John 11-12
Death of Lazarus. This is the event that really cooks Jesus' goose in John's gospel. It seals the case against him.
"This sickness is not fatal. It will become an occasion to show God's glory by glorifying God's Son." Jesus' first response, even before he delays his arrival. Premeditated hesitation on his part?
Disciples argue with Jesus about the risk of going to Lazarus in Judea. Jesus assures them they'll be given new grounds for believing if they go with him. Only a couple miles from Jerusalem.
"You don't have to wait for the end. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this?" Do you?
Martha to Mary-"The teacher is here and is asking for you." Text doesn't record Jesus asking for Mary; what's Martha up to? Mary runs and says to Jesus the same thing Martha said: "If you'd been here he wouldn't have died." Anger wells up in Jesus. Jesus weeps on the way or at the tomb. Tears of sorrow or anger at the womens' ignorance? Wouldn't have been at Lazarus' death, as he's about to raise him...
Rolling the stone away--they did it, despite fear of stench. Isn't there a smell, literal or figurative, as the stone of denial, isolation, self-hatred, is rolled away from a life spent running from God? Can't roll the stone away from inside that place...need someone else to help you. To help me. I made a stone call last night...Perhaps sometimes we cannot make our own stone call--we need those others around us. "Unwrap him and let him loose."
Many Jews believed, but some went back to the Pharisees and told on Jesus. "This man keeps doing things, creating God-signs. If we let him go on, pretty soon everyone will be believing in him and the Romans will come and remove what little power and privilege we still have."
Caiaphas' prophesy. Hadn't seen that before. They plotted to kill him, likely emboldened by Caiaphas' seeing.
7th sign. 1st: water into wine. This story names a bunch of people, a cast of characters. Full spectrum of human emotions through the showing of characters. Jesus remains center stage.
Anointing his feet. Reflexive time, as the description of Mary of Bethany as foot anointer opened chapter 11. Event happens in chapter 11.
You will always have the opportunity to be generous, to help those less fortunate than you, to share from your abundance...the poor with you...
Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The bile rises in my throat, tension in my back, and discomfort in my stomach, as I know what's coming next...interesting physical manifestations of anticipation...
Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds onto life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal.
The voice didn't come for me, but for you. Right now the world is in crisis.
As you have the light, believe in the light. Then the light will be within you, and shining through your lives. You'll be children of the light.
Glory--the brightness of God's presence right here on our home ground-clearly has something, maybe everything, to do with his approaching death and burial. Instead of grasping more tightly to what we value, we are to hold it more loosely, letting it fall from our hands into the ground.
Jesus said all of this then went into hiding. I can only imagine how exhausted he was.
A considerable number from the ranks did believe, but because of the Pharisees, they didn't come out in the open with it. They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove, they cared more for human approval than for God's glory. Well...
"If anyone hears what I am saying and doesn't take it seriously, I don't reject him. I didn't come to reject the world; I came to save the world. But you need to know that whoever puts me off, refusing to take in what I'm saying, is willfully choosing rejection."
Sounds as if we are choosing rejection ourselves; Jesus is still not rejecting. Possible? Sounds more grace filled than making accusations and destinations for folks who don't hear or believe...
James 1-3
I know before I begin that I won't have enough time to note the places where James provokes me...so may I share some reasonable nuggets anyway...
From the introduction: "When Christian believers gather in churches, everything that can go wrong sooner or later does. Outsiders, on observing that there is nothing to the religion business except, perhaps, business-and dishonest business at that. Insiders see it differently. Just as a hospital collects the sick under one roof and labels them as such, the church collects sinners. May of the people outside the hospital are every bit as sick as the ones inside, but their illnesses are either undisclosed or undiagnosed. It's similar with sinners outside the church. So, Christian churches are not, as a rule, model communities of good behavior. They are, rather, places where human misbehavior is brought out in the open, faced and dealt with. (When we are at our best)
Prayer is always foundational to wisdom.
Under pressure your faith life is forced out into the open and shows its true colors. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. On-the-job smarts, hands-on expertise in life. Asking sets us on a lifetime apprenticeship with Jesus Christ in which we slowly, gradually, incrementally get the faith into our hands and fingers and become masters at the art of living.
Don't let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, "God is trying to trip me up." God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one's way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but our own lust. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes from heaven, from the Father of Light. Nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle.
In simple humility, let our gardener God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life. Don't fool yourself into thinking you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!
Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.
Don't let public opinion influence how you live out our glorious Christ originated faith.
Isn't it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chooses the world's down and out as the kingdom's first citizens, with full rights and privileges.
Love others as you love yourself. Don't go against the rule. You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law, ignoring others. Talk and act like a person expecting to be judged by the rule (love) that sets us free. For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.
Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense.
Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. Can't cut them in two; can't separate them. Combination of believing and acting. A person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works.
Teachers...none perfectly qualified. We get it wrong nearly every time we open our mouths. A word out of your mouth can accomplish anything--or destroy it...By our speech we can ruin the whole world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right out of the pit of hell.
With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women God made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth. Don't underestimate the significance of words.
Want to be counted as wise? Do this: live well, live wisely, live humbly. It's the way you live, not the way you talk, that counts. Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. May it be so as we meet together today...
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