Try not! Come Out! There is No Try!

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 11th Chapter

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 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 upward 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.”

On THIS mountain!  THIS one… RIGHT HERE… not somewhere else, off in some far off heaven in the sweet by and by.  NO!  Right here on THIS, 209 Eastern Avenue mountain, the Lord of Hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines!  And because nobody believes it right away, the prophet says it AGAIN!  This is YOUR FEAST!  A feast of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear!  THAT is my favorite image of the Kingdom of God and THAT is what we have been given.  It is a gift of abundance, not scarcity… it’s a gift of plenty, more than enough to share, not one so rare we need to keep it to ourselves… it is a gift which is ours in Christ.  It’s a done deal.  It’s ours… a gift for the guilty, not a reward for the righteous.   

But sometimes, even though that abundant, rich and plentiful gift of light and life is ours, given to us like a present wrapped and placed right there in front of our eyes… sometimes it can be almost impossible to see.  Mary and Martha were in that kind of a spot.  Jesus, the Christ, the source of all light and life was standing right there among them.  But they just couldn’t see the light, because of the darkness the death of their brother Lazarus brought and the sense of betrayal they felt… LORD… if ONLY you had been here. 

There’s a song that powerfully communicates that sort of darkness.  In New Orleans it’s often played at a funeral, and as the friends and family carry the casket through the streets to the cemetery, it’s played as a slow and mournful dirge, in a way that embraces that hurt… acknowledges that darkness… honors the pain of that loss in a way stronger than words alone can convey.  The song rings true because it doesn’t shy away from the overwhelming pain and loss we feel at times in this life… the times when it feels like the end times… times when the sun refuses to shine and the moon turns red with blood…

And when the sun, refuse to shine

And when the sun refuse to shine,

O Lord, I want to be in that number,

When the saints go marchin’ in

And when the moon, turns red with blood

And when the moon turns red with blood

O Lord, I want to be in that number

When the saints go marchin’ in

Their brother Lazarus was dead.  He lay in the tomb, past the time where there could be any hope left, past the time there was any going back, past the time there was anything else to be done.  There he was, and as the King James Version says, “He Stinketh!”  And the whole situation Stinketh!  How had it come to this?  Why had God let this happen?  Why had Jesus stayed away?  Why had Lazarus died?  LORD, if only you had been here! 

And standing there before the tomb, Jesus wept.  Jesus wept, for the people he loved, who were in such pain and anguish.  Jesus wept for the people he loved who still could not see that in him, standing right there in front of them, was the light and the life they were so deeply longing for.  Jesus wept, because the feast… the FEAST of rich food and well aged wine strained clear was set for them… IN HIM, and yet they stood there starving to death! 

I need an acolyte.  Now, I want you to try to take this bottle out of my hand.  Go on… try.  OK, now stop.  Now… stop trying and just do it.  Take the bottle. 

Bernie Roth of Standford’s design school does this exercise with his students to demonstrate a deep truth.  A subtle excuse lies in the idea of “trying.”  It’s as if today is for some vague half hearted attempt but the real action will happen in some future moment.  But as Master Yoda says, “NO!  Try not!  Do or do not.  There is no try.”

Our Master knows that same truth.  Look at what Jesus does next… he doesn’t say, “Lazarus, I’d like you to try to come out.”  “Lazarus, when you feel comfortable… when things seem to not be so strange and odd and uncertain… when things “Stinketh” a bit less, would you consider coming out?”  NO!  Jesus tells Lazarus, “COME OUT!” 

Today, all four churches are together, but I know it's not all in joy.  We’re gathered in a jumble of emotions and feelings.  In a real way we’re gathered like Lazarus… inside a tomb, and wrapped tightly with so much change and transition, conflict and uncertainty… and well… it STINKETH!  We’re wrapped with all that was built by generations past… the wonderful memories of full churches and huge endowments and powerful egos, now bound up and weighed down with guilt and fear and anger and pain… And so, Jesus weeps.  Jesus weeps with us.  Because the grief is real and the pain is deep.  And Jesus weeps FOR US, because together, God has gathered us all together here as the Body of Christ, and abundantly far more light and life than we could ever ask or imagine is RIGHT HERE… all the resources, funds, talent and creativity we need to be about God's work in this city is HERE... We're surrounded by it… we're swimming in it… and still we have a hard time seeing it.  So, Jesus weeps, because the Feast is right THERE, and still we choose to go hungry because we've forgotten the Feast, and hunger feels familiar. 

You’ll notice though, that the weeping in this passage, only lasts for a moment.  It’s the shortest verse in the Bible after all!  And then Jesus gives us a Word… Doesn't ask us... Jesus TELLS us what to do.  Come out.  Don’t try.  Don’t wait.  Don’t hedge your bet and stay wrapped in what was, bound to wallow in all that STINKETH!  Jesus says, "COME OUT!"

COME OUT!  St. Barnabas… COME OUT!  St. Matthew’s… COME OUT!  St. Mark’s… COME OUT!  Prince of Peace… COME OUT!  COME OUT, People of the 209… For the feast is set and it is time to come out into the light and LIVE!    

O when the Saints, go marchin’ in

O when the Saints go marchin’ in

O Lord, I want to be in that number,

When the Saints go marchin’ in!

And on that hallelujah day

And on that hallelujah day

O Lord, I want to be in that number

When the Saints go marchin’ in!