John 11:1-45
Lent 5 - Year A
All Saints - Year B
"Agitation!" "Indignation!"
So reads the Greek as it describes Jesus in relation to death, even the death of Lazarus after encountering Mary weeping.
Earlier, in response to disciple queries, Jesus, as he is primarily portrayed in John, appears to be in charge. Earlier, in response to Martha, Jesus, portrayed as the teacher of doctrine, continues in his instructional mode.
Is this switch of emotional tone simply a matter of response to particular persons or situations? Might this be some process of growth in understanding? His next response to Martha is rather snippish. His next response, for the disciples, is rather show-offish. His next response, to Mary (?), is relief -- "Unbind!" "Loose him!"
From this experience Jesus is ready to be anointed, as Lazarus had been; to die, as Lazarus had been; to be buried, as Lazarus had been; to be called forth and unbound, loosed.
How far along the resurrectional process of "going on to perfection" are you? Have you caught a glimpse of being connected with the beginning? Have you participated in transformational moments with elements and people? Have you seen life return? Have you begun to risk that process in your own way? Have you already been unbound (how much and is there more on the way)?
Would it be helpful to have others join you on this journey to call you forth or is it best for you to walk a lonely valley filled with your own dry bones?
Where is your "Agitation!" "Indignation!" these days? Where are you calling forth new life from seeming life done gone?
I hope to see some of you in Eau Claire, Wisconsin later this week as Kairos CoMotion calls forth new life, a makeover, if you will.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html
Prophets routinely bring dead people back to life. Sometimes this is more literal than others. Prophet Jesus acts in this way and invests us with the desire to see GOD revealed and the compassion and merciful action to call folks to new life.
Moses brings a dead people back to life from their grave clothes of slavery and unwraps them through the wilderness.
Elisha warms a boy back to life through deep identification - mouth to mouth, eye to eye, hand to hand.
Jonah warns a people back to life through a whisper of consequence.
Jesus also calls a girl and a boy back to life.
Paul awakens a sleepy boy who falls to his death.
Peter calls Tabitha back to work.
Whether working structurally or personally, new life is available. We are called to be among the callers of new life. There are Lazarus situations still in our lives in which we can see our own lives paralleled. Let us not be afraid to presage our own life and death and beyond death through our aiding others to life, through death, and beyond.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html
The church in Rome might also hear that to set the mind on death is to focus on flesh and to set the mind on life and peace is spirit work. These things are not one-way orientations. If we take death as an advisor for what to pay attention to in life, we might name death a spiritual advisor. Likewise, life and peace find their context in death, what transforms it, redeems it, resurrects it.
And so Ezekiel's bones cry out as much as the spirit of the Lord. Lazarus' flesh cries out as much as do Martha and Mary and Jesus. Out of the depths comes a cry for new life and that is tied in with forgiveness.
The Lord needs to deal with forgiveness issues with those lying in the valley of dust. Jesus, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus have forgiveness issues with one another. Forgiveness is still a key element in our lives and deaths that desires resolution beyond every opportunity for resolution. A key question: how we are doing with our forgiving and receiving of forgiveness?
- - -
O so slow we are
to establish a relationship
on and in and through
forgiveness
justice calls for it
and justice grinds slow
but it does surface
even from the dead
forgiveness drives
a hard bargain
as steadfast love's
altar ego
it will not give up
until satisfied
slow or fast
eventually
leaving us a choice
cooperation early
prolonged resistance
but no choice
bones will rise
flesh will be unwrapped
death becomes spirit
peace becomes flesh
fear not O crier
from deep places
there is forgiveness
wait - hope - redeem
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
Who's to blame? A person born blind? Their parents? Jesus for intervening? Jesus for delaying? Last week the wonder of G*D was revealed in a creation story involving mud. This week, with Jesus' delay in coming, Lazarus gets all the way to "mostly dead" (read The Princess Bride). Everyone understands Lazarus and Westley to be dead, but all great stories find a way to a larger possibility beyond apparent limitations. Even tragedies give instruction that we might find another way.
