I am the Resurrection and the Life

Lenten Homily by Louise Briscoe - March 17, 2008

"I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord;
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live;
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."

"I am Resurrection and I am Life, says the Lord.
Whoever has faith in me shall have life,
Even though he die.
And everyone who has life,
And has committed himself to me in faith,
Shall not die forever."

This is the anthem that opens the Burial of the Dead service. It's taken from the encounter between Martha and Jesus in the story of Lazarus' resurrection and that passage is one of the options for the Gospel in the Burial of the Dead service. Whether the whole passage is chosen for the Gospel or not, this verse is the first one that is listed to open the service.

The Burial of the Dead service is listed in the Book of Common Prayer in a section on Pastoral Liturgies (so it's just one of number of different liturgies). I was interested, when I looked at the New Zealand Prayer Book, to discover that they have a whole section devoted exclusively to what they call Funeral Liturgies and Services in the Time of Death. It's quite lengthy - 73 pages in the NZPB compared to the 45 pages in the BCP - although, as any of you who are familiar with the NZBP know, some of the pages in the NZPB are repetition of the prayers and passages in Maori.

Other differences soon became evident to me. There is a significant contrast between the introductions to these sections in the two prayer books. The Introductions in both the BCP and the NZ prayer book are both called "Concerning the Service". Sharing a similar title is the end of the similarity, however. In the BCP, the section is a list of instructions:

The death of a member of the Church should be reported as soon as possible to, and arrangements for the funeral should be made in consultation with, the Minister of the Congregation.

Baptized Christians are properly buried from the church. The service should be held at a time when the congregation has opportunity to be present. . . . etc.

In contrast, here is the start of the introductory section from the NZPB:

Of all human events, death concerns us the most deeply. When death approaches, whether it be our own or that of someone close to us, it immediately becomes our principal and overriding concern. When people die, their family and friends suffer loss, shock, and grief. Grief is like a wound which requires time and care if it is to heal. Nevertheless, God's love continues through our loss and in our grieving. These services aim to strengthen our assurance of this.

On the one hand, Christians know that Christ has triumphed over death, and that therefore we need no longer fear it. The last event in our lives leads on to something richer. On the other hand, when we have loved deeply and received love, especially when this love has been lasting, the grief and pain suffered is extreme. The loved person will not be encountered again in this life. The future seems uncertain and forbidding. It can be almost impossible for the sufferer to accept the loss. . . .etc.

You can see why I love the NZPB!

This comparison was partly an excuse to read that section from the introduction to the funeral services in the NZPB because the description of the grieving person that it provides helps us understand what Martha must be feeling as we begin to look at the passage from John that we are discussing tonight.

After the service on the first Sunday in Lent, I told Pastor Jane how much her sermon meant to me. Her reply, with a glowing smile on her face, was, "Yes, the readings in Lent are full of such wonderful stories". What we are going to do this evening is to focus on an extract from one of those wonderful stories, a pivotal encounter between Jesus and Martha in the story of the raising of Lazarus.

As you probably recall, what has happened before this passage is that Lazarus fell ill, and his sisters, Mary and Martha, send for Jesus, who for some reason delays his departure after hearing this news. Our passage begins with the fact that by the time Jesus finally gets to Bethany, Lazarus has been buried in the tomb for four days.

At the beginning of this passage, Martha leaves the party of mourners to come out to meet Jesus. Remember, Martha is the active sister, she's the doer, and she confronts Jesus with basically an accusation, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." The footnote in my Bible said that Martha was "disappointed". I think she was probably more than disappointed! I think she was probably at least annoyed, and possibly even angry at Jesus, especially since she is suffering the terrible loss of her brother. She might even have thought, and wanted to say, "Where have you been, Jesus? You who make the lame walk and give sight to the blind - even when they are complete strangers. Lazarus, Mary, and I are some of your best friends - why weren't you here for us, working your miracles? And now it's too late - Lazarus is dead."

But she doesn't say that, she obviously has some hope - and restraint - because even in her grief - or maybe out of desperation from her grief, what she does say is, "But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." Martha wouldn't plead, because that's not her style, but I hear her saying, "Please, Jesus, my brother has died. God has given you the power to work miracles. I know raising the dead may be a bit of a stretch, but can't you do something?"

Jesus' response is, "Your brother will rise again." To which Martha replies, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." I hear her saying words that she knows she believes at some level - it's the right answer - some people in her day did believe in resurrection - but they aren't words that are particularly meaningful to her right now. Those of us who have lost loved ones and grieved know how this works: you think of reassurances, or people offer words of reassurance, that in your head you know are right, but they don't really help you feel better - they don't always resonate in your heart.

But then what Jesus does say to Martha is earth-stopping. He utters words that are at the crux of Christianity - the really good news. Jesus' reply to Martha is, "I am the resurrection and the life. If you have faith in me, even if you die, you will have life".

