Rejoice! I Say REJOICE!

 

John 1:6-8, 19-28

The Winter Solstice, the shortest and darkest day and longest night of the year –– occurs this week. It is the onset of the winter season when the sun is the furthest from Earth and is often a time of darkness, doubt, and fear. Winter solstice can significantly affect people, causing lethargy, irritability, and difficulty concentrating because of the reduced light. Lots of people feel unmotivated at this time of the year.

And yet, Sunday is Gaudete Sunday – a beloved day in the Advent season that fills our hearts with joy and anticipation. This unique Sunday is a beacon of joy and hope as we journey towards Christmas.

‘Gaudete’ is a Latin word meaning “Rejoice.” Philippians 4:4-5 instructs us to:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice. Let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.

The ‘rejoice’ command appears over 150 times in the Bible; obviously, this is critical to following the teachings of Jesus.

The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus in his First Advent and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Coming. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,600-year-old historical event. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ, and all creations reconciled to God. Scripture readings for Advent emphasize the Second Coming, including accountability for faithfulness at His coming, judgment on sin, and the hope for eternal life.

The history of Gaudete Sunday is deeply rooted in Christian tradition. The observance dates back to the medieval period when the Church recognized the need to balance the penitential nature of Advent with moments of joy and hope. The third Sunday of Advent serves as a brief respite from the more somber aspects of the season, allowing believers to rejoice in the imminent arrival of the Christ child.

Today, Gaudete Sunday, REJOICE Sunday, reminds us that Christmas is nearly here. The somber tone suddenly turns joyous today – we shift from deep purple to pink to give us a clue that we’re nearly there. In essence, Gaudete Sunday encapsulates the dual nature of Advent – a time for reflection and repentance, balanced with anticipation and rejoicing in the promise of salvation. It serves as a reminder that, even in our preparations, there is joy in the expectation of the Christ child’s arrival.

All the expectation, the longing, and the waiting will soon be over – we’ll be opening the presents we wanted, and some perhaps we didn’t.

Sometimes, we can’t hide the disappointment in socks, homemade knitted scarves, or chunky sweaters knit by a well-meaning relative. As a people of faith, we do well to know where our true joy comes from – those who know the pain of disappointment in others, what they say and do, or what they forget to say and do.

True joy comes from God. If we rejoice when times are good, only when we get what we want, only when we hear what we want to hear, then quite frankly, God needn’t bother with Christmas.

“Keep your Son,” we should say – thank you very much, we don’t need him. Even John the Baptist wondered whether the guy he heard so much about was ‘the One’ – he sent his disciples to double-check. Jesus said: ‘The proof of the pudding is in the eating’ – see what’s happening – lives are changed.

Yours and my lives change through encounters with Jesus –or is something holding us back from fully embracing the little child?

For those who have faith that brings them to worship God (rather than just be entertained on a Sunday morning), joy and faith can keep us going – despite what life throws at us.

Our hymns at this time of year can particularly hit nerves. Take In the Bleak Midwinter, for one. Hasn’t it been miserable enough? This last year, we’ve had floods, drought, winds and storms. Christmas is nearly here to lift our hearts, and we start singing about bleak midwinters!

Perhaps the writer of that hymn did lose the plot and think that Jesus was born on a bleak, windy moor in a January blizzard. Was it winter in Bethlehem? Did it snow? Or was it an ordinary Middle Eastern night with nothing happening except angels appearing and singing?

Perhaps, though, some of us have in our minds what a bleak midwinter is all about – I don’t mean the weather outside; I mean the experience inside us. There are many stories within our communities of the midwinter life experiences – whose ground is hard and cold. Comfort can be elusive: maybe because of a loveless marriage, a depression that is hard to shake off, the sadness of life without a loved one, concern for a child, worry about health and the future, and so on. Christmas in this light can seem like fluffy, trivial nonsense. Christmas might be memorable for the comfortable or those wishing to escape reality, but a romantic, fluffy Christmas can offer little refuge to those in the bleak midwinter of life.

