God Is. . . and I Do

God is . . . and I do

I seek to love God,

Not just to be saved.

I seek to know God,

Not just to behave.

I want to find God, with a love that’s true,

Not ‘cause I must, not ‘cause I should,

But ‘cause God is and I do.

God made the Earth and Stars,

Made things near and far,

And still remembered a time and place for me,

In the greatness of the world,

The beauty all unfurled,

Perfection in everything I see.

Repeat Chorus

God sent to us His Son.

Again showing us the love,

God has for us simply knows no end,

But we don’t understand.

We think it’s just a plan

To earn our love, the right to call us friend.

Repeat Chorus

My heart is far from pure.

Sin in me endures,

But I wish to be a better man.

I work hard everyday

To get where I can say,

I really have done the best I can.

Repeat Chorus

Come Out, Now Live

Come Out, Now Live

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

August 30, 2015

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

John 11: 38-44
Jonah 2

My anthem from today, my song: "God Is. . . and I Do"

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives      

For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen.

⁸ Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” ⁴³ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” ^[1]

I chose the Jonah passage to compliment this, the raising of Lazarus story for obvious reasons. Many people look at the Jonah, being swallowed by the whale, and inside the great fish for three days before being spit out on dry land to be a parallel to Jesus being in the tomb for three days, and you could also make the parallel of course to Lazarus in the tomb. . . We know the story of Jonah, and perhaps this prayer that he speaks from the belly of the fish is one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible. . . I get it . I understand it. . . It has always spoken to me:

“I called to the Lord out of my distress,

and he answered me;

out of the belly of Sheol I cried,

and you heard my voice.

³     You cast me into the deep,

into the heart of the seas,

and the flood surrounded me;

all your waves and your billows

passed over me.

⁴     Then I said, ‘I am driven away

from your sight;

how^a shall I look again

upon your holy temple?’

⁵     The waters closed in over me;

the deep surrounded me;

weeds were wrapped around my head

⁶     at the roots of the mountains.

I went down to the land

whose bars closed upon me forever;

yet you brought up my life from the Pit,

O Lord my God.

⁷     As my life was ebbing away,

I remembered the Lord;

and my prayer came to you,

into your holy temple.

⁸     Those who worship vain idols

forsake their true loyalty.

⁹     But I with the voice of thanksgiving

will sacrifice to you;

what I have vowed I will pay.

Deliverance belongs to the Lord!”

¹⁰ Then the Lord spoke to the fish, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land. ^[2]

Jonah says this because he has run away from God, and despite the running he is being delivered by God, but the best part of this story is that it is only chapter two. We get to know where the story ends, where it goes from here. He goes back to Nineveh where God had been sending him all along, and then God does what Jonah was worried he'd do, he forgives Nineveh and spares them. . . and Jonah is bitter about it. He becomes disillusioned to the whole thing, forgetting how he himself too has been spared. . . Wouldn't it be nice to know what happens to Lazarus, the rest of the story, having been brought back from the dead to live, to have to live in this slow moving, world of time and tears? Wouldn't it be nice to know what happens next? Wouldn't it be nice to know what Lazarus thought about Jesus, life, death, and salvation?

Because it tells us Jesus loved him, and it tells us that he had been dead for four days. It tells us that there would probably be a strong odor. It tell us that a large stone sealed him inside the tomb. It tells us that Jesus was greatly disturbed again, as he had been just before he began to weep in what we read last week. It tells us that he asked that the stone be moved away, it tells us that Jesus said to Lazarus, crying out to him in a loud voice, Lazarus come out! And it tells us that Lazarus came out, covered in strips of cloth, and that those strips of cloth should be taken off of him, unbinding him, so that he can be let go. He is let go, and the story is over. At least this story. . . we do find the name Lazarus again later in the gospel. . . Jesus dines with Lazarus again and his sisters, and it is then that Mary anoints Jesus with the perfume, and Judas gets angry, and we hear his name one last time when it says that he needed to fear for his life as well because the Jews wanted him dead too, like he represented the power of Jesus, and the high priests and scribes were desperately trying to keep all of that under wraps because they were afraid of how the Romans might react. . .

But other than that, it's all we get. . . don't you wish there was more. I wrote the poem in the bulletin with this idea in mind:

Wouldn’t it be great to talk to Lazarus,

To get to hear from him, what he felt,

What it feels like to die, to fall headlong

Into the abyss, and be raised from it,

To be called from his tomb, his shroud,

The stink of his own decay, to come out,

And live. What would life be like for him?

Wouldn’t it be great to know, if only

He’d been asked, or followed, we’d know,

And we’d be invited into the tomb, and out

Again, born a second time, to follow

The shepherd and eat the bread of life.

If he’d written a gospel, what would it say?

And it's not just Lazarus. . . I've often wished we could hear more from the other recipients of Jesus' miracles. . . . like that blind man, or like the man crippled who was hanging around those pagan baths, or the married couple from Cana, or the woman whom Jesus saved from stoning. . . but we don't, and that is basically the case in the other gospels, too. If there was one demographic of biblical New Testament characters who don't get enough air time it would have to be the people whom Jesus heals. It is so much the case that people are always trying to bend the stories together to get more information about them.  Mary Magdelene is a huge example. Her story is quite interesting because she is almost the opposite, we only have the after story for her, but people have used their imagination to connect her name to a healing or  an earlier encounter with Jesus, often the woman saved from the stoning.

