“Cynacism’s End” John 11:1-45

There is an undeniable streak of cynicism running through the Gospel story today.  A kind of “What’s the point?” pall that seems to hang over this whole story from the start.

          Jesus hears of Lazarus’ illness, and decides not to act quickly upon that news.  

“How can that be?” we ask, along with many in the story. 

“How could Jesus ignore his close friend, the brother of his beloved Mary and Martha in their time of great need?  

What kind of friend is Jesus, if he can’t drop everything and come running when needed?”

          The Disciples have a cynical outlook on the whole prospect of returning to Judea. 

Despite attempts by Jesus to turn this into a “teaching moment” about light and walking in the light, Thomas at least voices the prevailing attitude that is pretty clearly one of cynical resignation.   

“Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

          Martha is no ray of sunshine, recriminating Jesus when he approaches.  “Lord if you had been here….”

          Mary echoes her sister’s comments, using practically the same words.  “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  

For all the assurances of their faith, the knowledge of him “rising on the last day,’ and the outside hope that “even now God will grant whatever you ask of him.”  The problem of Jesus’ hesitation hangs over the whole story.

          The crowd assembled is at the same time impressed with Jesus’ coming to be with the grief-stricken family, and with his own evident grief, but they are also betray a skeptical side. 

“Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind have kept this man from dying?”

          Even Jesus feels a bit caught up by heavy mood at first. 

          He is moved to tears yes, overwhelmed with emotions at the hardness of reality of this death most final, — he has been four days in the tomb which is “dead-dead” in that culture.     

Jesus weeps.  

He inquires of where the body of his friend has been lain.  

Jesus has words of hope for Martha, assurances for Mary, but also evidently feels the need to lift up his own prayers to his Father.

He does so as a witness to the crowds, or so we are told by him. 

But, I suspect there is also a matter of Jesus’ own need here. 

We have grown accustomed through the Gospels of watching Jesus find a place to pray, to find solace away from the crowds to commune with the Father.   

Here however, he opens up here in plain sight and within earshot out of his own need.  “Father, I thank you for having heard me.  I know you always hear me….”  

Giving voice to that inner knowledge appears to be important for Jesus.  It is in this act of “prayer out loud” that we experience Jesus needing to be lifted out of the inexorable pull and drag of this world upon him and upon everyone in the story.

Even, and perhaps especially, the Messiah, the Son of God feels the weight of the world from time to time.

And that, beloved in the Lord, is where I want to take a jog from the Gospel into our own world and own experience right now.

 For, if I hear anything these days, it is often overwhelming cynicism about our world!

There is an undeniable streak of cynicism that runs through our daily lives, and we often feel quite powerless to address it, or to deal with it, or to find ways to stave it off from pulling us ever deeper into resignation.

This is where our lives touch this story of Lazarus.

If we are honest with ourselves, we will recognize that our questions are the same as that on the lips of Mary, Martha, the disciples and the crowd.

Where have you been, Jesus?

The cynicism that runs through this story runs through us as well, as so many of us reel at the changes we face, the accusations made about leaders and systems, the actions of those in power and our own feeling of powerlessness in the face of them.   

We can no more pull ourselves out of the funk of cynicism these days than the disciples, or Mary, Martha, or the crowds could that day as they gathered at the tomb of four-day-dead Lazarus.  

Words alone just don’t have the power to do that.

Not even the most eloquent of prayers or wishful hopes can pull us out of our funk.

No, what is required is nothing short of an experience of resurrection. 

A body needs to be called forth from the tomb and brought to life.

We all have to witness some bound-one stagger back out into the light of day.

We have to have some kind of a “hands on” experience with resurrection, be instructed to touch what we thought we had lost, reclaim it, and take part in “unbind him and let him go.”

Nothing short of a resurrection experienced will have any effect on a pall of cynicism when it overtakes. 

Mary, Martha, Lazarus himself and the crowds that gathered that day, — and yes, maybe  even Jesus himself, will have to witness and experience the dispelling of the darkness that currently envelopes them.

And that, curiously enough, brings us back to our day as well, and claiming something that we have perhaps lost in the midst of all the cynical stuff around us.

