Tuesday, May 29, 2012

RESURRECTION: And Death

RESURRECTION: And Death

RUMC May 27, 2012

 

If only you'd known…

If only the captain of Titanic had asked his wife for directions. .

If only Abraham Lincoln had stayed home to watch America's Got Talent instead of going to the theatre…

If only you would have known I was preaching about death today, you might have slept in...  Right?

 

Americans have a very strange aversion to death. 

Our language denies it: we don't die- we "pass away"

Our customs deny it: we embalm the dead and then complain that they don't look lifelike.

Our families deny it: whereas at one time it was quite common to die at home, it is much more common to spend our last weeks, days, and hours in a hospital, nursing home, or hospice house.

The medical field denies it: Even though all patients will die sometime, try to explain that to a doctor.

Even our rituals deny the reality of death as people start veering away from funerals in favor of beer and brats at the Holiday Inn.  (I'm not kidding!)

 

In a death denying culture, the words of the service of death and resurrection bring us back to the reality of life and death

·        "Dying, Christ destroyed our death."

·         In addition, introduce Christian hope.  "Rising, Christ restored our life. "

In today's gospel lesson, we come to a story in which Jesus faces the death of a friend face on.


 

Mary and Martha were two of Jesus' dearest friends.  They had a little brother named Lazarus.  He became very ill.  We can all imagine what it was like around the little house. 

·        The long nights waiting vigil. 

·        I am sure Mary was the one singing Lazarus his favorite songs and reading his favorite scriptures;

·        While Martha made chicken soup for Lazarus, washed the sheets, and kept track of the med schedule. 

Both were important, but neither was enough.

It became apparent that Lazarus would probably die.  I suspect it was the always-practical Martha that sent for Jesus.  The messenger was hardly to the end of the driveway when Lazarus died. 

The two sisters were deflated.  They did the best they could for their little brother, but nothing would have been enough to help him.  They were both aching with grief.  Martha coped by making casseroles for the mourners and cleaning house.  Mary withdrew and wanted nothing more than for Jesus to come. 

As per Jewish custom, they buried Lazarus before sunset that night.  They wrapped his body with cloths and spices and placed it in the family tomb: which was a cave not far from the house.  All through the day and into the evening as the mourning continued, Mary kept looking down the driveway for Jesus.  But he didn't come. 

The mourning continued into the second day and the third, and the fourth.  Still Jesus didn't arrive.

Finally, four days after Lazarus died word comes that Jesus was entering the town.  Martha gets word first and goes out to greet Jesus.  Then Mary.  As soon as Mary saw her Lord, she burst into tears.  As soon as Jesus saw Mary crying, he began to weep as well.  Jesus heart was broken, over not only the death of his friend, but also over the hurting of his friends Mary and Martha.  It says that Jesus was deeply disturbed- profoundly moved- intensely sad.  Even knowing all he knew about eternal life, Jesus knew the hurt of human loss.  He knew the ache of grief. 

Finally, Jesus says, "Mary, show me where you laid him."  Mary and Martha take Jesus to the tomb.  The mourners followed them believing that he was going to grieve for his friend at the tomb.

Instead of bursting out in tears again or the traditional wailing and rocking, Jesus says abruptly, "Roll back the stone."

I suspect everyone looked at each other- thinking this was a bad idea.  Martha, ever-practical Martha, was the one who spoke.  "Lord," she said, "that seems like a bad idea.  He has been in there 4 days now.  You really don't want to smell that."

But Jesus wasn't dissuaded.  "Roll back the stone."  He said. 

The mourners complied and stood back, way back.

Jesus Prayed and then shouted "Lazarus, come out!

The way I imagine it, nothing happening for a while.  "Lazarus come out!!!"

Then you could see a little cloud of dust as Lazarus shuffled (hands and feet still wrapped in grave cloths) to the mouth of the cave.

Everyone must have stood still in stunned amazement, because Jesus had to tell them "Unwrap him."