The unbinding in this story is very similar to the revealing to Photini who she might yet become. The unbinding of Lazarus is also our unbinding, even as Photini's enlightenment is ours. All of these Johannine encounters hold a creative edge with possibilities and realities of new births.
Do you see how beloved Photini was, how beloved was Lazarus? This pushes us again to recognize our own belovedness. We are worth being wept over. We are worth being called forth. We are worth being unwrapped (shedding our skin one more time) and set free to a next stage of life. [image here - Lazarus as butterfly emerged]
What a difference a moment, a day, or even four days can make. Each of them hold the initial state of a new way of being/moving – use your favorite search engine for "butterfly effect" references.
Another way of playing with this is to investigate, at whatever leisure you will unbind, the Suzy Butterfly site.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html
Walking in the light does not exempt one from dangerous places. It gives information about where to place one's foot. Treachery in treacherous places can still occur, no matter how carefully one tries to maneuver set traps. Note that in some eyes, it is exactly this "triumph over death", this "revelation of glory", that initiates a final trap that cannot be avoided, no matter how careful one is. In a sense, carefulness is exactly what the powers that be desire. An overly careful person will take themselves out of danger and keep the status quo safe a while longer.
The outside of the story is about Lazarus. The inside of the story is about Jesus' commitment to a picture larger than fear - either fear for his own life or an addressing of our universal fear of death's unknowns.
In taking away a stone from his own grave (being cooped up by fear of being stoned), Jesus is freed to roll other stones away, to unbind folks from other fears. Had Lazarus physically died, or had he begun to stink of fear? To be unbound from either is a miracle. Does Jesus always have to be credited with the largest possible miracle or he ceases to be a miracle-worker. That's a sure way to burn out. There is nothing like smaller, regular miracles to keep one in for the long haul.
Would it make a difference for you if the translators had used "weak" or "feeble" instead of "ill" or "sick"? In John, the same Greek word (astheneō) is sometimes translated "impotent", and isn't that reminiscent of being frozen in fear.
PS. Yes, I can read the rest of the supporting story as that of sickness and death and see it as a prelude to a next resurrection that closely ties Jesus with G*D. Today I am feeling more impotent and fearful, in the face of a chaotic world filled with blind incivility and ignoring common kindness, than I am sick and fearful. I simply ask how literal even this story needs to be. How does it speak beyond its limitations? and how do I?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/04/john-111-45.html
bumpy hope
ill
lazarus
mary martha message
jesus
stayed longer
let's go
no! stones!
light
sleep
dead
for four days
martha
unconsoled
jesus
coming
mary
goes out
weeping
jesus
come see
cave
stoned
rolled
stinking
away
thanks
thanks
thanks
thanks
thanks
come
unbind
release
hope
here
stones avoided
stone rolled
stone prepared
stone placed
stone rolled
hope
released
rolls
bumpily
along
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/04/bumpy-hope.html
While appreciating the specificity of people and locale, it is all too easy to bring this down to a miracle story for one small group of people. Breaking the rules of nature, even to make a glory point, ends up with unintended consequences.
Here “belief” in Jesus has a tangible reward. Lazarus rises.
It turns out this was a publicity stunt. The reaper of rewards was not Lazarus, Mary, or Martha but for those who happened to be part of Martha and Mary’s support system, weeping with them. “I am doing this for the crowd so they may believe me.”
Bottom-line: Many, but not all, “believed” in Jesus. Where is the teaching to trust, anyway?
So, Lenten Discipliners, you are not fasting for your sake, but for the crowd. Go ahead and stand on a street-corner. Yes, you’ll hear about it. “You’ve taken it too far—go to your closet” After this story it is difficult to know where “too far” might be.
Perhaps Lent is not so much about particulars as finding a way to discern where to go and when—retreat or charge ahead—charitably mourn with those who mourn or to structurally change our community system to reduce events that bring on mourning.