Ask God for what you need, trust it will be given, and be ready to be a part of God’s answer.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
All Saints Sunday, year B
Texts: John 11:(17, 30-31) 32-44; Isaiah 25:6-9
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
“If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died.”
Mary has a valid point. Jesus, her teacher, friend, master, healed people all the time. If he hadn’t dithered and come late, he could have saved her brother’s life. Martha’s already said this to Jesus.
“If you had been here.” So much anger can fill those words. So much pain. So much sadness. If only God would show up and end the suffering of our lives, our nation, our world. A world where the stink of death and the bitter smell of hatred pervade. Where people live under horrible oppression and suffering. Where we’re hoping and praying and working so that we don’t lose our democracy this week. Even if we don’t, there’s so much to be done, so many things to heal and change, starting with ourselves and including all the pain of this world.
If you were here, God, none of this would have to happen.
And Isaiah isn’t helpful, promising hope in future days to come.
In those days, the shroud of death that covers the world will be torn away, death will be swallowed up, and a feast for all people will be held. Then, Isaiah says, then we’ll sing for joy: “this is the God for whom we have waited, so God would save us. Let’s be glad and rejoice in God’s salvation.”
But how is that helpful? It’s a blessing today as we celebrate our beloved saints who have died and now are with God in the life to come. We rejoice they’re living in that hope and truth of God’s new life.
But is that the only answer we have, just wait? It’ll all be good in the sweet by and by? Martha at least rejects that argument. When just before this reading, Jesus says her brother will live, she almost dismissively says, “I know he’ll live in the resurrection.” It’s as if she’s saying, “don’t bother me with that old promise. I needed you now. He needed you now.”
You probably expect I’ll say now what I always say, “God comes to the world in you and in me.”
And maybe in the face of what our nation is going through right now, you’re tempted to share Martha’s disdain and say, “don’t give me that tired old song. We need God here now, in ways we can see and know. Too much is at stake. If God were here, everything could change.
And you’d have a point. If the Triune God who made all things truly loves all things, why wouldn’t God just fix what’s not right, end oppression and injustice, stop the wars, make all things new right now? It seems a reasonable thing to ask of any god worthy of that title.
But have you considered what that would mean?
If God wanted to stop the war in Gaza, how would God do that? Force Netanyahu and Hamas to change? Or just take out the top leadership on both sides and let the vast majority of the people on both sides who want peace and hope find their way? God could make all weapons of war vanish everywhere. That would help.
And if God was going to make all things right in our country, just how would God do that? Force those who hate to stop hating? How would that work? Would they be punished? Their minds wiped? Or do you want God to make sure the election goes a certain way? Again, how would God do that? Take over the minds of voters on one side?
Are any of these solutions even tolerable to consider? Do you want to live in a world where the God of Creation uses power and strength to force things a certain way? Maybe if it’s other people being forced. But what if God decides that the reason we have poverty and hunger and economic disparity is that you have too much, along with a bunch of others, and God just takes it away by force?
We’re not talking about a miracle that ends a brother’s deadly disease. When we long for God to come and make things right, we’re talking about massive problems. And the only way they can really be fixed is the way God decided to use.
This is what the sisters don’t yet realize: For Jesus to be Messiah, as Martha has said he is, he’ll have to set aside power for the sake of love.
It will soon lead to his death. But the way God chooses to be with us is to come in love. A love willing to lose everything for the sake of that love. Because – and this is a huge risk for the Triune God but it’s the only way that makes any sense – because if God comes to us in person in love, God can call us into that love ourselves. God can change our hearts with that love so that we are loving. Not forcing us into God’s way. Loving and inviting us into God’s way.
This is the way of the cross, but it’s also the only way God can see to really heal this world. To really change the way people live with each other and care for this planet. By loving them into it. And risking that they’ll reject that love and keep hating and destroying and oppressing. But God trusts that if enough are changed into God’s love, they can make a difference, because even small acts of love can make ripples that ultimately change great things.
So it’s not a tired old song to say “God is already here, in you, and in me.”
It’s the only reason to have any hope. Wars will be stopped when people embody God’s love for all instead of focusing only on their need to be right and in charge. Oppression will end when people embody God’s love and risk their comfort and security to let go of things that cause that oppression and work together to make a world where all people can live in hope and in peace. Where strangers are welcomed as family, and the vulnerable are protected and cared for by all. Where violence and hatred become the tired old songs, the relics of a bygone era, and everyone sees the face of God in everyone else.
It’s funny that the easiest part of faith seems to be to trust that our loved ones who have died are in God’s life in the world to come.
That’s our joy and our hope. The hard thing seems to be seeing that God’s answer to “if you had been here, none of this would have happened” is to say, “I am here – in all of you.” And then to trust that God is and will keep on working in you and me and people of goodwill and people of all faiths and people of no faith, to bring love and healing to this world. Changing one person at a time, until all know this healing.
And remember, Jesus said today, “Didn’t I tell you that if you trusted me, you would see the glory of God?” What if we tried trusting God and this plan, trusting the Triune God’s love to change us and the world? What glory might we begin to see, even here, even now?
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
