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I have to admit, it’s a very strange time to be alive, and I wonder how it will be remembered in the days ahead. There is certainly a greater record of human experience during this pandemic than any that has ever been. One of my favorites is the idea that in a decade or so there will be an American Girl Doll telling the story.
For those that don’t know the brand, American Girl dolls represent stories from different time periods. They have clothes and accessories that tell the story, and sometimes they even come with a movie that tells their story. Well, the joke is that in 25 years there’s gonna be an American Girl doll who lived through the coronavirus pandemic and her $86 accessories will be a little Nintendo Switch, a tiny thing of Clorox wipes and fake bread that she learned to bake herself from a YouTube video.
This disease is no joke, though, and it’s pretty much disrupted everything that we are used to. That’s why it’s so important to stay resilient, hold onto the patterns of life that we can, and maybe even create some new ones. This past week, we’ve been trying to do our part in the church. Susan has posted daily prayers for morning and noon. I’ve been sharing videos for the kids of our butterflies as they grow, offering an online storytime in the evening, and also offering a time of reflective prayer.
I’ve also seen church members posting videos about staying positive, using the time we’ve been given to prepare for what’s next, and encouraging others to do what we can when we can. There’s a small core keeping Meals on Wheels going – with appropriate precautions – for the elderly. There are a few others sewing masks for health care workers. Those who can work from home are doing their part to keep the economy rolling.
Apparently all of us who have children are now homeschooling. Many of our teachers are putting resources online, even though they don’t really count because there’s no way to make sure that everyone has access.
All in all, it’s just a weird time, and people are starting to do what they always do. First they blame each other, then they blame God. Next, they begin to speak for God, and then they begin to condemn others for their beliefs about God. All of us, in some form or another, are reacting to the question of Mary and Martha, “Where were you when we needed you most?”
In the story, we know that Jesus cannot be everywhere at once, even if he is God in human form. Being God in human form means that the limitless One has chosen to be limited. Perhaps that’s part of Jesus’s lament over Lazarus’s death. Perhaps, as a man, Jesus realized that demonstrating faith means accepting loss.
His tears matter, because without them, there is no recognition of the loss. Without his tears and lament, Lazerus and those who love him – including Jesus – are made into a sitcom with easy resolutions and a laugh track. Instead, the loss lets us know how real faith works.
I wish that meant that real faith restored the dead for those who are suffering around the world from this deadly disease, but it doesn’t. I wish that we could pray away all of our troubles, whether they are emotional, physical, financial, or psychological, but we can’t.
Apparently all of us who have children are now homeschooling. Many of our teachers are putting resources online, even though they don’t really count because there’s no way to make sure that everyone has access.
All in all, it’s just a weird time, and people are starting to do what they always do. First they blame each other, then they blame God. Next, they begin to speak for God, and then they begin to condemn others for their beliefs about God. All of us, in some form or another, are reacting to the question of Mary and Martha, “Where were you when we needed you most?”
In the story, we know that Jesus cannot be everywhere at once, even if he is God in human form. Being God in human form means that the limitless One has chosen to be limited. Perhaps that’s part of Jesus’s lament over Lazarus’s death. Perhaps, as a man, Jesus realized that demonstrating faith means accepting loss.
His tears matter, because without them, there is no recognition of the loss. Without his tears and lament, Lazerus and those who love him – including Jesus – are made into a sitcom with easy resolutions and a laugh track. Instead, the loss lets us know how real faith works.
I wish that meant that real faith restored the dead for those who are suffering around the world from this deadly disease, but it doesn’t. I wish that we could pray away all of our troubles, whether they are emotional, physical, financial, or psychological, but we can’t.
What we can do is pray our way through them. What we can expect is for God to care and even weep with us and for us. What we can do is recognize that our faith in the midst of trials is a testimony to the God who suffers with us and for us and provides a way through the wilderness every time!
For Lazerus, it was a way out of the tomb. It was a way to be unbound by the cloth strips that bind the dead, and it was done, according to Jesus, to glorify God. Friends, this passage may be confusing and even confronting to us in a time where we wrestle with the intersection of faith and science, but I believe it is a passage that reminds us that even death cannot limit the love of God.
Suffering is not God’s desire for us, but even in suffering God’s love can shine like the heat from a thousand stars! It is not enough for us to say that those who are vulnerable have a way out of suffering through life after death, but it is true that we who follow Jesus can be assured that death is not the final answer!
We are still called to work toward the end of suffering, to comfort those who do suffer, to lament over the things we do or leave undone that lead to suffering, and to hold those in power accountable to the consequences of their words.
Yet, in the end, we must find sweat release and comfort in the fact that God is God and we are not, and God is active and present and moving us toward a greater end.
Bear all that in mind as you reflect on the gospel message today. I invite you to spend some time with today’s reading and with the illustration and artist’s statement provided by Lauren Wright Pittman, as you continue to consider how God might be moving us all to a greater end, even here, even now. Amen.
For Lazerus, it was a way out of the tomb. It was a way to be unbound by the cloth strips that bind the dead, and it was done, according to Jesus, to glorify God. Friends, this passage may be confusing and even confronting to us in a time where we wrestle with the intersection of faith and science, but I believe it is a passage that reminds us that even death cannot limit the love of God.
Suffering is not God’s desire for us, but even in suffering God’s love can shine like the heat from a thousand stars! It is not enough for us to say that those who are vulnerable have a way out of suffering through life after death, but it is true that we who follow Jesus can be assured that death is not the final answer!
We are still called to work toward the end of suffering, to comfort those who do suffer, to lament over the things we do or leave undone that lead to suffering, and to hold those in power accountable to the consequences of their words.
Yet, in the end, we must find sweat release and comfort in the fact that God is God and we are not, and God is active and present and moving us toward a greater end.
Bear all that in mind as you reflect on the gospel message today. I invite you to spend some time with today’s reading and with the illustration and artist’s statement provided by Lauren Wright Pittman, as you continue to consider how God might be moving us all to a greater end, even here, even now. Amen.
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