by grace through faith. Our first step is always to recognize that God does what needs to be done. We just join in. David wanted to build a house, and God said, “Wait for me to do the building.” We want to save the world, and God says, “Only I can save the world.” 

 

Our first step, then, is always a step into prayer and worship. As we are doing this morning, we come into God’s presence and honour and adore God. We do that in many different ways. Some people like loud fast-paced music; other prefer simple and reflective chants. Some people like prayer services where everyone is calling out to God together in a cacophony of sound; others prefer silence. Some people find God in the city; others find God by water and trees. The specific ways we worship are not as important as this basic fact: We come into God’s presence. If you have not met God in Christ, there is a basic hole in your life that only God can fill. 

 

Worship always leads to action, and action continues our worship. As we meet God in prayer, we may realise that God wants us to do something specific – something that breaks down barriers between people, something that reaches into a world at war with itself and holds out God’s peace. That action of seeking peace where people are at war is an act of worship. 

 

Remember that this peace, God’s peace, is comprehensive. It includes peace between Democrats and Republicans in the USA and peace between Wab Kinew and Pallister in Manitoba. It includes peace between Americans and Canadians divided by Covid-19. It includes even peace between the people who live here and the land in which we live. As Paul puts it in Romans 8, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; … in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” God’s peace and salvation is for every person and indeed for the whole earth. 

 

This means that our worship leads us to seek peace and reconciliation on every side. When the medical people in the hospital work to reduce the effects of Covid-19, if they are Christians, their work is their worship for God. When a business manager seeks good relationships between management and employees, if he/she is a Christian, their work is their worship to God. When a neighbour brings a conflict between neighbours to an end and “makes peace”, if she is a Christian, if he is a Christian, their action is their worship for God. 

 

I think of an example from Christian environmentalism. In a book titled Kingfisher’s Fire: A story of hope for God’s earth, Peter Harris describes the founding of an organisation called A Rocha. A Rocha is present in Manitoba also, with a centre near East Braintree. Check it out sometime on your way here! 

 

In his book describing the beginnings of A Rocha in Portugal (A Rocha means “The Rock” in Portuguese), Harris describes how they also found themselves planting a church in Portugal, because their environmental work was an expression of their love for and worship of God. They have listened to God’s voice establishing them in the world, and A Rocha is the result. 

 

One of their projects was in the Bekaa Valley in the country of Lebanon. They were working in a war zone trying to save wetlands, which were basic to the survival of migrating birds. Although this project took place in a war zone, God has blessed it with remarkable success. Their work has been their worship. 

 

You and Me 

What does all this mean for you and me? David got something very right in the Old Testament reading. Once he was able to sit down and rest, he started asking, “What can I do for God?” God told him to rest some more and wait for God to work, but David’s impulse was right. I can give you a homework assignment. Ask God what God is doing! 

 

As you worship here in the church, as you pray and worship God at home, as God speaks to you in your work and in your play, listen for God’s voice. Then make your worship complete by joining in what God is doing. We live in a world at war with itself. God comes into our world and brings peace and reconciliation. God has made us “ministers and messengers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5). 

 

Your homework is to listen for what God is doing and then to join in. If you don’t do this, your worship here is incomplete and God is not pleased with it. If you do join in? Well:

Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. ¹⁵ He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. ¹⁷ So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; ¹⁸ for through him we all have access in one Spirit to the Father.

 

If you do join in? You are part of the salvation of the world! 

 

 

 

18 July 2021 

All Nations People’s Church 

 

Texts 

2 Samuel 7: 1-17 

David wants to build a “house of cedar” for God. God says, “I will establish your house instead, and your son will build a house for me.” 

The order of things is important here: First, God builds-establishes; then we build-establish. Compare to Genesis 11 (Let us make a name for ourselves) and 12 (I will make your name great). We face the constant temptation to do God’s work for God (acting as though we can take God’s place), instead of joining in and participating in God’s work. 

 

Ephesians 2: 11-22 

God builds one new humanity out of the various warring factions in our world. This is the “house of God”, and this was God’s purpose from the beginning – to reconcile the world to God and the people of the world to each other (cf 2 Cor 5). This great work is central to the name of this congregation: “All People’s Church”. This work is based on the work of Jesus (dying and rising) and of the Holy Spirit (filling and empowering).