The crowd was awed and many believed in him that day.

 

 

There are three things I want to point out here.

First- Lazarus was really dead.  That is the whole point Jesus waiting for 2 days.  By time Jesus got there, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days.  The Jews believed that the spirit hovered around for three days.  Jesus, however, waited to the 4th day in order to establish that he was really dead.  That is also the point of Martha telling him that there will be a smell.  If Lazarus were alive, there would not have been a concern about the smell of death.  But he was not alive...  Lazarus was dead, dead, dead.

This is important to us because of our death denying culture.   

·        We teach children that dead means that their pet or loved one cannot eat, breathe or move any more.  Lazarus was no longer eating breathing or moving.

·        Doctors define death as the cessation of brain activity.  There was not brain activity.

·        Most of us define death as a lack of a heartbeat.  There was no heartbeat.

Lazarus was dead, dead, dead.  Naturally so, because death is a natural part of life.  No one can avoid death, no one can beat death, no one can deny death … eventually, every living thing dies.  Including you and me.  Death is a universal experience for all living things.  Lazarus was no exception.

 

 


 

Second- Jesus was really grieving.  The story points out that Jesus loved Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus.  He is "one whom Jesus loved."  Yet, Jesus waited two days to go to them.

·        Do you suppose the human part of Jesus hoped it just wasn't' true? 

·        Do you suppose Jesus was still hoping that Lazarus would get better?

·        Do you suppose there is any chance that Jesus didn't want to admit that his friend was dead? 

I think there is!  After all, look how upset he was when he met Mary.  The Bible says he was deeply moved and cried.  This is not the only place in the gospel where Jesus is moved, but it is the only place he cries.  In this story, we have the famous shortest verse in the Bible.  "Jesus' wept."  Jesus knew the pain of grief and the tears of grief.  Who can come to see one of their best friends weeping uncontrollably and not have your eyes tear up?  My eyes fill up every time I watch a family at the first viewing before the public visitation.  Tears well up in my eyes at every Cherish the Child event.  Death is just really hard.  Jesus was not immune to the difficulty of death.  He really grieved for his friend.

As Christians, we face death with a certain amount of hope, but that does not make our loss any easier.  We console ourselves by saying, "He is in a better place" "There is no more suffering."  "She is with Jesus."  Which is all true, but it doesn't mean Christians don't grieve.  There is nothing in our faith that protects us from the harsh reality that death means that we will never see our loved one again.  .  There is nothing that shields us from the whirlwind of grief. 

You know what?  That's OK.  Grieving is part of living and loving one another in God's world.

 

 

Finally, in this story we see one more thing.  

Death is not really the last word.  Grief is not the last word.  What is the last word?  The last word is I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.   God in Jesus Christ, has defeated the last word of death.  God in Jesus Christ, has trumped the last word of death.  God in Jesus Christ, has made the last word, not "death," but "life."  Not "death," but "resurrection."  Not "death" but "Come out."

Come out! He says. 

Come out of the darkness of death.

Come out of the futility of a life aimed toward death.

Come out of the fearfulness of death.

Come out… come out.  And walk with Jesus. 

The promise of the resurrection of Christ is not sitting idly on a cloud playing a harp for eternity.  (A lot of us would be bored) 

The promise of the resurrection of Christ is not streets of gold and angel choirs, kind of like a heavenly Disney World.

The promise of the resurrection of Christ is perfect communion with Christ.  A timeless, endless, perfect resurrected, communion with the one who is the resurrection and the life. 

The promise of the resurrection of Christ is that we will hear Jesus Call, "Terry Come out and walk with me!"

__________come out, and walk with me!  (X5)

Jesus says, Come out, and commune with me.  AMEN

 

Friday, May 4, 2012

Reflection on general conference protests


Brothers and sisters

I was grieved by the protest at General Conference yesterday.  Besides being a 40 year long process of greater and greater division in the church, the debate over the United Methodist statement on homosexuality has caused grievous pain to many faithful individuals and families.  We seem to be escaping another General Conference without legally splitting the church, but the cost has been unimaginable.