Perhaps it is just wishful speculation, inspired by this great desire we have to know more, to feel more, to be able to hear direct from those who experienced Jesus in a truly profound and personal way, but there is a movement within Biblical Scholarship that is trying to show, prove, and make the claim that the Gospel of John, this fourth Gospel, was actually penned by Lazarus, and not John the Disciple, son of Zebedee. . . most of it is connected to the description: disciple whom Jesus loved. . . because earlier on in this story it says how much Jesus loved Lazarus, and refers to him as the one whom Jesus loved. . . and there is other evidence that has to do with geography, the closeness between Bethany and Jerusalem. They point to pieces of stories from the other gospels that connect Lazarus and Mary and Martha to Simon the Leper, connecting them as his children. . .  much of the evidence is really compelling. . . it is certainly as compelling as the very fleeting evidence that we have that John the son of Zebedee is the actual author, either. . . They work to disprove that tradition by claiming that the gospels being given names of authorship comes late in their usage, and that granting them an Apostolic connection would have been a big deal. . . you may wonder why an apostolic connection would be important, but to be honest it is still the reason that there is no agreement of union between the Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches. . . . but the truth is, with the Roman persecution of Christianity going on, there is not much that is definitively known about those first one hundred years, so anything is possible. And to be honest it doesn't really matter who the author is. . . that would be worth arguing over, but it is interesting to take into account the idea that Lazarus could be the author because of what it would mean to the interpretation.

Think about it, if you were Lazarus, and you had been raised from the dead, if you had tasted death, and been born into new life, it would make sense that you would write a gospel like John's, one with a real emphasis on believing and being granted life, one that emphasizes being born again. One that seems to center around you being raised from the dead, as this one does, because in many ways this is the turning point of the gospel, the high water mark of Jesus and the anger of the Jews before he enters Jerusalem. It has seemed that their anger has been growing with each miracle, culminating to new heights with this one. You'd probably see the world in a much more black and white way, and there is that here, there is you either believe or you don't, there is not judgment there, it isn't ragging on people who don't believe, but it states constantly and frankly that some people believe and some don't, that some are in Jesus' flock and that it would seem that some are not, that some recognize Jesus' voice and others just don't, they just never do. It's all here. It also makes sense that Jesus' language and talking would be on a different plain like we've seen, that there is a great spiritual quality to what Jesus says, that there is a great promising quality to what Jesus says, and that there is no doubt in the writer's mind that Jesus is certainly Lord, and all that he claims to be, True Bread, the light, the word, the Good shepherd, the true vine, light coming into the world of darkness, the way, the truth, the life, the resurrection and the life. It makes sense that the writer could be Lazarus. . . or at least someone just as touched by Jesus, because the promise and the connection is there in spades, written by someone who has felt the truth in their own life very deeply in a changing moment.

He makes some serious claims here as well, about life and faith, believing and eternity. . . And he makes it known that all of those promises apply to us as well.

He writes in John 20:30-31

⁰ Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

So that You. . . we are the promise, we are invited and so have the ability to be touched, believe, and receive life in the same earth shaking way as Lazarus does. . . . So that leaves us with one important question, having thought about the intense point of view of this fourth gospel, having thought about what that point of view could mean, it leaves the question: what gospel would we write? What is our point of view? What truth would we seek to share with the world? What would it look like, and how bold and confident would it be? It is interesting to think about for sure. . . . amen.

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Jn 11:38-44). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^a Theodotion: Heb surely

^[2]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Jon 2:2-10). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

The Gospel of Lazarus

The Gospel of Lazarus

Wouldn’t it be great to talk to Lazarus,

To get to hear from him, what he felt,

What it feels like to die, to fall headlong

Into the abyss, and be raised from it,

To be called from his tomb, his shroud,

The stink of his own decay, to come out,

And live. What would life be like for him?

Wouldn’t it be great to know, if only

He’d been asked, or followed, we’d know,

And we’d be invited into the tomb, and out

Again, born a second time, to follow

The shepherd and eat the bread of life.

If he’d written a gospel, what would it say?

Weeping

Weeping

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

August 23, 2015

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

John 11: 28-37

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives      

For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen.

²⁸ When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³² When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴ He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus began to weep. ³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” ^[1]