“I’ve Got a River of Life Flowing out of Me”: Stories of Water

For the past several years, we have used a ritual of light and flame: “We light a light in the name of God who creates life, the Son who loves life, and the Spirit who is the fire of life. Thanks be to God, who unites us in our hope, faith, and life.” Life is full of symbols and rituals, things on the surface that point beyond themselves to deeper realities. Light is one such symbol. Fire is another. So also is water.

We are introducing a water ritual today. If you’re uncomfortable with “ritual”, call it a repeated practice that reminds us what is true. There is no magic in repeating actions: Power lies in our relationship with God, who gives us life. Nonetheless, ritual is helpful. It reminds us to look beneath the surface of life and remember who made us and who sustains us in this life.

This morning then, I note several Scripture passages that use the image of water to symbolize something about who we are as God’s people. I won’t try to synthesize these into one coherent picture; instead, we have layers of meaning that we hold within the symbol. I follow the Scripture passages with three stories about water, so that you could subtitle the sermon, “stories of water”.

Some Scriptures

Psalm 93: We read Psalm 93 earlier. You note that in this Psalm, water points to God. A flood, roaring down a canyon, is impressive in its power; God is even more impressive. The tide rolling in from another continent awes us; God is even more awesome.

Genesis 7: The greatest flood of all is recorded in Genesis 7, a flood that covered the earth. You know the story, and it reminds us that water can be destructive. Behind the destruction of the Great Flood lay God’s judgment on human sin. When we think of water, there are also uncomfortable memories and messages. We are reminded that God has given us our very lives in trust, and we are to live our lives for God alone.

Exodus 17: In Exodus 17, we have the first time that Moses struck a rock with his staff at God’s command, bringing forth water. The deeper point of the story is to make clear that the Children of Israel depended on God for life as they travelled through the wilderness in search of the Promised Land. At a simpler level, we are reminded that water is life. The Israelites could not continue travelling if they had no water. They needed water to live.

Isaiah 55: Isaiah 55 begins with a well-known and simple verse: “Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” “Come to the waters.” The call is an invitation to life, and water here represents life. This passage sets up the gospel reading for this morning.

John 4: This story is one we know well. Jesus and his disciples are travelling from Judea to Galilee. Samaria lay between the two. Commentators differ on the significance of verse 4: “He had to go through Samaria.” C.K. Barrett says that this was the natural route and that there is no theological significance in these words. Raymond Brown notes that the phrase “had to do this” sometimes means that this is God’s doing. Since the whole story appears to be God at work, it makes sense to see this compulsion as God at work. We can say that God sent Jesus and his disciples through Samaria for a purpose.

In Samaria there is a village, Sychar. Sychar was close to Shechem, a centre of early Jewish spirituality, and to Mount Gerizim. Stopping there, Jesus and his disciples were close to the heart of the Samaritan identity. Samaritans were close cousins to the Jews. In Israel today, there is still a small Samaritan community. Jews see them as part of Judaism – even if a bit odd, and Samaritans see themselves as representing the true faith that never went into exile.

It is not an exact analogy, but you might think of Samaritans as being to Jews something like Jehovah’s Witnesses are to Christians. Many JWs would say they are the true Christians, and many Christians would say that JWs are not Christian at all. There by a well, Jesus waited outside the village while the disciples went to buy food. When a woman comes out to fetch water from the well, Jesus asks her for a drink of water. Given the tensions between Jews and Samaritans and given her own status as a woman who was marginalized in her community, she was surprised at his request.

Then comes the verses that illuminate our theme of water, verses 13-15:

¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

The water of life! In other Scriptures, water symbolizes everything from God’s judgment to God’s care, but here the image is clear: Jesus is life. Knowing Jesus is essential to spiritual life, just as water is essential to physical life.

A Story

In 2003, our family learned how essential water is to our physical lives. Lois and I were on sabbatical in South Africa, with our sons, Vaughn and Nevin. We spent two months in South Africa, two months in Zimbabwe, and one month in Namibia, with a brief side trip to Zambia.

We spent the month of October in Namibia, and my story concerns the drive from Johannesburg to Windhoek – about 1400 kilometres. We planned to take two days, seven hours to a rest stop on Kang, in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, and seven more hours to Windhoek in Namibia. About two hours before Kang, we had two flat tires. A passing motorist gave us a ride to the rest stop, where we ordered a tire to be sent up the next day from Gaborone on a country bus. On the third day, with our new tire on, we continued on our way to Windhoek.

