Nobody is too far gone for God

Fifth Sunday in Lent:  April 6, 2014

I was about seven years old when I really started to consider the implications of Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into heaven.  I was not your typical seven year-old.  I remember sharing this news of Jesus’ resurrection with my next door neighbor.  There I was, Jack the Evangelist of Norman Drive, trying to convince my friend Russell that God brought Jesus back from the dead.  I guess I preached a pretty bad sermon because he wasn’t impressed.  He needed proof.  I had an idea.

I told Russell to search for ants—those little black things that crawl on the ground.  Meanwhile, I went to the side of the house to dig a small hole to bury the ants in.  After burying the ants, we went around to the back of the house, and I said a prayer, “Please God, take these ants to heaven so Russell may believe.”  When we returned to the burial site, we discovered that the ants were no longer in the hole.  It was a miracle and my friend believed!  It is easy to believe as a kid, isn’t it?  

It would be really easy for us adults to sit here and tear this story apart.  Did we actually go back and dig in the right place?  How shallow was the hole?  Could the ants have escaped from underneath the dirt?  The questions could go on.  It is easy for us to get distracted by the details, isn’t it?

 

In each of the last four gospel lessons from John, the main players in the stories get distracted by the details.  They ask questions that take them away from the truth that Jesus is trying to get them to see.   In the famous John 3:16 lection, Nicodemus doesn’t understand that being born again has nothing to do with coming out of your mother’s womb for a second time.  In the story of the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman is talking about earthly water and Jesus is talking about heavenly water.  So naturally they were on different pages.  

Last week the Pharisees demand answers from everyone and their mother as to how the blind man came to see again.  They just couldn’t believe that someone like Jesus, someone from Galilee could perform such a miracle.  And in today’s lesson the disciples are distracted by Jesus’ decision to forge ahead to Judea.  The disciples ask Jesus, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?"  Did they not believe that before Jesus was to be glorified by his Father in heaven, he had to die? 

 For some, it is really easy to believe and for others it is really hard to believe.  One of my favorite episodes in the TV Series LOST is entitled “Man of Science Man of Faith.”  The Man of Science is a spinal surgeon with a god complex and the Man of Faith is someone who was able to walk again after being paralyzed from the waist down.  The climax of the episode has the Man of Faith exclaim, “Why do you find it so hard to believe?”  The Man of Science responds, “Why do you find it so easy to believe?”

I believe somewhere in all of us is a man of faith and a man of science.  Sometimes it is really easy to believe.  Sometimes we throw caution to the wind and feel free to believe anything is possible in this world.  We are able to see bumps in the road as an opportunity for healing, as an opportunity to be made whole again.  But other times it is really hard to believe.  We get bogged down by the weight of the details.  We chase the rabbit down the rabbit hole until we’ve completely lost touch with reality.  We act as if that bump in the road is Mt. Everest.  We act as if that bump will throw us off track forever.

The good news is that God really, really wants us to believe that nothing has the power to throw us off track forever.  God wants us to believe that he is making all things new—even what seems impossible.  And God shows us that this new world is available through Jesus.  Today we get a glimpse that nothing is impossible for God when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.  But do we believe all things are possible through God?  Do we really believe that God is renewing the world through Jesus?

The writer of the gospel of John sure does believe and the writer of John really wants others to believe too.  In order to help his readers believe, John records seven signs that Jesus gives so that others may believe.  I am sure there were more signs but seven is an important number in scripture because it represents completeness.  These seven signs are evidence of God’s new creation, the new Eden, the new Jerusalem.  Today, we read about the seventh sign.  Jesus can make even the dead come back to life.  This has to leave us wondering, “Is there anything that God can’t do?”  “Is there anything in this world that is outside God’s control?”  “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?”

This past week I read a story that makes it easy to believe we have a God who is making all things new, a story that reminded me that nothing is too wonderful for the Lord.  The story was published in the Tuscaloosa News.  I was captured by the article because it’s not every day that a homeless man’s death makes the front page of the paper.  The homeless man’s name was Vincent.

Until the age of 17 or 18, Vincent was just like any other teenager in town.  He liked to fish.  He had a younger brother who idolized him.  He grew up in a loving family.  One day, Vincent changed.  His brother said it was like a switch went off in Vincent.  He started experimenting with drugs.  Eventually, Vincent was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.  He lost touch with his family and friends and was a drifter and beggar for most of his life.  His final residence was behind a gas station in Tuscaloosa.  

The gas station attendant in Tuscaloosa, Dawn Terry, looked after Vincent.  Dawn is known for taking care of the homeless who live in a camp behind her business.  Occasionally, Dawn would pay for Vincent to stay at the local motel so he could have a place to take a shower and rest his weary body but most of the time Vincent slept in the homeless camp behind the gas station.  Vincent was eventually diagnosed with lung cancer, but he never followed up with any kind of treatment and managed the pain with Ibuprofen and alcohol.

On the surface, there was no real reason to stop and help Vincent.  He was the disheveled looking guy who drank beer, smoked cigarettes, and hung out at a gas station.  But one day a friend of Dawn’s, Sharon Standifer, stopped at the gas station and was drawn to Vincent.  Sharon simply said, “God wanted me to notice him.”  

Sharon eventually noticed that Vincent was too sick to be on the streets and was able to get him into hospice care. He died just a few days later. Vincent did get to talk with his brother over the phone before he died but the remarkable part of the story is that Vincent died surrounded by his new family in Tuscaloosa.  Vincent died in the presence of his new family and there were people present to weep for Vincent when he died. 

It is easy to get caught up in the details of Vincent’s story.  This man drank and smoked even though he had lung cancer.  This man was a beggar.  This man was mentally ill.  This man threatened to kill his mother at one point in his life.  Despite all of this, God still found a way to bring Vincent to life even in the face of death.  After all, two women gathered by Vincent’s deathbed and wept at his passing.  These women’s tears reminded me of the detail of Vincent’s story that really matters—nobody is too far gone to be touched by the love of God.  God was with Vincent in the face of these two women.  

Our scripture lesson for today says that Jesus wept with two women, Martha and Mary, to grieve the loss of Lazarus.  Jesus wept—this is the detail of the story that really matters.  Like the Jews mention in this lesson, these tears mean that Jesus loved Lazarus.  Through the tears of Jesus, I am reminded just how much God loves us.  But the story doesn’t end there.

After 4 days in the tomb, Jesus says, “Lazarus, come out!”  The raising of Lazarus ultimately tells us that nobody is too far gone for God.  No one, not one person is outside the reach of the healing power of God through Christ—not even people like Vincent.  No matter how far gone you might think you are, Jesus is calling you to come out!  There is always hope for healing and new life in Christ.  

No matter if you find it easy to believe or hard to believe in the good news of God in Christ, I invite you to hold a prayer close to your heart as we approach Holy Week:  Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace.  Amen.