Christ comes to us where we are, as we are, and walks with us on our path of faith, even in, especially in, our times when the evidence for faith is hard to find. And we find life and hope.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
   The Fifth Sunday in Lent, year A
   Text: John 11:1-45

Note: Only verses 1-39 were read at the Gospel, ending with: “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.’” During the sermon, where noted, 39-45 were then read.

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

How can you believe enough to follow when your hope is dead, lying in a grave?

When you have to face the awful truth that your beloved brother now smells because he’s been dead for four days?

Martha and Mary have believed in their friend and rabbi, Jesus. But Lazarus is dead, and Jesus is absent, showing up four days too late. There’s nothing to be done now. Thomas thinks Jesus is heading to certain death, and no one can stop him.

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” the writer of Hebrews says. (11:1) But how can you believe in Christ Jesus as God’s life for you when you have no hope, and all you do see brings you fear or anger or grief? This is our story, too.

How can you believe enough to follow when you’re so afraid of what’s coming?

Jesus has decided to go south from Galilee to Bethany, but apparently not to rescue his friend Lazarus; Lazarus is dead. And Jesus has received death threats from the religious leaders in the south, in Jerusalem. The disciples try to stop him, but Jesus is determined.

Thomas is as terrified as the others. He’s worried about his Master, uncertain about his ability to be faithful, like the rest. He fears the path ahead now that it looks like real sacrifice, even death.

Exactly like we do. We fear the cost of following Christ. Maybe we don’t think we’ll actually die. But there are sacrifices we’ve resisted, loss of convenience that we hesitate to give up. There is cost to our pride, our self-will, our comfort. It’s not an easy path Christ calls us to follow, much is unknown, and that’s frightening.

But instead of giving the disciples reassurance, Jesus simply says, “Let us go.” He offers no evidence this will end well, only his courage: he’s willing to go. And Thomas picks it up. Thomas claims his faith in the midst of his fear, and stands above his more prominent peers. “Let’s go, too,” he says. “Even if we die.”

How can you believe enough to follow when you’re so angry at God you can’t see straight?

Martha was confident Jesus would come and heal Lazarus. They were his friends. But the messengers returned alone. Her brother died. They had the funeral. They wrapped him in cloths and spices and ointments. And Martha seethed.

When Jesus showed up, four days after the funeral, she ran out of town to meet him on the road in her anger. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died,” she screamed. She held nothing back. God had failed her, and she was angry.

Exactly like we can be. We can rage at God that a friend is dying and nothing can stop it. We can be furious that injustice happens all over the world and God seems to do nothing. We even get angry that Christ calls us to deeper change when we think we’ve done a lot already.

But instead of defending himself to Martha, and without promising to make it right, Jesus stands there and takes her rage. He lets her work out with her words what she feels and believes, without judgment. Then he quietly asks her if she believes he is resurrection life now. Not just at the end time. Now. And Martha realizes she still trusts Jesus with her life.

How can you believe enough to follow when your sadness and grief drown you?

Mary is so unlike her verbal sister. But she feels pain just as deeply. Her grief at Lazarus’ death, at Jesus’ betrayal, knows no bounds.

When Jesus finally came, she couldn’t move. Her tears were drowning her life. When Martha came back, an hour after storming out of the house, and said the Teacher was asking for her, that got her on her feet.

Mary didn’t know what Jesus would say, what excuses he would make. None would help. She could barely get out the words, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,” before dissolving into tears. She had nothing to offer except her grief and confusion.

Exactly like us. We, too, have stood at the graves of loved ones with nothing but sadness and pain. We see the suffering of so many children and vulnerable people in this world, in our city, and can only weep. Our grief at our losses, our sadness at the pain of others, sometimes overwhelms us.

To Mary’s surprise, Jesus said nothing. She looked up, and saw that he was crying, too, beginning to sob. She expected teaching, reasons, wisdom from God, what Jesus always gave her. But now he wept with her, and they went to the tomb together. And she realized she still believed in him, trusted him with her life.

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Nothing external changed for these three. Thomas still had no idea if he or Jesus would die. Martha still would try to stop Jesus from opening the tomb, and say the horrible words, “there’s a stench already.” Mary still had an enormous, brother-sized hole in her heart.

