Sunset

For parishes intending to observe All Saints Day tomorrow, there is space for uncertainty in what exactly the Lectionary readings are to be. However, unless one is obsessed as of old, when "many times, there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when it was found out" (BCP page 866), it doesn't really matter, because whoever is preaching (I am not) will do his/her own All Saints thing with it regardless instead of preaching line by line through the text as I was taught and required to do in homiletics class at seminary those decades ago (mind wandering: can the happiest and most satisfying years of my life professionally, vocationally, actually have been that far back? well, my happiest years were actually soon after that, in what was for me "another country"). So the precise text does not matter, it's the Day that sets the tone, and the songs, hymns, the Day's music.   

But still nevertheless, it's too predawn early, and I'm looking at what I think the text will be, the gospel reading that is to say: John 11:32-44, where the evangelist tells the part of his story when Jesus arrives at Bethany a few days after the disciple he loved has died, Lazarus is dead, and Jesus raises him. In a loud voice, "LAZARUS: COME OUT" and the dead man emerges, still wrapped in burial cloths and, presumably, ὄζω (od-zo, odor) still stinking, emitting the offensive stench of death, as Jesus says, "Unbind him and let him go."

What's the point of the reading, a snippet from the longer story? Why do the lectionary framers not have us read the entire story, which is quite short - -. Do they actually think that Episcopalians will know the whole story? Yes, they do, and they mean for us to focus on the raising from the dead part of the story, not on elements that otherwise distract us. 

Okay, so, where was Lazarus called back from, i.e., where was he those four days? What, if anything, does he remember from that, his brief Time in Eternity? Was Lazarus happy to be called back into his earthly life? And his body is well into corruption, "Lord, already ὄζει he stinks for he has been dead four days," won't there be brain damage? This is especially on my mind these days, what exactly is the reconstitutive power of Logos in the Word "Lazarus, come out!"? 

I'm not being facetious. I realize that these things may not have bothered the evangelist, but they occur to me.

Moving on, but not far. What was, in my growing up years doing memory verses from the King James Version, here's what was said to be the shortest verse in the Bible, John 11:35, ἐδάκρυσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς, wept (the) Jesus, "Jesus wept." A God of passions who has feelings for us, weeps, sheds real tears when we die. Every word, verse in the Bible is there for a reason, what else can I draw out of this verse than that we are more than just some interesting experiment to our Creator? Idou, behold, look! he really cares about us.

And there are witnesses: ἔλεγον οὖν οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι· Ἴδε πῶς ἐφίλει αὐτόν. The Judeans said of him, behold, look how he (Jesus) loved him (Lazarus). And this is not just agape, it's phileo, affectionate, hugging friendship: he really does love us. Just so with the communion Bread when I give it to a little child at the altar rail: This Bread means Jesus loves you. Will you remember that? and most of them nod yes. I've been doing that for many years now, some of those little children are adults now, some even heading into middle age: I hope they really do remember.

But back to All Saints Day: where was Lazarus those four days? And what may we imagine Lazarus experienced, remembered, and brought back to tell about?

T

pics: Friday sunset, PCB