Into death

Image: Peter's Denial by Robert Leinweber

Sermon for St Catharine's Gloucester on 29th March 2020 based on the Bible readings: Luke 22.31-34 (Jesus foretells Peter's denial) and John 11.17-35 (Raising of Lazarus)

When I was praying back in November about the Lent course and what we would be looking at each week, I felt like God gave me the outline for the course and readings, and in week 6 – which is today’s sermon – I felt God was giving me the title ‘Into death’.  I mulled that over for a while, and when I realised that today was going to be the best date for the APCM, I slightly chickened out, and decided that rather than speaking on ‘into death’ at the APCM I would speak on ‘living as the church’, and so that is what went into the Lent booklets.  The strange thing was that I have kept that original scrap of paper on my desk for the last four months, and kept looking again at that title: ‘Into death’ and wondering what it meant.  Well, that has become very clear in the last couple of weeks!  And I have felt strangely comforted that God already knew that we would be facing this situation with coronavirus way before we did.  So today we will be looking at what it means to journey into death and how Jesus is with us even in that.  After Easter we will return to the Lent course and what it means to ‘live as the church’, and I expect our answer on the other side of coronavirus is going to look rather different to what we imagined before.

In our readings we see Jesus present in two forms of death: the death of our hopes and expectations about our own faith, and the physical death experienced by Lazarus.  In Peter we see the death of his own expectations about himself, and what he is able to do for Jesus: ‘Lord I am ready to go with you to prison and to death’.  But Jesus knows Peter better than Peter knows himself, and He knows that Peter will deny Him three times.  I wonder where you find yourself this week.  For those of you who have had the physical reality of the church as an anchor point in your weeks, there will be a deep grief at the loss of that, alongside the loss of so many other things.  Like Peter, facing the death of Jesus and the loss of all that was familiar, you might find facing the reality of these changes too painful and demanding.  We are being pushed out of the familiar, out of our comfort zones. And we see in these few short verses, that the test Peter will go through, like the test we are facing will be severe.  Jesus in fact makes it clear that Peter will be unable to come through it by himself.  But here is the amazing promise, that Peter will not face it alone.  At his side stands Jesus, who promises to be praying for Peter and for his faith.  As we will hear again today in the words of the eucharistic prayer, Jesus is still praying for us today, interceding for us at the right hand of our Father.  And Jesus promises that Peter will turn back, and when he does Jesus encourages him to strengthen those around him.  

Over these weeks ahead, we are all going to face tests of our faith and trust in God but hold on to this promise from our faithful God, Jesus is praying for you and is with you through this.  You may well turn away, you may well realise that you are not the Christian you thought you were, you may well come face-to-face with the reality that you can’t do for Jesus all that you hoped you could.  And what do we do when that happens?  I think that is where the gift of confession comes in.  Because how do we know that Peter did indeed go on to deny Jesus three times?  We know because Peter himself must have told others the story.  And this is the true gift that God gives us, because the truth is that we can’t hold on to God by our sheer willpower - even Jesus on the cross thought His Father had forsaken Him - but God is the One who holds us and prays for us.   And so our testimony on the other side of this, if we are willing to acknowledge we have been unable to make the journey alone, will be a humble testimony of the faithfulness of God towards us.  Confessing our weakness and receiving God’s mercy and strength.

In our reading from John, we begin to get a glimpse of the hope that we have in Jesus as we face the death of all that is familiar, and face the reality of physical death more acutely.  Lazarus has been dead for four days before Jesus comes.  For Jews this was a sign that the spirit had left the body, and hope was gone.  Martha shows great trust in Jesus, that Jesus still could make a difference.  And we learn that resurrection hope does have a name, and that name is Jesus.  Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  To be bound to Jesus by faith is to be able to share now the life which is beyond physical death.   

Martha realising this tenderly draws her sister Mary aside, and relays the news that Jesus wants to speak to her, Jesus is calling her to come, and a spark of faith perhaps arises in Mary and she goes quickly to Jesus, or perhaps she is ready to take her anger out on him? She falls at Jesus' feet bringing no request, just her tears. And I'm not sure whether she is (angry) Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died, is (bitter) Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died, or is (in grief) Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died. Whatever it was she showed no obvious faith in Jesus, and as she and the crowd of Jews weep, Jesus shows extreme emotion too, which ends with him crying alongside them.  God weeps over our loss, suffering and trauma.  God promises to be our comforter, the one who draws alongside us, even in death.

It may be at the moment, you don’t know how to answer the question ‘where is God in all of this?’ for yourself or for those around you.  And there is no easy answer when we might want God to click fingers and make this alright.  But that is not the Christian faith.  The Bible tells us that the world is broken and messed up, and the Christian faith is not one that offers an easy fix.  It is a faith that says that God enters the brokenness and the mess, and journeys with us through it, praying for us, and strengthening us.  Recognising that things are not as they should be and offering to work with us to make things right again.  It is of a deeper hope than a quick fix.  It is hope of the healing of all things.  We have an opportunity in the midst of this to truly face ourselves, realise we just cannot to this life alone, throw ourselves on the mercy of God, and work with God to reset our lives, to value the things that are really important.  We already see it happening all around us as life is simplified.  I cried on my doorstep on Friday evening hearing the clapping and cheers and fireworks at 8pm.  People coming together and valuing the NHS and others who are sacrificing themselves for others. 

The Christian story is one of journeying into death and out the other side into new life.  Of giving up our need for control and learning to trust God.  It is not an easy journey but God is with us all, God loves us all, and is faithful to us all.  Amen.

Some questions to think about this week:

·       What hopes and expectations about yourself and God are you having to give up?  Can you offer those to God?  What is God giving you in exchange?

·       Are you able to face and confess your fears to God?  What happens when you do?  Can you receive God’s comfort and mercy and peace? 

·       Jesus says that he is the resurrection and the life.  What does that promise mean for you right now?