In this double focus on past and future, Advent also symbolizes the spiritual journey of individuals and a congregation, as they affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power. That acknowledgment provides a basis for Kingdom ethics, for holy living arising from a profound sense that we live “between the times.” We are to be faithful stewards of that entrusted to us as God’s people. So, as the Church celebrates God’s arrival in the Incarnation and anticipates a future consummation to that history for which “all creation is groaning awaiting its redemption,” it also confesses its responsibility as a people commissioned to

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart.”

and to

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30)

A spirit of expectation, anticipation, preparation, and longing marks Advent. There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first expressed by enslaved Israelites in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter oppression. It is the cry of those who have experienced the tyranny of injustice in a world under the curse of sin and yet who have hope of deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of oppressed enslaved people and brought salvation!

Although Gaudete Sunday is the third Sunday during the penitential period of Advent, it is a mid-point break in the Advent season. Gaudete Sunday is the chance to celebrate before returning to assessing our lives.

On Gaudete Sunday, the liturgical color is often rose or pink, a deviation from the usual Advent color of purple or blue, symbolizing the joy and excitement of the approaching celebration of Christmas. In some Christian traditions, the clergy lights a pink candle on the Advent wreath on Gaudete Sunday.

Advent was a time for preparing for Christmas through penance and fasting in medieval times. Today, Gaudete Sunday, is a day to relax from Advent penance and to rest, preparing ourselves for the final stretch of this penitential season.

The modern observance of Advent is often difficult to distinguish from the season of Christmas. The secular world is already in full party mode, with Christmas sweets, social celebrations, and even gift-giving.

It’s almost laughable to think of Advent today as a season of penance and fasting. Yet, Advent was a penitential season similar to Lent for most of Christian history, though never as strict. It consisted of periodic fasting and personal sacrifices, traditions that starkly contrast to the modern delicacies everyone enjoys throughout December.

Gaudete Sunday can be confusing and joyful in the middle of the Advent penances. There is joy in looking forward to the annual celebration of Christmas, but there is also joy in recalling the birth of Jesus on the first Christmas.

• Jesus was born to save us from sin (Matthew 1:21b).
• The rejoicing also extends to the anticipation of the Second Coming, either at the end of physical life or the end of the world, when believers will dwell in the place in the Father’s house (John 14:2) with God and his angels and saints for all eternity.

The Isaiah passage (Isaiah 61:1) is the first indication that this Sunday is about bringing good news:

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; (Isaiah 61:1)

And, following in later lines:

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, (Isaiah 61:10)

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 commands us:

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

The reading for Advent 3 usually includes the ‘Magnificat,’ Mary’s hymn of acceptance.

And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on, all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name” (Luke 1:46-49).

The foretelling of the Baby Jesus is another reason to be joyful on Gaudete Sunday.

In the spirit of joy and giving, some Christian communities use Gaudete Sunday to engage in acts of kindness and charity – possibly outreach to those in need or special community service projects.

Today, may Gaudete Sunday be filled with the joy, faith, hope, and love of the God who wants to be reborn in you and me again. All this, not so that we can feel great about ourselves and be smug and self-satisfied, but so that the love we encounter in God who gives everything may be modeled in what we do and think and say alongside others – those who believe and those who have yet to see through all the rubbish of religion and encounter the God of love and joy and relationship. That’s the sort of Christmas I want to sing about, right? Rejoice!

So we are told:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, Rejoice.

Let us pray:

Loving Father, keep your Church faithful in telling the good news, loving justice, and drawing many to freedom through the joy of your forgiveness.

We pray that there may be integrity in leadership, mercy, justice for rich and poor, strong and weak, peace among nations, and respect for all.

We pray for our community, families, and friends for their hopes and fears. May the love of Christ be shown in what we do and how we speak. We remember now all those we know with special needs, locked in physical and emotional pain; all weighed down with worry or despair. God of Advent hope, will you restore, replenish, comfort, and free them?

Finally, loving Father, we commend those who have died to your love. We especially miss loved ones whose memory is a treasure at this time. May they and we, in turn, experience the joy of your eternity forever.

Accept these prayers for the sake of your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Delivered at Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square, Columbus, OH; 17 December 2023

Death Does NOT Win

Luke 7:11-17

The scriptures we heard today tell sad and remarkably similar stories – of a widow losing her son to death; and of the prophet Elijah, and later, Jesus restoring these two sons back to life.

To Biblical scholars, this is seen as one of many attempts to depict Jesus as a fulfillment of ancient scriptural prophecies – as the ‘new Elijah’ or the Messiah, foretold in the ancient Torah.

