March 13, 2005

Mindekirken, March 13, 2005 Pastor Jens Arne Dale

A man was going to visit with a friend at the hospital. He stopped by the hospital’s bookstore to buy a book for his sick friend. Would you like a religious book? The woman at the counter asked him. Oh, no, he’s not that sick, he answered.

Lazarus might have needed a religious book. And the sisters Martha and Mary wanted, not only to give him a book with religious words, he him who is called the Word himself, Jesus. They called for their friend Jesus to come, but he didn’t show up. And the sisters became desperate and helpless witnesses to their brother Lazarus’ death. They didn’t command death.

Today we have better health services than at the time of Jesus. Probably Lazarus would have gotten treatment and a extension of his lifetime. Terri Schiavo is one of those who has gotten her lifetime extended. The Florida woman has been kept alive for years by a feeding tube.

But seriously brain damaged as she is, her husband has tried since 1998 to stop this. It’s against her own wish to be kept alive in a vegetative state with no cognitive function, he claims. Her parents totally disagree. Terri is not dying, only in need of intensive care, they say.

The 41 year old woman has been in the center of an unusual fight between attorneys, judges and governor Bush where medical facts, legislation and ethical values have been weapons. Today a demonstration has been planned in Tallahassee where they hope more than 100 000 people will demonstrate pro life.

People in wedlock vow to live together in good and bad days until death do them part. The example from Florida shows that with the treatment which is available today, it may be difficult to define death. I don’t want to comment on the example I have mentioned. In Norway one would say that a person is dead when the brain is irreparable damaged. But even that would be a question of judgement. But when life is at its end, we also need to respect death.

The Netherlands are renowned for having liberal legislation when it comes to death. Euthanasia is accepted, and 15000 people are helped to die by their own wish every year. Imagine one step further, there might be a time when seriously sick people would feel pressured to ask for a deadly injection in order to save their family and society money on treatment. We do need respect for life. And euthanasia is not the way to go.

We pray in the Norwegian church prayer: Help us to protect the value of human life, from its beginning to its end. It’s a genius expression which entered the liturgy during the abortion fight in Norway. It’s about respect for the unborn life, all the way from the beginning. And it’s about respect for the life which is fatally marked by sickness. The value of a human being does not decrease even if one gets Alzheimer’s disease, loses mobility or becomes totally dependant on care.

The baptismal liturgy: My God keep your going out and going in encourages us to pay respect for both death and life. To enter this life is a gift and a blessing. And we pray for God’s blessing when we have to leave this world. Frances of Assisi sings about sister death, the last helper in our struggle. She carefully provides the carriage when evening comes, and we’re heading home. NOS 281.

This hymn fits well for Ted and Fern Hanwick. After 65 good years of married life, Ted died on Wednesday of last week. The day after, Fern had a time of prayer together with friends. When they had finished, Fern told her friends: As we say in Norwegian: Mange tusen takk! Then she raised her hand to her heart and said: I feel so weak.

Just like that, she was gone, 19 hours after her beloved husband. That’s what we might call a blessed going out of this life, and a testimony to all who were present at Ted’s and Fern’s double funeral at Calvary Lutheran Church of Golden Valley on Tuesday (or read about it in the Star Tribune).

Lazarus became ill and died. He was young. The sisters Martha and Mary grieved heavily. Especially difficult to cope with was the fact that their friend Jesus hadn’t come as they had asked him to do. When disaster, sickness or death hit, we often turn to God in prayer. But Jesus doesn’t always come in the way we would like him to do.

It’s easy to do the same as Martha when she said: If you had been here…

It sounds like blaming, almost accusing, if you had been here. The disappointment may be felt bitterly: Why did this have to happen?

When Jesus finally showed up in today’s story, it almost looks like he became speechless. It’s a particular human side of Jesus which is shown by the fact that he was deeply disturbed and cried. He had the same feelings as the sisters. He showed sympathy. And if the story had ended here, it would have been a nice lesson about a sympathy and condolence visit. Jesus didn’t avoid meeting with the grieving people, he approached them and shared their feelings.

I don’t want you to present solutions to my questions, only listen to me, some would say. We need respect and to be met where we are, be taken seriously with the strong feelings we have, not minimized or given cheap solutions. A weeping Jesus is a strong testimony that a natural process of grieving has to be lived through. Jesus accepted death as a fact of life in this world. He joined in the fellowship where the mourning and the rituals helped them cope with the loss of a dear brother and friend.

In one way there's something disturbing, almost macabre, in the continuation of the story. They went to the tomb. The body was stinking after four days in the heat of the Middle East. But Jesus called Lazarus back to life. I think I would have been shocked by seeing the dead coming wandering out of the tomb like a ghost. At least I wouldn’t have had the nerve to unbind the strips of cloth by which he was wrapped.

As always in the gospel of John, there is a deeper meaning to what happens on the surface. Of course the sisters were happy to get their brother, upon whom they might have been dependent, back again. But his resurrection also became an item in the drama around Jesus which ultimately would end in plans to kill him. But the whole incident points to something bigger. It’s a sign of the glory of God.

Here he is who created the world by his word. The cry Lazarus, come out is an echo of the word of creation at the beginning of time. And it predicts the end of time, when God by his commanding word will recreate the universe. But more than everything else, this is a foreshadowing about Easter Day. The sting of death will be broken. The last enemy will be defeated. Jesus warns that he will come with the life that’s no longer subjected to the law of sin and death.

I’m the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Those are the words of the one who’s no longer subjected to death. As humans in this world, we have to pay respect to both life and death. But as children of God we belong to him who is the Life.

Glory be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716