I used to teach freshman English, I did it for four years, and every year we read Romeo and Juliet, which is a hilarious play, a real comedy for at least the first three acts. . . but then midway through act 3, when Mercutio is killed, and then Romeo gets his revenge on Tybalt it all changes. We would watch the old movie, every year, and there are many things that always stood out to my students. One of course was the tights, all the characters in tights, those traditional Shakespearean tights, then of course there was how beautiful Olivia Hussey was, I mean these are boarding school freshman boys, they were struck by Juliet, but then after that Act 3 scene, all she does is cry. She cries and cries and cries, for the rest of the play, then she dies. For some reason those scenes were the images I had in my head reading this passage. There is a ton of crying in this text. There is a lot of weeping in this text. Some days have passed since Lazarus has passed away, and been laid in the tomb, four to be exact, but there is still weeping. And look at the family, gathered round, and with visitors and friends for support. I've been to funerals like that. Family, friends are all gathered around, it tends to be like that when a younger person dies. . . someone where the death is a shock, or a real tragedy. In those situations mourning is a real event. I think it is actually one of the times when the best comes out of people. Real compassion, real sympathy, real presence, because that is all that is necessary. . . compassion, sympathy, and presence, just being there, it's all you have to do, but it's all you can do, just be there for them. . . to get all that crying out. . . but often in those situations, there are just as many fits of laughter as there are tears. . . telling stories, remembering times, good times, good stories. . . being together and sharing often leads to laughter and tears. . . I remember Jim Valvano said that a good day is when you are moved to laughter and moved to tears all in one day. . . he said that is a really good day, because you are alive on those days. It is true that many times in and around real grief, mourning, and pain we can feel the most alive.

Now I know because I've done some crying in my life. . . that there are a few things that can set it off. Most likely these people, Martha, Mary, and the friends there assembled, haven't been crying for four days straight. Most likely it is like we've all experienced, that mix of laughter and stories, but then it gets set off. Something brings that emotional level up, and everyone starts balling. The other day Coralee was crying, she was tired, she was cranky, and we were playing out front, where she loves it, because she can climb the tree and do her tricks. She walks out on one limb hanging on to the limb above. It's a pretty thin limbed tree, so her weight bends the tree down, some. Her trick is, once she gets to the right distance out, she jumps backward off the limb, while still hanging on the limb above, and her weight, slowly drags the limb, she's holding on to, lower and lower, until she can just let go, and she falls about 6 inches to the ground. She must to have done this trick 300 times in the last couple weeks. But this time right when she was about to do it, Clara got stung by a wasp. . . and we went in. . . .then when Clara was ok, I took her out to the back yard, where she wanted to go. . . .and  Coralee lost it. . . she just lost it. . . and threw a fit, so she got sent to her room to stop crying. Finally she met us back outside, and asked really politely to go out front. . . I was pushing Clara on the swing in the back. . . so I said I would in a minute. This set her off crying again. . . again just balling. I told her that crying was not going to get me to go out there. . . she would need to calm down. . . so she did. . . at least she tried. . . holding it back in hard. . . when I thought it had passed enough to talk about it. I asked her something, and she erupted again. . . She was strong while she was focused on it, holding it back, but as soon as she had to talk about it again. . . it was over.

I think Jesus coming represented one of those moments for Martha and Mary. They had it built up in their minds that Jesus could have, should have, and would have saved their brother. He could have saved Lazarus if he'd been there, he should have been here to save him, and would have saved if he'd only been here. . . and then he shows up. . . and all of that backed up praying, and thinking, and hoping, just erupts on him. It brings it all back into focus, back into their heads and hearts, and it's more than they can hold in. . . and you know it was like that, that they had been talking about it, that they had been depending on Jesus, because they both say the exact same thing. Remember last week, Martha meets Jesus on the road and says, if you'd been there my brother would not have died, and now Mary says the exact same thing. . . exactly word for word, verbatim. If  you had showed up, Jesus, my brother would not have died, but you didn't and he did. . . he is dead. Mary's crying, and all the Jews that are there are also crying, and it says that Jesus was deeply moved, and greatly disturbed in the spirit. He asks where they had laid him, and then Jesus himself begins to weep.

It has come to be one of the most famous verses in all the Bible. Jesus wept. . . probably because it is so short. Children throughout the ages have chosen it for their memory verse. Jesus wept John 11: 35. It is such a powerful scene, especially when taken in the context of the Gospel of John. In the other gospels Jesus seems so much more human. He spits, he gets angry, he rebukes, he is more earthy, but here in John's gospel, there is so much high Christological language. Jesus is the Word, eternal, from before time began, the bread of life, the resurrection and the life, the one coming into the world, the Good Shepherd who gives life to his sheep. So much of the gospel has been focused on revealing Jesus as the son of God, coequal, coeternal, with all of the power and the authority of God the Father himself, not the earthy Jesus of Nazareth. . . So much about it is has been building up the God side, and not focusing on the human side, and here we have Jesus,. that Jesus, the son of the one true, living, creator God, weeping. . . so we have to ask why?

And many have, in my research this week I came across many different takes. One is people being focused on the human nature side of Jesus, that the writer of John's Gospel has been so focused on showing Jesus as the son of God, that he needed to also show that Jesus was very human as well, to make it all much more real, so he includes this episode of Jesus crying to show that side a little better. . . maybe, but that doesn't really get into why Jesus was weeping, just why John is telling us about it. . . some have written that it shows Jesus' real compassion for human beings in general. . . some writing about his compassion for the tyranny that death has had over people, they write about, the pain death has caused throughout, since way back when it was introduced into the world in the Garden of Eden, and Jesus is lamenting that pain. . . Some others write that it is Jesus' compassion for the pain human beings have in general, that Jesus feels sorrow and sympathy, that they shouldn't cry alone, that if someone is crying around him Jesus feels he should be crying, too. . . it is an act of love, of solidarity, of unity, sympathy for those who are grieving, but I don't buy that, we do that as I said when we gather at funeral, we give the silent gift of our loving presence because that is all we can do, but Jesus can and we are about to see him do a little bit more, so these tears of solidarity just don't quite tell the story enough for me. .  . the witnesses at the scene, the gospel writer tells us, were convinced that Jesus' tears show just how much Jesus loved Lazarus, they say, "See how he loved him!" But if they are right, it would mark the first time that anyone other than Jesus has had a clue and said something right in the entire gospel up to this point, so I just don't have much confidence in the commentary of the bystanders.

