Have faith, you will see the glory of God

Remembering John Opara                                                                            

Psalm 62; Ephesians 2:4-10; John 11: 17-27

Lord, if you had been here, our brother wouldn’t have died!

Among all the honest prayers in the Bible, this may be the most honest… Martha, then Mary, both said it directly to Jesus, their first questions when he finally got there—too late—to heal their brother Lazarus. He was already dead three days. 

We can identify with their grief. We know God’s healing power, God’s love for life, so when death comes, it feels like a betrayal. Jesus, if you had been here… how did this happen? How could this have happened? And everyone in the family grieves differently…

We have to love Martha... normally, she was holding everything together in the kitchen, nourishing guests, holding the household together. This day, she was the first one out to meet Jesus, ready with these words: Lord, if you had been here, our brother wouldn’t have died!Like many of us, for Martha, grief comes out as conflict. If any of you argued on your way here, just know that you're in very good company. Many of us try to control ourselves or others in response to grief and loss that feels so out of control. Martha is right there, holding Jesus accountable and that's what we would expect from her... But then also, in conversation with Jesus, she expresses such deep faith in resurrection and new life. She believes more than anyone that Jesus is the Christ.

Mary grieves in a different way... She says the same words, Lord, if you had been here, our brother wouldn’t have died… but somehow, it's different. She gets through to the deepest part of Jesus, and he breaks down in grief with them. Because Jesus grieves so fully with Mary and Martha and their whole community, it is not too much for us to imagine that Jesus comes alongside us and grieves with us at the loss of our brother, father, member Johnny... We grieve for all that was so good that we shared and all that we didn't get to share, all the dreams we had for times to come...

So in the biblical story, Jesus goes to the tomb and calls Lazarus out, back from the dead. As we gathered to plan this worship, we remembered how much Johnny's life looked like Lazarus,' called back from death to life repeatedly for twenty years. After a his first stroke at 43, and in each one since… Each time, John refused to let his physical challenges hold him back... And daily, he renewed his commitment to follow Jesus with trust, and the conviction that if God was calling him to life, God must have plans for that life.

John joined this congregation the same day that I did. I began as pastor on September 1^stbut it was Reformation Sunday in October 2014, four years ago, that our group of 12 officially became members at Christ. We were a diverse group—from the countries where we were born, to our ages, and the types and sizes of our families... Diverse in so many ways, but we had a bond because we entered this community together. Over the years, John and I had significant conversations as he pursued the path of seminary and his dream of ordained ministry. He believed so strongly that this was possible, and although it did not all unfold the way that he hoped, I was always moved by his deep conviction and the way that he extended grace to others. After the birth of our daughter, he wrote a special greeting extending his prayers to us, he cared for us.

And he cared for you—your brother, your father, your husband, your grandfather… you’ll remember his guidance and challenges to be your very best, you’ll remember his humor and the laughter you shared, you’ll carry with you his hopes for forgiveness and reconciliation where that was needed, and his desire for you to take care of one another with love and commitment that matches, even surpasses his own.

It is hard for us to say goodbye, too soon... It felt like we should have had a lot longer together and we will miss John's strong voice reading scripture in such a humble and powerful way. We'll miss his presence one hour before worship on days when he was reading. We'll miss his prayers and his deep, "Peace be with you."

But even in our deep grief, we do not grieve as those with no hope, because the raising of Lazarus was a preview to Jesus’ own death and resurrection, an action that changed death forever. Now, we can know, even through the painful questions and cries to God and flowing tears, that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life… that even as Christ died and was raised, we too can expect that journey through death to unfold into new life.

Something I learned about Nigerian culture as I met with the Opara family is a teaching from grandfather to father to sons and daughters...
That John would never travel the same path twice... It was a way of staying creative, keeping safe, always following opportunities to learn from a new way. 

I am sure that if he was speaking directly to us today, John would have said, "I am so sorry for the things I have done and what I have left undone. Please forgive me... And he would say, "Love one another. Right now as you grieve, weep with one another and hold one another and care for one another across all your differences. Take responsibility for one another... Be family, be there for one another. And when you remember me, think of the good we were allowed to give to one another and receive from one another." And John would point you toward Christ for all that you need on this part of the journey, a way you haven’t ever been before…

John would point you toward the words of Psalm 62 – Only God gives inward peace, you can depend on God. God saves you and honors you… God is that mighty rock where you can find safety. Tell God each one of your concerns—God is powerful and very kind.

John would point you toward Ephesians—God is merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loves us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God’s wonderful kindness is what saves you… sending Christ to make us what we are.

And John would have pointed us to the gospel of John, where Jesus reassures Martha and Mary and all the grieving ones that Jesus deeply loves, “Trust me, you will see the glory of God…” and so today, with these words held close, we release John to God’s everlasting care. God who knows us completely and loves us completely and never gives up on us. The path ahead may not be easy, but we know that with John we can trust Jesus, that we too—as we walk life’s unfolding path, as we one day step through death to new life—can have faith that we will see the glory of God

Walking in Wonder

Mark 10                                                                                                                                                 

We realized last weekend, in a moment, that we were done with the crib. The beautiful crib that our sister gave to us, that worked so well, but let's be honest, our baby never really slept in, except for maybe 3 months of her life... We had used it for nearly two years for holding stuffed animals and sometimes as a place for a toddler to jump, jump, jump. But now, we needed to move it out because we found a play kitchen... And she's been wanting a play kitchen for months... And this spot where the crib sits is the perfect spot for a play kitchen.