For the vast majority of heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender United Methodists, the church is a loving and accepting place.  We sit among brothers and sisters with differing sexual orientations every Sunday and rarely even think about it.  We receive communion together,  live and love, cry and laugh with one another.  That is as it should be. 

A small group of people feel excluded, labeled, and devalued.  That should grieve all of us, regardless of whether you think the church's position is biblical or archaic, loving or alienating,  prophetic or judgmental.  The pain of a brother or sister is our pain and our shame.

Is there any way to resolve this long running family feud?  I don't know.  People smarter than me have tried over and over and have failed.  It seems to me that yesterday's behavior is blatantly  "bullying."  Extremest terrorists held leaders of our church hostage until they bowed to their demand of having an openly gay pastor step on to the platform and lead a prayer from the pulpit of the conference.(Are any of you under the illusion that that was the first time a homosexual stood in front of General Conference?  I am sure it is not.)   No matter what their agenda is, the behavior is manipulative and more alienating than reconciling. I am embarrassed to see this played out on a public stage with the world's media (both religious and secular) watching and hoping for a fight that is worthy of headlines. 

Let's think about this. 
  •  I don't judge you for drinking responsibly in the privacy of your home or family--- until it creates a problem with your relationships, or becomes a public matter as in public intoxication or drunk driving. Is it possible for you to be dependent on alcohol, causing a serious spiritual issue for you in your relationship with God and it is not a public matter?  Absolutely. But that is between you and God.
  • It is none of your business how I spend my money  unless I  spend it on illegal drugs, or to bribe public officials  or squander it and come begging at your door or the public coffers.  Is the way I use my money important to God and can it become a barrier to spiritual growth? Absolutely.  But that is between me and God. 
(I am not saying I don't care about the barriers between you and God... that is my job to HELP you identify and remove them.  It is not. my job to stand in judgment of you)
  • Is our sexuality any different than the other  issues that might create a problem between us and God?   My sexuality is between me, my wife and God.  Yours is between you, your loved one and God.  It only becomes anyone else's business when it leaves the confines of a loving monogamous relationship in the form of adultery, abuse, any number of public perversions, or becomes a tool for political gain. ( Isn't that what happened yesterday?  Didn't that group bring their sexuality-- and the sexuality of the entire church into the public arena and use it for their own purposes?) Is it possible that a homosexual person's sexuality could be a barrier between them and God?  Yes.  But it is equally possible that a heterosexual person's sexual addiction, or some other aspect of their sexual lives might be a barrier between them and God. Either way... it is between them and God until they ask for help.
My friends, it is time for God's people to grow up and stop acting as though we are 4th graders who think it is somehow cool and thrilling to stand on the playground and shout out slang names for genitals. It is not thrilling or titillating to continue this public airing of subjects that are intended to be confined t the privacy of our homes. It is time for us to grow up and get back to the business of loving one another:  man or woman, gentile or Jew, Samaritan or pharisee, heterosexual, homosexual, white, black purple or polka-dotted. 

In the Reinbeck United Methodist church we have a couple of people who have non-heterosexual orientations. (Maybe more than I am aware.)  I have never, ever, ever, seen that create a barrier to loving one another. You embrace each other and gather around the table for communion. Thank you.  Thank you for being a community that can rise above these issues.  Thank you for being a community that can lead the denomination  by example.   We are all part of the one body.  The body of Christ.  Let us gather this Sunday as Christ's body and not debate our sexuality, but to practice our faith and our love as we commune with our God. 

Pastor Terry

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Resurrection and Forgiveness

Resurrection and Forgiveness

RUMC April 29, 2012

 

For ten years, the man had not talked to his father.  Now he is sorry.  He knows that he is the one who pushed his father out of his life.  He would love to do something to reunite with him.  He can't, because his father's funeral was last week.