Are we not referred to as a “Resurrection People?”

Are we not witnesses to the Resurrection, and to the power of that Resurrection, and have been now for 2000 years?

We need to reclaim who are we!

And where did we see Resurrection?  

Oh, beloved, we see it every day!  

We see it, but our eyes must be lifted from the fog of cynicism that would keep them from seeing it.

You witnessed Resurrection when you walked into the door today. 

Did you see it?   

You made a decision to not stay on your sofa, to not catch the early seating at brunch, to not pull the covers back over your head and hunker down.  

You stepped inside a church, you tuned in your computer, to see where others made that same decision, and it was a moment of resurrection. 

It was you saying defiantly to a word that wonders where Jesus is that you know where to find him.

Jesus lives in the decision to gather.

Jesus lives where the Word is preached and the Sacraments are administered.

Jesus becomes flesh again in the greeting of the neighbor, in the voice uplifted in song, in the bread broken and the wine given and shared.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good,” we defiantly proclaim, as if prophesying to our dry old bones. 

 We watch them come together again and take on muscle and sinew in the Body of Christ as it assembles in this place.  We are connected sinew by sinew, enfleshed in common experience – even online and separated by distance.

Time and distance has not erased the truth that because Christ Jesus was raised from the dead, we too might have a new life. 

Every Day!

Resurrection resides in the stocked pantry shelves, and in the sacrifices made to feed the hungry and cloth the naked.   

Resurrection lives because we don’t do those things just because they are a good idea, or because of the need or necessary, but because we follow a Risen Savior who has shown us how to love and has commanded us to feed.

Resurrection lives in the way we treat one another; in the kind and the tenderhearted words we speak to one another in the midst of our own grief.

Resurrection lives in the truth that must be spoken to power, the reminder of Last Judgment, the call to love, and forgive, and care for the vulnerable in society.

Resurrection lives in an offering taken, in the decision to give of one’s resources so that the lights may remain on, the organ kept in tuned, the gathering renewed and the story may be told again and again.

Resurrection is evident in the notes of the singers, and in the passing of the peace, and in the lesson that is prepared and in the child who is welcomed.

Resurrection is found in the work of committees, in the silent service of cups filled with wine, linen lovingly arranged just as carefully as any folded linen cloth at the empty tomb.

You will witness resurrection in this world whenever you turn your eyes upward and pray to God, “I know that you always hear me…”

The furious plots and plannings of the kings, princes, presidents and nations have never been able to hold back the flood of justice and righteousness that comes from God and God’s Kingdom when it is made known.  

“The arc of the moral universe is long” said Martin Luther King Jr. “but it bends toward justice.”    

This is what we need to see in this Gospel today.   

For all the cynicism that is displayed by all those involved in the story, when Resurrection Power is beheld, the world is changed, and many come to believe.

When Resurrection Power is displayed in hope restored in people, faith flourishes.

This is what we do, Resurrection People.  

We dispel the cynicism of this world by witnessing to what we see every day.

We hear the call of Jesus that brings the dead out of their graves.

We watch as those who were formerly as the dead to us make their way back to life.

We get busy with our own hands unbinding and setting free those who stagger back to life. 

We reach out and strip away, bit by bit, the things that bind and hold back the Kingdom in our midst, and toss away our own cynicism like so many dirty rags.

We do all that by striding into this world to do the work of a Resurrected people.

Jesus is raised, and lives in us.   He has shown us the power of the resurrection, and the very gates of hell will not in the end prevail against it.

“Messy Interactions” John 9:1-41

Those who believe that an encounter with Jesus is always about having an “and they all lived happily ever after” — ending have not spent much time in the Gospels!  

The encounter with Jesus apparently does nothing but stir up trouble for everyone!

          The man born blind did not ask to be healed in the first place.  He was just minding his own business begging as per usual, occupying his appointed place in a community that understood him, his needs and his place in them. 

          When Jesus happens along (and quite unprompted by him!) makes a mess of mud and does a healing on the Sabbath the community is thrown into chaos!