But they do make a good point, and one that I think puts this whole scene in greater perspective, beyond the simple compassion argument. . . I think it is compassion mixed with frustration, that brings Jesus to tears, the bystanders say. .  . "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?" Yes. . . and how frustrating would that be for Jesus. . . the senseless of what they feel, the needless pain, all for naught, brought again by their lack of faith. . . these people, these sisters are saying the right words. Martha we celebrated last week, that she said the right words. . . You are the Messiah, the son of the true God, the one coming into the world. . . .she said that, but in her mind still the son of the true God's power is limited to time and place. . . had you have been here. . . then. . . God is timeless, and without limitations of place or time, every where and every when, he spoke the world into existence, parted the Red Sea, drew water from a stone, sent down Manna from heaven. . . Jesus has turned water into wine, fed the 5000, healed a man who was paralyzed, and as they said, opened the eyes of the blind man. . . . could he not have saved him? He promised that as the Good shepherd he gives life to his sheep. . . was that an empty promise?. . . they still believe, at least they say the right words, but when it comes down to faith, here, they do not have enough. . . there are no if only's with God, his promises are true, we may have to wait, we may have to have faith in the slowness of time, but these are limitations of our perspective, and they have nothing to do with the power of God. . .  I wrote the poem in bulletin, trying to sum up this notion, tying it to all the other times Jesus said, "ye of little faith" because Jesus is about to clothe the lillies of the field here(Matthew 5:30), and he is about to calm the storm here (Matthew 8:26), and Peter is going to be walking out on the water soon here (Matthew 14:31), and the disciples are about to forget the bread here again(Matthew 16: 7), and for if we only had faith the size of a mustard seed we could just move that mountain (Matthew 17:20), and if that isn't enough he says it twice in Luke, too, we suffer from senseless fear, pain, worry, and the worst of all is grief, and Jesus is frustrated and sad that we would have to go through it, and it moves him to tears. I wrote the poem like this:

Each tear screams, "Do not be afraid,
O ye of little faith," wondering when
Believing will be made of more than words;
Wondering when faith will permeate
Every moment, even the slow thin ones,
When all senses point to doubt;
Wondering when the limitations
Experience imposes will fade
In the light of the full reality:
Believing in and receiving of life everlasting,
But alas, so much needless pain I've seen
In the tears on the faces of this world
As I walk among you, weeping.

I believe Jesus is weeping, yes out of compassion, because he could have been there earlier, and he could have stopped them from crying, but if he had, if they had not cried like this, they would not even have experienced the true miracle, the glory of god, without limits,  and their minds would still be full of the doubt, fear, and worry about those same limitations. . . the glory of God being revealed is not for His sake, but for ours. . . so that we can worry less, and love more, so that we can fear less, and love more, and so that we can doubt less, and love more, and finally so we can grieve less and love more. . . . Jesus has compassion for our inner need to love, and frustration over how we constantly limit the fullness of that love, is what I believe brings Jesus to tears. Is he ever crying still? I know he is for me. . . because I like Coralee, thinking she'll never get to climb that tree again, get caught up in moments of inner fear, doubt, and worry, where I'm so focused on myself that I cannot see the pain others are feeling. . . that plank is so far in my own eye that I can't see the wasp stinger in someone else's arm. . . . I think it is the biggest problem of the church today, at the root of so many others, we say the words, the right words, like Martha, with all the trappings, but in hearts, we wish that Jesus is off somewhere, and that if only he'd have been here. . . insert your fear. . . it would be different. . . And while we wait, we miss out on giving a whole lot of love to God and to our neighbors. . . God grant us faith enough, not for ourselves, but so that we have the strength, ability, and concern outside of ourselves, to love ever so much more! Amen!

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Jn 11:28-37). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

A Little Girl's Little World

A Little Girl's Little World

For Coralee, Clara, and Susanna

When  you close your eyes my little girl,

When you leave behind our little world,

And into the little land of nod, you're hurled,

Remember these words I tell.

For deep within your little dreams,

There are little truths that transcend what seems,

To be the limitations of our little schemes,

Of this world we buy and sell.

As you sink into your little pillow deep,

When you have finished counting little sheep,

And you finally can get a little sleep,

Picture a peaceful dell.

And in the dell is little path you see,

Follow that path to the little tree,

Say a little prayer and then you will be,

Small enough to fit a snail's shell.

For it's better to be little like a snail,

For the little can see, when bigger folks fail,

And only the tiny can follow this little trail,

Into what only dreams propel.

For at the base of the tree's a little crook,

And a few feet away is a little brook,

And cozy and calm in that little nook,

A fairy has come to dwell.