 

A young woman struggles with her relationship with her sister.  Her sister has this long list of hurts she believes were caused by the woman. Some real and some imaginary.  The woman struggles to find a way to bridge the gap and express her love.  The sister says there is no need; "stay away, my life is better without you."

 

It's 1:30 in the morning and a Christian man is returning to bed.  It's the third time that week he has snuck out of the bedroom to look at internet porn.  He hates himself for it and wonders whether God can forgive him… again.  He knows that he has to change.  He isn't sure how can he change something that seems so deep and powerful inside of him.

 

She has always been an active member of the church.  Whenever something was happening, you could count on her:  every event, every committee, and every project.  When she is at the church, she feels close to God and yet, more and more often she doesn't want to take part.  She often feels distant from God and resentful of the church.  She is far too busy and feels like she has to cut back.  Every time she says "no," she feels like she is a disappointment to God.  She doesn't want to let her church down either, but there is no joy.

 

Maybe it isn't your father, or your sister, or pornography, or the church that weighs on your heart today; but let's not pretend that we are any different or any better than our four friends in these four stories.

 

Each and every one of us has experienced the breakdown of relationships, habits as strong as iron cages, wounds that tear at our guts, and hurts that rip at the fabric of our faith.  The natural human responses are regret, shame, and guilt.  Each and every one of us has, to a greater or lesser extent, wrestled with regret, shame and guilt.  There are no painless answers.  There is no easy escape.  There is no quick remedy to regret, shame, and guilt. . .  However, there is an answer.  It was not painless, easy or quick- but the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the one and only answer to our regret, shame and guilt.

 

Starting with verse 13, Paul backs up to the beginning of the story.  "Once you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcison of your sinful nature."[i]  YEP, that is where we are all right.  That is our problem.  We are dead in our sins.  Unable to act.  Unable to change.  Unable to fix ourselves.

 

However, we don't have to fix ourselves because God fixed us.  Listen to this.  Paul talks about a "record that stood against us with its legal demands."[ii] Paul is talking about an IOU, or a bond, or a promissory note. We are listed on that legal document as being in debt and it stands against us and holds us as debtors.  Our soul has been mortgaged to sin.

Paul writes, "He erased the record that stood against us."  The picture here is that in Jesus Christ- by his cross and resurrection- God just erased the record of our debt.  Blotted it out.  Eliminated all evidence of the debt.  He wipes it away.  He cancels all of the debt that stood against us and burns the mortgage.  And when he wipes the debt away, he wipes away all legal obligation.  He wipes away all the legal consequences.  He wipes it clean like a chalk board and starts over.

God forgave our trespasses.  Forgave those broken relationships.  Forgave our weakness that succumbs to temptation.  Forgave our self centeredness that makes us think we are the center of the world.  Forgave our regret, our shame and our guilt.

 

God, however, was not done.  He then took everything that was on that IOU and gave it to Christ.  "He set this aside, nailing it to the cross."[iii]  One way of understanding this is to picture a titulus.  A titulus is the technical name for the sign that hung over Christ's head on the cross.  It said "king of the Jews."  Remember the chief priests wanted Pilate to change it to say, "this man said he was the king of the Jews," and Pilate wouldn't change it.

That sign was called a titulus.  It was common to post notice to all who would see that this man was dying for these particular crimes.  Therefore, Paul is saying that when Jesus was put on the cross, God himself made a titulus.  He took all the sins he had erased from your IOU and my IOU.  He took the balance of the mortgage on our souls.  He took sin's payment book and wrote them on Jesus' sign, and he nailed it on to the cross with Jesus Christ.  On that sign was a comprehensive list of my sins and yours.

