I AM the Resurrection and the Life
Jesus
wept. The shortest verse in the whole
bible, but I also think one of the most profound. God knows our pain. God has felt loss, sadness and grief. God has seen death and even with the
knowledge that death has no victory, he still saw the pain of his friends, felt
the loss of Lazarus and wept.
I think
sometimes we set pain in opposition to faith.
We assume that if we’re truly faithful we won’t experience pain. We comfort each other and are comforted with
phrases like, “Everything happens for a reason” and “It’s all part of God’s
plan” as if true faith means denying death, loss, and grief.
Often times we
are our own worst critics, convincing ourselves that we should feel a certain
way or that some feelings are okay and other are not. Today we may feel sadness and loss, we may
feel pride and joy, we may feel relief, or we may feel anger and
resentment. All of these feelings are
okay.
In the
passage, Jesus encounters all kinds of emotions in his journey to Lazarus’
tomb. Both sisters remind him that if he
had been there, Lazarus would not have died.
Martha approaches him with confidence in his rising on the last day. Mary approaches him with desperation,
kneeling at his feet. The Jews are
sorrowful but some of them are confused – “Couldn’t he have prevented
this?” And maybe we ask Jesus the same
question this morning – “Why did God let it get to this point? Couldn’t he have done something? Couldn’t he have come and prevented the
closure of our church?”
Jesus’
response to the question is “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would
see the glory of God?" which is
theologically accurate, but not emotionally satisfying. Why did Jesus chose to let Lazarus die and
whereas he healed so many other people, sparing them and their families the
pain and grief of loss. In the same way,
why did God choose to bring Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, Fort Worth, TX to a
close on October 28th, 2012 and yet seems to have performed
miraculous revitalizations in other churches.
Of course it’s for the glory of God as Jesus said, but why does our
church have to glorify God by dying while other churches get to glorify God by
growing and expanding? Sadly, we will
never know. We cannot understand the
mysteries of God’s wisdom and providence and really have no answer but to trust
God.
We
do however, know one thing: when we grieve, God grieves with us. When we lament, God laments with us. When we weep, God weeps with us. God is not an impassive, impersonal, inhuman
entity. God is not arbitrary or detached
or aloof. God sees, God feels, God knows,
and God cares. One of the most profound
differences between the triune God of the Christian religion and the God of
other world faiths is that our God suffers – not just when we hurt others, but
when we hurt.
But
even in the midst of that hurt, even as God grieves with us, he does not leave
us without hope. God offers us hope of
what might be, visions of what could be and promises of what will be, not to
deny our grief, but to offer us comfort during our grief. Jesus reminds us, saying “I am the
resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will
live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Jesus himself is the resurrection of all
things, in all times, and all places.
Not only did he raise Lazarus, not only did he raise the little girl,
not only was he himself raised, but he has raised all of us. Jesus has raised each of us out of broken
lives of fear, regret, hopelessness, and despair. Jesus has raised each of us out of our shame,
our inadequacy, and our loneliness. We
know Jesus is the resurrection because we have been resurrected. We know Jesus is the life because of the life
he has given us. We know that even
though we die, we will live because we have already died to our old selves and
been born again as new creations. We
have been raised and we live, so we know that Jesus is the resurrection and the
life.
And
so as we bid farewell to Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, we know that it too will
live. We know that Jesus’ promise of
resurrection and eternal life are not just for individuals and not just for
after we die, but are for organizations, churches, relationships, traditions,
and legacies. Jesus reminds us that he
is the resurrection and the life, not to deny our grief, but to give us a hope,
a vision, and a promise in the midst of our grief. To remind us that he is here weeping with us and
also that things aren’t over until he says they’re over and that he always gets
the last word. Jesus reminds us this
morning that he could not be stopped with a whip, he could not be stopped with
a cross, he could not be stopped with a rock, he could not be stopped with a
tomb, he could not be stopped by death, he could not be stopped by sin, he
could not be stopped by Satan himself – no, nothing in all creation can stop
him. Jesus lives and so we live and so
our church will live. Our church will
live on in the relationships we maintain, in the experiences that formed us, in
the knowledge we carry from Sunday School lessons, in the joy we shared in
fellowship events, in the comfort we offered each other at funerals, in the humility
we learned when we messed up and the grace we experienced when we were
forgiven. Our church will live on in the
$350,000 dollars we gave away to the Night Shelter and Children’s Home and
Union Gospel Mission and the Presbytery and Mo Ranch. Our church will live on in Templo as they
reach this neighborhood and bring the good news, and our church will live on in
the congregation that buys this building and continues to use it to do God’s
work and serve God’s people.
Brothers
and sisters in Christ, this is the hope, the vision, and the promise of Jesus
Christ. Oakhurst Presbyterian Church,
Fort Worth, TX, even though it dies, will live and Oakhurst Presbyterian
Church, Fort Worth, because it believes, will never die. Because Jesus is light of the world. Jesus is the bread of life. Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus is the
gate. Jesus is the vine. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And above all because Jesus is the
resurrection and the life. Brothers and
sisters in Christ, members of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church…friends…In the name
of Jesus Christ, the risen son – live.
