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GOSPEL John 11:32-44

MARTHA: This is God’s Story:

ALL: When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.  He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”  Jesus began to weep.

PT. ONE  :  MARY

MARY: Why weren’t you here?  We called for you four days ago… four days ago!  Why wouldn’t you come when we called for you.  It was an emergency.  I know that it’s dangerous for you to come here.  I know that last time you were here they tried to kill you.  But… but he’s our brother.  He was like your brother too.  You loved him like your own brother.  I’ve seen you cure sick people with just a touch, not even a touch, with just a word.  They were strangers.  People you met on the street.  That man that was blind his whole life.  That woman who had the bleeding condition.  The man that became paralyzed in that accident.  They were all strangers.  They didn’t know you like we know you.  They didn’t follow you like we follow.  You even healed gentiles.  They’re not even your people!  We’re your people.  We’re your family.  Why weren’t you here?  You could have helped.  You were the only one who could have helped, and you weren’t here.  I don’t know where you were, but you weren’t here.  I would have given you everything, our family inheritance, this perfume, anything!  Anything for Lazarus to be alive.  But you weren’t here.  And now there’s nothing anyone can do.

LAZARUS: This is God’s story:

ALL: So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”  Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.  Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”  Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

PT. TWO  :  MARTHA

MARTHA: What are you asking of me?  What do you want me to believe?  Jesus, this is too much.  Let me mourn, let me grieve, let me be angry, and sad, and alone… but don’t ask me to hope.  That’s just way too much.  You don’t think I’ve tried everything?  I have.  He’s my little brother.  I’ve done everything I could to save him.  You don’t think I believed hard enough?  If you would have told me what to believe I would have believed it.  I would have done it.  But not now.  Now just let him be.  He’s dead.  He is dead.  Four days is… the smell… we can’t touch him… it’s not right.  Just let him be now.  I know how to mourn, I know how to grieve.  But why are you asking me to hope?  Don’t you think we are past that?  Hope was four days ago.  I’ll hope in the resurrection on the last day, but not today.  Today let me be.

MARY: This is God’s story:

ALL: So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”  When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus come out!”  The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him and let him go.”

PT. THREE  :  LAZARUS

LAZARUS: It was dark.  And I felt really cold and really thirsty.  I remember wanting some water.  It was so dark that I couldn’t tell if my eyes were open or not.  I had no idea where I was.  The last thing I remember was I was sick and at home and my sisters were taking care of me.  Mary just stayed right next to me, she said that Martha was finding someone to go get Jesus.  They said that they had seen him do amazing things – heal people and stuff.  That he would help me.  “Just hold on.” They kept saying.  “Just hold on.”  And then it was dark.  I don’t know how much time had passed. Maybe a couple minutes, maybe a couple years… who knows?  But then I heard this voice.  I couldn’t tell if it was a long ways away or if it was right next to my ear… maybe both.  And this voice knew my name, knew me.  It said, “Lazarus, come out… Lazarus…  come out.”  I sat up.  I couldn’t believe I had burial cloths wrapped around me.  I could barely take small little steps without tripping, but I just kept walking toward that voice, that voice that knew my name.

People treat me really strange these days.  They call me a saint.  But I didn’t do anything.  I died and Jesus told me to come out.  I guess that’s all it takes to be called a saint.  Will I die again?  I don’t know?  Will I be raised again at on the last day?  Well, something has changed in me since that experience.  I don’t associate life and death and resurrection with a future event any more.  I associate it with a person, with a voice… that knows my name.

MARTHA:  This is God’s Story

ALL: This is our story.

This is a re-print from last year’s Halloween-Candy-&-Candles-Giveaway in downtown Edmonds… come join us Saturday Oct 31 5-7pm, this time with more candles!

“What is this?” The woman stared down at our Church of the Beloved table with a puzzled look.  We were handing out candy at Edmonds’ Main Street Halloween party, along with the rest of the Edmonds businesses, but we also offered something unique, something very ‘us’ – a bowl of sand with tall skinny candles. “Tomorrow is All Saints Day,” I told the woman.  ”That’s why tonight is called ‘All Hallow’s Eve’ or ‘Halloween’.  So, if you want, you can light a candle here to pray ‘thanks’ for someone important to you.”

She looked intently at the bowl of sand and said, “How much?”

“How much?”  Now I was puzzled.

“How much does it cost?” she said.

“It doesn’t cost anything.  It’s free.”  I said.

She quickly took a candle, lit it, and placed it in the sand.  She stood there looking at it for a minute and then began to tear up.  ”Thank you”, she said, “I needed to do that.”

For some this was their ‘first time’ praying and would ask, “What do I say?”

“It’s easy.” I assured them.  ”Just say ‘thank you’ to God, like you would to anyone who’s given you a really good gift.”

Kids seemed to like it the most.  The little pyromaniac boys were more excited about the prayer station than the candy we were handing out.  Running up to their parents they would yell, “Mom!  Can I light a prayer candle??  Can I??”

At one point we had about fourteen kids all gathered around the sand bowl praying prayers with their parents and guardians behind them.  Ken would ask them, “So, who’d you pray for?” after they stuck their lit candle in the sand.  ’My grandma’s dog’, ‘My uncle who died’, ‘The soldiers in the war’, ‘My dad’.

Last night God was showing us a different way to love our neighbors.  We weren’t offering ‘a harvest alternative to Halloween’.  We weren’t asking people to come into our church domain.  We were joining with the established expression of our neighborhood, in the public marketplace, alongside businesses and community services, and there, on common ground, we offered our unique way of serving Edmonds.  There was nothing confrontational about it.  It was what our neighborhood was desiring and it was what we had to offer – a moment of prayer and gratitude that flowed in and out of the party.  By the end of the night Marilyn, Ken and I had handed out over 3,000 pieces of candy, over 200 candles had been lit and we were convinced that God is alive and at work in the Edmonds… and certainly on Halloween.

(Unbeknownst to Beloved, Bishop Rickel of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia heard this story and shared it at the Diocesen gathering of over 500 priests and parish leaders, concluding by telling them, “Now this is radical hospitality!”… the funny thing about it all is that the whole All Saints candle thing was an after thought, not a planned thing at all.  As we were heading down to Main st. we thought, “Let’s just bring some candles and a pot of sand down for fun.”)