Creekside Church Sermon of March 17, 2002 "You Can Bet Your Life" John 11:1-45	Rev. David Bibbee
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During my senior year in seminary I took an experimental preaching course. It employed a very "non-traditional" approach designed to free up the structured, sequential students like me, and firm up the totally free wheeling approach of other students. My most vivid memory of the class was not its content, but the final exam. We were not told what to expect, only that we would meet Friday morning in the chapel.

Not knowing what we faced, we were all anxious. After the professor talked about the "appropriate" nature of the test we would soon take, she handed each of us a folded slip of paper we were not to open until instructed to do so. Mine had an ominous feel to it. When we were told to begin I unfolded the paper and this is what it said:

"Kathy is a 17 year-old high school student. A year ago her doctor found a large, inoperable brain tumor. All recommended treatments failed, and Kathy died. Her family has asked you to preach the funeral based upon John 11: 1-45… "I am the resurrection and the life." Kathy chose this text shortly before her death. You have 10 minutes to prepare a 10-minute sermon which will be delivered to the class."

My mind turned to instant mush. I said to the professor, "Don't you remember the rule about one hour of preparation for each minute of the sermon?" He only smiled. Why didn't I get a slip that said I had to preach a sermon for a child dedication service or the theological significance of the brand new brass candleholders on the altar? Anything except preaching the funeral of a teenager. When it was my turn to climb into the pulpit I preached an "okay" sermon. When I finished I looked at my watch and realized I still had 8 minutes to go. I froze.

Looking back, I didn't blank out only because there was so little time to prepare, or that the approach was totally foreign to my style. It was the heaviness of the occasion. What was it like for Kathy? What was it like for her parents? Just the thought of it was overwhelming, so devastating.

Death always waits in the wings. It is so fearful and final. All we have to sustain our hope for life after death are two symbols…a cross and an empty tomb, and the evidence to support our hope is not Jesus' presence, but his absence. It takes faith to believe that life is stronger than death…not Sunday morning faith, but the faith that bets everything on the belief that Jesus is the Lord of life, and though death is very real, Jesus, the resurrection and the life, is more real.

John 11 begins, "Now a certain man was ill…" This certain man wasn't just any man. His name was Lazarus, and he was Jesus' dear friend. When Lazarus' sisters Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus that their brother was sick, they didn't even need to mention his name. "Lord, the one whom you love is ill." Friends in need are friends in deed, right? When EMT's respond to a 911 call, they must move as quickly as possible. Time is of the essence. Treating the patient as quickly as possible increases the chances for survival. But Jesus relayed this message to the sisters-"Calm down. It won't kill him." Then he stayed where he was for two days! They wanted Jesus ASAP, but it took him more than four minutes, and more than four hours. It took four days! John says that Jesus loved Lazarus and his sisters. Jesus loved them so much he didn't arrive until after the funeral was over. By the time he got there, Lazarus was busy decomposing in a tomb. If this is how Jesus loved his friends…

Imagine a family is extremely ill. You have a fine family doctor. You know what he can do. You trust him. You leave word at his office to return your call, quickly. You wait and you wait. But he doesn't return your call. When he finally does, it's too late. How would you react?

Lazarus was dead. Jesus didn't show. Martha and Mary are probably beating themselves up. "If I had only seen the symptoms. If only I had called another doctor. If, if, if." If Jesus had no power to change the situation, his late arrival could be excused. But he did have the power, and he chose not to come.

When he finally arrived, Martha ran to him and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." I hear anger in her words…anger at Jesus, anger at herself, but also hope that Jesus could still do something. "Your brother will rise." Jesus said. "We know he will rise in the resurrection on the last day," Martha replied. Then Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life." In our text last week from Ephesians it said, "Once you were darkness, but now that you are in Christ, you have become light." It did not say you were in darkness. It did not say you reflect light. You "are" light. Jesus wasn't about to perform a resurrection. Life over death is what he was and is.

After Martha, Mary came to Jesus with the same question. "If you had only been here…" She began weeping. Everyone around her began weeping, and Jesus wept. He wept because his beloved friend was dead. He wept because he saw what death was doing to everyone. He wept because despised death and the grip it had upon people's lives. He despised it because it mocked the meaning of lives beautifully and faithfully lived. He despised death because Mary and Martha had accepted it, had conceded to it. They had given up. They thought Jesus had come to do what they had done… say "Goodbye." Then he would say, "We can take comfort knowing Lazarus is now at peace in a better place." They thought He would quote scriptures… "As for mortals their days are like grass; for they flourish like a flower in the field, but the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place knows it no more." (Psalm 103: 15-16) They thought Jesus would say, "Dear Lazarus is gone, but not forgotten."