1.      All the things that we have done that have fallen short of what God calls us to do.

2.       All of the things that we have done that have been hostile;

3.      All of the things that we have done that have been selfish,

4.      All of the things that we have done that have willfully turned away from God,

He lists them there and at the bottom is the verdict of God's own holy law, "you must die for this."  You must, there is no other solution.  That is what the law of God does.  It holds up God's standard and says; if you do this, you will die.  By God's law we must die for our sins.  And so, God took these accusations against us and nailed them to the cross with Jesus. My friends, when Jesus died we did too.  Our old sinful selves, our rebellious selves, out hostile selves, our selfish selves, our hateful selves, and our sinful selves died with Jesus on the cross. 

The law has nothing more to say to us.  The law said that Terry Plocher deserved to die for the kind of person he is.  Terry Plocher died with Christ.  The law can no longer condemn me.  I am forgiven permanently.  Did I do anything to merit that?  NO.  It's a miracle of grace.

I am dead to sin AND

AND

AND alive in Christ who was raised from the dead.  Which leads to the last verse of this passage.

 

Not only are we dead to sin by the power of the crucifixion, alive to Christ by the power of the resurrection, but also in the resurrection Paul says, God "disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them."[iv]

That's the end of the story

·         We are no longer subject to the power of sin.

·          We are no longer slaves to the lure of sin.

·           We are no longer bound by the chains of sin.

·           We are no longer controlled by the influence of sin. 

·         Sin is disarmed and holds no more sway in our lives.

---do we give ourselves over to sin?  You bet.  Most of us every day.  But the point is --- we don't HAVE to.  We are no longer sinners.  We have been given not only forgiveness for our offenses, but victory over the very real power of sin.

Sin no longer sits in the driver's seat.  Sin is no longer in charge.  The power of sin over your life and mine is gone forever.

 

So let's think about those people that I mentioned earlier.  The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ means that that man who was never able to reconcile with his father is still fully and finally forgiven, no matter how great a responsibility he had for the pain that he gave to his father, no matter how many times he could have dealt with it, but refused.  No matter how hard his heart was, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ he is forgiven.  The law says that he should die for what he did to his father.  In Christ he has died and in Christ he now lives.  God has done it all.

The woman who has been refused forgiveness by her sister is called to understand that the lack of human forgiveness doesn't mean that God hasn't forgiven her completely and fully.  If God does not accuse you who else can?  She is forgiven completely. In Christ she has died and in Christ she now lives.  God took that guilt away, nailing it to the cross.  God did it all.

The man who is repeatedly committing the same sin, he hears an amazing message of grace.  God has the capacity to forgive him again and even again.  Every time he repents and truly turns back to God, God chalks a new line or a new starting point.  Yes, he needs to change.  But the good news is he CAN change.  The past is forgiven and put far away from him.  In Christ he has died and in Christ he now lives. God took that shame away, nailing it to the cross.  God did it all.

The young Christian who is wearing herself out needs to confront that part of herself that still believes that she has to wear herself to a frazzle in order to be loved by God.  She is no longer slave to her works but is saved by grace.  She doesn't have to kill herself saving the world, it's far too big.  And besides that in Jesus Christ, God has already done it all.  In Christ she has died and in Christ she now lives. God took that guilt away, nailing it to the cross.  God did it all.

 

No matter what our regret, shame or guilt is about- we too can turn back to God.  Yes, we need to change.  But the good news is we CAN change.  .

In Christ I have died and in Christ I now live.  God takes all my remorse, guilt, and shame away, nailing it to the cross.  God did it all.

In Christ you have died and in Christ you now live.  God takes that remorse, guilt, and shame away, nailing it to the cross.  God did it all.

Thanks be to God who, in Jesus Christ, has done it all.  For me and for you.

·         In the name of Jesus Christ. 

·         By the cross of Jesus Christ. 

·         By the power of Christ's resurrection, YOU ARE FORGIVEN!


 



[i]  v 13

[ii][ii]  v 14

[iii] 14b

[iv]  v 15