And if you walk across her little bridge,

You'll see in the valley of the little ridge,

A house not tall, 's just a little smidge,

But quite a story you'll have to tell.

For she'll invite you into her little home,

Simple and plain 'neath the little dome,

You may e'en meet her neighbor the little gnome

For he's always home as well.

And they live to welcome little ones in,

Serving them tea and cakes in their little den,

You'll stay for a while, or a little, then,

You'll soon be under her spell.

For after one little sip of her fairy tea,

And with the magic of each little detail you see,

You'll forget everything your little life used to be,

For you've never felt so well.

But you know there's something a little wrong, or

You just wish you could stay a little bit longer,

If only your sleep was a little bit stronger,

You wouldn't have to say farewell.

But just as she begins another little tale,

Of secrets and legends, of little knights and their grail,

Of the time a little hare was beaten by a snail,

You hear that tolling bell.

One little alarm shakes that world from its seams,

And you'll awake to wonder about your little dreams,

For now everything is again just as it seems,

And you may not be able to tell,

Which was true, your little dreams or here,

For most forget little dreams, year after year,

And the little worlds of their childhood dreams disappear,

But you, my child, have the strength to rebel.

Never, no never of the little let go,

As your little days become ages ago,

If your mind can stay little you will always know

What the world's wisest men ne'er can tell. 

Jesus Wept

Jesus Wept

Each tear screams, "Do not be afraid,
O ye of little faith," wondering when
Believing will be made of more than words;
Wondering when faith will permeate
Every moment, even the slow thin ones,
When all senses point to doubt;
Wondering when the limitations
Experience imposes will fade
In the light of the full reality:
Believing in and receiving of life everlasting,
But alas, so much needless pain I've seen
In the tears on the faces of this world
As I walk among you, weeping.

~ Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

Do You Believe This?

Do You Believe This?

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

August 16, 2015

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

John 11: 17-27

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives      

For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen.

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus  had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. ²¹ Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,  the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” ^[1]

So we want to continue where we left off, and last week I was speaking about how often throughout the  Bible and in our lives, God seems to make us wait, and wait, and wait. It is a major part of faith, this whole waiting thing. But God does have a sense of humor, and just when you think you've got it down, he throws a curveball. . . so on the day where I preach about waiting, and patience, and wondering why things take forever, I experience some of the fastest time you'll ever face. It is like I had been lulled to sleep by the slowness and repetition of the Gospel of John, and God felt it was necessary for me to have a moment straight out of the gospel of Mark, where everything happens immediately. . . From 3:30 a.m. to 4:10 God sped things up for me. . . . too say the east it was immediate. . . and immediately called the midwife, and immediately we moved into the bedroom, and immediately the water broke, and then immediately Susanna's head was out, then immediately all of her was out, and immediately I put Susanna's body into DeAnna's hands. . .  immediately I was done, and immediately Susanna came into our lives! So that was our piece of providential irony for us,. but now we return this week to the Lazarus story. . .

Jesus finally returns to Judea, risking his life, as we know from last week, but by the time he gets there, after waiting the two days, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. And Jesus meets Lazarus' sisters, Mary and Martha. . . and this is their only appearance in John's gospel, but in Luke two sisters, Mary and Martha are also present. The story about them in Luke is famous because Martha does all the work, the cleaning, the dishes, etc., while Mary listens at Jesus' feet,  the story has become famous, being synonymous with giving types and categories for women to fit into, as a Martha or a Mary. . . but Luke does not give the town where they live, he just says a small village, not necessarily Bethany, and there is no mention of Lazarus. . . which is strange in itself, don't you think? Here is a major miracle, a raising someone from the dead type miracle, and John's is the only gospel that includes it. . . but another gospel includes what could possibly be Lazarus' sisters, if these are the same sisters afterall., which is the general consensus.

Martha though who gets so much grief for having her priorities out of whack in Luke, is given a real place of prominence here, because finally for the first time, and there has been a long line of candidates so far, but finally for the first time someone answers one of Jesus's questions about belief, and identity, who he is, in the right way. Jesus asks her, saying, "I am the resurrection and the life.  Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" and she answers, yes!

Now remember back all the way to the beginning of this gospel, it has kept a pretty straight rhetorical path. . . the first promise, was about believing and receiving, way back in John 1, "but to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; ^13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁶ From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." and that promise has continued. There have been people trying to place Jesus in a smaller their shaped size box, but it just has not been right, but here Jesus asks plainly, this is who I am, do  you believe it, and she says yes. . .  I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world. In the other gospels Peter is given that honor of being the first to proclaim it, but here it is Martha, maybe doing those dishes did pay off in the long run.

Now let's back up a minute to look at how she gets there, because there is more to the story and more to the exchange. First off, before Jesus even shows up, before he says anything, Martha is convinced, that had Jesus been there he could have stopped Lazarus from dying. . . so at that point she is testifying to the idea that Jesus is a healer, and that he has power over illnesses. It is possible that she has seen if first hand, because it says they are close, but at the very least she has heard tell of his works, that he has healed many, so why not Lazarus. That is believing that Jesus is a healer. . .

