SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, let your grace find us.
SPEAKER_00: As we study these scriptures, as we hear the promise of your new life, may your grace find us, inspire us, breathe into us, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Our gospel lesson comes from John chapter 11.
SPEAKER_00: This is the story of the raising of Lazarus, and it's just right before Palm Sunday when Jesus enters Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: But first, he has this extraordinary healing moment in Bethany.
SPEAKER_00: Hear now the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.
SPEAKER_00: Bethany was a little less than two miles from Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Many Jews had come to comfort Martha and Mary after their brother's death.
SPEAKER_00: When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him while Mary remained in the house.
SPEAKER_00: Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.
SPEAKER_00: Even now I know that whatever you ask God, God will give you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told her, Your brother will rise again.
SPEAKER_00: And Martha replied, I know that he will rise in the resurrection on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes in me will live even though they die.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_00: She replied, Yes, Lord, I believed that you are the Christ, God's Son, the one who is coming into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And the story continues.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was deeply disturbed again when he came to the tomb.
SPEAKER_00: It was a cave, and a stone covered the entrance.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Remove the stone.
SPEAKER_00: Martha, the sister of the dead man, said, Lord, the smell will be awful.
SPEAKER_00: He's been dead four days.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus replied, Didn't I tell you that if you believe you will see God's glory?
SPEAKER_00: So they removed the stone.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus looked up and said, Father, thank you for hearing me.
SPEAKER_00: I know you always hear me.
SPEAKER_00: I say this for the benefit of the crowd standing here, so that they will believe that you sent me.
SPEAKER_00: Having said this, Jesus shouted with a loud voice, Lazarus, come out.
SPEAKER_00: The dead man came out, his feet bound and his hands tied, and his face covered with a cloth.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Untie him and let him go.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of God for us, the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Can these bones live?
SPEAKER_00: God asks this of the prophet Ezekiel in the passage Lori read a bit earlier in the service.
SPEAKER_00: Ezekiel was looking out upon a vast field of bones, warriors slain in battle who were nothing now but dry, dusty bones.
SPEAKER_00: Can these bones live?
SPEAKER_00: God asked Ezekiel.
SPEAKER_00: Even these very, very dead dry bones.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who has known any measure of suffering can recognize the heart of this question.
SPEAKER_00: Is there still reason to hope?
SPEAKER_00: Any reason at all to hope?
SPEAKER_00: Can even these bones live?
SPEAKER_00: The prophet Ezekiel, he gave the most ambiguous answer there is to give.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Lord God, only you know.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of answer is that?
SPEAKER_00: Lord God, only you know.
SPEAKER_00: God is asking a question of possibility.
SPEAKER_00: Could it be possible that these bones live again?
SPEAKER_00: And Ezekiel answered with a response of probability.
SPEAKER_00: The likelihood of that, God, only you know.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the question at the heart of both of our scriptures today, the Ezekiel one and the John one.
SPEAKER_00: The question that these texts demand of us is this do we have a faith rooted in probability?
SPEAKER_00: Or do we have a faith rooted in possibility?
SPEAKER_00: At the first church I served, there was a man who had spent most of his life in prison.
SPEAKER_00: In order to protect his identity, let's call him Laz, short for Lazarus, of course.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as a boy, Laz grew up in a rough home, in a rough neighborhood, in a rough school, and as a young teen, Laz was recruited into a gang.
SPEAKER_00: And so just barely into puberty, Laz was part of gang activities in his community, and before long, he was arrested for murder.
SPEAKER_00: He was tried as an adult, and he would live the next five decades in prison.
SPEAKER_00: Laz could best be described as wiry.
SPEAKER_00: He was a white man, about my height, like truly not much taller, definitely no heavier than me.
SPEAKER_00: By the time he was, by the time I met him, he had um aged, he was in his late 60s, and he had long gray hair, beer, long gray hair, and a and a long gray, like resputin beard.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't look particularly threatening, which is why you can imagine prison was not kind to him.
SPEAKER_00: The violence of his youth, of his gang days, followed him into prison where he felt like he had to prove himself with more and more violence.
SPEAKER_00: His life had always been rough, and it appeared his life always would be rough.
SPEAKER_00: At least until he met Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It was through prison ministry that Laz found Jesus, or perhaps we can say that Grace found him, that Jesus found Laz.
SPEAKER_00: But either way, his whole life was transformed.
SPEAKER_00: He was transformed into someone different.
SPEAKER_00: Prison ministry is truly a powerful thing.
SPEAKER_00: So here's our plug.
SPEAKER_00: If you're interested in getting involved in our prison ministry, we would love to help make that connection for you.
SPEAKER_00: By the time I met Laz, he had been released.
SPEAKER_00: He was a free man.
SPEAKER_00: He was one of the all-ins at my church.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning when the doors were open, he was there.
SPEAKER_00: He would come to my Bible studies and he would share about his life as I shared about the Bible, and we had these great conversations.
SPEAKER_00: He was alive in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But occasionally, occasionally, the sins of his youth would come back to haunt him.
SPEAKER_00: The guilt of his past would overwhelm him.
SPEAKER_00: Despair would kind of lurk on the edges of his life.
SPEAKER_00: He would doubt everything he had ever learned about God.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget him pulling me aside after one Bible study where we talked about forgiveness and grace.
SPEAKER_00: And there in that hallway outside the classroom, he was just so distraught.
SPEAKER_00: Can God really forgive me?
SPEAKER_00: I'm a murderer, he whispered very fiercely.
SPEAKER_00: I've done terrible things.
SPEAKER_00: Is there really any hope for me?
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't a question of possibility.
SPEAKER_00: This was a question of probability.
SPEAKER_00: Can even my bones live?
SPEAKER_00: Now God told Ezekiel to prophesy, to speak life into existence over those dry, dead bones.
SPEAKER_00: And when Ezekiel did, the bones came together, and sinews and flesh knit them together, and there they stood as bodies again, but they were not yet alive.
SPEAKER_00: So God told Ezekiel, prophesy to the breath.
SPEAKER_00: And Ezekiel did.
SPEAKER_00: And God's breath filled these bones, and they came to life, a vast number.
SPEAKER_00: And God told Ezekiel that this vision was a sign that God's despairing, suffering people need not be hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: For God is the God of possibility.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who gives life even when we think life is possible.
SPEAKER_00: Of all the things we did as a church together, Laz loved our slow pitch church league the best.
SPEAKER_00: So he would show up at every Sunday afternoon game in jean shorts and a tank top every Sunday to be our starting all-star pitcher.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: This man could soar that ball 50 feet in the air and it would land as a strike every time.
SPEAKER_00: He was so good.
SPEAKER_00: And he came alive on that field, not just because he loved the sport, but because he loved being on a team.
SPEAKER_00: He loved being a part of something wholesome.
SPEAKER_00: It made him feel alive and free.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it made him feel like anything was truly possible.
SPEAKER_00: For his younger self would never have believed that he would be the star player of a church softball team and be friends with all the Christians on the team.
SPEAKER_00: This was proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is the God of possibility.
SPEAKER_00: That even these bones could live when it was God's breath that enlivened them.
SPEAKER_00: But off the field, when reality hit, Laz would sometimes forget this.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that feeling, right?
SPEAKER_00: When suffering hits us, when guilt hits us, when hope feels far away, that's when our faith loses sight of God's possibilities and instead focuses on the odds of probability.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus arrived in Bethany, after hearing of his friend Lazarus' death, he was greeted by Lazarus' sister Martha, who we can see waffling between the faith of probability and the faith of possibility.
SPEAKER_00: If you had been here, Jesus, my brother wouldn't have died.
SPEAKER_00: I love her honest grief in this statement.
SPEAKER_00: She believed that Jesus could have saved him.
SPEAKER_00: There's that faith of possibility, but she was so upset that he hadn't gotten there in time.
SPEAKER_00: That's the faith of probability.
SPEAKER_00: She thought it was too late, that all hope was lost.
SPEAKER_00: Not entirely, of course, because she believed in the resurrection on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: She believed in eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But from this life, Lazarus had departed and Jesus had not been there to stop his departure.
SPEAKER_00: But God bless Martha, because even in that moment of grief and despair, she didn't fully lose her faith of possibility.