An hour out of Kang, I stopped to check our tires. They were fine, but when I got back in the car and turned the key, there was nothing. General electrical failure. [This car looked wonderful, a 1988 white Mercedes Benz, but it was a real lemon. Worst car ever, but it did mean that we had lots of opportunities to experience God’s presence through the help of strangers.] A passing motorist again took me back to Kang.

The owner of the rest stop saw me come in and asked, “What are you doing here?!” He knew I was trouble. He rounded up an electrician in the nearby village of Kang and loaned us his own vehicle to go back to our car. There the electrician found that four fuses were burned out. He showed me what kind to get when we reached a place with auto supplies again, and then he bridged the burned-out fuses with copper wire.

While I was headed for help, Lois and the boys waited in the hot sun in the middle of the desert. They had no shade, so they spread all our sleeping bags on top of the car to create some shade. The people who took me back to Kang had left all their water with Lois and Vaughn and Nevin. They spent about three hours baking in the sun until I got back. Once the car was running again, we drove on our way, stopping just inside the Namibian border at another rest stop.

We had used up all our water by the time we got to our rest stop, where we could fill up again. We need the help of passing motorists to survive in the desert. That night, as we sat around a fire at the rest stop, cooking some meat over the fire, Nevin commented, “You know, when Jesus said, ‘I am the water of life,’ I think I understand better now what he meant.” Water is life. Without water, we die. Without Jesus, we die.

Another Story

This was not the first time we had experienced the shortage of water in Africa. In 1992, we were the host family at the Brethren in Christ Youngways Guest House in Bulawayo. That year there was a drought that culminated 10 years of low rainfall in Zimbabwe. We were placed under severe water restrictions to keep the city from running out of water.

I remember how we took showers. I would step into the shower and turn the water on just long enough to get wet. Then I would lather up. Then I turned the shower on again just long enough to rinse the soap off, and I was done! The shortage was so bad that the city turned off the water for anyone who used over their monthly allotment before the month was over. One hotel was shut down on the 20^th day of the month and only allowed to reopen on the first day of the next month.

Living with such water shortages made it very clear to us that water is life. Those of us who have lived in semi-arid countries know this truth from personal experience. This is a basic reason that Jesus used this image in John 4, and that we use water as a symbol of life for the coming year.

One Last Scripture: Romans 6

In Romans 6, Paul uses baptism as an image of the way we die to self and live for Christ: “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

We use water in baptism, following the example of Jesus’ baptism. Water baptism symbolized repentance in the New Testament. Adding a specifically Christian dimension means that water now symbolizes both repentance and the filling of the Holy Spirit. I could have read from Matthew 3 to make this same point. For now, it is enough to remind us that water is a symbol of physical and spiritual life, filled with God’s Spirit.

One More Story

I thought of this use of water partly because of my own baptism. I was baptized into the Brethren in Christ Church in Zimbabwe in 1964. We (the BICs) use a form of immersion in which the candidate kneels in the water and the minister pushes him/her forward, under the water three times. In my case, my father was the baptizing minister, and the service was held on a Saturday afternoon in the Mpopoma BIC Church. I had a problem as we anticipated that baptismal service. I am afraid of water. Not just a bit, but a lot afraid. So Dad took me to the church on Thursday evening. The baptistry had already been filled, and we went there to practise. I got in the water and kneeled down. Dad put one hand behind my head and the other on my chest, and pushed me forward into the water. I immediately stood up! Then we tried again. This time, I went under twice before standing up. We tried a third time, and I managed to stay down until the third immersion and then stood up again.

My Dad said, “That’s enough for now. But on Saturday, if you try to stand up, I’ll just lean on you and hold you still. I’ll have all the leverage. I’ve done it before, and I will do it again.” He meant of course that at six-foot-tall and 200 pounds, he could stop me from standing up just by leaning on me. He wasn’t threatening to hold me under the water!

Saturday came, and I was baptized without any trouble. Dad told me later that I was shining as I came out of the water. In truth, I had been baptised into the death of Christ so that I could rise with the life of Christ. We finished the baptismal service with the church members standing around the outside wall of the church and the newly baptised members walking past as the members shook our hands and welcomed us into the church. It was a profoundly moving experience.

Closing Thoughts

Water is a symbol that carries many meanings – from a sign of physical life to a sign of spiritual life, from a sign of our choice to follow Jesus to the life of Christ living within us. There are many more levels that I have not mentioned this morning. I close with two thoughts.

