Ensign: Eighteen Days to Christmas, I SO Want To Write About Pearl Harbor
All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 7 December 2012
My mom died Sunday night, but we'll get to that.
It is not as frustrating as I thought it would be that I'm not going to the funeral for my mom in Harlan, Kentucky. I asked a friend of mine who lives closer than I and my family do to please go in our stead, and she said she would be glad to. I'm amazed I can still engender such … love, for want of a better word, that I can ask someone states away for help and they're glad to. It often takes the death of a loved one for us to appreciate life and how short a time we have on Earth. (A tribute and more to Pearl Harbor, attacked seventy-one years ago.)
The raising of Lazarus from the eleventh chapter of John is one of my favorite Bible stories, not so much because of what happens in the story but because, from my standpoint, it's almost funny! My wife is named Martha, her sister's name is Mary, and the church we go to is called Bethany Lutheran Church. (“Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.” 11:1) I joke that when I read this story I wonder if that makes me Jesus, Lazarus, or the Jews!
I think I've narrowed down it does NOT make me Jesus … certainly being born in a manger, being used by God to feed multitudes, dying on a cross, and never sinning is out of my reach. Does it make me Lazarus? Possibly … I was dead and restored to life, though not literally as you see in chapter 11 (verse fourteen's pretty blunt, “Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.”), even though I admit I've often felt dead. And the Jews? In the context of this story, I don't believe I have the urge to stone or otherwise kill anyone today.
But you can never know … say what you want of Martha (she's the sister who asked Jesus in paraphrase why He wouldn't ask Mary to help her on an earlier visit, Luke 10:38-42) she's the one out in front who asks Jesus to do something rather than “just” sits to listen to Him. Martha went to meet Him (20), said if He'd been there Lazarus would not have died (21) and stated that even then, she knew that whatever Jesus asked of God, God would do for Him (22).
So just what do I want to ask God to do for me right now? It sounds selfish and un … Christian to even ask the question, since I've figured out it's a physical impossibility to get to the funeral home for tonight's service (but you CAN sign the guest book, see the link below) and I don't want to ask what's often a staple question, to bring her who's dead back to life. We know she wouldn't want that. We don't hear much talk of a “Bethany experience” in the same vein as a Damascus experience – Saul's conversion to Paul in Acts chapter nine – but there is one.
Many, actually … because the resurrection occurs in us. So far you and I don't qualify to be raised physically from the dead, but Lazarus whom Martha and Mary had full faith would (and did, but please read the rest yourselves), and then came Jesus' caveat, verses twenty-five and twenty-six, emphases mine: “I AM the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth IN ME shall never die. Believest thou this?”
Martha had already said in verse twenty-four, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus says He IS the resurrection, so Martha's saying for you English geeks, “I know that he shall rise again IN JESUS.” That is just so exciting, so weird but so exciting! My family and Mom's friends and I don't have to wrap our heads around that any more than we have to comprehend the theory of relativity, we just have to be able to answer “Believest thou this?” with a resounding YES. I don't always feel like it, but I can answer that YES too.
Martha had already said in verse twenty-four, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus says He IS the resurrection, so Martha's saying for you English geeks, “I know that he shall rise again IN JESUS.” That is just so exciting, so weird but so exciting! My family and Mom's friends and I don't have to wrap our heads around that any more than we have to comprehend the theory of relativity, we just have to be able to answer “Believest thou this?” with a resounding YES. I don't always feel like it, but I can answer that YES too.
How many angels do dance on the head of a pin, anyway?
David
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