I remember a man talking about a trip to Ireland. One mile before entering a village he came upon a small, weed-choked cemetery. Walking though it, he pulled back the tall grass covering the gravestones to read the inscriptions. All those buried there were young men from New Zealand. Maybe they were killed defending the village during WWII. At the bottom of each stone were these words: "We will never forget you." In the village he asked several people, "Who's buried in that little cemetery? What's the story behind it?" They replied, "I don't know." "I have no idea." "I heard my father talk some about it once, but I don't remember what he said." In time, memory fades. Recollections slip away.

At the Crest Manor Church of the Brethren there is a long row of portraits of all the pastors who served the church. While I served there, my portrait was by itself, ABOVE all the others. Last year I was invited to an event at Crest Manor. Everyone was seated in the fellowship hall. I sat directly across from the portraits. The last time I saw it, I was on top. Now I am on the long row, the third from the right. Nearly all the pastors are gone. I began to think that some day, when my picture is closer to the middle, members will look at the pictures. Someone will point to me. "Who's that guy?" "It says he was here from 1982 to 1992. That's all I know." As Psalm 103 put it, "My place will know me no more."

Think of the ways we try to keep ourselves, our names, and our memory alive. People give huge sums of money to universities with the expectation that a new building will bear their name. Tombstones, portraits, buildings that bear benefactor's names. Our drive to be successful, our accumulation of things. Our desire to experience all the pleasure we can as long as we can…it's all an attempt to preserve ourselves. Fear drives it all because death lurks behind us, mocking us, "You can run but you cannot hide."

In their grief over Lazarus, all the people could do was weep. All they could do was say, "Goodbye," and carry on with life. They thought Jesus could do was say goodbye himself-to come and pay his respects, recall the good times, put some flowers at the grave. But Jesus hated cemeteries. He hated death. Jesus was the Lord of life and was about to steal death's victory. "Lazarus, come out!" he shouted. He shouted loud enough to wake the dead, loud enough to be heard over all the weeping, loud enough for us to hear it too.

And the unbelievable happened. Lazarus did as Jesus said. He came out. His legs were wobbly. Strips of cloth bound him. The loose ends were dangling like toilet paper from a teepeed tree, but he got up and he walked. Some couldn't believe their eyes. Some were scared silly. Some were awed and filled with joy, while others ran to tell the Pharisees who plotted Jesus' death.

John put this story where he did for a reason. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. The power of God was at his command. He brought Lazarus to life. Today, we are able to postpone death, but not prevent it. Only the power of God at work in Jesus Christ can do that. Lazarus was dead but now was alive, and Jesus headed for Jerusalem. Next, it was his turn to die. Jesus didn't want to die. He prayed for a way out of it. Lazarus' resurrection was a preview of a coming attraction. Jesus did to Lazarus what God would do to him, which is what Jesus will do for us.

Somebody said that, "In light of the gospel, the only unforgivable sin is to be dead."

Living in fear, numbing ourselves with things, empty pleasures and pursuits-- these things contribute to the unforgivable sin of being dead while alive. If Jesus is not part of life's equation, don't bet your life on anything-- futility and death will have the last word, or, as St. Paul said it, "If there is no resurrection, we of all people are to be pitied and our faith is in vain" But if Jesus is part of life's equation, then by all means, let's be betting people!

While visiting with Bill Paff this week, we talked about his life and his wife, Elizabeth's life. "Right now life could be very discouraging if I let it," he said. "I'm very weak. I have no strength or coordination to feed myself. I am nearly blind, and nine different physical problems that ail me, and as you know, since Elizabeth's stroke, she is in worse condition than I am." Then after a lengthy pause he continued, "Life is discouraging right now… but I continue to be hopeful." I didn't need to ask Bill the reason why.

If I had to do that seminary final exam again, the outcome would be different. I would not freeze. I would preach the whole ten minutes. I could do it because I've seen many Christians face death with dignity, courage, and hope. They did it not because of a philosophy of life, but the resurrection and life. They bet everything on it because the odds were totally in their favor.

In John 11: it says "Jesus wept." Seeing it, the people said, "See how much he loved him." I think a fragment of the original copy of John is missing. If the biblical archeologists and scholars recover it, they will find the statement of the onlookers repeated. Jesus shouts, "Come out!" and to everyone's amazement, Lazarus is alive. Seeing Lazarus' stolen from the cluthes of death by Jesus' words they say to each other… "See how much he loves him."

As Jesus turns toward Jerusalem to face all that awaits him there, see how much he loves you.

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