Before we go on to talk some more about that amazing statement, I want to back-track for a moment. As I reflected on this passage, I wondered why Jesus was so late in arriving in Bethany. At the beginning of the chapter in John (from which this story comes), the story reads that Jesus basically said, "I have a lesson to teach here; I need to introduce the concept of resurrection, so I'll arrange it that I am late enough that Lazarus is good and dead and then I can raise him from the dead and really make my point." When Fr. Dan and I talked about the "I am the resurrection and the life" passage, he noted that Jesus probably didn't ever say those words specifically. But I like to think that he did. What I prefer to think is that Jesus didn't say that other stuff at the beginning of the chapter about setting up this situation. I prefer to think that he was delayed for some unplanned, perfectly good reason, and that this situation wasn't contrived from the beginning.

A few weeks ago my tap dance teacher was held up in traffic and delayed for half an hour, which is half the class. When he arrived, he was cool, calm, and collected. I was astonished - and envious. I would have been harried and frantic, which wouldn't have helped me lead a class once I got there at all. I think Jesus was like that - very calm and "in the moment", prepared to teach and respond in love to whatever comes up.

What I like about this part of the Lazarus story is the give and take between Jesus and Martha. Maybe it was even Martha's prodding - and her faith - that encouraged Jesus to raise Lazarus from the dead. Maybe he hadn't planned it ahead of time at all. At any rate, Jesus takes the opportunity that Martha has given him to make the most marvelous statement, "I am the resurrection and the life". He totally challenges and transforms Martha's - and of course our own - traditional understandings of life and death. He turns them upside down and allows us to look at them through completely different lenses.

There are at least two things that are particularly meaningful to me about this statement. The first thing is that the statement is very personal. Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life". This isn't an abstract concept; this is real and personal - it's about some one that you can experience and have a relationship with. Jesus is saying, "You can see God as a person through me".

And the other important aspect of the statement is that it is in the present time. It's not about the resurrection at the end of time - it's about an everlasting life NOW.

Whether we've had a loved one die or not, we've probably all experienced other kinds of deaths during our lives. Ironically, this day is the anniversary of the day I was married in this church 20- some years ago. When that marriage ended, it was a death for me. Fortunately, I was blessed with a resurrection, and my family, friends, and Epiphany community supported me during the difficult times and made that resurrection possible for me. As another example, after church Sunday a week ago, I was talking to Genelle Phillips, who mentioned how much Marita Harris' life still meant to her, and we talked about how that too was resurrection.

Going back to our story, our passage ends with Jesus asking, "Do you believe this?" And Martha replies, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world." "Coming into the world" - again, the future tense, when what Jesus was trying to say was that the light and life are already here. Martha doesn't quite get it, just as in so many of the parables the disciples clearly didn't get it. But who can blame them - it was all so new, and we've had 2000 years to "get it", plus the benefit of knowing the risen Christ, and even then we don't always get it.

While these are words of great comfort and hope that we can call on in our darkest hours, as Christians we are also called to facilitate resurrection for our brothers and sisters. One of my favorite books is Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's A Wing and a Prayer. She tells a story by Wendell Berry, an environmentalist poet-theologian, who has written a piece about somebody he calls a "mad farmer" who goes around shouting "Practice resurrection!" "Practice resurrection." Bishop Katharine gives us several suggestions on how to practice resurrection, and I'd like to quote a few:

Maybe the most important skill is learning to live in the now, looking toward the future, rather than living in the past. That doesn't mean we forget about what's come before, though we are meant to honor what's good about it, and grieve what is gone if we need to. It also means that we live in hope for the new thing God is doing. . . .

Resurrection means that creation isn't over and done with. And if we're made in the image of God, then we've got creation work to do. What's coming may not look exactly like what we knew before, but God promises that it will be abundant and life-giving.

Practicing resurrection means living in openness. It's a vulnerable attitude. . . . Live in open expectation of the new thing God is doing at all times and in all places. . . . There is always more abundant life on the other side of the pain and grief that comes with change and growth.

There are ample opportunities for us to practice resurrection in our personal lives, and in our local, national, and global communities as well. The woman from the E. Cherry YWCA that described her program during announcements a week ago struck me as someone who was practicing resurrection, as are all our parishioners who support that outreach. And of course our parishioners who go to our village in Belen, Guatemala are very actively practicing resurrection. If you have been reading "Seeking to Serve", the Lenten Devotional Guide that explored the Millennium Development Goals, you will have been learning of lots of ways to practice resurrection globally.

I want to conclude with another quotation from Bishop Katharine's A Wing and a Prayer:

Saints are those crazy visionaries who say hello to death, and then greet what lies beyond it. Saints, however, are not so crazy that they fail to mourn the good part of God's creation that is gone in death. They do, and they shed tears abundant, and rail at God for making us mortal, but in the very scream they find God present with us, the God who suffers and dies with us, and points us to the new life that lies beyond.

1805 38th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122-3447
Phone: (206) 324-2573 Fax: (206) 324-2589
epiphanyparish@epiphanyseattle.org