Death, where is thy sting?

SCRIPTURES: John 11: 31-34 and on Psalm 22: 1-2.

Death, where is thy sting? What were the thoughts that went through your mind as we opened our Worship and sang those words this morning?

I know my friend who requested today's sermon topic because her family, like Carla's family, had experienced the death of a beloved family member might have even found it difficult to sing those words.

For death and all of the other losses that are part of our faith journey do, as expressed in today's Prayer of Confession, have the ability to wound our spirit. They also have the ability to have us feeling as King David felt when he wrote the words: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

So these words of hope which we sing, that are taken from Paul's letter to the Corinthian Church are words that are worthy of our reflection today and on many other occasions. For as one philosopher wrote: "Life can be described as an ongoing series of losses."

Those words do not express a very positive or optimistic life view, but they do honestly reflect the struggles that we experience at various times on our faith journey when we are faced with dealing with a significant loss. As we think about all of these issues and how it is that we can live a life of faith and integrity, we are naturally drawn to the experience of Christ and how he faced the challenge of loss and illustrated in his response an example that I feel will bring much comfort and guidance for us as we face the challenge of living our lives in a world that is filled with so much tragedy and loss on to many occasions.

The example of Christ dealing with the sting of loss at the time of the death of his beloved friend Lazarus begins exactly where often our own faith journey begins: at a time of loss. For you see at the very start of this life-changing day for Lazarus and his family when they are the first to witness the power of the resurrection Jesus begins this experience by breaking into tears of sorrow and loss.

Believe me Jesus was not a man who cried often. As a matter of fact, the only other times I recall the Gospels mentioning that our Lord wept were just before he enters Jerusalem to begin the events of Holy Week and perhaps as he prays in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his arrest.

Yes, Jesus didn't cry often but here, just before a miraculous event was about to change the spirit of the day, our Lord is weeping as he understands the pain that we experience at a time of loss in our lives.

Friends, to love and to lose is a source of grief and pain that should move any of us to tears be they visible or just within our wounded spirit. Some have said that if we have a strong faith, we should not feel a sense of grief; today's Gospel lesson affirms the reality that having a strong faith does not diminish the pain of grief and loss.

In that moment, as our Lord came to the site of Lazarus's grave and saw that grief and pain, he joined his heart with the family of Lazarus in the same way that through his Spirit he enters into our times of grief and loss and understands the pain of that experience.

In describing this story from the Gospel and its meaning for our lives, Sir Oliver Lodge wrote in his book Man and the Universe these words: "The Christian idea of God is not that of a being outside the universe, above our struggles and advances, looking on and taking no part in the process, rather, the God whom we worship today is a God who shares our struggles, who loves, yearns and suffers with us."

This is the God, whom Christ reveals fully to us, a God that could understand, that could suffer, and that could sympathize with the pain of loss that is part of our lives. Yes, Jesus wept with Lazarus's family and he grieves with us when we experience the pain of loss in our lives also.

But there is more than empathy and the comfort of sympathy that Jesus offers to Lazarus and to all who experience the tragedy of loss in any of its many forms. For today's Gospel Lesson does not end with a miraculous expression of compassion expressed in the tears that Jesus shed, but with another miracle that should always be in our minds at a time of loss.

Yes, it is the miracle of Jesus raising from the dead his beloved friend Lazarus.

Think about what must have happened in the life of that family. They had started the day in tears and despair. Perhaps as part of their religious tradition's ritual, they may have even prayed those words, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken us?"

Remember, this event occurs before our Lord's own resurrection, so this family clearly had no reason to hope for the miracle that they experienced.

Good old practical Martha expresses the understandable lack of hope that they felt when she tries to stop Jesus from performing this miracle with the words, "Lord, its been four days there will be a horrible stench."

But nothing can stop the miraculous power of hope that is found in God's steadfast and eternal love. And so Jesus proceeds to intervene into their grief and calls Lazarus forth and beyond any hope or expectation suddenly, as would be the case on the first Easter Dawn, the sting of death is replaced by the miracle of life and love that is eternal through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Where there had been only despair, now there was hope.

Friends, in far less dramatic ways, but in a fashion that is just as real and meaningful, that same miracle of hope replacing despair is the gift that is ours through our faith in God's steadfast and eternal love.

Here again, I would like to recall with you some of the words spoken to us by Dr. Caliandro when he gave his inspiring message to us at our Founder's Day Celebration. For in his message, he told us that, "It was the work of our congregations to help unbind the strips of cloth that held back Lazarus following this miracle. In other words," he continued, "we have to express God's love and support to those who are burdened by life's losses and struggles."

The cloth that bound and burdened Lazarus on his day of miracles is a good metaphor for the burden of grief that we feel at a time of loss.

Through our own faith, and with the love and support of our family, friends and faith community, we can experience the release from that burden and the replacement of the feeling of despair with the certainty of hope that comes from trusting that as Paul expressed it: "In life and in death, we belong to the Lord forever."

Yes, there is a time and a season for grief and tears. But ultimately that season is replaced by the season that has no end. The season of God's love that surrounds and sustains us on earth and in heaven today and forever.

Pastor Stephen Giordano — May 1, 2005