          The Blind man’s parents did not ask to have their lives complicated, or for trouble with the Pharisees.   

          The Pharisees were not looking for any complications to their well-ordered society by having Jesus go around healing on the Sabbath.

          In all, this is a very messy story. 

It is one in which Jesus steps in to address an age old question raised by his disciples.  “What is the cause of this?  Who ‘sinned’ here?” 

Jesus rejects the classical understanding that anybody sinned at all.  Stuff just happens and God show up!

Jesus does not even bother to stay around on the scene when the arrival of God sets all these events in motion. 

          That is perhaps what disturbs us most.  

          Jesus is nowhere to be seen, but leaves all these people to muddle through on their own!

They have to work out how the community will order itself now that the man’s condition has changed.  They are all searching for some meaning, some way of coming to terms with the twists and turns that have happened to them, to their community, and to their own expectations.  

          And where is Jesus?   

          Well, Jesus seems perfectly comfortable remaining on the sidelines!  

He is perfectly content to leave them to their own lines of questioning.

Even though it is Jesus who instigates the furor by his actions of healing, Jesus is nowhere to be seen when the heat is on for this poor man born blind!  

The man has to come to his own conclusions about what has happened to him.

Though the interactions with the other players in the story, folks begin to recognize that God’s activity has indeed been present in their lives, but such activity not as recognizable or as welcomed as they might have been led to believe.

 There are “searchers” in this story, given sight for the first time.

 Everyone has to “see” the events to make sense of them, and sense isn’t really made until it is not the eyes that reveal things but rather the ears.

Jesus finally speaks at the end of the story and the man recognizes the voice.

          This might be where we connect with this story.

The “searcher” in us all really wants to know where Jesus is sometimes.  What is God up to in the events of our community, in our world, our formerly well-ordered lives?

Where is Jesus when things get messy?  

Where is Jesus when people start to ask questions, make assumptions, and jump to conclusions?

Is it true that Jesus appears to be quite content to simply stir up trouble by entering our lives, and then leave us to sort the mess out on our own?

          I do not know if I have an adequate answer for that.  

          I would like to say that Jesus was with all of these characters all along.

The blind man would not have found himself in the predicament without the ongoing question about sin, and presence of Jesus.  His own healing continues long after Jesus himself has left the picture, and long after eyesight has been restored.

Jesus is there all along.

Jesus is present in all the characters of the story as they react to the man who was born blind and struggle with their own conclusions, or with his actions or words.

They end up judging Jesus’ actions.

Some dismiss Jesus’ authority.

They call Jesus a sinner for breaking Sabbath laws, and reject the miracle in their midst.

Everyone in the end is saying something about Jesus.

The answers come as the characters search and grope to understand just what has happened to them and to their world.

          The blind man becomes something different because of the mess brought about by Jesus coming into his life. 

He is different because of how someone else choses to act.

          We, all of us, become who we are because of the messy parts of our lives, the parts because (for good or for ill) we have chosen to act on behalf of God, or others have acted on our behalf out of conviction that God calls them to do so.

          Some of those messy things that happen in this world are there because of things that we have done.  We will need to own up to that.  You can’t move forward until you do.  

Some of those messy things may have been instigated because of our attempts to follow Jesus.   

Sometimes because we were a little too zealous.   

At other times, things get messed up because we were a little too timid, too afraid to speak up and name what we have seen, heard, or know to be true.

          I don’t think it is ever God’s intention that we should all come quickly to a “happily ever after” ending.  Such things are reserved for fairy tales and Disney.

          I do think that it is God’s intention that we do what we were created to do.

We are created to ask questions, to search, to wonder, and to adapt when it becomes apparent that God is indeed doing something new in this world.

          What I know for certain is that God’s promise found in this story is a promise for us.

In the end, all things will be revealed.

In the end God, wins over the powers of sin, death and darkness that we have to muddle through in the here and now.

          I do not have the answer to “Where is Jesus?” in the messiness of your life.

          I have only this promise that is found in the Gospel.

When we are driven, driven out, driven to the end of things, driven by forces and powers that we cannot master, — be they anger, despair, or hopelessness – Jesus is there.

