This is a sermon based on Mark 13: 1-8. Pastor Darrell Nieves preached today at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan
This is a special musical performance of For the Beauty of the Earth by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
This is a special musical performance of Give Thanks by the Faith Bells at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
My professor, Lois Malcolm, teaches that some people need to check their ego while others need to start taking up some space. Just before the Gospel we heard today from Mark, Jesus says that the second commandment after loving the LORD your God is to “Love your neighbor as yourself” Jacqueline Bussie reflects on this commandment and also recognizes people who need to take up space. She writes that some people, like her mom, like me, maybe like you, need to view this commandment as “you already adore other people and you are fabulous at it, now remember to love yourself as much as you do them.” It is within the context of loving my neighbor and loving myself that I consider the message of scripture today.
We hear about two widows and I wonder if they’re victims of the one-way love street as well. Within the patriarchal system of the time, widows had no rights, they were the poorest of the poor and were often reduced to begging. Neither woman is named, which is perhaps yet another sign of the marginalization of widows within this culture. Sometimes I’m astounded by the outrageousness of ordinary people’s actions in the Bible. I consider myself a fairly ordinary person, but compared to these people, not so much. My first reaction is to feel guilty because I don’t give nearly as much as these ordinary people. I see myself residing in a comfortable bubble of security where I first recognize my privilege. But when I hear the words of Lois Malcolm and Jacqueline Bussie and Jesus, I see that this comfortable bubble is not just about money, possessions and privilege, it’s about something else too. My guilt doesn’t serve God, and so God is poking my bubble. God is trying to show me a way out of my bubble, a way of faith.
In 1 Kings Elijah is sent by God to Zarephath where God has commanded a widow to feed him. Both God and Elijah don’t seem to accept the present societal system that widows are poor and probably don’t have enough to share. I’m astounded by outrageous act #1: Elijah doesn’t question this command to go away to be fed by a widow, he just travels to Zarephath. Outrageous act #2: Elijah arrives and meets a widow right at the gate of the town! It seems that he didn’t have to look far. Outrageous act #3: He actually calls out to her for a drink of water, and as an aside, to bring him some bread too. I’m a bit relieved that she reasonably argues that she has so little food, not enough to share, she plans to go home and die with her son. Outrageous act #4: Elijah tells her “Do not be afraid;” go make some bread for me first then for you and your son. “Do not be afraid” he tells her. So, she doesn’t back-talk Elijah, this stranger who just ordered her to fix him some food -- at the moment of her greatest despair when she expects she will die, she does outrageous act #5: scripture says “She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail.” Outrageous act #6: They ate for many days. This widow demonstrates incredible generosity and faith during the time of her deepest need. She gives everything she has and God shows up.
This seems like a straightforward message until we hear today’s Gospel from Mark. It begins with Jesus teaching and criticizing the Temple leaders for how they expect and receive the best treatment and respect while “They devour widows’ houses”. This is not an outrageous scene for me, although I wonder if it should be, this is a too-familiar scene. A scene I see in news reports about powerful people enjoying their place of privilege openly, seemingly unaware of the oppression this privilege imposes upon others. It’s the paradox of the powerful and the oppressed, the ego-driven and the nearly invisible. Not long after Jesus’ teaching, A poor widow enters the Temple and drops two copper coins into the treasury. Jesus exclaims that she “has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Here I see outrageous act #7: she put in everything she had, all she had to live on. And outrageous act #8: Jesus notices. Again this widow demonstrates incredible generosity and faith, but Jesus doesn’t praise her for this.
Along with these outrageous actions, Jesus’ teaching makes me wonder if these widows are making smart choices. Even as a person who is still learning to take up her own space and love herself, I recognize that these are not smart choices. We live in a culture where it’s smart to save money for college, for retirement, for an emergency, for home improvements, for vacation, the list goes on. While Jesus was criticizing the system that oppresses this widow, he does not agree with her choice to give the last of her money. Jesus condemns the value system that motivates her action, and he condemns the people who conditioned her to do it. I can almost hear Jesus telling the widow “Stop! Love yourself!” It first seems like God is calling people to give everything they have and yet human experience and even Jesus insists that giving everything isn’t a very smart choice. This is not a one size fits all message, God loves each of us as we are. Where does this paradox leave us?