The next thing she says though, is "even now God will give you whatever you ask." There is the next piece. Jesus is a healer, and he is in with God. He is like the prophets of old, like Moses, like Gideon, like Deborah, Samuel, Elijah,, many others, he seems to know the will of God, can perform the will of God, or at least can bend the will of God, wield it, at a moment such as this, that obviously God has powers over life and death. . . perhaps Jesus could get God to do that for her. . .

Then Jesus says, "Your brother will rise again," and here is Martha responding to Jesus like he is a Rabbi, teaching about the hidden things, the future, the apocalyptic time when the dead will be raised on the last day to be judged. This is cutting edge teaching, it isn't orthodox agreed upon, consensus doctrine, but much more radical, and Jesus is a radical kind of teacher. . . nothing that Martha is saying is out of order at this point. . . Jesus is Healer, Prophet, and Teacher. . . all pretty standard stuff. . .

But then Jesus brings up this Resurrection and the Life business. . . let's take a look at that more closely. What does Jesus mean when he says I am the Resurrection? What does he mean when he says he is "the life?" Resurrection, the resurrection. . . within the context of what Martha brings up, it could mean that Jesus is claiming to be that future apocalyptic event. I think that is what makes the most sense to me. . . You believe in a future day when all things will be made right, when the dead will be raised, when justice will be served. . . You believe in that day, I tell you, I am that, I am he. . . If you believe in that, the resurrection, then believe in me, we are one and the same. . . and then life. . . there is another point, we haven't gotten to it yet when Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. . . so he makes the claim twice, here and there. . . what does it mean to be the life. . . what is he talking about?

It is one thing to say I am the resurrection. . . I am this future event, where justice will be, where the reign of God will begin. . . You could make the argument that it is very much like Jesus saying in the other gospels that the Kingdom of Heaven is near, how near, standing right in front of you. . . this resurrection that the people have been debating it is not just about debate and it is not further on, it is now, and you will see it. . . I get that part. . . but life is so much more interesting because it is simple. .  it is a really vibrant simple metaphor. . . to be the life. . . not just life but the life. . . that other lives may exist, but I'm the real one. . . Life is an amazing thing. . . and I'd be lying if I said I haven't thought quite a bit about life this week. . . Holding, being the first to hold a new born baby, if only for a nano second, you feel life in your hands. . . warm, heart beating, fragile. . . a miracle. It is quite a metaphor for Jesus. . .that real, that warm, that alive, that precious and close. I am the Life, he says. . . The Greek word is even less fancy. . . it is Zoa, from the same root that things like zooology and protazoa comes from. . . life in the animal, basic, pulse having, fruit bearing sense. . . do you remember what the first commandment is in the Bible, the first commandment for life. . . be fruitful and multiply. . . that is what life is, what life does. . . Jesus is doing just that, "The" best example of "Life" being fruitful, multiplying, shedding life around. . .that's what life does, it gives off more life. . . Jesus is leaving behind him a trail of life like none we have ever known. . . Real resurrection, real life. . . that is what Jesus is. . . and Martha hears, and she takes him at his word. . . . Yes I believe. . .

The question that Jesus asks is no different than he has asked throughout this gospel, and it is no different than he asks today. . . Is Jesus just a healer, someone peddling newness of life. . . Is Jesus just a prophet, a fancy priest, someone on the ins with God, who can get things, like Red in the Shawshank Redemption. . .it's good to know Jesus, he is in with God. . . Is he just a Radical Teacher, shedding insight on the future. .. . . Yes, and if you add Resurrection and the . . Life to that, the answer grows exponentially, the size of what Jesus is. . . add some of the other ones from here. . . Way the Truth The Life. . . The Bread of Life. . . the Good Shepherd. . . the gate of the sheepfold. . . the definition grows. . . Jesus asks her, do you believe this? She says Yes. . . a few lines later her brother is raised from the dead. . . Jesus asks us the same question. . . .Do you believe this? What is our answer?

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Jn 11:17-27). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Catching Susanna

Catching Susanna

So many things, like time, like rest, like fear,

Like apprehension and anxiety, feelings of inadequacy,

They all just seem to  disappear

In the perfect moments, those ones

Where God removes the escape hatches,

And doesn't let us press that eject button,

But stands there with us in the embrace

Of all encompassing presence, face to face.

She let me know it was time, the clock was ticking,

And though there seemed a lifetime between each pulse,

Action was needed now. We had to move quickly,
So we did. We had to be ready,

So we were, and I'll never know the pain,

Only she could feel that, but I could see it,

And I could hear it, and I just wanted it to end

Though I knew what its end meant.

It meant I would be the first to touch, to greet,

To make contact and welcome what would in a minute be her,

And it meant when she came to us, it would just be us three,

In our room, in our bed, in our home, the same room,

Just mere feet away from exactly where we met her sister.

Please God, let it not be like that was. I'm not equipped. She saved

Her life, but she's not here. It's just me and an amazing mother

Doing her part. No, It'll be fine. There is no choice, no other.

As fast as it was, it crept, compared to the moment she came,

A head, for just an instant, then like the release of a kinked hose,

She blasted into this world, into my hands. I felt her warm frame,

Slippery, slimy, but she coughed, she breathed, no cord, all clear,

I must have had her in my hands less than a second, but she's alive.