 When we have come to an end to what we can figure out on our own, are frustrated, and feel defeated – it is then that Jesus comes to find us, and we will recognize his voice if not his face

It is then that Jesus comes to reveal himself to us.  

          It may not seem like much.  But, for a searcher, to know that there is an end, a destination, is at least a relief!  

          It is good news.  

          It is what gives the messiness of life meaning and purpose. There is an end, and when it comes, it is Jesus’ voice that we will recognize

“Come See A Man..” John 4:5-42

“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!”

          There is so much going on in this Gospel less that you can get lost in it.  It is the longest single exchange between Jesus and another person in the entire New Testament, and it involves not a beloved disciple, Pharisee, nor one of Jesus’ inner circle, but rather a woman and a Samaritan “outsider.”

          That’s right, Jesus spends his longest recorded conversation talking to a person totally unknown to him and to whom most folks wouldn’t probably have given the time of day! 

The time of day is important for this woman.   She is at the well in the heat of the day, all by herself.  The customary practice would have been for the women of a village to gather in the cool of the morning or in the evening to go and draw water together, helping each other. 

But this woman is here all by herself in the heat of the day.

She clearly does not want anyone around or has no one on good terms with her.

          As the conversation begins, she has very little interest in talking to Jesus, but Jesus is persistent in the same way he was persistent with Nicodemus, introducing new topics and not letting her change the subject. 

By the time the conversation is over, we find that she can’t wait to go and tell all those folks that she had previously been trying to avoid in the village all about this Jesus.

Clearly by the end of the story this woman has undergone a significant transformation!  She is not behaving the way she did at the beginning of the story, evading conversation and connection.

Indeed, by the end of the story she is engaging as many people as she can!

          How does such a transformation come about.  She explains it to her fellow villagers with these words,

          “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!”

          There is something about Jesus seeing her, (or perhaps, Jesus seeing right through her?) that brings about a change.

This is the scary proposition of faith.

To be seen by Jesus and engaged by him carries with it the very real possibility that Jesus may change us!

          Our essential hunger as human beings is one of connection. 

We want to be known.

We want to be seen.

We want to feel connected.

We defend ourselves from such connection however, lest people get too close.

We put up our defenses.

When Jesus gets too close, the woman switches the subject several times.

When Jesus gets a little too personal, telling her to bring her husband, she puts him off only to be informed that the details are known all too well about her “husbands.”

The woman speaks of hoping for a better connection to God, — someday.  But that connection seems as far off to her as the mountain on which they are to worship as Samaritans.

In the conversation with Jesus, something happens to melt away the distances and the boundaries.

          Is that how it happens? 

Is this what causes our own transformation into a follower of Jesus?  

Is it done in the midst of an ongoing conversation? 

Is it done in letting Jesus see who we are, and in coming to terms with who and what we are ourselves?

          If that is the case, then we have some serious work to do in re-imagining things.   Because you see, if coming to faith in Jesus involves engaging in conversation, well, we’re not very good at that.

          In our worship, we tend to have formalized the speech. 

We have ritualized our conversation with God and with one another here in such a fashion that at its best it can only be a way to enter into the beginning of such a conversation that leads to faith.

 And, at its worst, it becomes a way to avoid the conversation altogether, to go through the motions.

          As you make your way through this story, you are struck with how many times Jesus re-engages her and pulls the conversation back around.  There is a relentlessness to it. 

          That too, we will have to re-imagine, for too often we think that we have just one shot at things.

          One shot at talking about our faith, and if the person doesn’t respond, well, then that’s that.

          One shot at making a connection with others, and if they don’t want anything to do with us, then so much for that.

          But in this story, Jesus takes a number of runs, wanders through a series of things that she expresses that she needs, wants or hopes to have.

          Water

          Relationship

          Worship

          Longing for Messiah

          Connection to her community.

          Jesus keeps coming at her, and in the end, it is his relentless interest in her that wins her over. 

“Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!”

I have a theory that the reason the church isn’t do so well is really twofold.