God is not asking us this morning to empty our cupboards and bank accounts, but God is challenging us to reconsider the way we operate. This is not an either-or operation, it draws us into operating in a way of both-and. God asks me to hold the tension between security and chance, between checking my ego and taking up space, between loving my neighbor and loving myself. God gives us the freedom to choose and to learn how to hold this tension. At the same time God is calling us to a place of deeper faith and trust in Him for the sake of God’s kingdom on earth. A place where we recognize God in ourselves and in one another. A place where the powerful see the oppressed, and respond! The good news is that God shows up in my life and is replacing my insecurities with strength. Strength to recognize oppressive powers and live into the person that God has created me to be. This is how together, we as the church, can change communities, nations and the world. God shows up. God is telling us “Do not be afraid.” Have courage. Courage to take another chance, to give all that we have, and to witness the awesomeness of God showing up. . .again. “Do not be afraid.” Step outside of your bubble.
This is a Special Musical performance of Day by Day by the Joyful Noise Children's Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
This is a Special Musical performance of Gaudeamus Hodie by the Chancel Choir and Joyful Noise Children's Choir of Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
This is a special musical performance of Twelve Gates into the City by the Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.
Over the past few weeks, I feel as though we have been living what one theologian calls “the Saturdays of our lives.” The Saturdays of our lives represent those desperate places in life between the crucifixion of Good Friday and the resurrection of Sunday. They represent the stench of death we have experienced and felt over the past few weeks. They represent the wilderness of despair. They represent those places in life where what is crystal clear is the suffering and the pain and the agony and the chaos, and where Sunday, the resurrection and the promise of new life, seems like a fantasy or fairytale that is certainly nowhere in sight. Living in the Saturdays of our lives is a difficult place to live. And, that desperate place of despair – that is the context for our reading from Isaiah on this day. It was the 8th century BCE and the people were in a dark place. The Assyrians had swept in. They had captured the Israelites and forced them to scatter throughout the empire. It was, in essence, yet another wilderness experience and the people were asking that despairing question, “Where is God?”
Many had lost their faith and it was there, in the anguish, that God came to the people of Israel. God met them right where they were, made God’s presence known to them through the prophet Isaiah, and gave them words of hope they desperately needed to hear. God gave them words of hope and promise that ring down through the centuries to provide the words we so desperately need to hear on this day.
It is interesting that when the Bible deals with matters of death, it talks about them in terms of the future. It offers words of hope in terms of a future that is out in front of us but not yet here. The Bible often does this by means of poetic writings and visions. And, in Isaiah, we hear these beautiful, poetic, hope-filled words of a future day when God throws a big party, when the “Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food.” We hear the hope-filled words of a future day when God will destroy “the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations.” We hear of that future day when God will swallow up death forever, wipe away the tears from all faces and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth! Oh, these are hope-filled words we so desperately need to hear in the Saturdays of our lives.
Then, in our reading from the Book of Revelation, we are given another vision of the future as the writer describes a whole new heaven and new earth. And, what is so interesting about this vision is that it is about the future of ALL things. It is about an amazing future that God is creating where the chaos and pain and destruction of this present time will be no more! Oh, we need to hear the promise of this future as we experience Saturdays of our lives!
But, wait. There is yet another story of hope and promise! On this day, we are also told of the raising of Lazarus when the very shroud of Lazarus is cast off. Oh, we need to hear these words because the stench of death and the roiling chaos reeks all around us.
