March 9, 2008 Passion Sunday, All Souls' Episcopal Church

On To Omaha
John 11: 17 – 44

Our Gospel Story today on Passion Sunday of Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead, gives us the eternal issues of Life….Death….and our own Individual Journey.

Carl Sandburg wrote this wonderful allegory concerning our journey through life as we each ride on to its end. He wrote this:
 “I’m riding on the Limited Express,
one of the crack trains of the nation
hurdling across the prairie. Into blue haze and dark air
go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people
[all the coaches shall be scrap and rust, and
all the men and the women in the diners
and the sleepers shall pass to ashes]
I asked a man in the smoker where he was going,
And he answered. “Omaha.”

You and I are on Mr. Sandburg’s “train of life”……some day, the train and you and I shall pass to ashes and we will be gone. “Omaha” is our death. It is our earthly end.  But from the author T.S. Elliot, he gives us another thought about our trip to “Omaha”. He wrote:

 “What we call the beginning is often the end.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start.”

Yes, life goes on as we ride the unstoppable Limited to “Omaha”, but for the Christian, the end, “Omaha”, is really a beginning, isn’t it? “Omaha” becomes resurrection to the Christian. But, for now, we are as the psalmist said, “A wind that passes and does not come again.”

So it is with Lent. The end and the beginning are one. We began nearly 40 days and nights ago with the bizarre words, “Remember, old man, that thou are dust, and to dust thou shall return.”

Now the end of Lent draws to a close with the words in our Gospel story, “Lazarus is dead.” On Good Friday, we will hear,” Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed His last.” “Omaha gives us the “bookends” of Lent.

With the reading today of the raising of Lazarus, the vulture of death no longer circles, but he descends. We come face to face with death. Lazarus’ death was not a “timely” death either……the kind that comes mercifully after a long life, or after a long debilitating illness. The kind of death that is a merciful release.

No, the death of Lazarus from all the story conveys, was just the opposite. It was a death that came too soon…… to somebody too young……visited upon an unsuspecting family and friends who had no idea such a thing could or would happen to them. In other words, Lazarus’ death was a death “full of sting” to those who loved him deeply…………including Jesus Himself.

That it was a premature death can be deduced by the ever presence “if” that circulates, usually silently, among the bereaved. We hear this so often. Mary said, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” We all have been “iffers” and I suppose, we will be again. The ambiguity of human freedom makes “if-ing” inevitable. To :if” is human, the emotional intellectual sign that tragedy could somehow had been averted…..”if”

“If” she just had her seat belt on. “If” the ambulance had arrived 10 minutes earlier. “If” he had left two minutes later from the office, or “if” he didn’t have that last drink, or “if” she had quit smoking years earlier.

Their “if-ness” cannot be suppressed. Who of us has not shared in something like that same numbed anger, the haunting “if” that Mary and Martha make known to Jesus? And who of us, like Jesus, has not turned to tears of relief from our unspeakable pain?

Five days before author, William Saroyan (Sir’ roy yan) died in 1981, he reportedly called the Associated Press and left the following statement:

“Everybody has to die, but I have always believed
that an exception would be made in my case….
Now what?” (end of quote) 

Each person must answer for himself or herself. Now what? You see, Death  must be faced. Mary and Martha had to face it. There are no exceptions to the rule. Whereas we might hope to solve the problems of poverty or hunger or disease or the trade deficit, we will never solve “death”!

The actor, James Dean, once said, “What is the thing that you respect above all else? That’s easy! Death! It’s the only thing left to respect. It’s the one inevitable undeniable truth. Everything else can be questioned. But death is truth. In it lies the only nobility for man, and beyond it, the only hope!”

As the orientals say, “Death is a camel that lies down outside everyones tent.”

Death is the one inevitable in life……..not taxes. Plenty of people have not paid taxes: jails are full of them. But to date, no one has ever avoided “Omaha.”

So, as a passenger on the “Limited”, now what? How do we process from here? I suggest we look at some of the first words of Jesus recorded in the 1st  Chapter of John’s Gospel that were to two of John’s disciples. Jesus first asked,

“What seek ye?” Right after that he says:
 “Come and see.” And then, later, He says:
“Follow me.”

These words should help us manage our trip on the “Limited” and also how to handle “Omaha” Station.

“What seek ye?”….”What are you looking for on your life’s journey? Are you looking for courage, assurance? Are you looking for freedom from anxiety ? Are you looking for peace?

Regardless of who or what we are looking for, the answer we receive immediately is “Come and see” Come and see this unthinkable miracle in our Gospel Story: a four day old corpse walking out of the tomb. Come to Jesus…..the meeting point between God and humanity. Come and see resurrection happen, not because of Lazarus’ personal faith, but simply at the command of Jesus.

Come and see the death of death. You and I, my friends, were created to go beyond “Omaha.”
Life, as we know it, is nothing but the edge of the boundless ocean of existence.
Come and see how all “ifs” are transformed by the One who is the Lord of the beginning and the end.

And then, “Follow Me.” Come out of the tomb, allow the stone to be removed.  Forget your anxieties, and bury your timidity. Come forward to follow in newness of life, even if it means, of course, dying again.

C.S.Lewis in his “Letters to An American Lady” wrote, “How awful it must have been really for poor Lazarus who had actually died, got it all over with, and then was brought back to go through it all again I suppose a few years later. I think he, not St. Stephen, ought to be celebrated as the first martyr.” (end of quote)

On the other hand, not to contradict Mr. Lewis, but maybe Lazarus should not be celebrated as the first martyr, but as the first most memorable sign and symbol that Jesus never confronted a death that He did not overcome…..he did not defeat..or He did not resurrect.

Oft-times, we can fall into the misconceptions of saying, “this is death”, and “this is life”. We make it seem that it is very clear-cut. It is not clear cut!

As I quoted from Eliot, “The beginning is often the end, and the end is to make a new beginning.”

Our relationship with our Creator does not begin with our death. It begins now while we travel together on Sandburg “Limited.” But if a person has no relationship or recognition of his or her Creator, no communion with Christ, no faith, no trust, then, we are already dead! ……dead to the One Who is the source to true life, true freedom, true joy and above all, true peace!

Life……..Death……..both choices are presented to us now as we roll down the tracks of life.
To choose life means to continue our lives or maybe begin our lives now in a communion with the One Who created us and sustains us.

To choose life means to live for Eternity in Christ now.
To choose life is to live it!!……to give the unforgiving minute 60 seconds of distance run 
To choose life is to realize that “Omaha” will come soon enough, but to remember that we are Resurrection People, and that if our life on the “Limited” is in harmony and love and thanksgiving with God and our fellow man, we will roll on beyond “Omaha” ……..the end becomes the beginning……and we are resurrected to Eternal Life!.

“In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost”