Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45. (The sermon is based on the Gospel only)
May I speak in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Hello everybody and may I find you safe an with hope.
I have chosen two sentences to be in the centre of our talk. the title of my short talk. The first belongs to Thomas who said to his fellow-disciples: Le us go that we may die with him. The second belongs to Martha who said to Jesus: I know that he will rise again. I do not want to focus on Lazarus, who is raised from the tomb. I invite you to focus on the message which Jesus sent to us trough this event, narrated by John.
I have read a few articles about what could happen to the society, to us in this time. All writers agree that we, our society never will be the same.
For me, Thomas is the most enigmatic disciple of Jesus. He is not presented very active in the Gospels, but has a few intervention which are able to put us to stop to speak about what we know about Jesus and his message and to think with a humble hearth.
In today’s Gospel, the disciples want to stop Jesus to go to visit Mary and Martha, because he was hunted by the Jews to be killed. We do not know what the others disciple said after Jesus told them that Lazarus died. We know what Thomas said: “Let us go that we may die with him”.
We know that they did not died, not then, but certainly their previous knowledge about Jesus died to give space for a new knowledge. Their relation have been changed for ever. They are no longer the same in understanding what happening to them.
Now, we are, almost all of us, isolated in our houses. Other people work hard to keep the nations of the world alive. They are those involved in NHS, caring houses, food supplying chain, the farmers preparing the new crops, the energy suppliers etc. We start to live in a different way. For all of us one question is important how we will be after? How we will go out from this?
We arrived in a moment when part of how we know our world, our society will die, will change. Our relations will be different. Now, we are face to face with a simple truth: how helpless we can be without God and without each other.
Even now we are tempted to think like Martha and to say: ”I know” how will be after; I know how God works for us; I know why that is happening and so on. It is evident that Martha did not understand what Jesus said to her, but she will live to see. But, for that, she has to clean, empty hear mind by what she knows and to accept to see and accept what she live.
A classic sermon offers a solution for a better understanding of the Gospel. Today I will not offer one. I will make a simple, but challenging invitation. Let us die for the old world, for our egoism, for our sins and make space for a renewed society and a renewed personal life. When we do that, let’s humble ourselves and accept how less we know in order to be able to learn more in this hard time: about others, ourselves and God. How we can do that? I do not want to suggest any ideas. We, all of us know ourself. Just be humble and live with open eyes, open mind and hearth, in this time, in order to be prepared for what will follow.
God bless us! Amen.