At the Tomb - Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent Year A

At the Tomb

Lent 5A

March 26, 2023

Christ, Preston, MN

John 11.1-45

It became clear to me this past week that our scripture readings can trigger strong emotions within us. We can easily feel overwhelmed by the finality, despair, and hopelessness of death present in the story from Ezekiel about the vast valley of dry bones, bones that are dried up and utterly lost. And emotions run rampant through John’s Gospel as not only Martha and Mary mourn Lazarus’ death, a death that seems senseless, but we see Jesus weeping as well.

One of the many memories these texts triggered for me happened years ago as I was called to the hospital because a member, Delores, had died, not unexpectedly. When I arrived, Delores’ daughter, Dory, was there with her husband Jim and their daughters Ashley and Jamie. Now, I’d done the funeral for Delores’ husband Carl a year or two earlier and I knew her family well. The girls were active, with Jamie in Confirmation and Ashely a key member of the Youth group. In addition, Dory and Jim lived close to us and our girls were of similar ages. 

Now, Delores’ death was a good death in many ways: it was time for her and she’d had family close by at her side as she died. But as I walked in the room and saw their grief, I was surprised by a wave of grief that washed over me. Usually I can maintain my professional demeanor. But as I reflected on that emotion I realized my grief wasn’t as much for Delores as it was for her family, to see them in their tender grief.

I know better than to say, “I know how you feel,” because nobody ever knows how someone else is feeling. But I can say that I suspect that what happened to me was similar to Jesus’ experience with Martha and Mary. Our text today is rich in emotion and human interactions, from the disciples who wonder if they are going to die with Jesus, to Martha and Mary and the mourners as well as to Jesus himself, through which we have a window into the full humanity of God. Jesus not only exhibits deep compassion for them, he is angry at the power of death.

Jesus often appears detached and “above the fray” as we say, and there is that sense here. He seems not to care about Lazarus, let alone his disciples and Martha. But there is also the sense that Jesus is right there with them as one of them. Said in another way, our God is mysteriously Holy Other, who cannot be grasped or fully understood, is also fully present and acting in our midst, bringing life from death. All too often as we go about our daily lives we might forget about God or perhaps we might talk about the idea of God. That is, until a story like today’s text nudges us to remember that God is fully present in, with, and under our lives each and every day.

As today’s lessons evoke deep feelings we are reminded that we are always at the tomb whether we realize it or not. If it is not being confronted by death itself, as when we said goodbye to Donald “Buzz” Riehl yesterday, it is being reminded about the grief death brings. But we do not stand at the tomb alone for we have a God who stands with us and we have a community of faith that supports us in our grief when we can barely support ourselves. In doing so, we, too, are unbound and released for life by the One who is the Resurrection and the Life. Thanks be to God. Amen.

My sermons often preach a little differently than written and you can find the video here.