But receiving nothing but the courage, patience, and compassion of Christ, they find they don’t need everything fixed. They need to know God is with them in Christ, they are not alone. They don’t have to understand everything to believe, or to follow.

John tells his Gospel so that we, too, can believe Jesus is God’s Christ, the Son of God, and believing, have life in his name. John doesn’t say we believe because everything always makes sense, always works out, because there’s no risk we face in following. We can believe and have life in Christ even when it doesn’t make sense or work out, when there’s great risk.

Now that we know this, let’s hear the rest of today’s Gospel reading.

Read verses 39-45.

Listen, this story isn’t about the raising of Lazarus. It’s about our faith in that which we cannot see, our trust in God’s love in Christ in the face of what we fear, what makes us angry, what brings us grief.

Lazarus’ resurrection doesn’t change Thomas’ path. Mary and Martha might still outlive him. These last verses don’t magically make the story better. And none of us have ever experienced a loved one raised from the tomb. But we’ve all been where these three are, and that’s our hope. And like these three, we belong to the One who faced death on the cross and broke its power over us now, not just at the end of our lives here.

There is something critical in these last verses, though. Jesus needs the community involved in this resurrection. He gives Lazarus life. But he needs the people around Lazarus to unbind him and let him go. Mary, Martha, their neighbors, need to unwrap him from his death, open him up to his life.

This is our resurrection story.

The resurrection story of Thomas, Martha, Mary. They witness that, in the absence of evidence of any change, having God with us is life. Even in our fear, our anger, our grief, we are never alone, never dead. Christ meets us, like he did these three, exactly where each of us is, giving us each exactly what we need for faith. The Risen Christ, who has overcome the world, calls to us, “Come out, believe.”

And then Christ gives other Christs to us. To give us courage as we walk into the unknown. To give us patience as we rail in our righteous anger. To share our tears as we weep in the face of loss. Incarnate as God-with-us, Christ now becomes incarnate in each of us. So we can unbind each other, draw each other out of darkness into light. So that we can let each other go from the fear, anger, grief, and death that wrap us so tightly.

That’s enough, these three tell us. And we tell each other, as, filled with resurrection life in Christ, we unbind each other into this newness of life.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

If we are willing to let Jesus open our eyes, even though we first will see things that are painful to look at, we will also see a great hope in God’s healing love for ourselves and for the world.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
   The Fourth Sunday in Lent, year A
   Text: John 9:1-41

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

We’re not blind, are we?

I was sixteen, licensed to drive for about six months. I had the gold, ‘74 Dodge Coronet, with Chrysler’s great 318 engine, the car my parents let me drive. I was at my cousin Jason’s farm, just outside of town. I was in the car, ready to go home, and started backing up. I could see Jason in my rear-view mirror, near the barn, waving his arms in front of his face. (Demonstrate) I happily waved back, as I continued in reverse. And plowed into my great-aunt’s car.

I had checked my mirrors. I was certain I saw all I needed to see. To this day, I’m not entirely sure how I hit that car. As a city boy to Jason’s country boy, he would happily tell you other stories of mishaps on the farm that I encountered, and they also largely were because, like with Jason’s wave, I wasn’t seeing what I needed to see.

The Pharisees end this marvelous story of Jesus and a man born without sight by asking, “we’re not blind, are we?” Here’s a tip: if you find yourself asking Jesus that question, it’s fairly certain the answer is “yes.”

This story isn’t about a healing Jesus does. That’s the incident that sparks it. This story is, as Jesus said, about the glory of God being revealed, about seeing and not seeing the truth. It’s about seeing Jesus as God’s Messiah, who gives us life.

And it’s not clear we have that vision yet.

But – we’re not blind, are we?

Well, are we willing to see the truth of our world as it really is? The brokenness and despair, the divide between the rich and the poor, the injustices built into our society, into the very fabric of our everyday lives? And if we will see that truth, will we have the courage to see our own participation that runs so deep we don’t even notice we’re causing these problems?