Ben was ready to move it directly to the garage but something made me hesitate... Let me just reach out to Thaly and see if she knows anyone who needs a crib. And on Sunday, sure enough, she let me know that Mark knew of someone who needed it. Through Mark, I got connected to the neighbor of a brand-new immigrant family. They arrived just a couple of weeks before school started and they needed a crib. We arranged to bring the crib over to their house and carefully dismantled it so we could assemble it quickly... And then my fears started in. Our little one was crying as the crib went out the door. Was it too soon? Then, I was afraid we would break it in transport...

We went over in the dark because it's getting dark so fast these October days, and we had a little trouble finding the house number until… we spotted them. This was the house... Children peeking out of the windows & door at our slow-moving vehicle, waiting for us, expecting us. We went up to say “hi” and so many children were streaming out of the door... I brought the mattress to the walkway and two of them scooped it out of my hands, carrying it triumphantly inside. We assembled the frame and each one came to meet us and we learned everyone's name... so many “S” names, even a Sufjan! “My favorite singer is named Sufjan?” I said. “Really?!”“Yes!” Ben and the oldest teenaged boy carried the frame inside and we finished putting it together and explaining through the 10-year-old girl (also the family’s translator) how to lift and secure the side... Then, we showed this family photos of our family. And we asked the oldest boy where he went to school. "Harding!" And I explained that I knew at least two great teachers from Harding from this congregation... And then we exchanged hugs and thank yous and the 10-year-old girl brought us bottles of water, a custom that I recognized from visiting with our Cambodian members. And we left, filled up with this amazing wonder. It was the best part of my day to meet those eight children, their mother, their grandmother... And to have our lives intersect for just a moment, and to be filled with wonder about their story, past, present... and all that is to come.

In the part of Mark's gospel that we didn't read today, Jesus says some very hard things about how people treat one another. Jesus' specific example is about divorce but the point, I think, is about how we break one another and break relationships with on another all along life's way. I do not know the circumstances that brought this family to the Eastside of Saint Paul, but I do know that their neighbor called it trauma. Knowing that so many of us have been through trauma of one kind or another, does it make us fearful, critical, self-protective? Yes... But also, there is this huge opportunity that we're invited to practice compassion, curiosity, wonder.

The Columbian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez was asked by a friend... what did his think of his wife, Mercedes? Marquez, who has been with [her] for forty years now, said…”I know her so well now, that I haven’t the slightest idea who she is.” That is familiarity as an invitation to absolute wonder.[1]

John O'Donohue, a spiritual teacher and Gaelic speaker form county Clare, Ireland, writes this about fear... Fear derives its power... From the fragility of the human heart... Fear is negative wonder. It makes the self feel vulnerable and it can take away all the loveliness from your experience and from your friendships, and even from your action and your work.” (15)"Do not be afraid" is repeated 366 times in the Bible. That is once for every day and, as somebody said, once for no reason at all! (18)

O’Donohue notices: “Memory now seems to be focused almost exclusively on past woundedness and  hurt... (What if) people used their good memories and revisited them again and again, the harvest of memory that is within them, and lived out of the richness of that harvest, rather than out of the poverty of their woundedness?”(12)

And then he writes this about imagination, wonder… which might be our way to have more curiosity and less judgement, less fear and more wonder.
“Imagination never pretends to know it all. It never demands or claims an absolute standpoint, but it always relishes and celebrates the fact it is on the threshold where it cannot see everything. The kind of knowing that is in imagination is knowing through exploration... Every person, particularly the child, has incredible imagination. (20)
Imagination is also very, very compassionate. It will never take one side of a polarity or a contradiction, but it will try to weave both together and embrace them.
He remembers how William Blake said that Christ is the imagination... The prism of all difference that is. 
When your eye begins to become attentive to this panorama of [difference], then you realize what a privilege it is to actually be here. (25)

Imagination... Is about the awakening to and the recognition of the sacredness of all the difference that is. Where the imagination is alive, wonder is alive... Possibility is awake... (21)

I think that sometime in my past, I was told that the meaning of this story about receiving the kingdom like a child meant I just had to accept it, no questions, no wondering... But when I read these reflections by John O'Donohue, when I think of the children I got to interact with this week, the real children, their real behavior with all its ups and down, questions and insights, I think that wasn't the point at all.

Now, I think Jesus' words to receive the kingdom of God like a child are an invitation to greater play, greater imagination, more curiosity, more questions, more wondering...
My toddler and my big kids and my neighbors, are teaching me those practices everyday. 
Mommy, I don't like this play kitchen!

You don't like the play kitchen, why?

It's too big!

Hmmmm... But here's the great thing, it might seem a little small now,
but you will be growing and then it will be just right!

But I think I need a small, small one for my baby

Oh....and where would you put that?
Right here, and then I could play here and baby could play here.
When we enter into the wonder of the children in this church and in our neighborhoods and in our homes without judgment but with hearts to learn, with hearts seeking relationship, we enter whole new worlds... Worlds that remind us to keep our eyes wide open for all the possibilities, for the ways that things are still unfolding. These eyes help us see our way forward… with Christ who is imagination, who is compassion, and the One in whom we trust.

We are 150 years old… and also, we are at a new beginning—a brand new Deacon/Kitchen Coordinator (Consecrated and Installed yesterday), a new Office Manager, new people in the room, new giving/learning/serving opportunities, new kitchens on the way… and although it will stretch and change us to be open to all that newness, we’re invited to see all this as a path of plentitude opening before us.

A Blessing “For a New Beginning,” by John O’Donohue,Walking in Wonder, pages 25-26

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[1]Quoted by John O’Donohue in his book Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for a Modern World, page 14. All bracketed numbers throughout the sermon are referring to the pages within this same book.