          Firstly, we aren’t talking to Jesus enough.  I mean the kind of conversation where we let down out guard and really wonder about things with Jesus.

          The woman is a pattern for that, as she listens to what Jesus needs, what it is that he has to offer, and how he “hangs in there with her” through the uncomfortable revelations.

          “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done.”

And secondly, we aren’t talking to others enough about Jesus.

          It is really that simple, and that hard.  

Faith is a conversation, not a monologue.

          Faith doesn’t just happen to us when someone talks at us about how good or how wrathful God might be.  

No great preacher ever instills faith.

All he or she can do is to start a conversation.

          Faith doesn’t just happen when we have our theology straight, or our building and bills in order.

          Faith isn’t so much about any of the “nuts and bolts” of the day – those disciples sent out to get some food.

          No, where you find faith is in the conversation, with God, and with that other person that you meet, wherever you happen to meet them during your day.

          Faith comes in the conversation, as you are attentive to shining the light that God has placed within you,  through your baptism.

          Faith comes in the give and take of figuring out who you really are and allowing that other person to be seen and to accepted by God through you.

          “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done.”  

That’s what she says. 

That’s what transforms her.

 The conversation that she engages in in Jesus lets her discover who Messiah might be, and that her longed for Messiah might be willing, even ready, to have a conversation with her.

          Now how about you?  

Here is the frightening, and wonderful question.  Do you believe Jesus would want to have a conversation with you?

          He does, you know, that’s what the woman at the well reveals to us!

          If Jesus will talk to her, he’ll talk to anyone!

Jesus will engage anyone who wants to drink deeply from the reservoir of God’s love and mercy and strength.

          Do you want to be transformed?

Then have a conversation with Jesus, and with someone else about Jesus.

That’s really all the book of Acts ends up being, and the generations of the church after that, if you think about it.

This is how the world is transformed. 

One person having a conversation with someone else about Jesus.

“Inquiring Minds” John 3:1-17

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”  

So begins Nicodemus’ nocturnal visit. 

Nicodemus is a leader of the Pharisees.  He has listened intently to Jesus, heard his teaching, witnessed the signs and miracles, and now comes by night, (lest anyone see him,) to inquire of Jesus.

You have to like old Nicodemus. 

You have to give him credit for seeking Jesus out, for wanting more information, and yet, this coming by night bothers us.   

It’s a little like our experience at the check-out counter of the store or the “click bait” stories on the web.

There it is, that sensational headline in bold color and bravado grabbing our attention, promising to “reveal” something.  

An Actor caught in love triangle”

A Space Alien Baby born in Nevada,

 Secret Government tests reveal cure for Cancer, and you can get it at your Grocery Store.”

We chuckle at the splash of writing, and then begin to wonder.   What if there is something to it?

And there it is, the Nicodemus lurking inside us all, just under the surface.  

We are interested, but non-committal. 

Intrigued, but not wanting to be caught looking too interested in this.

          We might call it bait and switch, a trick to lure us to get us to buy a magazine or click on a link, but what are we to call it in John’s Gospel?  

Nicodemus comes to ask a question, to inquire of Jesus, but before he can get his question off, Jesus launches Nicodemus into a completely new direction.

“Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”  Jesus says to Nicodemus,  rather out of the blue.

What does that have to do with Jesus?  Who he is?  What kind of Rabbi he is? What he is going to teach us?

“How can anyone be born after having grown old?” Nicodemus responds. 
“Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”  

Before he even knows it, there he is, deep into a conversation with Jesus about things he never wondered about before, never thought he would consider!  

Which is to say, “Be careful people, take a look at just how good Jesus is at this!”  

If what you are interested in is a casual faith, watch out!   Jesus isn’t very good about letting that last for very long. 

You may come to worship, to church just to a get a glimpse, perhaps to confirm your suspicions, maybe enjoy the fine music and atmosphere. 

Inquiring minds may want to know, after all, just what Jesus might expect of them.

We would prefer to find that out from a comfortable distance!

Maybe you came to worship today because you wanted that deep, abiding conversation with Jesus about your life, about what following him will mean. 