I could feel her life, and I just knew, she breathed and I with her

Then I like a second basemen turning two, quickly passed her on,

I placed her in her mother's hands, and just like that my job was done.

All three  were different, and each had its own fear, its own fight,

And each left its mark on me. God knows I wasn't ready to be a Dad,

A man of responsibility, with a sense that moments matter, so he gave

Me these, and I stand in thanksgiving to Him and to her, my wife,

For bringing me into the moment, to be a part, a real part, of something

I could have otherwise avoided, playing the spectator on the sidelines.

Instead I got to fight for one, to pray for another, and deliver the last today,

Though days of doubt will come again, I've thrice now known presence, grace.

Why Is There Night?

Why Is There Night?

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

August 9, 2015

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

John 11: 1-12

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives      

For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen.

11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. ³ So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” ⁴ But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, ⁶ after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

⁷ Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” ⁸ The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” ⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. ¹⁰ But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” ¹¹ After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” ¹² The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.”^[1]

By this time in the Gospel of John we have heard Jesus make many promises, and they are plainly stated promises, he doesn't hold punches, and he doesn't beat around the bush, he doesn't half promise, he promises. . . he promises that he is the Bread of Life, and that he who comes to him shall never be hunger, and he who believes in him will never thirst. . . he has also said that he is the Gate of the sheepfold, that no one comes to the Father except through him, and finally he has said that he is the Good Shepherd, promising, claiming, declaring, that he gives life to the sheep, that his sheep shall never know death but have eternal life. These are very explicit promises, and they deal with the exact literal problems of the human condition: concern for sustenance. . . concern for mortality. and before we can explain these promises  away as merely metaphorical, Jesus performs the literal, the literal version, he does what he has promised, at least so far he has for his promise being the bread of life, when he fed those multitudes by the sea. . . and now we wait for the promise of being able to give life to even  the dead. . . and we know that he does just that here in this chapter with Lazarus, but before he does he waits. . . and I want to focus this morning not on the act itself, but on the build up, on the waiting, and ponder the question why? Why was it necessary for Jesus to wait?

Because it says Lazarus was only ill, only sick, and it says that Jesus loved him, but then when he finds out that he is sick, he stays where he is two more days. . . instead of rushing to his side. . . .I remember there was this one Seinfeld where Elaine's date was in a car accident on the way to meeting her at the movies, and when she gets the message, she doesn't go straight to see him in the hospital, but since she was already waiting in line at the theater for snacks, she goes ahead and buys some juji fruits before going to see him in the hospital, and he got mad, and he wasn't even all that hurt, now you have Lazarus, poor Lazuras, deathly sick, and Jesus doesn't stop off for juji fruits, no he just waits two days before making the trip, and Jesus is our standard for behavior, our model. . . would we wait two days upon hearing that someone we loved was sick, if we knew we were the ones who could cure him? Of course not, now why does Jesus? And why is this a typical thing for God, too, beyond this story. . .

Now as many of  you know because I've talked about it a couple times, and I sent my draft of the first chapter out last week, but I've been trying to write an epic history of the world, leading up to the founding of America, offering the promise of the idea of who we are. . . and having finished the first chapter that dealt with the beginnings and the epic of gilgamesh to show the depths of humanity with only a small consciousness of the reality of God. . . but the second chapter begins with God planting the seed, and beginning his walk, his covenant, his blessing, his promise of Abraham and Sarah. . . God tells Abraham he will make of him a great nation, he just needs to leave behind everything he has ever known, his family, the place of his fathers, and venture out into the land that God is promising. . . So God tells Abraham and Sarah, who have been childless, that they will at long last bear a son. So they go, but time passes, and no son, they travel to the land, a drought comes, they flee to Egypt, the thrive, doubling the size of their flocks, he splits with Lot, Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed, a lot of stuff happens, but no son is given. God makes Abraham and Sarah wait. . . and wait. . . and wait. . . I have been struggling all week with trying to explain, because I'm telling the story with God as the narrator, explain why he makes them wait. . . and it has been a major challenge. . . God has to have his reasons, but what could they be?

And it isn't only Abraham and Lazarus and his sisters who have to wait, but it is a repetitive theme, a pattern, a motif even. . . . Noah has to begin building the ark before it ever starts raining, when the Israelites are led out of Egypt by Moses, they have to wander around in the desert before they can enter the promise land. . . David can't build the temple. . . Jonah waits, Daniel waits, Job, poor Job, he totally waits, the prophets said that Jesus was coming, a messiah was coming, but not now, they had to wait, even Jesus himself is crucified on Friday and doesn't rise until Sunday. . . and we wait for Christ to come again. Waiting is a major part of faith it seems. The promises are timeless, but our interaction with them happens very much in time, the slow, ticking reality of time.  Now as we've been waiting for nine months, we get closer and the time seems to stand still. . . although I know DeAnna is trying to extend her summer as long as possible. . . It very much seems  that making us wait is God's style. . . and being still, and waiting from our side of it really does seem to be an important aspect, and important ingredient of faith. . . but that doesn't get us any closer to understanding why. . . but we get a clue here from Jesus. He says that it is all for the glory of God, so that the Glory of God can be revealed, so that the Son of Man can be glorified through it. . .

