Untitled Sermon (3)

Lazarus Template

What a powerful message we receive from this Gospel reading in John.

Did you catch what it said there two-thirds of the way through the reading?

It said, “When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within Him, and He was deeply troubled.

Jesus wasn’t angry at Martha or Mary for questioning him…

He wasn’t angry at the people there for crying and wailing…

After all, it says that Jesus himself was weeping…

The anger that welled up in Jesus came from his own grief…

He had lost a dear friend…someone whom he loved as a brother or a cousin…someone close to him…

He was witnessing the pain it was causing Lazarus’ sisters Martha and Mary…whom he also loved…

 He was witnessing the pain it was causing Lazarus’ family and friends…

And, again, he was experiencing the pain that it was causing him…

AND HE GOT ANGRY…

Anger is a part of the grieving process.

It’s natural for us to go through these different stages of grief…

To be in denial of the death of a loved one…

To get angry that they died…

angry with the person,

angry with others,

angry with God.

To find ourselves bargaining with God to have things return back to the way they were.

To find ourselves utterly and totally depressed

And, hopefully, we eventually get to a place of acceptance and peace…

Jesus was angry and he began to weep.

His friend’s death was sudden and not expected.

It wasn’t a part of Jesus’ plan.

Rather, Lazarus suddenly fell ill and, as a result, died.

Yes, Jesus knew that Lazarus would live again, but that still didn’t erase the feeling of finality that we all experience in death.

What a powerful message for us this evening because, though we wish we weren’t

We find ourselves in a similar situation as Jesus was in.

Someone dear to you, someone you loved and you knew intimately…

Someone who loved you back and who supported you and filled your souls with joy…

Someone who you were invested in and who was invested back in you...

Has passed on from this life and...

Here…we…are…

Grieving the loss of Name…

Grieving what once was…

Kinship, friendship, loving relationship…

Here we are grieving what once was but is seemingly no longer.

Sadly, I never got to know Name, though I understand s/he…

[Any Details I may have heard]

You, on the other hand, did know him/her 

And you know doubt touched his/hers.

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Details of the person: Tweak the following

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One thing I am sure of is that Name loved his/her family and s/he loved his/her friends…

And s/he didn’t just love his/her friends and family…s/he was very much loved by them too.

As you all can attest to, Name was a caring and compassionate wo/man.

S/he knew what it meant to love and sacrifice for his/her family…

S/he knew what it meant to show love to people who were outside of his/her family…

[Personal Details]

I can also tell s/he loved life!

[Details]

And Name knew that the lines of family were not merely defined by one’s bloodline.

That much I could gather by his/her obituary,

[Details]

It is amazing what an obituary can tell of a person and the love they have for their family and their community.

In short, as much as you loved sharing in his/her life,

Name loved sharing in your lives as well.

S/he loved life and, no doubt, s/he was ready to experience more of it…

I can only imagine s/he had more life she had hoped to live and yet her/his life came to an all to early end.

So many hopes and expectations…gone…

Yes, friends, we are grieving the loss of Name today.

So, acknowledging our grief, what a powerful message for us this evening

because we believe in a God who is not only with us in our grief,

but we believe in a God who has experienced grief…

Who knew the pain of losing a father…

Who knew the pain of losing his best friend…

Who knew the pain of living life in the day-to-day struggle of coping with loss and despair…

Who knew the pain of losing his own life…

and the grief that one goes through in their own journey toward death.

Understand this, when I say that God is with you all in this time of grief, I’m not blowing smoke…

For our God IS WITH US and, more importantly,

our God knows what grief is all about…

what it means to be in denial,

to be angry,

to bargain with God in the darkness of the garden,

to be depressed and in despair...

What’s more, our Lord knows how to lead us to a place of acceptance…

to a place of JOY and to a place of the PEACE that passes all understanding.

What is important to remember is that, while we no longer can see Name face-to-face…while we can no longer share in conversation with him/her…

All that s/he meant to us,

the legacy of love s/he built up in her/his life and shared with you,

can be lived into and embraced.

The best way to honor the people we love, is by showing the love we had for them to each other, and to others…

That our love for those we no longer see grows to include those around us and those beyond our reach.

Humanly speaking, our legacy of love is always complicated…none of us are perfect…but it is LOVE nonetheless and, if we open ourselves up to Christ, we will be perfected in LOVE.

My friends, Jesus Christ did not come to establish a new religion, but to establish God’s Kingdom…and to establish LOVE as the law…

If we build our lives around LOVE, and if we live our lives in LOVE…

We will honor those who came before us and inspire all who follow us…

We will truly find ourselves at peace and filled with purpose.

Let us honor Name in such a way…

And to do so TRULY honors God…for God is LOVE…

Let us honor Name, live each moment in LOVE, and look forward with HOPE and JOY

For I, like the author of the book of Revelation, firmly believe that:

God is making all things new.

That God will one day wipe the tears from our eyes.

That one day there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.

That one day we will be in the fullness of God’s presence with the ones we love…

That we will see each other and God face-to-face…

And that we will all know that we are God’s children,

LOVED, embraced, and included in God’s Kingdom. Amen.