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Lenten devotions 2008

MARCH 7 - IN SPITE OF CHAOS
By Jennifer Halteman Schrock, coordinator of public programs at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College

SCRIPTURE: John 11:1-45 (NRSV)
Scroll down for complete Scripture.

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DEVOTIONAL:
I had not noticed how untidy the story of Lazarus was before this reading. Most sermons on John 11 focus on Lazarus stumbling out of the tomb, but the more mundane events leading up to this climax run on for 45 messy verses. I had to sit on my hands to keep from editing them.

In this story, Jesus’ dramatic victory over death is embedded in ordinary Family Dynamics. First, there is the uncertainty of when to leave for Bethany under the circumstances. The disciples grumble about Jesus’ risk-taking behavior in returning to an area where his life was threatened. When he does arrive, multiple people imply that Jesus was to blame for Lazarus’ death for not arriving sooner. Even Martha’s confession of faith is intermixed with weeping, resentment and anxiety. And being Martha, she can’t help worrying about the stench at the tomb.

Meanwhile in the background, a houseful of relatives and neighbors with questionable political opinions are milling around underfoot. Most places in the Gospel of John, “the Jews” are out to get Jesus. Here they are the loyal mourners, but later they will carry their questions about Jesus back to Jerusalem.

Perhaps I notice all this weeping and scraping of chairs because I am reading Bonnie Miller-McLemore’s In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice right now. In this book, a theologian and mother of three offers a gentle critique of the desert-father variety of spirituality which emphasizes solitude, silence and detachment. She claims family life as an equally valid and valuable source of spiritual growth and divine activity.

In John’s story of Lazarus, the glory of God breaks into the midst of a grieving family. It comes in spite of tears, in spite of doubt, in spite of the lateness of the hour or wondering who to blame. May you too experience one such moment with your family this Lenten season.

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SCRIPTURE: John 11:1-45 (NRSV)
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, ‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ 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.’ Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Then after this he said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?’ 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. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.’ After saying this, he told them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.’ The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.’ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’ Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow-disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’

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

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.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 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. 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.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 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 for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. 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.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ 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.’

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Posted at 09:50 #