Lazarus, Jesus’ close friend, has died. Mary and Martha knew their brother, Lazarus, would not have died had Jesus been present. They are living and experiencing the Saturdays of their lives. And, like us, we discover Mary using the “if only” phrase as she kneels at Jesus feet saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Then, as Jesus responds to Mary’s weeping, we are confronted with the harsh but ultimately comforting truth of the situation. In this moment of darkness, this moment that renders God’s Word silent, we find that Jesus himself weeps. It is in this moment that we discover the incarnate God who weeps with us as Jesus reveals the passion and love of a powerless yet seemingly almighty God. And, in this moment, Jesus reveals one of the most important characteristics we can ever learn about the heart of God: "Jesus weeps." When Jesus experienced Mary and Martha weeping for their dead brother Lazarus, he was "deeply moved in spirit and troubled."
The God whom Christians worship is not a remote and aloof "sky god" somewhere out there. No, God is a tender God who is deeply moved, even grieved, by anything and everything that threatens our human well-being. In this moment, we discover God with us, a God who even weeps with us. And, oh, as we experience the Saturdays of our lives, we need to hear these words!
But, the story does not end there. Jesus commands them to take away the stone blocking the entrance to the tomb. Now, there is nothing pretty about death. Death brings decay, rotting and stench. Oils and spices applied to a dead body would have held unpleasant odors at bay for a while, but after four days the stench would have been overpowering. And, so it was with Lazarus. Martha becomes the realist as she says, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” However, Jesus responds by saying, “Take away the stone,” and with those words we cannot help but be reminded of Jesus’ coming resurrection. Oh, yes, we need to hear these words in the Saturdays of our lives.
When Jesus cries out with a loud voice saying, “Lazarus, come out!” he heralds a stunning new possibility as the stench of death meets the fragrance of the resurrecting power of God’s Son. It is fascinating that the Greek verb used for come out occurs only eight times in the whole Greek Bible, six of which are in John. And, it is used four times for the shouts of the crowd that cries out to crucify Jesus. So, isn’t it interesting that while the crowd’s shouts will bring death to Jesus, Jesus’ shout brings life to Lazarus! Lazarus, the dead man, emerges from his tomb, bound from head to foot in burial wrappings. Jesus then commands that these burial wrappings, the last remnants of death, be removed as he says, “Unbind him, and let him go.” The shroud, that death sheet that had been spread over Lazarus’ body, is removed and the stench of death is gone. Oh, we need to hear these words in the Saturdays of our lives.
My friends, Lazarus is us. Bound by death in our current lives, we are called to life by Jesus who is the Light and the Life of the world. And, it is from the light of Easter dawn that we confront the darkness of death. Jesus stands at the edge of the Saturdays of our lives, at the edge of our tomb, the many tombs in which we presently exist, as we shrink from being fully alive. Jesus stands shouting, “Come out!” He calls us to come out and walk into the light of day, pulling free of our grave clothes as we go. From the other side of Christ’s resurrection, we gain the courage, not to deny death, but to be honest about its ability to cripple us. We gain the courage to not let the fear of death distort our lives, but to walk through it and figure out ways to integrate it into our lives. As we do this, we walk placing our faith in the Risen Christ who has promised us that death does not have the last word. And, knowing that death is not the last word, we are free to live. We can stare death and darkness in the face and even embrace its reality as a part of earthly living – even in our grief, and even in our pain. Oh, yes, we need to hear these words on this day!
Friends, we are Lazarus, and the good news is that, in Holy Baptism, we have been joined to Christ’s death and resurrection. And, we have been promised not only life eternal but also abundant life right here and right now. We are called to live as though the Eternal were now because God is, and because God is present to us here and now. We are called to live as though we belong to God, in life and in death. We are called to live fully alive because we have been given the promise that neither death nor life, nor things present nor things to come, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. So, we can let go of the despair and the fear. We can let go of all that holds us in the Saturdays of our lives because the future God holds out before us is not dominated by death. It is one of life and God calls us into life! Oh, yes, we so desperately need to hear these words in the Saturdays of our lives!