A sermon for November 3, 2024, All Saints Sunday, at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church – Buffalo, NY .
| Sermon Video |
| ⏵ 8:30am worship |
| ⏵ 10:30am worship |
| Sermon Text |
| ⏵ John 11:32-44 |
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
People often talk about faith in terms of wanting and needing Jesus to show up and to show up “on time.” But the ways we usually talk about and learn faith don’t prepare us well for when things don’t go according to what we’d hoped, especially when we are feeling helpless.
You probably know what it’s like being with someone who is suffering, and what it feels like to wait and hope for someone to appear with knowledge or the ability to offer relief … someone who can offer hope. You also may know the anguish when someone does not appear … where relief seems just out of reach … where hopelessness begins to set in. In those moments, what we want for the person who is suffering … what we hope for and pray for is freedom and release from the bonds that constrain them. In those moments, WE ourselves often feel restrained and bound, too, as we carry that worry and anxiety throughout our bodies.
Our reading from John’s gospel tells us about Mary, Martha and Lazarus when the timing was well beyond what they’d hoped. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were siblings who Jesus knew quite well. Lazarus was ill and his sisters sent word to Jesus with a message that didn’t seem like that big of a deal … it just said that Lazarus was “ill.”
It turns out that this illness was very serious and that Lazarus was near death. They had seen Jesus do miraculous things in the past. Jesus made the blind to see and the lame to walk. Jesus healed people of many diseases and sicknesses. Maybe he could help their brother Lazarus now? His sisters may have carried feelings of worry, anxiety, fear, and helplessness. They likely felt restrained … bound. Jesus didn’t seem too worried, though. He told his disciples that “This illness does not lead to death” (John 11:4) and stayed for another two days. He didn’t get to his friends until FOUR days after Lazarus died!
Mary and Martha held tightly to their hope in Jesus, but where was he? Why couldn’t he get there more quickly? Was he even going to come?
They were beyond disappointed. They were distraught … they were bound by grief … hurt … anger. When Jesus arrived, both Mary and Martha greeted Jesus and said “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21, 32).
Do you hear what they are expressing? In the middle of their anger and disappointment, they were not showing a lack of faith, but they were actually living their faith! They believed Jesus had the power and the ability to heal Lazarus.
Even in her anger and grief, Martha said, “I know that [Lazarus] will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (John 10:24). This is SO VERY important … she showed us that followers of Jesus can grieve, be angry, be in pain AND YET believe. In fact, Jesus was grieving, too. From his own grief, he called Lazarus from death to life – from the darkness into the light. When Lazarus emerged from the tomb, he was still wrapped and bound in the remnants of death and could not unbind himself. Jesus called others to unbind him.
As we consider our own lives … what binds you? What restricts you, holds you down, prevents you from experiencing life? Are there people around you who are bound and could use your help being unbound?
Many of us are worried, anxious, fearful, and possibly angry about the elections this week. Holy Trinity has been partnering with the Network of Religious Communities and the National Federation for Just Communities of Western New York to host Pre-Election Prayer & Meditation times on Monday, November 4, an inter faith event the Monday of Thanksgiving week, and a Pre-Inauguration event. All of these are focused on remaining a strong community in what we know as “the City of Good Neighbors.”
You and I, like Martha, proclaim faith in the middle of the very complex mix of feelings. Having strong feelings about the election process does not mean you are lacking faith.
You and I hear the familiar and powerful voice of Jesus break through the noise and complexity of our time … even break through all that represents death to us. Jesus calls us not to remain bound and in the darkness but to COME OUT. And, as Lazarus did, to take those brave steps out of the darkness and into the light so that we might be unbound. I invite you to face the complexities of this week in the light and in the life Jesus calls us to.
In the name of Jesus … Amen!
Epicurious Lutheran 