SPEAKER_00: Even now, she said, even now, I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.
SPEAKER_00: She didn't come right out and ask for Jesus to bring Lazarus back to life, but she's definitely hinting at the request, at the possibility.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus told her those famous words, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone who believes who lives and believes in me will never die.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the most important statements in all of John's gospel when Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus says he is the resurrection, what he means is that physical death has no lasting power over him and over those who belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: This means that our future is determined not by our death, but by Jesus, who has power over death and who gives us eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Our eternal future is full of God's possibility.
SPEAKER_00: And then when Jesus says, I am the life, what he means is that our present is also determined by Jesus' resurrection power, his power to create abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: This means that our present, this life in which we are living, is full of God's possibility.
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ's resurrection power is offered to us now, today, this side of death.
SPEAKER_00: I am the resurrection and I am the life, Jesus told Martha.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe this?
SPEAKER_00: In other words, can these bones live, Martha?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that in me hope is never, ever lost?
SPEAKER_00: She did not respond with Ezekiel's ambiguous, only you know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Hers was an unequivocal and powerful proclamation of possibility.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord, yes, I believe that you are the Christ, God's Son, the one who is coming into the world.
SPEAKER_00: When Laz asked me if God could really forgive him, if eternal life was really offered to him, if even his bones could live, I did not hesitate.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I told him.
SPEAKER_00: Unequivocally and irrevocably, I spoke the possibility of faith over his despairing, doubting heart.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, lads, I know that God can really forgive you.
SPEAKER_00: I know that eternal life is really offered to you because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in him will not perish, but have life abundant and life eternal.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus stood before Lazarus' tomb, he wept in grief, as we all do when we face the death of a loved one.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus exhibited how limitless is God's powerful love.
SPEAKER_00: Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days.
SPEAKER_00: He was well and truly dead, but that didn't stop Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Unequivocally and irrevocably, Jesus asserted his power over death, and he called, Lazarus, come out.
SPEAKER_00: And as his voice echoed throughout the graveyard, the dead man stood up and walked out.
SPEAKER_00: He was wrapped up like a mummy, as was the custom in those days.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus issued one more command.
SPEAKER_00: And this time it wasn't asserting power over death, it was a command to the gathered crowd, unbind him and let him go.
SPEAKER_00: Lazarus was to be freed from death itself and from the wrappings of death that surrounded him, freed with resurrection power to live once again, not just for the future, but for today.
SPEAKER_00: Laz died a couple of years ago, and I wasn't able to attend his funeral because I was traveling at the time, but I would have liked to be there to hear others' remembrances of him because Laz never left that church.
SPEAKER_00: Even with the doubt that he struggled with, even when despair threatened his faith, he never gave up on Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the church never gave up on him, or perhaps more importantly, Jesus never gave up on any of them.
SPEAKER_00: The best that that church could do for Laz and for one another was believe in the possibilities of faith so much that they unbound one another from the death of despair and brought one another back into the light of Christ's abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: I like to picture Laz up in heaven playing softball with Jesus, pitching his heart out with a team who loves him as he finally can rest in that eternal resurrection power of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Can these bones live?
SPEAKER_00: Can your bones live?
SPEAKER_00: You may be wrestling with guilt or fear of death, like Laz did.
SPEAKER_00: You may be swallowed up in grief or drowning in anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: You may be despairing for any hope of the future.
SPEAKER_00: Your prayer might sound a lot like those ancient Israelites in Ezekiel's day who said, Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished.
SPEAKER_00: If that's where you are today, know that you're not alone.
SPEAKER_00: If that's where someone you love is today, know that they are in good company because this is one of the core questions of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Can these bones live?
SPEAKER_00: Because it stretches us to consider exactly what we trust in when we proclaim Jesus as our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the most important part of this question.
SPEAKER_00: Can these bones live?
SPEAKER_00: It's the challenge to examine our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a faith rooted in probability?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you have a faith rooted in God's possibility?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, I am the resurrection and I am the life.
SPEAKER_00: And so I ask you, church, do you believe this?
SPEAKER_00: By the grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit breathing life into us, may we find the courage to proclaim with Martha, yes, Lord, we believe.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.