Fifth Sunday of Lent: Sermon
based on the Raising of Lazarus
It’s right up there
with Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…”
the saying I want to speak about this morning is “with God… all things are
possible.” It’s a great saying and we hear it quite regularly, with God… all
things are possible.
But do we really
believe it? Do we trust that God holds
all things in His hands and that when we walk with God all things are possible? Can a camel really fit through the eye of a
needle… Jesus says with God all things
are possible. Can a rich man really be
saved…. Jesus says that with God all things are possible. Can we take this saying with us to the
bank? Will it deliver for us?
Some of the folks who
have gathered outside of Lazarus tomb—are having a hard time believing it there
friend has died- he’s stone cold dead. They are having a hard time believing that with
God all things are possible. Mary towards the end of the passage runs up to Jesus-
throws herself at his knees- if you had only you had been here- Lazarus
wouldn’t have died. Yes Jesus could have
healed, but now that death has come that’s too big a match for even Jesus, for
even God to deal with.
The crowd that has
followed Mary are scowling—“ certainly if he opened the eyes of the man born
blind --could he not have saved Lazarus
from dying?
But now that Lazarus is
dead, now that the stone has been rolled in front of the tomb- now that it’s
been four days since his heart stopped beating-since—the door has closed the
door on any possibility.
Even Martha can’t
believe it --- I had some hope for Martha early on in the passage– Remember
what she says --“Lord I know that
anything you ask the Father will give to you”--- but when the rubber hits the
road- when Jesus says roll back the stone-- Martha pauses for a moment, her faith waivers
“Uh, Uh Jesus its been
four days and if we roll back the stone the stench is going to be pretty bad”
Does she really believe
that with God all things are possible?
But Jesus believes—with
God all thing are possible. In a scene
fit for Hollywood- Jesus in his deepest, most commanding voice orders Lazarus
from the tomb- I imagine that in his voice was embodied all the power all the
belief that with God all things are possible.
“Lazarus come out.”
The Prophet Ezekiel
believes it- he prophesies over the valley of the dead and very dry bones. As
the word escape his lip God’s spirit sweeps into the valley and the bones begin
to rattle and shake- bone connects to bone, sinew upon sinew and God raises
these bones to new life.
With God all things are
possible
But can we believe
this? Are all things possible?
Next Saturday, we are
gathering our kids club to bake cookies, the cookies will then be sold on Palm
Sunday during Souper Sunday to support Flora Dorillas, the orphan the church
school sponsors through the Haiti Micah Project. As part of the morning we are going to watch
a ten minute documentary about life in Haiti. I am hoping that by showing the kids this
documentary they will have a better sense of what life is like for Flora
Dorillas.
The documentary we will
show the kids revolves around the life of a woman named Tea Rose. Tea Rose in
her forties is raising six children in a rural mountain village in Haiti. The picture that Tea paints is bleak with not
a lot to celebrate- Tea tells of not
having enough food to feed her family- she say that most days they have but one
meal, she speaks about the spring where she goes with her buckets to get water-
she says that sometimes the spring
becomes contaminated and her children get sick with diarrhea. She talks about has no money to go to the
doctor- And finally She tells the sad
story of how both her husband and one of her children dying because she didn’t have
any money for medical care.
The documentary speaks
about life in Haiti being hard, cruel and unjust.
But then something amazing
happens at the end of the documentary. Although
Tea has a life you and I could never imagine-- she speaks of the joy her
children bring and she speaks of the joy she has found in knowing Jesus.
And then she says it-- with
a smile from ear to ear with God all things are possible. It’s her anchor- its
gets her through those tough days when all she can think about is her gnawing
pain her belly- it gets her through the days when she doesn’t have medicine she
needs to treat her children’s diarrhea.
Here is a woman who has
every reason to doubt, to be cynical to shake her fist at God yet after all the
hardship and tragedy she is still able to anchor herself to that saying with
God all things are possible.
Can we believe it
though with all that is swirling around in our lives?
I think Jesus
challenges us to believe it.
What would it look like
if when we are challenged to do something outside our comfort zones- we adopted
the thought ---with God all things are possible?
What if when asked to
do something that we don’t think we have the skills for we adopted the thought with God all things are possible?
What if when asked to
love the un-loveable, to forgive the unforgivable --what if we approached those
situations with the thought I might not be able to do this under my own
volition, but with God all things are possible?
With God a camel can
fit through the very eye of a needle. With God a woman in the mountains of
Haiti can face the suffering and tragedy of Poverty with joy.
I wonder what you and I,
I wonder what God can do through us when we anchor ourselves to that saying that
with God all things are possible.
I don’t think that God
is much for gambling- but today I think God is inviting us to put all our chips
down and Take a chance- believe it ---- because something amazing just might
happen- when the stone is rolled away- Lazarus just might come out.
With God all things are
possible.
No comments:
Post a Comment