Worship Sun 7 July: 3 wk series, wk1: 'Bethany and beyond'

This morning we began a wee 3 week mini-series, exploring three key Christian themes:
death and resurrection;
the cost of faith;
the necessity of love.
And so, today, we asked 'What is resurrection?' as we listened again to the story of the raising of Lazarus [Jn 11] and then to the account of the resurrection of Jesus [Jn 20]. Given our readings and our theme, there was rather an Easter feel to worship - appropriate, for, as people of the resurrection, every day is Easter.

Within the service, six brief 'point of view' monologues were given by three different people, reflecting Mary, Martha, Thomas, Jesus, a grave digger, and Lazarus - this done with the hope of hearing that familiar story in a fresh way.
Thereafter, the sermon... which follows:

SERMON: 'Bethany and beyond'
Let’s pray: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts,
be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

What is resurrection?
It’s a word that we, as followers of Christ, have been bandying about for near on 2 000 years.
What is resurrection?
It’s at the core of what our faith is about:
a big, important word about Jesus, the One also called the Word of life.
It contains within it the startling notion that something that we tend to
think of as so permanent as death...
isn’t.
It holds out to us the tantalising promise of hope:
that our lives here have meaning and purpose,
and that when our life on earth is done,
we die...
and are reborn into eternal life.
Death is just the gateway through which we walk to see God face to face,
to praise God forever with the communion of saints and the whole company of heaven.
It’s about transformation;
of God doing a new thing,
of God, in Jesus, overcoming death
so that we might live.

What is resurrection?
It’s the story that doesn’t have an end –
for the end is a new beginning.
It’s the inspiration for each one of us, here and now,
to live fully and freely and abundantly:
to live our lives based upon love
that cares enough to see the ones nobody else notices;
that cares enough to hear the ones whose voices go unheard;
that cares enough to touch the ones that everyone else pushes away;
that cares enough to sniff out injustices that crush the life from body and soul;
that cares enough to taste and see that the Lord is good, indeed,
and to want to share that life-giving love
so that all may live.

What is resurrection?
It’s the good news story of love.
That’s what we see in our readings this morning.
First, in Bethany.
We see a small family – a brother, and two sisters.
We see the fracturing of that family through the death of the brother, Lazarus.
We see love exposed, raw and weeping, as we watch the reactions of Mary and Martha.
We see Jesus, who, for the love of his friends,
makes his way to a place where are enemies plotting,
trying to trap him, some, trying to kill him.
We see worried disciples,
who out of love for their Rabbi –
and possibly fear for themselves –
don’t want to head to Bethany,
but who, for love’s sake, travel there with him anyway.
We hear the power of love in the words:
‘Lazarus, come out!’
and how that love moves even one wrapped in grave clothes
to emerge from the darkness of death into the light of new life.
A couple of weeks ago, we heard the story of one who,
not in his right mind, and dead to society, inhabited the tombs.
Who, in love,
was restored to his right mind.
Who, through love,
moved back among the living.
Here, in the story of Lazarus, we have one who was dead, restored to life itself.

What is resurrection?
Startling.
An overturning of what we thought too late to do anything about.
In the story of Lazarus, we learn that God is never too late, even in the case of death itself.
And we also learn that resurrection is not without cost...
all change comes at a cost;
without change, transformation isn’t possible.
There’s pain in this story:
Mary, Martha, and Jesus, weep for Lazarus.
Mary and Martha walk in that dark place of pain and grief – it’s a raw place –
because to truly love another always comes at a cost.
To get to resurrection without experiencing the hard things isn’t possible.
Resurrection is about letting go in order to allow transformation to happen.
And, when, in our lives, we’re faced with pain, and loss,
feel despair, discomfort, or fear,
or all of those things that are part and parcel of just being human,
it’s because we are a resurrection people, that we can keep on going,
for resurrection is the hope that helps us put one foot in front of the other.
Being a follower of Jesus isn’t about never experiencing bad things ever again,
it’s about being given the resources to get through,
knowing that pain, and loss, and grief, and even death itself
are swallowed up in the brilliance of the life and light
that is the resurrection.