One, there is no power in the water itself. Even as an image of baptism, the power is in Christ and the cross, not in the water. That is why the form of baptism varies so much – whether it is by immersion, or by sprinkling or pouring, or (like the Salvation Army) a dry baptism with no water at all. The important think is our choice to follow Jesus, just as the woman at the well followed Jesus. We use water this year to remind us that Jesus is essential, not the water itself.

Two, we will use this symbol throughout the church’s year during what we call “ordinary time”. Some times of the year already have their own special symbols – such as advent and Christmas, or Lent and Easter. In between, we use water to remind ourselves that we follow Jesus, our source of life, the one without whom we have nothing. We follow Jesus, always.

I’ve asked for a song to say this: “I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me; makes the lame to walk and the blind to see; opens prison doors, set the captives free. I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me.” [Sing together]

 

Texts: Psalm 93 and John 4:1-15 (NRSV)

Psalm 93

The Majesty of God’s Rule

¹ The Lord is king, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed, he is girded with strength. He has established the world; it shall never be moved; ² your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.

³ The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. ⁴ More majestic than the thunders of mighty waters, more majestic than the waves of the sea, majestic on high is the Lord!

⁵ Your decrees are very sure; holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore.

John 4:1-15

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” ² —although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized— ³ he left Judea and started back to Galilee. ⁴ But he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

The Death of Death

In 2002, Garfield Todd died. Todd was born in New Zealand in 1908. In 1932, he married Jean Grace Wilson, and two years later they left for Zimbabwe – then named Southern Rhodesia – as missionaries with the New Zealand Churches of Christ. They ministered at Dadaya Mission, about 180 km from Bulawayo, my hometown.

As a missionary, Todd took up residence in the country and became a farmer at Dadaya. In 1946, he was elected to the White government’s parliament, and in 1953, he became the Prime Minister of the country. As a missionary, he was well aware of the impossibility of long-term White rule in Zimbabwe, and he began a political process to bring the Black majority more fully into the White-dominated society. The White electorate rebelled against his efforts and voted him out of power in 1957.

By the time the Black majority took up an armed revolt against White rule, Todd had come to be known as one of their primary supporters among the White minority. Ian Smith led the last White government in Zimbabwe. In the 1960s, the government placed Todd under house arrest on his farm for his support of the Liberation War, and then they put him in prison in the 1970s.

When independent Zimbabwe came into being in 1980, the new government honoured Todd and appointed him as a member of the country’s Senate. Lois and I went to Zimbabwe in 1988, where I taught at the Theological College of Zimbabwe until 1992. Around 1990, Todd – by then retired – came and spoke in our chapel service. He was a compelling speaker, and I could see how he had been a charismatic and controversial leader. His Christian faith was clearly at the centre of his life, and I remember two basic statements from his message to us.

The first: He said to us, “When I came to Zimbabwe as a missionary in 1934, I knew I was in the Lord’s will. As I sat in prison in the 1970s, I wasn’t so sure!” The second: He talked to us about the raising of Lazarus, our text for today. He observed, “Jesus told them to roll away the stone. When they did, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. That is all Jesus ever asks us to do. He gives us a job within our powers, and we do it; and we leave the miracles to him.”

These are good words for us as we look at our texts. We do what God calls us to do, whether we see the outcome of our efforts or not, and we leave it to Jesus to raise the dead. With this thought in mind, we look together at two texts this morning, Psalm 130 and John 11.

Psalm 130

We began our Scripture reading this morning with Psalm 130. Short and powerful, a song of hope in a time of despair. The Psalmist acknowledges the trouble he faces: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!” The psalmist admits that none of us deserve God’s help: “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?” We participate in the troubles of this world, not just by experiencing them, but also by helping to cause them! I am reminded of the thief on the cross, admitting that he and his fellow thief deserved their fate, while Jesus did not. Alone of all people throughout history, Jesus can stand unafraid in the judgment.

The Psalmist then pivots to God’s mercy and forgiveness. In God’s love, the Psalmist finds hope:

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning.

The Psalmist calls on God’s people to trust in God:

O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with the Lord is great power to redeem. It is God who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

This brief Psalm, then, sets the stage for the story of Lazarus, so we turn to John 11.

John 11

In chapter 10, Jesus is in Perea, just beyond the Jordan River. In chapter 11, word comes to him that his friend, Lazarus, is ill. The text identifies Lazarus as Mary and Martha’s brother. They live in Bethany, about two days walk from where Jesus is with his disciples. We have heard the story before – Lazarus falls ill, Mary and Martha send for Jesus, Jesus delays his response so as to wait until after Lazarus dies.