Now, then he hits the road. . . and the disciples warn him. . . Jesus do you really want to go back down south to Judea? Really? Do you remember last time? Do you remember the last chapter? When we were there they were going to arrest you and stone you, and you just barely escaped. . . and that was the word they used escaped. . . daring, narrowly, and you really want to go back into all that mess again. . . you can almost see our frustration coming through them as well. . . You found out about Lazarus two days ago, and now you are going. . . he'll be alright. . . do we need to go, why stick our nose out, and put ourselves in danger? And Jesus answers them and says they need to go, but how interesting in a story where time, and the passage of time seems to be such an issue, that Jesus answers the disciple's concerns with a statement about time, he says, aren't there 12 hours of light,  "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. ¹⁰ But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them."

Now what in the world does this have to do with them being ready to stone him? Now there is that old description of a person who likes to talk, o yeah he likes to talk, if you ask him what time it is he'll tell you how a watch works. . . now Jesus, should we really go back there, those people don't like us. . . o well there are 24 hours every day, and 12 of them are light and 12 of them are dark. . . .  do what. . . this is even strange for the Gospel of John. . . . but I couldn't help thinking that time here is an important piece. . . and that there is balance placed in the created order of things. . . .there is a time of light, and a time of darkness, there is a time to plant, a time to reap, a time to scatter stones and a time to bring them all together. . . and it stands to reason that there would be a time to live, die, mourn, and then have Jesus raise you from the dead. . . So it's natural, it's a part of life, but why? what does it do? the glory of God, the glorifying of the Son. . .the setting of things in their proper order. . . what does it do?

As I was thinking about what God would say to Abraham at each step of the journey. . . at the drought, in Egypt, where he lies to save himself, when he has his break from Lot, when he  fathers Ishmael through Hagar. . . and still no Isaac. . . Any one of those would have, could have destroyed the promise of God. . . if Abraham would have died of starvation in the drought, been killed due to the jealousy of him over their desire for Sarah, if Lot, if, if, if. . . and in each Abraham takes things into his own hands. . . is he doubting when he does. . . but no matter how long the wait is, God's promise doesn't change, no matter how long the road is God's promise doesn't change, no matter how dark the night is God's promise doesn't change. . . no matter how long Lazarus has been dead, Jesus still raises him. The time aspect matters to us, and I'm not sure why it happens, perhaps it is to test us, test our faith, but even if we fail that test, even if we doubt, and take things into our own hands, even if we do everything we can to get in the way, in our time. . . the promise of God stands firm.

There is hope in there for the patient and humble. . . perhaps patience and humility are part of what Jesus means when he talks about love. . . perhaps the ingredients of love are sacrifice, faith, freedom, patience, and humility. . . and in making us wait God is teaching us to love? I’m not sure. . . but we it does seem that having to wait is just the way it is. . . perhaps what Jesus is trying to show us, that his promises are just the way it is, too. . . Imagine having the same confidence in the promises as we have in the waiting. . . in the night as during the day. . .

I want to finish end with a prayer, that in the Northumbria Community is to be prayed each evening, just before the night, but that we may watch for the morning. . . .

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

ff

Opening sentences
My soul waits for the Lord
more than those
who watch for the morning,
more than those
who watch for the morning.

ff

Call: Out of the depths I have cried to You.
Response: O Lord, hear my voice.
Call: With my whole heart I want to praise You.
Response: O Lord, hear my voice.
Call: If you, Lord, should mark iniquities:
Response: Who could stand? who could stand?

ff

I will wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in His word do I hope.

ff

Expressions of faith
Lord, You have always given
bread for the coming day;
and though I am poor,
today I believe.

ff

Lord, You have always given
strength for the coming day;
and though I am weak,
today I believe.

ff

Lord, You have always given
peace for the coming day;
and though of anxious heart,
today I believe.

ff

Lord, You have always kept
me safe in trials;
and now, tried as I am,
today I believe.

ff

Lord, You have always marked
the road for the coming day;
and though it may be hidden,
today I believe.

ff

Lord, You have always lightened
this darkness of mine;
and though the night is here,
today I believe.

ff

Lord, You have always spoken
when time was ripe;
and though you be silent now,
today I believe.

Canticle
In the shadow of Your wings
I will sing Your praises, O Lord.

ff

The Lord is my light, my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the refuge of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

ff

In the shadow of Your wings
I will sing Your praises, O Lord.

One thing I ask of the Lord,
one thing I seek;
to dwell in the presence of my God,
to gaze on Your holy place.

ff

In the shadow of Your wings
I will sing Your praises, O Lord.

ff

I believe I shall see the goodness
of the Lord in the land of the living.
O wait for the Lord!
Have courage and wait,
wait for the Lord.

ff

In the shadow of Your wings
I will sing Your praises, O Lord.

ff

Blessing
See that ye be at peace among yourselves, my children,
and love one another.
Follow the example of good men of old
and God will comfort you and help you,
both in this world
and in the world which is to come.

+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen[2]

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Jn 11:1-12). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

[2] “Evening Prayer”, Celtic Daily Prayer. Harper One, 2002, pg. 22-24, also available: http://www.northumbriacommunity.org/offices/evening-prayer/