Life In Death In Life—Stories, Lyn G. Brakeman, Spiritual Lemons, blog post, 3/26/23

There’s a story in John’s gospel (8:3) about life-choices.The locals complained to Jesus about a woman who was caught in adultery. For this she should be condemned and stoned to death. [NOTE: The Inclusive Bible translation is: “A couple had been caught in the act of adultery, but the accusers only brought the woman.” This contemporary translation completely, and rightly, changes the slant of this story. ]  

Still, according to traditional translations used in most worship settings, we hear about the offender being female. Biblical stories are hefty, whether people take them literally or as symbolic stories. Think of favorite children’s story books. I bet they still tell you something about your personality, your soul, life’s big issues, about sins and graces. 

Sexuality is one such issue in the news daily, although sex is usually private. How did this adulterous woman get caught? You might think that the cunning politicians of Jesus’s day brought this case before him to trap him: Did he know the sin/sex-rules or not? Jesus, no fool, stooped to scribble something in the sand, such as “So where’s the guy?”  We don’t know so we wait. Jesus bought himself time to think before he offered the divine teaching/verdict, which is what these accusers wanted. He then stood to address the crowd: “Let the person among you who is without sin throw the first stone.”  Stoning, then and now in some places, was the prescribed punishment for such a sin.    

Silence fell. 

No stones were hurled.  

“Has no one condemned you?” Jesus asked the woman, who said, “No one, Teacher.” 

 “Neither do I condemn you,” Jesus said, sending her off with a warning not to sin further—not the couple, just the woman, mind you. 

This story speaks volumes about the breadth and depth of divine grace, no matter what our sins. It also speaks volumes about human vulnerability, spiritual naiveté, and ignorance about God’s love under all circumstances. 

Is it a Resurrection story?   

*  *  * *

Jesus went on his way to preach and to heal. Before long he encountered the sisters of his best friend, Lazarus. They were angry because Jesus wasn’t there when Lazarus fell ill and died. To them, Jesus could have prevented the death. A moving scene then played out in which Jesus openly wept over his friend’s death.  

Much has been made of this open expression of emotion. It tells me that we human beings have strong and, even holy, feelings, even when we simultaneously have faith that God’s grace is also always present. Jesus’ tears remind me that Jesus was fully human. Did he weep over Lazarus’s death or because he wasn’t there when the sisters needed him? I don’t know. The story tells us that Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus and called the dead Lazarus to come forth from the tomb. Lazarus is raised from the dead.

I am far less impressed by this miracle than I am by the tears of Jesus.  

The Lazarus story, however, is a crucial building block in the Christian story. It’s a springboard for theological statements about Resurrection—not as doctrine but as experience as viable as Jesus’ tears. Resurrection stories abound, and all of them create emotional intelligence that is missing in doctrinal interpretations. 

Today, I saw the first Robin redbreast strutting about on the dry un-flowered earth. Resurrection.

Today, I got a message that an old friend had suddenly died. I felt tears well up, then remembered this friend’s robust humor—her regaling clergy at a somber clergy conference with a joke about a poor guy with a highly communicable disease who had to be isolated/quarantined and fed a strict diet of flounder only. Q: Why flounder? A: It’s the only thing flat enough to fit under the door of your room. In itself, this  joke is only mildly worthy of a grin, but when this friend told it, her laughter was robust and contagious. It filled the air with sudden joy as we all fell into peels of laughter. Resurrection.  

Today, I heard from a friend in a nursing home who is a steadfast atheist. She called to tell me that she was no longer an atheist. “I’ve moved to agnostic!” We laughed together. Resurrection. 

If our Constitution were amended to include the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)?  Resurrection. 

So let’s get out there, each with our own abilities, gifts, and personalities, and let’s resurrect, revivify whoever, wherever, however. 

RESURRECTION IS  NOW. 

2021.11.14 A Whale of a Tale—And Then Some

Some will say the Bible is full of either miraculous Leviathan-like whales or old wives’ tales. In other words, it is not really real, not factual, not rational—unbelievable. It is also replete with periodic warnings that are apocalyptic warnings that make us tremble. That is true, so if you need verifiable facts, clear answers, or proofs to secure your faith you may be disappointed. Likewise, if you become too frightened to act in love, you will simply freeze up for safety.   

Nevertheless………………

When people turn to Scripture and use it to reflect on how they conduct their lives, they open up a major channel for discernment...This is not because the Bible necessarily provides the answers, but because it bears witness to how God has worked through people throughout history and it has a unique power to bring us into God’s presence. 