For New Testament scholars, the raising of the son of the widow of Nain takes its place with the two other stories of Jesus restoring life to those taken by death. In Matthew 9:18-26, Jesus returned Jairus’ daughter to the living. A president of the local Galilean synagogue, Jairus probably felt threatened by teachings and works of Jesus, but nevertheless, faced by Jesus’ powerful presence, asked his daughter be restored to life. Jesus felt compassion for this father and immediately went to his house and restored the life of the little girl. In an even more famous story told in John 11:1-44, Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha and Jesus beloved friend, was raised from the dead by Jesus before a large and awestruck crowd.

There are many levels upon which we can learn from these stories: theologically, culturally, and individually. One could expound for hours on their implications – indeed, countless books have been written that do so– but, today, let me examine a few.

The woman of Nain is referred to as a ‘widow’. Not only was this poor woman mourning the death of her only son, but she now was all alone in a society that did not have provisions for the care of widows. There was no one left to care for her in her old age; no welfare or assistance available for widows like her. It was up to a woman’s children, especially her sons, to see that she was cared for. But, she has no one left! She is all alone, helpless and caught in a desperate situation. She has nothing to look forward to except poverty and despair. She is at the mercy of others people’s kindness. She has nowhere to go and nowhere to turn. She finds herself trapped in a helpless condition. Widows were the lowliest of the lowly.

As Jesus looked upon this woman, He saw that all her hope was gone, a woman who not only was having to grieve without family at the death of her son, but also being judged by her own society and people. Jesus told her not to weep because He was about to turn her tears into celebration at the return of her son.

In each of these stories, Jesus speaks to the person – He speaks and life emerges where there was death. This is just one of the examples of His works and teachings that turned the world upside down, countering everything that man thought they knew and believed; that, in fact, the least can be the greatest, the lowliest are indeed powerful, the sick and suffering can find wellness and healing, the poor and outcast can find hope and acceptance.

Conversely, Jesus taught us that many of the things for which we strive: power, wealth, possessions, knowledge, titles and accolades are fleeting, finite, and mutable.

These stories also teach us that Jesus and His ‘way’, the thinking and life values that He taught and represented, also turn the world upside down. That our deep and paralyzing fear of death, drives us to hurtful behaviors that generate greed, arrogance, vengeance, pride, envy and judgment.

Yes, in reality and on a daily basis, we are afraid. Motivated by our fear of death, we strive to make our mark on our earthly life, because we fear ‘that this is all there is’. We fear one of the harsh truths of life:

death is still death.

One day, you will die.

YOU will die. I will die.

Our friends and our family, our neighbors – everybody you know will die.

They are all going to die. Sooner or later.

It doesn’t matter how clever we are,

It doesn’t matter how wealthy we are,

It doesn’t matter how many important people we know… everybody dies.

Death is a painful reality of life.

But Jesus assures us

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:40)

He also lovingly scolds us:

“My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? (John 14:2)

These are the promise God gives every human being, and God proved that promise in the life, death and resurrection of his Son, our brother, Jesus Christ.

Paul reminds us

“don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.” (Romans 6:3-5)

This is the life-transforming and world-changing message of these biblical stories we have heard today, and of the life of Jesus. That in following in His way, His values, and living by His examples, we will grow to understand and truly believe, to the core of our being, that

DEATH IS NOT THE END!

That Jesus is indeed, ‘God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God’;

• if we follow His way, embrace the values of love, inclusion, forgiveness, and service that He taught;
• if we live our lives on earth with humility, compassion, mercy and hope,

we will gain the reassuring understanding that death is only a door to new life.

Because He lived as we have lived,

and died as we must,

that we shall live again as He does.

Whether the end of our lives is by crucifixion, torture, war, cancer, body-crippling diseases, accidents, or old age

DEATH IS NOT THE END!

This is the life-giving hope, this is why we can be joyful and fear no more.

We are free.

This is the good news that we must tell to everyone.

Alleluia!

 

Delivered at Saint John’s Worthington Episcopal Church, Worthington, OH; 5 June 2016

 

The “Doubting” Thomas

John 20:19-31

This is the Sunday that we hear about and celebrate the apostle commonly known as ‘Doubting Thomas’, considered by some theologians to be one of Jesus’ ‘bad boys’.

We find the other ten disciples cowering in a room, afraid to come out. The doors were shut and locked; the drapes were drawn, the widows were closed and the disciples were full of fear and despair.

