Worship for the week of March 26, 2023
Let us worship!
Out of the depths I cry to you, O God.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.
O Isreal, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.
—Psalm 120:1, 5-7
A prayer to center you
Listening God,
You hear our deepest cries
And feel our sharpest pains,
When our bodies feel as though we have turned to nothing but dust, you call our rattling bones back together.
When we feel as though we can go no farther, that there is no life left in us, you call us from the darkness of our deep tomb and offer us breath, and life and spirit.
May your living Spirit descend upon us now,
May you fill us with life and hope
May you the graves of pain and suffering,
Hurt and sorrow, be opened that we may step into your light.
Place your Spirit within us and revive us once again.
Amen
Scripture to Ponder
John
Chapter 11
Verses 17 through 52
From The Message Translation
A note before the reading: before these verses, Jesus has been told that Lazarus was ill. Lazarus’ sisters, Mary and Martha, have sent word to Jesus and asked for him to come. Jesus does not leave to go Lazarus immediately, but waits two days before beginning the two day trip to Bethany, where Lazarus has died.
17-20 When Jesus finally got there, he found Lazarus already four days dead. Bethany was near Jerusalem, only a couple of miles away, and many of the Jews were visiting Martha and Mary, sympathizing with them over their brother. Martha heard Jesus was coming and went out to meet him. Mary remained in the house.
21-22 Martha said, “Master, if you’d been here, my brother wouldn’t have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask God he will give you.”
23 Jesus said, “Your brother will be raised up.”
24 Martha replied, “I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.”
25-26 “You don’t have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?”
27 “Yes, Master. All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.”
28 After saying this, she went to her sister Mary and whispered in her ear, “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.”
29-32 The moment she heard that, she jumped up and ran out to him. Jesus had not yet entered the town but was still at the place where Martha had met him. When her sympathizing Jewish friends saw Mary run off, they followed her, thinking she was on her way to the tomb to weep there. Mary came to where Jesus was waiting and fell at his feet, saying, “Master, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33-34 When Jesus saw her sobbing and the Jews with her sobbing, a deep anger welled up within him. He said, “Where did you put him?”
34-35 “Master, come and see,” they said. Now Jesus wept.
36 The Jews said, “Look how deeply he loved him.”
37 Others among them said, “Well, if he loved him so much, why didn’t he do something to keep him from dying? After all, he opened the eyes of a blind man.”
38-39 Then Jesus, the anger again welling up within him, arrived at the tomb. It was a simple cave in the hillside with a slab of stone laid against it. Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
The sister of the dead man, Martha, said, “Master, by this time there’s a stench. He’s been dead four days!”
40 Jesus looked her in the eye. “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
+41-42 Then, to the others, “Go ahead, take away the stone.”
They removed the stone. Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father, I’m grateful that you have listened to me. I know you always do listen, but on account of this crowd standing here I’ve spoken so that they might believe that you sent me.”
43-44 Then he shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And he came out, a cadaver, wrapped from head to toe, and with a kerchief over his face.
Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him loose.”
The Man Who Creates God-Signs
45-48 That was a turning point for many of the Jews who were with Mary. They saw what Jesus did, and believed in him. But some went back to the Pharisees and told on Jesus. The high priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish ruling body. “What do we do now?” they asked. “This man keeps on doing things, creating God-signs. If we let him go on, pretty soon everyone will be believing in him and the Romans will come and remove what little power and privilege we still have.”
49-52 Then one of them—it was Caiaphas, the designated Chief Priest that year—spoke up, “Don’t you know anything? Can’t you see that it’s to our advantage that one man dies for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed?” He didn’t say this of his own accord, but as Chief Priest that year he unwittingly prophesied that Jesus was about to die sacrificially for the nation, and not only for the nation but so that all God’s exile-scattered children might be gathered together into one people.
53-54 From that day on, they plotted to kill him.
Reflection: step into the light
Jesus as healed turned water into wine. He has told a Samaritan woman her life story without having ever met her before. He has given a man born blind his sight. Here, in this Scripture, we are told that Jesus has received news that his dear friend, the one whom he loves, is sick, and Jesus waits. Why does Jesus wait? We will never know. But he does. By the time Jesus arrives Lazarus is not only dead, but dead and buried, placed in a tomb, a stone rolled across it.
We cannot help but hear in this stories the echoes of what is to come. A man buried in a tomb, the stone rolled over it, the man alive again, a resurrection. Maybe Jeus waits until Lazarus is buried to test those around him to see where their faith is? If that is the case the people fail miserably. They doubt Jesus every step of the way. “If you had only been here, he would not have died” they cry out. They have seen the miracles that he has preformed. They have been with him along the journey, and yet they continue to doubt him. How then when they handle Jesus’ own death? How will the believe what is yet to come if they cannot believe this?
Maybe all of this is why Jesus weeps from frustration and pain. He has shown them all that he is and they still do not see. They still walk in darkness. Maybe Jesus weeps because the people still live in the darkness and cannot see the very light that is before them.
Yet, Jesus still calls into the tomb, ‘Lazarus come out‘. In the middle of doubt, sorrow and darkness, Jesus speaks and the dry bones rise.
How often do we fill as though we are in a deep cave of grief, sorrow, hurt and pain? How often do we doubt and not believe when we are surrounded by a world that feels as though it has light, no joy, no life? Yet Jesus calls us from the dark tomb, as he called Lazarus. Jesus calls us to him, unwraps us from the things that bind us, and Jesus sets us free, if we just listen to his voice calling to us in the darkness, ‘come out"‘.
Let us step out of the dark caves of grief, sorrow and hurt and into the light to be set free.
The Word in Action…
What binds you and keeps you in a feeling of darkness?
Where or what helps you hear God calling to you to step into the light?
Challenge: on a sunning day this week, step outside for a few minutes and feel the warmth of the sunshine. Say a little prayer of thanks to God for the warm and the light. Listen for a few moments of God’s voice.
Prayer of sending
As we go from this time,
precious God,
Call to hearts and help us to hear
Unbind us for all that holds us back
from that hurts and harms us
call to those who are far in the depths of dispear
that they may hear your voice and draw near to you.
Help us to be faithful even the midst of a broken world
help us to trust that when feel overwhelmed, you weep with us.
hear our prayer o God.
Amen
Going out.
Be faithful in a little, that you may also be found faithful in much.
Be faithful in much, that you may be entrusted with the true riches that come from above.
Go to be faithful children of light,
And come to know the deep grace, hope and peace of the one who is truly faithful at all times.
Let all God’s people say: AMEN
