John 11:38-44

Advent is a season of Glory!

“Hark! The herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King!’”

 “Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o’er the plain; and the mountains in reply, echo forth their joyous strains: Gloria-in-excelsis Deo…!” Which means, “Glory… to God in the highest!”

And from our first reading this morning: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we beheld his glory…!”

We have just stepped into a season of close encounters of the most wonderful kind. Today, we enter the season of Advent, and come face-to-face with Glory! And that is such an amazing thing!

If you were here in October when our Fall Bible lecturer, Dr. Richard Spencer, graced our pulpit, you heard a wonderful explanation of the unique biblical understanding of the word “Glory.” Dr. Spencer reminded us of how in the Old Testament Moses asked to know the name of the God he was called to follow and serve. And God told Moses his name, which we interpret as YAHWEH, which means, “I Am.” So God revealed to Moses his name.

Then, a bit later, Moses asked to know God’s presence. You know, leading a bunch of religious people on a weekend retreat is hard enough! But poor Moses had to lead those cantankerous Israelites through the desert for forty years! And he needed divine help! And so God became present to Moses in the shekinah cloud, and in the tent of meeting, and on Mount Sinai. And there in the presence of God, Moses found strength for living and leading. So God revealed to Moses his presence.

But then Moses asked for one more thing. At a time of great crisis, in Exodus 33, Moses asks to see God’s Glory.

What did Moses mean by that? Glory…what IS Glory? We talk a lot about Glory in this Advent season. So what IS it?

Well, the literal translation of the Hebrew word for “Glory” is “heavy.” So I guess I can truthfully say that the net result of the wonderful Thanksgiving dinner Sandy prepared for our family – and that we have been eating ever since – is that I am now much more glorious than I ever was before! I DO feel heavier! Glory!

But, of course, that’s not what Moses had in mind. The heaviness Moses is thinking about is better understood as gravitas – the weightiness of a person’s influence, power, and prestige. Moses wants to see God’s Glory because he has to know that God is worth following! If God is like all the other gods around – like all the gods people believe in that in the end leave them hanging out to dry after sacrificing everything to them – why even bother to take another step deeper into the hell of the desert journey? Moses wants to know if this God really IS God and not just some pretender to the throne, or some junior religious presence that’s all talk and no action. Moses wants to know if this God is worth following and if this faith is genuine.

“SHOW ME!” Moses asks. “Show me that you are the REAL DEAL. Show me your Glory.”

That’s what Glory means in the bible. God’s Glory is the proof that this God reigns above all other gods, and is the sole Source of life and everything worth living for.

And do you remember how God responds to Moses? God says, “Moses, I HAVE given you my name, and I’ve given you my presence. And I’ll let you get a glimpse of my Glory, but only indirectly and from behind, and protected by my hand. If you or any other human were to look directly upon my Glory, it would be like what happens to peoples’ retinas when looking at an eclipse of the sun with their naked eyes – you’d be cooked.” God didn’t use exactly those words, but you get the idea.

So Moses got to know God’s name, and to experience God’s presence. But the fullness of God’s Glory was not something he – or any other human being – ever got to see…

…until one cold night when a baby was born in a little village called Bethlehem.

By our standards, the life of this child was relatively brief – just thirty-two or thirty-three years. But in the course of those years, through his life, his death, and what happened afterwards, those who knew him made an incredible claim:

“We BEHELD…God’s Glory!”

What Moses was unable to look upon, they SAW WITH THEIR OWN EYES: the Glory of God! And history shows that those who made that claim became willing to lay down everything they had – sometimes including their own lives – in order to tell the rest of us what they saw.

You see, those people – like all of us – knew that life is defined by what you believe is worth living and dying for. Some gods, while attractive on the surface, aren’t worth following. Some values, while appealing to our senses, aren’t worth holding. Some goals, while seeming important in the moment, aren’t worth pursuing in the long run. All around us, the world is full of people who are selling themselves off to false gods, false values, and false goals. Even here in our congregation today, there are some who are connecting their lives to things that don’t really matter.

So with Moses, and the first disciples, we echo the ancient refrain: Show us your Glory! Show us that You are the God of all gods, a God worth following! Show us if the life You call us to live is truly worth living, and even dying for!

The sermon series I’m preaching this Advent season hopes to faithfully tell a few of the stories of those who came to know the man Jesus of Nazareth and who made the claim, “ We beheld God’s Glory!” We begin today with the story of Mary and Martha and Lazarus.

Many of you know how the story goes. Lazarus was dead. The beloved brother of Mary and Martha had been taken away from them. The death certificate was signed. The funeral was over. The body was in the tomb. Four days had gone by. And now, Mary and Martha – in the icy grip of heartbreak and loss – were left with the question, “Is God really God? And is God worth following?”