They have just seen their Lord and Master crucified on a cross and buried. Then on the third day His body disappeared from the tomb. Although the angels at the tomb tried to reassure them, they were still afraid.

“Overwhelmed” is a good way to describe the disciples after Jesus died, huddled together in their fear and confusion, not knowing where to turn or what to do next. Their leader and teacher who had held them together all those long months was dead and buried, executed like a common criminal, and his body now missing from the tomb. What a disappointing turn of events! When Jesus was laid in that tomb, there went all their hope, their vision, their sense of direction and purpose in life. They were left only with an overwhelming sense of failure, loss, and shame, because they knew they had deserted Jesus in his hour of need.

Were they more disappointed and disillusioned with themselves or with Jesus, who had raised their hopes so high?

What were they afraid of?

I don’t think they were just worried that those who killed Jesus would kill them as well. Their fear went deeper. Maybe they didn’t want to deal with the scorn or ridicule of those who knew they had failed. They had even failed at protecting Jesus. They had denied knowing him. In spite of all their earlier bravado, all their zeal and conviction, they were afraid of the cross.

And ashamed.

So on the night of the first Easter Sunday, the disciples were hiding together behind locked doors. They didn’t remember or wouldn’t believe Jesus’ promise of resurrection. Imagine the speculation which took place behind those closed doors

• They feared those who caused the death of Jesus would come after them. Not an unrealistic concern.
• The suspected someone had stolen Jesus’ body
• Or perhaps they would be accused of stealing His body
• They surely wondered where the body of Jesus was

But most of all, they were paralyzed with fright – they did not know what to do or what was going to happen to them.

But they must surely also have felt shame:

• Ashamed that they had not been able to save Jesus,
• Ashamed that they had deserted and denied their leader, their Lord
• And perhaps, ashamed that they did not believe in Jesus enough to feel assured of His resurrection.

I have to ask you, who are the ‘bad boys’ here?

Here at the very heart of the Easter gospel, when the mightiest act of God is occurring, when Jesus has just been raised from the dead by the power of God, when the blaring trumpets of Easter have exploded in celebration, we learn there is doubt. That there is plain, old fashioned doubt.

On such a grand occasion as Easter morning, you would have expected the disciples to have been filled with awe and adoration. But the Bible tells us on that first Easter Sunday, there was doubt.

On the first Easter Sunday the disciples were gathered together, the doors were locked. Suddenly they became aware that Jesus was standing among them. The same thing happened the following Sunday.

Thomas was the only disciple out running the streets. We do not know for sure why he wasn’t with the rest of the disciples, but we are told that he was not.

Was he faithless, separating himself from the community?

So where was Thomas anyway that first Easter Sunday? In my childhood Sunday school classes, Thomas was a “bad guy.” When the other ten disciples told him that Jesus was alive after his crucifixion, Thomas refused to believe it. He separated himself from the others and demanded to see Christ for himself. In short, we learned that he was a dull, doubting follower of Christ whom we should not imitate.

The moral of the story was clear —

Don’t be like Thomas!

Believe!

Don’t doubt!

Remember, Mary Magdalene had told the group that she has seen Jesus. Maybe Thomas couldn’t imagine hiding when someone has just reported seeing Jesus alive. Perhaps he was trying to find out the truth. Or maybe he was the only disciple with enough sense to recognize that This hiding thing could take a long time, and that he’d better go out and get milk and bread for the group.

Have you ever been to a party or a ball game or a concert and the next day a person comes up to you and says, “You should have been here last night. That was a fabulous game. Or, the Braves won last night in the fifteenth inning. Or, you should have been at that concert last night.”

So it was with the early disciples. “You should have been here last night, Thomas. You missed something else. You missed it. Jesus came back to us and he was alive.” And what was Thomas’ reaction?

“I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. Until I see the holes in his hands and side, I won’t believe.” (John 20:25)

He didn’t go along with the crowd. He didn’t cower with the other ten disciples. He stood alone against the crowd and expressed his doubts and incredulities.

But why do so many reject Thomas in our gospel lesson today? To some he is the poster child for unbelief because he dares to bring doubt into our lives of faith.

Heaven forbid we bring doubt into our faith;

Heaven forbid we name the one thing we’ve all encountered at one time or another.

Thomas merely spoke what so many have been thinking throughout the ages. Thomas did not believe just to believe. He wasn’t the kind of person who blindly accepted the faith without question. Thomas questioned, doubted, thought, pondered. He had a challenging and inquisitive mind.

