I’ve shared with you before how I grew up in Queens, NY, and that I was a city kid. When my mom would tell us kid to go outside and play, we’d go and play out on the street.
And, most of my life I lived in big cities. It wasn’t until Gregg and I moved to Michigan over 20 years ago that I was surrounded by nature.
Gregg and I moved there in the winter, and that first spring, I went back to New York to take care of my mother, who was ill. And, when I returned back to Michigan, there were all these beautiful tulips in front our house.
I said to Gregg, “Thanks so much for planting tulips while I was away.” He said, “I didn’t plant them. The previous owners did, years ago.”
And, it may seem silly to those of you who grew up around nature, but I remember being astounded by the realization that tulips continued to be alive in the cold and darkness of the soil even after they had “died.”
And, when I got home, I also noticed that the pond in our backyard was no longer frozen, and that there were now fish swimming in it. I said to Gregg, “Did you buy fish for the pond?” And, he said, “No, there were there all winter.”
And, again, I was completely amazed! Through the cold and the ice and the snow and the darkness of winter, they were still alive!
And, that, too, was a spiritual awakening for me in so many ways. I came to understood that the life force that sustains the tulips and the fish through the months of darkness is the same life force that sustains ME through my times of darkness.
Just as the trees in winter appear to be barren, lifeless, and unfruitful, we all go through “winters” in our lives where we feel the same way.
But what appears to be dead is actually just in process. New life is on its way.
Think of a caterpillar. A caterpillar has to go into the darkness of a cocoon, and it has to die to being a caterpillar in order to become a butterfly.
All of us have to go through “cocoon” moments in our lives. It’s not an easy place to be, but it is necessary for new life.
Winter is a time of hibernation…Spring is time of new life.
I mentioned to you at the start of the Lenten season that the word “LENT” comes from an Anglo-Saxon word for “SPRING.” And, there’s a reason why the Church decided to place the Season of Lent during the time where winter becomes spring….where darkness becomes light.
The bestselling Christian author, Pastor Rob Bell, says this in his book, “What is the Bible?”:
“Look at the seasons. In the winter everything dies. And then in the spring it comes back to life. It literally springs forth. Or take your cells. You have several billion cells in your body right now. They are constantly dying while your body is producing new ones to replace them. Around 300 million cells in your body die and are replaced every minute. Death is the engine of life. All around us, all the time. This death-and-life rhythm is built in to the fabric of all creation.”
And that, my friends, is what today’s gospel story about the raising of Lazarus from the dead is all about: that death is the engine of life.
This story comes to us from John’s gospel, which is very last gospel to written. It was written decades after Jesus lived by writers who never met Jesus.
John’s gospel very different from all of the other gospels.
The earlier gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s gospels) are known as the Synoptic Gospels, meaning all of their stories are very similar.
John’s gospel, however, is different. John’s gospel tells stories of miracles that appear nowhere else in those earlier gospels.
So only in John’s gospel, for example, do we hear about Jesus turning water into wine. Only in John’s gospel do we hear about Jesus healing a man born blind from birth. Only in John’s gospel do we hear about Jesus healing a paralyzed man and curing a nobleman’s son. And only John’s gospel, do we hear about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
These miracles appear nowhere in the earlier gospels.
Now, you would think if Jesus did something so extraordinary, like raising someone from the dead, that those earlier gospel writers would have written about it, right?
But, as I told you last Sunday, John’s gospel is meant to be read and understood spiritually or symbolically. It is filled with literary devices like metaphor and myth and foreshadowing.
Lazarus’s death and resurrection, for example (including his days in the tomb and the removing of the stone) foreshadows Jesus’s own death and resurrection.
And, Lazarus lives in Bethany. The name is symbolic. Bethany means “HOUSE OF SORROW.”
All of us, my friends, have symbolically lived in Bethany from time-to-time in our lives, haven’t we? Some of you are dwelling in Bethany right now.
You’re living in sorrow. You’re living in despair. You’re living in darkness. You are dwelling in a dark tomb.
And, like Martha and Mary, you may be calling for God to help.
But what does Jesus do when his friends summon him to Bethany? Does he immediately go running to help his friend whom he loves? No. Jesus stays two days longer in the place where he was.
He doesn’t respond right away. He knows that death is the engine of life, and he trusts in the Divine Process.
When he does eventually get to Bethany, Lazarus’s sister, Mary and Martha, start blaming Jesus: “If only had been here, our brother wouldn’t have died.”
How many of us in our moments of darkness choose to play the blame game with God? “God where were you?!”
That causes Jesus to weep. In our times of darkness and despair, God feels compassion for us, because we are asleep. We have lost sight of God’s Presence and Power. We have forgotten the life force that is within us.
Jesus calls forth that force (that power) by saying, “Take away the stone.”
So my question for you, my friends, on this 5th Sunday of Lent is: “What is the stone in front of your tomb right now? What is the obstacle that’s blocking you from experiencing life to the full?
You must identify and “call it out,” as Jesus does here in a loud and forceful voice.
Notice what Jesus does next. It says, he lifts up his eyes – to a place of higher consciousness – and he give thanks to God. He expresses gratitude.
That’s how we become unbound and set free: through practice and trust and gratitude.
The name “Lazarus” is also symbolic. It means: “The One Whom God Has Helped.”
That is US, my friends. In our moments of darkness (in the winters of our lives), the power of God is there to help us, to lift us up, to raise us up to new life.
That may be hard for us to believe when we are going through something that appears to be so impossible.
But, as Rev. Kelly Isola reminds us in our “Words of Integration & Guidance” this morning: “Doing the impossible means awakening to the power of God acting in us and thru us.”
That’s why Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Not I – Jesus, the human being from Nazareth…but the “I AM”… the great “I AM” – the life force of the Christ, the power of God working in us and thru us…those who believe in that Power shall live, even if they “die”!
It’s the power that makes the tulips (asleep in winter) bloom in spring. It’s the power that keeps the fish breathing in the frozen pond. It’s the power that transforms the caterpillar into the butterfly.
And, it’s the power acting in us and thru us that transforms our despair into hope, and our darkness to light.
Jesus used this Christ power to raise Lazarus to life, and this is the same power – the same force – that RAISES US UP to new life.
As we hear in Philippians 4:13, “We can do all things through the Power of Christ within, which is our strength.”
My friends: The Christ Power (The Force) is within you. May you have the courage to summon it forth and be set free.
May it be so. Amen.
Here are three follow-up questions for reflection and/or journal writing:
- What “winter” or “cocoon” season am I currently experiencing, and how might I begin to trust that new life is already forming beneath the surface?
- What is the “stone” in front of my tomb right now—what fear, belief, or obstacle is holding me back—and what would it look like to consciously “call it out” and begin removing it?
- How can I practice gratitude and awareness of the divine “life force” within me, even in difficult moments, so that I can experience transformation rather than remain stuck in despair?