And that’s a legitimate question. What good is a god who can’t stand up to the tragedies of life? That’s where many of us abandon God, you know. My friends John and Grace – they gave up on God when their son John, Jr. was killed in World War II. “How could a good and loving God allow that to happen?” they asked. How could such a tragedy occur, and God remain silent and on the sidelines?

Mary and Martha are wrestling with the same question. They had sent word to Jesus who some thought was God incarnate. “Come quickly, our brother Lazarus is ill! Come and save him, just as you saved others and healed them of their diseases. Come and heal OUR loved one!”

But Jesus didn’t show up in time. Lazarus died. Jesus arrived four days later. And Mary and Martha – like John and Grace – like many of us here today – were angry and disillusioned.

“Where WERE you when we needed you?” Martha weeps. “You could’ve stopped him from dying!” Mary moans. “But you were too busy with other things!”

You and I know how Mary and Martha feel because we’ve been there, too, haven’t we? And not just standing outside the tomb of death where a loved one has been laid. You and I have lost brothers and fathers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and grandchildren, and friends not only to death, but to other tombs as well. My aunt and uncle lost a daughter to some kind of estrangement that sometimes tears families apart. They live in the same town, and yet they may as well live at opposite ends of the earth. To her parents, their daughter is locked in a stone cold tomb. Several of our church families have lost loved ones to the tomb of bipolar disorder and other forms of mental illness with which people often suffer. Dorothy and her four children lost Clint – their husband and father – to the tomb of suicide just before Christmas one year. And how many of us have people we love entombed in the crushing grip of alcoholism or drug abuse?

There are many among us who are lost to the tragedies of life – the man who loses his dignity and sense of self-worth when the company tells him he is no longer needed – the young girl left to raise a child alone in poverty because a young man loved her enough to have sex with her, but not enough to be responsible with – the strong woman who becomes weak when a heart attack strips away her vitality and all the things she loves to do – the mom and dad who are beside themselves because the child they love makes bad decision after bad decision.

Oh, we ALL have some Lazaruses in our lives.

And with the sisters Mary and Martha, we ask the question, “In the face of the tombs that hold OUR loved ones, is God worth believing in?”

 And at this very moment in the story, Jesus speaks to Mary and Martha. And he speaks to us. “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would SEE THE GLORY OF GOD?”

Glory! Is God REALLY God? Is God worth believing in? Is God worth following? Is God worth living your life for, and giving your life for?

This is a test of the legitimacy of God.

Jesus weeps over the heartbreak of Mary and Martha. Then he goes to the opening of the tomb, and there – with a loud voice – cries, “Lazarus….come out!”

And John 11:44 describes what happened. “The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’”

“WE BEHELD HIS GLORY!” they said! Can you understand why?

This God is not like the other gods. This faith is not like other faiths. This God is worth following. This God is worth living for. This God is worth staking your life on!

Why?

Well, I think first of all because this God weeps with us. This God somehow not only understands our pain, but takes it upon himself. All whose hearts are broken are joined in their sorrow by this God who loves us enough to come and suffer WITH us.

Then, there’s a second reason. This story exists to tell us that God does not give up on us even when we’re dead! This God doesn’t give up on us when we are entombed in alcoholism, or Alzheimer’s, or estrangement, or rebellion. This God doesn’t give up on us even when everybody else has given up!

And I want you to bring to mind this morning an image of the person or the people you care about who lay in some of the many tombs of life. I want you think about the child you haven’t heard from in years, or the loved one suffering with cancer, or the neighbor who is a hopeless racist, or the parent who has lost the will to live, or the many who have died and been laid to rest.

I want you to think about the people you love. And think about the world in general with all those who are entombed in the grip of conflict, injustice, poverty, and oppression.

Are you holding all those loved ones in your heart?

Now come and see what this God does even when everyone else has given up.

This God goes to the tomb where they are imprisoned. And God calls out to them…by name.

Lazarus, John, JoAnn, Clint…

This God goes to where they are, calling them by name…and INVITING THEM TO COME OUT TO LIFE!

And though we – in our limited mortality are not always able to see in our lifetime the result of God’s reaching out to those we love – we’ve been given the story of Mary, Martha and Lazarus to give us hope.

And that’s worth believing in!

Hope for those you love is worth living for! Life for those we’ve lost is worth dying for!

This God is worth staking your life on!

Oh, there are many “gods” in the world all around. Many values, many goals, many religions call us to come and follow. But the challenge Advent places before us is about a God who is different than all the other gods, and a Way that leads to life for us and those we love.

For the message passed along to us from those who found this God worth living and dying for is simply this:

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us…

 …and WE BEHELD HIS GLORY!”