We find two moments in the gospels where we meet Thomas and on both occasions he was asking questions

1. We heard about Jesus going to prepare a place for us, a heavenly mansion in John 14:2. It was Thomas who scratched his head and asked,

“Jesus, we don’t know where you are going and we don’t know the way.” (John 14:5)

 
Thomas did not understand what Jesus was saying so he asked Jesus questions. None of the other disciples raised their hands and expressed their curiosity. Thomas did.

2. And the second story about Thomas is in today’s gospel when ten disciples expressed wonder and amazement that the resurrected Christ had revealed Himself to them, Thomas didn’t go along with the crowd and say, “OK, that must be true. You all said so.” Instead, Thomas expressed his reservation and doubt:

“Unless I see him with my own eyes and touch his wounds with my own fingers, I will not believe.” (John 20:25)

 
Thomas was not the kind of person who would rattle off the creed without thinking of what he was saying. He would not say “I believe in the virgin birth, descended into hell, ascended to the right hand of the father, the only Son of God, the same substance with the Father” without thinking them through.

Thomas wanted proof. And he wanted Jesus. When Jesus again appeared to his disciples in the locked room, Thomas was there. And far from rebuking Thomas, Jesus offered to meet his conditions. “Put your fingers in my hands, touch my side.” The Gospel story gives no report of Thomas doing This, and I don’t believe he felt any need to do so. The personal encounter made Jesus’ resurrection real to This follower.

In fact, Thomas’s answer,

“My Lord and my God!”

is the high point of John’s Gospel. When Thomas got it, he got it. No one else had offered such devotion or named Jesus as God. Thomas held out for an experience of Jesus on his own terms until he found his terms seemed foolish by the reality of seeing Jesus. Only then did he make his statement of faith

So Thomas doubted. But when he behold and spoke with his Lord, when he heard the love and concern in Jesus’ voice, he believed.

So I suggest that we are should indeed be more like Thomas. Two-thousand years later in our complex and sophisticated world, we also have questions and we should express those questions. We shouldn’t hide them.

We need to look at the role of doubt in our faith.

A doubter today is a likely a person who searches for God and the godly life; the person is on a journey, a quest, a search to find God and the love of God

As one beholds This vast universe and our existence alone on This big blue marble earth, a doubter today is a person who has thousands of questions for God; questions about life, love, God’s existence, purpose, the divinity of Christ and many other questions.

Daily bombarded with violence, cynicism, cruelty and injustice, today’s doubter is a person who struggles to live a godly life, who struggles to find the purpose of life, to understand who God is, not as an unbeliever but one trying to reconcile reality and faith.

So, what is the purpose of doubt in our Christian faith?

We can accept that doubt is normal and perhaps healthy for human beings. All Christians, sometimes during our lives, have doubts, questions and skepticisms. That is the way that God made us: to ask questions, to inquire, to think, to sort things out.

Doubts, questions and skepticism often lead to a greater faith. Centuries ago, Copernicus doubted that the earth was the center of the universe. Christians of his era were using and quoting the Bible to prove that the earth was the center of the universe. Copernicus doubted the validity of those peoples’ interpretation and his doubting of their interpretation of the Bible led him to a larger and deeper understanding of our place in the world and the wonders of God’s creation. Galileo took This further to his own excommunication from the church, but a strengthened faith in God. Doubt often leads to deeper faith.

There comes a time in life where we begin to doubt our doubts, question our questions, and become skeptical of our skepticisms. We start to understand that our doubts, questions and skepticisms are a phase of our life and that we can actually become fixated with our questions, doubts and skepticisms.

Doubting Thomas was very much like each of us, wanting to believe and still unsure that Jesus has actually risen. He wanted to see the scars and touch them to assure himself that it was really true – Jesus was alive and had overcome death.

Just as Thomas wanted tangible proof, we, in our complex and cruel world, need to be reassured of God’s love and forgiveness.

And we get that every Sunday. Jesus is with us whenever the Church comes together in His name, especially on the first day of the week, which is now the Lord’s day.

When the priest says:

Peace be with you, (John 20:21)

This is what Jesus told the disciples when he first appeared to them. . . when he blessed them with the Holy Spirit.

Just as Thomas doubted, we must also see for ourselves. And we see that risen Christ each time we partake of the Eucharist.

