Lazarus

 My life has been amazing lately. God has me doing all sorts of awesome things. Last Sunday I "taught" a class on Soaking - this Sunday I was asked to do Communion thoughts at church. Let me just say at first I was very hesitant until they told me our preacher would be speaking on Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Now that's something I can get my mind around. You see, He's done the same thing for me. I get it. Not so much in a literal sense but in a figurative, spiritual sense. I was dead - now I'm not. So I loved having the opportunity to say this:

After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead he told his friends to take off Lazarus’ grave clothes and let him go. As I’ve thought about that statement this week, it’s made me wonder:

Why didn’t Jesus remove the grave clothes himself?

Why didn’t he just have Lazarus remove them?

What if Lazarus’ friends had just walked away - full of wonder that Jesus had just done this amazing thing, sure that Lazarus would be just fine now but then avoided him because he still smelled of death?

What if Lazarus was alive but not free? Saved from death but still bound - still wrapped up in his grave clothes? They say dogs smell fear, that it has an odor. So what is it that causes you to reek? Is it secrets you’re keeping, past mistakes you’re holding onto, are you living in fear of the future, the economy, what people will think of you, are you weighed down with the losses in your life or are you still angry that it turned out like this?

I don’t believe this is what God, our Father, had in mind for us when He sent His one and only Son to die for our salvation. He wanted us to have life - abundant life! Not life lived in the stench of death but life lived in the aroma of Christ - the aroma of extravagant love, contagious joy, deep abiding peace and liberating freedom.

I walked around bound like that for many years - 17 of them in this very church. I had accepted Jesus as my Savior, been baptized - but I was still walking around in my grave clothes. I was wrapped up in grief and fear and guilt and shame - the stench of which kept me at a distance from you. I thought that if you found out who I really was, where I’d come from and what I’d done you would shun me, certainly not welcome me.

I had to make the first step to freedom through confession. I had to walk out of the grave I’d made for myself by finally responding to His calling me out. I found someone I trusted and I opened up to that one person. It didn’t have to be the whole world. Who is that one person in your life standing within your circle that you could trust to help you remove the grave clothes? You may just need to open your eyes and see who it is that God has put in your path. I promise you that one person is here.

But God knew I needed all of you to love me, to accept me as I changed. You did not let either of us down. You have helped me remove the grave clothes through your open arms, by not judging me but accepting me for who I am becoming and not just who I was. This is what we are to do for each other. I wonder why we think we won’t.

I imagine there are many people sitting here in this very room who totally understand when I say I was saved but still bound. You may be sitting here thinking - that’s me - but looking at everyone else in the room thinking they’ve got it all together. Let me tell you, the majority of us are just like you. We need a safe place to be real - to get real. The church should be that safe place for healing and for cleansing and for confession. You’re longing for freedom from fear and all the rest and you wonder if it’s even possible. I’m here today to tell you - it is possible - and it is good. He is good! This is what our Father wanted for us from the very beginning. Relationship with Him. Relationship with each other. We were created for just this purpose. Full, abundant life! We need to be about loving and forgiving each other and helping each other love and forgive ourselves. Only then will we be able to love our neighbors. We need to become vulnerable in order to become approachable.
It’s really about truth and authenticity - being honest with ourselves and others. But mostly it’s about knowing His truth. In John 8:32 Jesus said that we who would be willing to know His truth would be set free. His truth is that He loves you with an everlasting, perfect, unconditional, extravagant love. This is the love that casts out fear. I wish I could tell you I’m there, that I am healed and cleansed and full of His truth and love. But this is a journey - an amazing and exciting journey we’re on. These things still rear up in me today - not nearly as often nor nearly as much. When they do I recognize them more quickly and readily as lies, and Jesus and I talk it out and move on. That, for me, is freedom.

If we, His children, are walking around debilitated by anger and grief and guilt and shame and fear why would anyone want what we have? The world wants freedom. They’re longing for it! They will only find it in Him - possibly through you.

So I encourage you today to open up to the possibility of healing and cleansing through His body and His blood. By His stripes we were healed! His body bore those stripes for us - for you and for me. By His blood we are cleansed! It was spilled to make us white as snow. Don’t let that supreme sacrifice be wasted on a life less lived. So wake up O sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ WILL shine on you!

Will you please pray with me?

(prayer for the bread)
Father - Wake us up from the slumber of self-inflicted walking death. Give us the courage to really live. Put people in our paths that might remove the grave clothes we’ve imposed on ourselves. Then put people in our paths that we might help. Help us to remember that though you died you now live and your grave clothes were left behind! As we eat this bread today remind us of the sacrifice your Son made so we might have life. Help us receive the healing it brings. In the precious powerful name of Jesus, I pray, AMEN

(prayer for the cup)
Holy Father - Abba - As we drink this cup help us once again receive the cleansing of your Son’s precious blood - spilled so we might live. Father, heal us and cleanse us and fill us with your Holy Spirit that others would want what they see in us so desperately that they will stop us and ask - what’s so different about you. Make us like you, Lord. Holy and alive. Thank You, Father. You are so very good. I love You so very much. Praise You Lord.

You wouldn't believe the response I received from this simple few minutes of truth. We are so hungry for the kingdom of God - for His truth - for love - for freedom. One woman told me my words had reached her granddaughter. Thank You God!! Another woman told me I had been talking about her life but that she just wasn't there yet. Come on Honey! It only gets better!! I promise!! So many people told me that they pray our church will begin to look like this. Please God! It is time! How do we do this? How do we go about becoming the people God designed us to be - full of love and life and light - making a difference in this dark world - seasoning it with HIS love - oh man this is my passion. I desperately want to drag everyone I know along with me - BUT GOD has His own timing. The thing is, we have to hear Him. We have to choose to respond - take one foot and put it in front of the other and walk out of whatever it is that holds us imprisoned in darkness. It may be unforgiveness. It may be anger - negativity - distrust - unbelief. It may be a plethora of things. He wants so much more for us. He wants us to be beacons to world. How can we do that and keep one foot in darkness? We can do and do and do until we're blue in the face and it will have done some good but will it change the person for whom you're doing? Or we can learn to be - just be - and the doing will come in ways we never imagined. I've found that out of my being my doing flows. Does that make any sense?

Ok, I'm done preaching. It's such a good life, this life of freedom from fear. I cannot believe I wasted all those years being afraid of things I had no control over. But I did and I'm not willing to let anyone else live there if I can help it. Of course, I can't make anyone change (that would be something I have no control over!) but I will not keep my mouth closed either.