When Jesus does arrive in Bethany, first Martha and then Mary tell him that Lazarus has died – and they appear to reproach him: “If you had been here, you could have healed him! He didn’t have to die.” Martha especially responds with a remarkable confession of faith: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” We are used to thinking of Martha as the one in Luke 10 who was so busy trying to serve Jesus that she had no time to “sit at his feet”. In that text, Jesus praises Mary for her choice. Here Martha shows her faith clearly, naming Jesus as the Messiah.

Both sisters show faith and grief in equal measure. When Jesus gets ready to go to the grave, he starts to weep. Not just “cry”, but weep. Verse 33 gives his state of mind: “he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.” In the middle of his grief, Jesus also knows what he will do. He asks them to remove the stone that covered up the grave. After some resistance, they do so. Jesus assures Martha and Mary that God will receive glory from what happens, and prays aloud for the benefit of those watching, thanking his father (God) for hearing him.

Then Jesus calls, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man walks out, and Jesus tells those watching to free him from the clothes wrapped around him when they buried him. The climax of their dreadful loss was an awe-inspiring restoration of life. Lazarus lives!

Comment

There is so much in this passage to reflect on that I am confident you listening to this sermon hear many things in it that I will not say. That is good. I content myself with three basic observations, which I think are worth hearing in our own time of distress, as the corona virus pandemic dominates our thinking. The virus helps us to hear the passage with particular resonance, but we know that God’s presence in times of death and distress reaches far beyond any one situation. A friend of mine describes the present crisis as the greatest of our generation, comparable to the reality of two world wars in the first half of the last century. She may be correct, but as Lee reminded us several Sundays ago, the reality of the coronavirus outbreak does not change our reality. Instead, it shows us what is always true – that our lives are fragile and in God’s hands, and that we live each day as if it were truly “this world’s last night.”

1. With these background thoughts in mind, I notice first the way that Jesus responds to the news of his friend’s illness. He stays where he is, although the people who sent him the message want him to come immediately. Verses 5 to 7 read, “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 respond with surprise, suggesting that Judea is not a safe place for Jesus, and Jesus reminds them that Lazarus needs his help. One may wonder, if he knew that Lazarus needs help, why he did not go to Bethany right away. Jesus told them and tells us, “For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Jesus waited in order to strengthen the disciples’ faith as they observe what follows. This is a truth we can hold on to: God often responds on a different timetable than we have. We want help now, and God provides help now, or later – or sometimes, not at all. We struggle to understand, and this account reminds us that our whole lives remain in God’s hands.

I hesitate to draw the conclusion from this account, as some do, that God has a reason for everything that happens to us. Often, what happens to us is the natural result of natural causes. The coronavirus outbreak is a case in point. We wonder why this is happening and we ask who is at fault. My own view is that the virus is the natural result of natural causes, just as outbreaks of plague in the history of Europe resulted from the sanitation conditions of their cities.

I don’t think God sends disease in general or this pandemic in  particular as a judgment, but I do suggest that God allows us to experience the results of our choices. In this context, the story of Lazarus reminds us that, even in the worst situations humans can bring about, God is still present and God is still ready to save. In the case of Lazarus, Jesus raised him from the dead, and that restoration of life was a sign of God’s readiness to save.

2. Second, when Jesus went to Bethany, he experienced the deep grief that people felt. He joined in fully and wept with them before he did anything about the situation. The verse, “Jesus wept” (in the KJV), is one of the most profound in Scripture. God is not somehow insulated from our hurt and distress, but in the person of God the Son, God enters into the depths of our own fear and despair and sits there with us. As Hebrews 2 puts it, we have a high priest who has felt all that we feel.

           

Sometimes we want an immediate response, when Jesus just wants to grieve with us and to be with us in our distress. In this time of Covid-19, we want God to fix what humans have done and end our distress; instead Jesus comes and sits with us and feels our fear and weeps his tears with our tears. We can comfort each other because we know God is here.

3. Third, we also know that God heals. Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, and Jesus is our “healer of every ill”. A parenthetical word about Lazarus: This was not a resurrection in the sense of Jesus’ victory over death. Lazarus came back to life only to die again; Jesus conquered death forever. Nevertheless, this miracle – the raising of Lazarus – points to the greater miracle that we celebrate at Easter, when Jesus enters death. This miracle points us to the death of death.