Let us pray:

Almighty and everliving God, who strengthened your apostle Thomas with sure and certain faith in your Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting in your sight. Please empower us to be carriers of that faith to others. Give us the ability to share it in all its loveliness so others can know your salvation and not face your justice after having rejected your gracious gift of Jesus in whose name we pray. Amen.

 
Delivered at Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square, 19 April 2009

For Those Who Mourn, Grieve or Sorrow

May those who mourn or grieve or sorrow find solace in my words.

Not long after that, Jesus went to the village Nain. His disciples were with him, along with quite a large crowd. As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman’s only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, “Don’t cry.” Then he went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, “Young man, I tell you: Get up.” The dead son sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother. They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of his people!” The news of Jesus spread all through the country. (Luke 7:11-17)

We just heard about a grieving widow, whose only son died. She was beside herself with grief as her son’s body was being carried to be buried.

Burying a child is probably the worst nightmare a parent can have; the child that they birthed, nourished, watched as they explored the world, dried their tears when they fell or had disappointments.

In the time of Jesus, if a woman was a widow, it was expected that the male child would support her for the rest of her life. There was no social security for widows and orphans league, no food banks of WIC programs to support her. And now her beloved son, and only child and means of support was dead.

Jesus saw the grief in the mother’s eyes and knew what the future held for her, and took pity on her. This is one of only three raisings from the dead that Jesus performed while he was on earth: Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter and the widow’s son.

Each time Jesus chose to perform this greatest miracle, He showed his compassion for the living.

The last three weeks Karen and I have spent a large amount of time in Chicago at the side of a dear friend. On 18 May, her husband, also a dear friend, suffered a massive stroke which basically destroyed most of the left side of his brain. His right arm was useless and there was strong concern that his speech and comprehension was significantly disabled. Rick was a musician, one of the old kind who specialized in folk music, a fantastic guitarist, singer and banjo player. He was known in the Chicago area as well as regionally for his concerts and various duos and ensembles. And now, if he survived, that would all be gone. His life would probably consist of a life in wheelchair in a semi-vegetative state. We needed to make a decisions whether to save the BODY through surgery or put the destiny of the MAN Henri had loved for over twenty years in the hands of God.

We can all hope and pray that we never have to make that decision about someone we love.
After many tears and praying and discussion with friends, the decision was made to put it in God’s hands.

You see, Rick had never been a very religious man until the past few years. Henrietta was active in a local Lutheran church and slowly Rick became involved and a vibrant member of that community. He had joined the believers. So, we and he knew that death was not the end, but the beginning.

It was an excruciating two weeks, staying by his bedside in hospice, making sure that he was comfortable, watching the body go through the changes leading to death. A community of friends were there, supporting as they could, but that could not take away the pain, the self-doubt at stopping medical intervention, the sadness for Rick’s future and the loss of his vibrant and creative life to the world.

Rick’s soul left this earthly plane last Sunday, while Karen was in Chicago with Henrietta and I was preaching at Saint John’s Worthington.

Unlike the widow of Nain, there was no Jesus raising Rick from the dead –

or was there?

We are promised that if we love Jesus, we are saved by the grace of God, that we are all welcomed into the heavenly kingdom.

We believe that, as Jesus promised, those of us who believe and follow the path of Jesus are raised from the dead! We are promised in John 14:2

In my father’s house are many rooms. . . I am going there to prepare a place for you . . . that where I am, there you may be also

And so we know, although Rick is not walking with us here on earth, he has risen to a greater kingdom and will be there to greet each of us when our time comes.

We will still mourn and grieve for Rick for the rest of our lives; that will not change with the knowledge that he is in a better place. But even today, we know that he is still alive in our hearts and memories: his songs, his jokes, his smile and twinkling eyes, his openness and love to all he met.

And always will be.

The man that we knew and loved as a vibrant musician, wonderful friend and devoted husband is in our hearts. And he is whole and vital and strumming and plucking in the Kingdom we can only dream of.

He has risen.

And as each of us struggles with the certain reality of death – our own or of those we love – we can and must trust that what Jesus promised is true and that this time on earth is a wonderful, complex, changing joyful time of sharing and learning in return for our humanity; in preparation for our return to our Heavenly Father in eternal life hereafter. Amen.
 
 
Delivered at Saint Philip Episcopal Church, Circleville, OH 9 June 2013