But I’d bet real money that most of you didn’t come for that, at least not consciously.

Most of you came because, well, you always come to church, it’s the thing to do on Sundays.

Many of you came because you were expected to come, by a spouse, a parent, or a child. 

Some of you may have come to get your “spiritual fix.” Or, as a lovely former parishioner of mine used to say, “I came to get my ‘God on,’ Pastor.”

You came hoping to feel better after worship.  Hoping the music would be inspirational, the Pastor’s sermon would be tolerably short and  maybe give you a chuckle or two or an inspirational moment.

You came to receive communion and have that special “just as I am” feeling as you came forward  for a piece of stryrofoam and and sip of sweetness.  

What more could you want, expect, after all?

Maybe some came today skeptically.   Maybe you came just to check this place out, this pastor out, whatever.

At any rate, I just want to warn you!

If what you want is a casual conversation with Jesus, just a quick glimpse, he’s not very good at that. 

If you came just to take a peek, be forewarned and forearmed!

Jesus will want to engage you!

Jesus will be apt to raise questions for you that you never thought you would have to consider.

He will want to have you re-examine everything you think you know to be true in the light of his teaching, of his Word.

“You must be born from above…” he asserts to Nicodemus,and to us.

How does a person do that?

“Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.”

Oh, you mean I have to be baptized?   Yeah, well, I have that covered, it was “done” to me as a kid, or I had our kid done a while back.

“What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  

What?  You mean there is more to it than just having it done? There is a spiritual dimension that is going to happen?  Once splashed, I’m going to change, I’m going to be different?  How different?  In what ways?

Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’  The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

What, you mean I will be different, but I can’t predict what kind of changes will happen to me?  It’s like the wind, going where it will? 

 This new life in the Spirit will be like a breeze, playing all over the place, with some direction but nothing that you can pin it down to, nothing you can count on, grab hold of, cling to?

“How can these things be?”

“Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?”  Jesus says to Nicodemus.  

If Jesus were to say this directly to us, he might say, “What, are you an adult and baptized and you still haven’t figured everything out?”  

“Have you been a Sunday School teacher and yet you do not understand these things?  

Are you a Pastor, have your Master of Divinity Degree, spent your life reading the scriptures and still you do not understand these things?”  

“If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”

Poor Nicodemus!  He comes by night to get a glimpse and to ask a couple simple questions.

But, before he knows it, Jesus has engaged him in a conversation that includes and stretches to the saving of the whole world.  

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

See, this is how good Jesus really is!  

This is why I need to warn you!  

If what you want is a casual faith, a casual relationship with God, this is a bad place to come looking for it. 

Jesus means to save the world, and he means to enlist you in that cause.      

That is why he calls disciples.  

That is why the disciples he calls come from so many different backgrounds and so many varied experiences. 

Jesus is just as comfortable calling this stodgy old Pharisee who sneaks around by night and just wants a peek, as he is calling rough fishermen by the sea, or a Samaritan woman by a well, or the Demoniac, fresh from his chains and rantings.   

And if Jesus is comfortable calling those kinds of folks, he’s probably just as comfortable calling you!

To save this world will take the actions of everyone, reaching out to everyone.   

This is what Jesus came for.

Jesus didn’t come just to give you something to do on Sundays.  

He didn’t come just to give you a spiritual lift, or quick fix to a problem you have. 

Jesus didn’t come just for you to just take casual looks at him, to decide about him as you might decide about super-sizing your value meal or picking from among any one of 31 flavors, depending on what sounds good today. 

No, Jesus came because God   “so loved the world…that he sent him…”

Jesus came so that “everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

Jesus is sent, not for us to take a casual look at but “in order that the world might be saved through him.”

This is what he came for. 

This is what he invites us to be a part of, all of us; who like Nicodemus have had the inclination to come and just take a peek, and maybe ask a question.  

Be forewarned people!   

Jesus is out to get you.   

He is out to make you into one who can also do His Father’s will. 

He is out to raise questions in you that you never thought you would have to address.  

Jesus is out to change the world, to save it, and he will likely ask you to start in your own corner, by making you consider questions you’ve never considered before.