Come Out and Live!
All Saints Sunday, John 11:32-44 with Isaiah 25:6-9 and Revelation 21:1-6a in b.g.
Have you ever wondered why, in North America, especially on the west coast of Canada fewer and fewer people attend church or have any desire to be part of a church?
I have spent a good part of the last 20 years not only wondering about that – but in some ways trying to reverse that.
There are many reasons for people leaving or not having any desire to be members of churches. Some say that there is too much hypocrisy in the church. Others say that there is too much scandal. And still others say that the continuing erosion of "long held" values and the church's inability to change that, is leading to the demise of the church. Finally, others boldly state that the church is irrelevant.
There is some measure of truth in all these claims. There is hypocrisy within the church. Part of our call as Christ's followers is to advocate for and feed the poor and hungry. To be sure we do some of that – we open and run cold weather shelters, we are part of coalitions that work for the protection of the land especially lands of peoples who experience limits in protecting themselves. We coordinate with other non-governmental organizations on the ground before and after disasters strike, with both development and relief. But at the same time we are generally unwilling to give up or reduce the numbers of our beautiful buildings or ensure that our pension plans are all climate friendly. We continue to spend large percentages of our budgets on ourselves. We need God's help to be changed from the inside out. Nevertheless I am convinced that there is always room in the church for at least one more hypocrite.
In terms of scandal, the church has had more than our fair share, from time immemorial. Judas was rumoured to have had his hand in the church's treasury jar. More recently, some ministers pastors and priests have engaged in sexual behavior that has done immeasurable damage to others, themselves and the church. Sadly, there have been attempts to cover that up it or minimize it. All of this must stop. It is past time to admit, to confess our culpability, to get help for the victims and the perpetrators, to fire those responsible and in as much as possible, without further damaging the victims, to be transparent. We can and must change. I do see some progress. Yet it can and must be accelerated.
In terms of the erosion of "old, traditional" values, it is true that the church is changing. Part of the reason for this is that the world is continually changing. If we are to speak or proclaim God's Word into the reality of the world we always need to find new words, new music, and new metaphors. It has ever been so. That's why in the 16th century Luther went to the pubs, heard their music and adapted it for use in the church.
But some say that God doesn't change. That's an entirely different discussion. The universe continues to expand and change...
In any case, the two great commandments of the First and the Second testaments remain. Some manifestations of these commandments are lived out in many other world religions. Love God with everything we have and are. Love our neighbors as ourselves.
Love, not like! Love: work for the well being of others by honoring and respecting them. This is also loving God.
Finally, perhaps the most daunting claim of those who have opted out or don't wish to be part of a church – their claim that the church is itself now irrelevant. When we are timid, lacking faith in God and simply try to fit in with the predominant culture, we are indeed irrelevant! Or, when we get our backs up and want to keep things the way they were for about the last 60-70 years or even the last 500 years, or when we think in limited terms of a 3 tiered universe – heaven, earth and hell - we are for many people, especially young people, totally irrelevant. Or, when we understand "being Christian" as having the primary aim of getting us out of "here" – with images of we Christians being delivered from an imagined fiery inferno and total chaos while all the 'rest" are left behind – well many will rightfully understand us as being thankfully, irrelevant.
In responding to such claims let me ask this – both of ourselves and of any who think or feel that God or Jesus and the church, his "body" that Jesus calls into being, is irrelevant now: how does one deal with the powers of evil and death? Surely, they are not irrelevant!
What is there outside of God's action independently as well as in and through people, that has the power to literally change hearts, minds and wills, individually and collectively? Who else can give human beings the courage to love our enemies, to face death and work against it, without fear?
Many parts of our culture attempt to deny the power that evil and death have around and upon us. Have you noticed this? Often we no longer bury dead people. We do everything within our power try to not use the "d" words – dead, dying. We think or act as if we refuse to speak the "word" that it will not visit us. So, we employ euphemisms like "passed". The military issues press releases with words like "collateral damage" when in fact civilians have been killed.
Nor are we willing to own the reality of the stench and pain of death. Now when people have "passed" we have "celebrations of life". But when people go home after their loved one has died – they experience great pain. It is called mourning the death of a loved one. Death is as universal now as it has ever been. Many things do change – but death still comes.
Nor is death solitary. Death brings with it his/her brothers and sisters – hatred, fear, violence, arising within our hearts. Who has the capacity to take these on, not only to incarcerate them, but to transform them? Who can lead us and others – to a different way of living now and in the future?
Listen in to Mary and Martha. In many ways we are them. Lord, why didn't you do something to prevent my brother's death? Why don't you do something now? Why don't you do what I want and need?
Watch they and their brother, Lazarus, as the text unfolds. God is doing something! Jesus comes to Lazarus' place – that place of death. Jesus, God in the Flesh, God's Word TO and FOR US AND THIS WORLD, weeps with Mary and Martha because of Lazarus' death. Yet Jesus does not only weep. Jesus is angry at the power of death and the lack of trust, among those who have been with him for some time.
Now Jesus confronts the power of death. He raises his voice demanding that Lazarus be freed from that place and experience of death to new life. Lazarus is moved, being raised from death to life. His body may still have stunk. He was still encased in his grave clothes. But Lazarus' death is overcome not by the economy, nor by slick advertising nor even by wonderful hikes in God's grand creation. Instead, Lazarus' death is overcome by Jesus, God in the flesh, who amazingly and miraculously responds to our mortality, vulnerability, questions, anger, disobedience & anxiety by coming to us and for us, himself.
After raising his voice and commanding Lazarus to "come out" Jesus gives those present the task of removing Lazarus' grave clothes.
Even now God continues to move into places where death seeks to control and hold sway. I am convinced that God in Jesus moves into Syria demanding that those who are caught up by death be delivered, freed from that death and evil. And God continues to call us and others to help those people get out of those things that bind them to evil and death.
God in Jesus calls us wherever we are, with whatever skills we have, to overcome our fear and anxiety, to proclaim in word and deed the love, mercy and power of God in Jesus Christ. We are called to live right where we are with this God-given sense of honesty, freedom and hope.
So, do not deny the power of death. Instead, because of Christ, face death and all of death's relatives with the hope, love, power and grace of God manifested in Christ. In these ways we can and do defy death.
Perhaps the primary reason that people aren't coming to church is that often they don't see, or hear people who are so living, honestly but with love, hope and grace in the face of all that is. By God's grace we can change that.
On this All Saints Day give thanks for those who have gone before us in the faith. They are the saints of God made holy not because they were perfect but because God called them through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and joined them to Christ's body. At the same time, may we also be God's people sharing the light of Christ in our lives where we are. For that light has, can and does change the world.
Even now Jesus calls to us, to come out and live! Amen.