Sermon - 2020-03-29
Our Gospel lesson today, is one that is needed to hear at this time in our lives. Turning on the evening news and we are overwhelmed with statistics of what is going on in the world. We go through the list of countries and we are more and more aware that we are in this world together. We see numbers growing higher and higher. We bear witness to the reality of this world, we are in a broken world. What I think that we often forget is that each and everyone of those numbers represent a life. Each one of the single digits represent a person who has a family, who is a son or daughter, who comes from a family, and who was on this journey of life and faith just as you and I are today.
Today, our gospel lesson could be happening in China, Italy, Spain, or even here in the US. A family gathered together, bearing witness to a loved one suffering and dying. In the midst of it all, they are wondering where is God in it all. They are overcome by grief. Then their loved one dies. The family mourns. The community is shaken and saddened. Anger arises in which people are wondering why would God allow this to happen to my loved one.
Yet it is this gospel that we long to have happen in our own life. Not the death of a loved one but rather when our loved one does die, God shows and we bear witness to the reaction of God to each and every one of us. Jesus goes to the grave side of the loved one, Lazarus, and weeps. Jesus weeps over the death of a loved one, over the death of a brother or sister, a mother, or father, a child.
However, not even death itself can separate us from God’s love. We hear of Jesus weeping and loving Lazarus so much that he calls Lazarus out of death and into a new life. So we hear about this promise and we long for this to be the reality within our own life. That we may experience and know this to be a reality in this world, in our lives, and lives our loved ones. That all this pain, suffering, and death would be taken away.
Sadly, we will depart here and enter into the world around us ravaged by disease, pain and suffering. However, it is my sincere hope that you will see the world in a new way, hear that Jesus knows the suffering of this world and calls you to be agents of hope, love and grace to this suffering world. Amen.
Today, our gospel lesson could be happening in China, Italy, Spain, or even here in the US. A family gathered together, bearing witness to a loved one suffering and dying. In the midst of it all, they are wondering where is God in it all. They are overcome by grief. Then their loved one dies. The family mourns. The community is shaken and saddened. Anger arises in which people are wondering why would God allow this to happen to my loved one.
Yet it is this gospel that we long to have happen in our own life. Not the death of a loved one but rather when our loved one does die, God shows and we bear witness to the reaction of God to each and every one of us. Jesus goes to the grave side of the loved one, Lazarus, and weeps. Jesus weeps over the death of a loved one, over the death of a brother or sister, a mother, or father, a child.
However, not even death itself can separate us from God’s love. We hear of Jesus weeping and loving Lazarus so much that he calls Lazarus out of death and into a new life. So we hear about this promise and we long for this to be the reality within our own life. That we may experience and know this to be a reality in this world, in our lives, and lives our loved ones. That all this pain, suffering, and death would be taken away.
Sadly, we will depart here and enter into the world around us ravaged by disease, pain and suffering. However, it is my sincere hope that you will see the world in a new way, hear that Jesus knows the suffering of this world and calls you to be agents of hope, love and grace to this suffering world. Amen.
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