What is resurrection?
Something that goes beyond just the story of Lazarus and
of love for friends in a village called Bethany.
It’s a good news story of love.
It’s seen in the God who reaches out to the whole human family –
and to the creation itself.
It’s about restoring a fractured relationship caused near the very beginning
of the human story itself...
that put the fear of death into us so much so, that it caused us to be scared to truly live.
It’s about a relationship that was so broken
that it took God to not only call after us to return,
but to take on what it is to be human:
experience the rawness,
the pain,
the limitations
of flesh and blood,
and then to walk among us, to a place ...
where are enemies plotting,
trying to trap him,
some, trying to kill him,
because even when God walks among us
offering love,
offering life its very self,
fear refuses to believe and chooses, instead, to destroy what it doesn’t understand.
In Jesus’ story,
in among the friendships,
the conversations,
the encounters with so many different people,
there’s joy,
there’s laughter,
there’s love.
And there’s also pain –
and the price of loving humanity is to end up dying for us.

Almost immediately after Lazarus has been raised, the religious authorities hear of it.
The life of Lazarus sets in train the chain of events that will lead to the death of Jesus.
And Jesus, in calling Lazarus from the tomb, knows that this story will end
in his own death, and being placed in a tomb.
But he also understands that though pain and death itself will happen,
as it does to all of us,
that the story doesn’t end there:
death is a comma, not a full stop,
for ours is the God of life,
the God who can defeat death itself.

What is resurrection?
God’s transforming power of love which overcomes all.
To live as people with the promise of resurrection is something that frees us,
and in turn, something that not only begins a process of transformation in us,
but in the lives of those around us,
and in the life of the world itself.
There’s a poem about resurrection that I particularly like –
about the possibilities that resurrection allows us to entertain even as we live our present lives.
It’s called ‘Because he is risen’:
Because He is risen
Spring is possible
In all the cold hard places
Gripped by winter
And freedom jumps the queue
To take fear’s place as our focus
Because He is risen

Because He is risen
My future is an epic novel
Where once it was a mere short story
My contract on life is renewed in perpetuity
My options are open-ended
My travel plans are cosmic
Because He is risen

Because He is risen
Healing is on order and assured
And every disability will bow
Before the endless dance of his ability
And my grave too will open
When my life is restored
For this frail and fragile body
Will not be the final word on my condition
Because He is risen

Because He is risen
Hunger will go begging in the streets
For want of a home
And selfishness will have a shortened shelf-life
And we will throng to the funeral of famine
And dance on the callous grave of war
And poverty will be history
In our history
Because He is risen

And because He is risen
A fire burns in my bones
And my eyes see possibilities
And my heart hears hope
Like a whisper on the wind
And the song that rises in me
Will not be silenced
As life disrupts
This shadowed place of death
Like a butterfly under the skin
And death itself
Runs terrified to hide
Because He is risen...*
                              *Gerard Kelly, in 'Spoken Worship'

Let’s pray:
When the day is quiet
and the world still sleeps
and the morning is crisp
and love breathes again
we praise you, O God of resurrection

When the time is now
and the moment is on us
and the place is here
and the grave clothes are folded
we praise you, O God of renewal

When the day is new
and the sun is fresh
and the light is clean
and the stone has rolled
we praise you, O God of empty tombs

Now we see the world differently
What we thought was the way of things, yesterday
is no longer the way of things today
death was yesterday
new life is today
tombs were sealed
now they are open
love was dead
now is alive again
death has been given a make-over
endings have a new perspective
things work differently now

When the shouting has stopped
and the suffering ended
and the betrayal complete
and the darkness stolen
then we praise you, O God of life...
for life in all its fullness. Amen.**
                                          **prayer by Roddy Hamilton