Theologian Sallie McFague has written about this blindness with regard to climate change and the refugee crisis. She writes: “We are a (largely) innocent enemy. We high-level consumers of energy are merely living ordinary Western lives, doing what everyone else in our society is doing. Even as we gradually learn how deeply our actions are affecting the planet’s health, the problem still seems abstract, remote.” [1]

And this is equally true of the problems of poverty, racial injustice, inequality for women, of all society’s ills. We’re so invested in our convenient lives, our “normal,” and the effects are so far removed from our actions, we barely even believe we’re part of the problem, that we’re the enemy. We just don’t see it.

Do we want Jesus to spit into the dirt, make some mud, and open our eyes so we see the truth? It will hurt. It will be exceedingly inconvenient.

But – we’re not blind, are we?

Well, are we willing to see the truth of our inner lives as they really are, our fears and sins and prejudices, the doubts we have about our worthiness? Or will we keep pretending we’re just fine? Are we willing to have our eyes opened to see the harm we do to others, even if it’s unintentional? To face that we can be problems for those who love us, that we can and do hurt them? We just don’t like to let ourselves see these things.

Do we want Jesus to spit into the dirt, make some mud, and open our eyes to see this truth? It will hurt. It will be exceedingly inconvenient.

Here’s John’s grace today: he says we can open our eyes step by step.

This blind man didn’t see everything right away. His physical eyes were now fine. But even by the end of the story, he still didn’t see all that could be seen. This story is about a man gradually seeing the truth about Christ Jesus, and finding life in that truth.

At first, all he knows is the name Jesus. He didn’t even see him. He was blind.

And he knows what happened: He was blind, had mud put on him, he washed, now he sees. He keeps repeating that truth again and again, and gradually discovers new eyes to see what God is doing in Jesus.

He moves from only knowing the name Jesus, to next declaring “he is a prophet.” Later he says, “he is someone from God.” Then later, “he is the Son of Man.” And finally, his eyes are opened enough that he falls on his knees and worships the incarnate God-with-us. He found life in Christ he didn’t have before. He still had questions. He was cast out from his religious community. He had no idea what he was going to do for a living, having begged his whole life. But he found the Son of God and found life and hope.

This is the sight Christ wants for us, painful as it will be at first, so we also can find healing.

There’s a familiar prayer from the Middle Ages, attributed to St. Richard of Chichester.

“Dear Lord, three things I pray, to see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly, day by day.”

That’s what Christ offers the blind man today. That’s what Christ offers us, too. To take some mud and put it on our eyes and open them up to see the truth. To see what God is doing in Christ more clearly.

Part of that seeing is honesty about the ugly truths we pretend we don’t see. Without such brutal honesty, we can’t see a path to healing. Healing for the world and all the systems we perpetuate. Healing for ourselves, and all our brokenness inside and out.

When we see Christ more clearly, we see beneath all that pain and brokenness to a great hope. A hope that when we live in Christ’s love, honestly looking at our truth and the world’s truth, following Christ more nearly, God’s healing happens in us.

But this clarity comes day by day, not all at once.

We are blind, aren’t we?

But we gather here in this wonder: we are loved by the God who in Christ opens eyes, and when we can see, we find hope in God. Like the formerly blind man, as we recall and repeat the truth of the grace we’ve received from God, stubbornly speaking it, our eyes become more and more opened.

Our new sight shows not only hard truth. It also reveals God’s love and grace underlying everything in this world. We see signs of hope in the smallest actions. We see paths where we can change how we act and live in ways that will affect our closest relationships and the greater world.

As Jesus said to the Pharisees, as long as you think you’re not blind, I can’t do much for you. But when you admit you are, now I can help. Let me open your eyes. The light will hurt at first. But then you will see my love, and my grace, and you will see beauty unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Do you believe? Jesus asked. And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And worshipped him.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

[1] Sallie McFague, A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2008; p. 28

This sermon includes inspiration from Jean Vanier, in his commentary Drawn Into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John, Novalis: Ottowa, Can., 2004; p. 170ff.; and from Rachel Crippen, Concordia (Moorhead) ’17, both from conversation and from her unpublished senior thesis, “Would You Harbor Me? An Eco-Theology of Accountability and Response for the Global Refugee Crisis.”