The fact that Lazarus’ renewal of life was not his final victory reminds us that God heals us through our distress, not necessarily by removing us from our distress. The life of Garfield Todd, whose story I told at the beginning, is instructive. He never did live to see the kind of majority rule in Zimbabwe for which he gave his life. He “rolled away the stone”, and Mugabe – whom he had befriended – turned bad. Todd spoke against Mugabe’s actions as he had spoken against Ian Smith, and he died disenfranchised at 94 years of age. Even at his death, with all going wrong around him, he maintained his hope and faith in Jesus, who conquers death.

Although God may not have caused the pandemic now sweeping our globe, God uses it to remind us of who we are and of who God is. Dennis Hiebert, my colleague from Providence, circulated an “imagined letter from Covid-19 to humans”, written this month by KristinFlyntz. In it, Kristin imagines the earth speaking to us. I suggest that actually God is speaking to us. Here are some excerpts from her thoughts, rewritten as a message from God.

An Imagined Letter from God to Humans

Stop. Just stop. It is no longer a request. It is a mandate. I will help you. … I will stop the planes, the trains, the schools, the malls, the meetings, the frenetic, furied rush of illusions and “obligations” that keep you from hearing your single and shared beating heart …. Your obligation is to me and to each other, as it has always been, even if, even though, you have forgotten. I interrupt this broadcast … to bring you this long-breaking news: You are not well. None of you; you are all suffering. Last year, the firestorms that scorched the lungs of the earth did not give you pause. Nor the typhoons in Africa, China, Japan. Nor the fevered climates in Japan and India. You have not been listening.

It is hard to listen when you are so busy all the time …. But the foundation is giving way, buckling under the weight of your needs and desires. I will help you. … I am your friend, your ally. … I am asking you: To stop, to be still, to listen …. Many are afraid now. Do not demonize your fear, and also, do not let it rule you. Instead, let it speak to you—in your stillness, listen for its wisdom. …

Stop. Notice if you are resisting. Notice what you are resisting. Ask why.

Stop. Just stop. Be still. Listen. Ask me what I teach you about illness and healing, about what might be required so that all may be well. I will help you, if you listen.

- Kristin Flyntz, 12 March 2020. Adapted by Daryl Climenhaga 28 March 2020

Click here for Flyntz's original letter

Last Sunday, Lee reminded us that there is blessing in this time of distress. Today, I remind you that there is also life in this time. We hear reports of disease and distress, and we hear also of heroism and hope: There is life in this. We sit alone in our rooms and someone calls; as we talk, we realise that there is life in this time. We pray for loved ones far away, and we know that there is life in our relationships. We grieve for loved ones who have died, but even in death, there is the hope of resurrection; there is life even in death.

Jesus brought Lazarus back to life. During this Lenten season, we wait for God to restore us and all of God’s creation to health and wholeness. Jesus is the death of death, and in the darkness of these days, we wait for his light to shine in us forever.

Steinbach Mennonite Church

29 March 2020

Extinguishing the Light (at the close of the sermon)
Each Sunday throughout Lent and into Easter, we will extinguish one candle with the following words to remind us about the meaning of this season.

We have come together this morning, gathered as God’s people, proclaiming God’s Word and now the time of response and stillness is upon us. This season of Lent is about journeys of the heart and remembering that God is in each and every one of us, quietly transforming us and the world. So, I invite you to close your eyes. Be still. Listen. For this is a holy time. (PAUSE) The Lenten candles have been lit but over these weeks the light will slowly fade into darkness. For we are retelling the story of Jesus’ betrayal and suffering and death. As we extinguish one light we acknowledge the darkness, pain and injustice in the world, and we proclaim that even through the darkness that God is revealed: as death becomes new life, as endings are transformed into beginnings, and as dead-ends become a source for new possibilities.

Psalm 130

Waiting for Divine Redemption

A Song of Ascents.

¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. ² Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!

³ If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? ⁴ But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

⁵ I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; ⁶ my soul waits for the Lord
    more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.

⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. ⁸ It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

John 11: 1-45:

The Death of Lazarus

11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” ⁴ 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.” ⁵ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, ⁶ after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” ¹¹ After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” ¹³ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 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.”

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “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?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Jesus Weeps

²⁸ 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.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ 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. ³² 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.” ³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴ He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus began to weep. ³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus Raises Lazarus to Life

³⁸ Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹ 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.” ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴² 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.” ⁴³ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 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.”

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.