Jesus Woke the Dead

Sermon by Rev. Mary Alice Mulligan, Ph.D.

5th Sunday in Lent: Scripture: John 11:1-45

Today we’ll hear the final sermon in the Lent “Woke” series, with another full story from the Gospel of John. Jesus is in serious trouble with the movers and shakers, and enmity against him is growing. Religious and civil authorities have already tried to kill Jesus, but he slipped away that time, because (John tells us) his time had not yet come. However, when we gather next on the Sunday of Palms and Passion, Holy Week will have begun. In preparation for those crucial events, today we hear the story of the resuscitation of Lazarus after he was four days dead. Those of us who have been around any church during Holy Week in the past will hear familiar pieces in this scene today. There is a tomb near Jerusalem, a cave covered with a stone which is rolled away. Jesus cries with a loud voice, grave cloths are discussed, and we hear the question, “Where have you laid him?” Line after line in the Lazarus story foretells another death, signaling Jesus’ time has come. The Gospel writer sets up the scene, so we realize as Lazarus comes out of this tomb, another tomb is getting ready for Jesus to enter. Now again we hear John’s familiar invitation to us, “Come and see.” Take time to read John 11:1-45.

Have you noticed, there are lots of ways people can be dead? Not breathing is only one way not to be alive. Take how we might respond to some huge failure. We put all our eggs in one basket, like getting a particular promotion that we deserve. Everyone knows we are in line for it. Or we’ve collected all our financial pieces to get a mortgage for the perfect house we can comfortably afford, but then something happens. Someone else gets the job; the mortgage falls through and someone else buys our perfect house. We can feel stunned, almost unable to move by the disappointment.

We can even feel dead by events nowhere near as personal as these examples. We can just get caught up listening to talking heads, day after day, the suddenly sink into a deathlike trance of depression. All the fatalistic talk of climate catastrophe. Or the weekly addition of a new attack on Florida’s education system. Or feeling like something horrible is going to happen and we can’t stop it. This doomsday sense can tie us up in knots, keeping us from feeling anything. So we end up spending half our time in bed and half in front of the television, flipping back and forth between CNN and the Hallmark Channel. If someone asks how we are feeling, we don’t know what to say because we don’t feel anything. We don’t have to stop breathing and be cold to the touch in order to feel like we are not really alive. There are lots of ways to be dead.

But we are alive. Jesus calls us to life. Each of us has been called by name to “Come out.” Leave the funk behind and be filled with new life. Remember how Jesus called his first disciples to “Come and see”?  We need to see what Jesus does. His life is the life he has called us to, also. So our response from watching Jesus is for us to take care of the hurting, as Jesus did. I love that Jesus tells those keeping watch at Lazarus’ tomb to “unbind him.” Follow Jesus’ lead and figure out what binds people, what holds them down. Then get to work taking off what ties them up. Or come and see how Jesus speaks God’s love to those who have never heard it before. Then figure out who around us is yearning to hear the outstanding message that God’s love extends even to them.

Last Sunday, Rev. Vertigan reminded us that even though we feel like we understand Jesus’ teaching, we need to be careful not to get too self-confident. We actually don’t know everything. We can be as unable to see as anyone else. So, we need to keep listening, to keep stretching ourselves to see, to learn, to try new ways of serving. When we continue to follow Jesus, listening to his teachings, he shows us that the least, the lost, and the most vulnerable around us are real people who need to be treated as equals. If we are truly awake, we learn to serve in ways which spread life all around, so we are all blessed by the love of God among us. We are called to wake up and live.

But then, we must keep waking. Every day, we need to be more woke. There’s that word again. Woke. What does it mean? We hear lots of people claiming they are anti-Woke, but who is pro-Woke? And how does anyone define it? One of those talking heads reported our Governor’s General Council is quoted as saying in court that Woke is “a view that there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to have policies to address [them].” Can that be accurate? Sounds like he is saying that “Woke” is the view that there are systemic injustices in our society and we need to have policies to address those injustices. And our Governor is anti-Woke? If Woke is claiming our government should be reaching out to those unjustly treated, then I am Woke, church! And my guess is, you are too.

So, each of us can wake up each morning asking ourself, “Do I just want to be breathing today? Or do I want to be woke?” If we want to be woke, then pick something to do that follows more teachings of Jesus aimed at easing life for those unjustly treated, or better yet work to correct the systemic injustices. Or, we could choose to read something that matters – not some depressing end of the world drivel, but something to educate us toward justice. We could start with the Constitution.

Or we could go to the weekly Brady Gun Protest.

Or show up at a school board meeting.

Or write a letter to the editor.

Or Wear Black on Thursdays.

There are individual tasks we could choose to do every week, aimed at making justice.

But there are significant “Woke” things we can choose to do as a congregation. We started when we filled up a white board with ideas to help educate our children, but there are lots more.

As more legislation takes aim at the queer community, we could publicize and hold a “Drag Yourself to Worship” Sunday, encouraging anyone who wants to (and perhaps anyone who wants to dress in solidarity) to come in drag. We might be able to find queens and kings willing to lead worship, join the choir, read scripture, offer prayers. What a day of rejoicing we could have!

Or we could get the monthly Monday movie night going, but especially aiming it for our neighborhood children, to help them learn things they can no longer learn in school. What energy the St. Andrew congregation could stir up if we keep being Woke.