Amen.
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To Be Continued…
Here’s how you
know you’re a dyed in the wool Presbyterian – you have favorite lines in the
Book of Order. One of my favorites was
taken out when the new Book of Order was approved, but I think it still
applies. In the section on the mission
of the church, the old Book of Order details all the different things the
church exists to do, all the ways it can help people, all the goals and reasons
that we believe God has for the church and then it ended with this paragraph:
The Church is called to undertake
this mission even at the
risk of losing its life, trusting in
God alone as the author and
giver of life, sharing the gospel,
and doing those deeds in the
world that point beyond themselves to
the new reality in Christ.
What a
challenge! The church is called to do
God’s work in the world, even at the risk of losing its own life.
Now I know your
relationship with the presbytery in the past has been shaky. You are a, shall I say “unique” church. Sometimes there has been distrust, sometimes
resentment, sometimes frustration. And
maybe I only speak for myself, but I don’t think I do when I say that we can
also add admiration. Members and friends
of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, you are to be commended and admired for taking
the challenge in the Book of Order seriously.
This time you are unique in the Presbytery for your outstanding faith
and courage: the faith and courage to dissolve a financially solvent
congregation in order to follow a vision from God in which this building, your
financial assets, and the time and talent of your people can be put to further
use in other ways and in other places.
The Book of Order called you to serve God’s mission even at the risk of
the life of the church and you have responded.
At the last supper Christ said, “No one has greater love than this, to
lay down one’s life for one’s friends” and you have shown such love. You are to be commended.
Now, of course Christ was speaking
about the coming crucifixion when he too would give his life to answer God’s
call. He too had to die in order for
God’s will to be done through him. On
Good Friday he was betrayed, arrested, tried, sentenced and executed and in the
gospel of Mark in the passage we just read, we hear the story of what happened
on Sunday. The women came to the tomb
and found the stone had already been rolled back. A young man in a white robe was sitting in
the tomb and told them that he had been raised and had gone ahead to Galilee. And the last line of the gospel’s original
ending reads: “So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and
amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were
afraid.” That’s it. No resurrection appearances, no ascension
into heaven, no great commission. Mark
does not have a happy ending, no “fade to black and roll credits”, no “happily
ever after.” Instead, Mark ends his
gospel with a “To be continued…” He is
challenging us, the reader, the disciple, the Christian to finish the story
with our own lives. Mark is asking us,
“Do you believe Christ lives on?” “Do
you believe the story continues?” “Do
you believe the work of Christ is still being done today?” “Do you believe we are forever called to
proclaim in word and deed the legacy of Jesus Christ?” And so as we say goodbye to Oakhurst
Presbyterian Church, I, like Mark, do not see today as an ending, happy or sad,
but as a “to be continued...” and I challenge us all with the same questions:
“Do you believe the Oakhurst Presbyterian Church lives on?” “Do you believe that the story
continues?” “Do you believe the work of
Oakhurst Presbyterian Church is still being done today and will still be done
tomorrow and next week and as long as we are all still serving God?” “Do you believe that we are forever called to
proclaim in word and deed the legacy of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church?”
Brothers and
sisters in Christ, friends and members of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church – the
gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were only the beginning of the
story. We know that Christ was raised,
we know that the Holy Spirit descended, we know that the Body of Christ has
grown and spread and proclaimed and ministered and we know that God lives and
God’s mission goes on. Rome could not
stop it, Judas could not stop it, a cross could not stop it, a tomb could not
stop it, a stone could not stop, death could not stop it, sin could not stop it,
and hell itself could not stop it. God’s
mission lives.
As we go forward
and grieve the loss of our beloved congregation and plug into new congregations,
we will be faced with a choice. Like the
women at the tomb, we have the choice to say nothing to anyone because we are
afraid – afraid of change, afraid of new people, afraid of abandonment, afraid
of rejection. We can let this be the end
of the Oakhurst story and we can say “They lived sadly ever after.” Or we have the choice to proclaim the good
things God has done in our lives and in our world through the legacy of
Oakhurst Presbyterian Church. We can
take what makes Oakhurst, Oakhurst and we can carry it into new places with new
people to serve in new ways and make lives new.
We have the choice to make today a “to be continued…” and to write the
rest of the story with the way that we, the member of Oakhurst Presbyterian
Church, Fort Worth, TX continue to serve the living God, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. So, just as the young man in
white challenged the women at the tomb, I challenge you today: “Do not be
alarmed; you are looking for Oakhurst Presbyterian Church, which has been
dissolved. It is not here but it has
been raised. This is the place it used
to be, but go and tell everyone that it has gone on to Hurst and Arlington and
downtown and Jacksboro and Ridgelea and to Texas and the United States and the
world. There you will see Oakhurst
Presbyterian Church, just as you have been told. It is not here. It has been raised.” In the name of the risen Lord, Jesus Christ,
Amen. To be continued…
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