(from Listening Hearts Ministries, 2021) 

Scripture is replete with stories that evoke amazement. Life is like that when you pay attention to intimate details and allow them to cause your heart to glow with awe. Here’s a whale of a story for you. It was written by Sam Low in June, 2021, from Martha’s Vineyard, and entitled “Old Style.” 

Low defines “Old Style”  as “living in that unselfconscious communal way that was once the 'only style' on Martha’s Vineyard. And it's a way of life that still exists here. It’s about helping others, entertaining ourselves, appreciating what we have and how lucky we are to be alive on this special island.”

Although some people cringe at the thought of life on an island, where else could a female humpback whale witness to sacred truth?

She had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth. This is her story of giving gratitude. 

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Faralon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so badly off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her…. a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer. 

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. 

When she was free, the divers say, she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, nudged them, and pushed gently, thanking them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives.

The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same. 

May you be so fortunate …   May you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.”

**  **  **   

To be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you is a blessing. 

One intriguing biblical story (John 11:33ff) is the one in which Jesus discovers that his very good friend Lazarus has died—a fact Jesus refuses to accept. Mourners have gathered, some complaining about Jesus’s absence. Where the heck was he when this tragedy happened?  Jesus tells them to remove the stone from Lazarus’s tomb. Are you kidding? It’s been four days, and the stench will be horrendous. Without warning, the flow of the action is interrupted with a small teachy/preachy theological lecture, less likely the authentic words of Jesus, and more likely from the writer of this gospel: I told you if you believed you’d see the glory of God!  Fortunately, the action quickly resumes. Jesus shouts to his friend to come out of the tomb. Lazarus does, pretty shabby looking with burial cloths dripping from his body and smelling worse than rotten fish. “Unbind him,” Jesus instructs the gathered crowd. “Let him go free.” 

True? Believable? Threatening? I don’t know or care. The image of being unbound and freed of whatever stifles your embrace of grace, life, and faith is enough for me to stand in awe and wonder. I also imagine that the loving grace of God moved through Jesus’s own tears of love. It is the only direct emotion the Bible portrays in Jesus—openly loving and unconditional grief for his beloved friend.

So feel free to be moved to tears, and let them be your prayer.

*  *  *  *  

WHALE POWER—a gospel truth from another source

 

According to the Environmental Defense Fund, an organization to which we contribute, whales are crucial to our own survival as a planet fighting for its own life. The population of great whales in Earth’s oceans has plummeted more than two thirds, from an estimated 4-5 million in the days before commercial whaling. 

Scientists have discovered a curious fact: this decline has also affected the climate. Whale waste feeds surface vegetation, which captures CO2 from the air and deposits it on the sea floor to be stored for millennia. It is carbon emissions that limit life sustaining Oxygen out!  Our Earth has COPD—like me. 

Just one more reason why these magnificent creatures should—must—be saved. One more reason to act in love.

2020.03.29 Is Lazarus Raised From The Dead?

The biblical story in John's gospel about the raising of Lazarus, a man dead for over four days and by now stinking with rot in the tomb, according to the text, is what I might call the piece de resistance of gospel stories. Envision the headline!

But did it really happen? Who told you? The media always exaggerates? It’s a lie? Or is it gossip? Who would believe such a thing?  It is written. What for?

The family of Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary, in Bethany who had consistently offered Jesus a place to rest and dine while he was on the road as a missionary for the gospel, was now in dire need of his presence. Jesus was summoned and he came. He dropped the urgent task at hand—persuading his people of the loving purposes of their God— simply to comfort his best friends. To many, that action alone would be as unbelievable as the story of the raising of Lazarus.

Did it really exactly happen this way?  We need an explanation. Well, it was of course a literary device meant to foreshadow the resurrection of Christ.  What is truth and what is fact? You decide.

I will tell you what it means to me and why it is true to me. Jesus, at the height of his career, abandons his call from God, his ministry, his vocation to risk—risk—his life and reputation for dear friends. That I believe. Jesus saw Mary and Martha in deep grief. They begged him to help. He saw their need, but not only was it their need it was his own need. He wept in deep grief too. This I believe.

What Jesus did first was weep with them. Then he asked to see the burial place, something we often ask up front. Where is he? Can I see him or her? The ashes, the grave, the coffin, the body—any remnant of the dead beloved? There might be a mistake? Take me to see? Those gathered were silenced, awed by Jesus’s display of grieving love. He was supposed to be Messiah. They wanted a  miracle. They got love instead—Jesus vulnerable with his own loss and his own love. O God, what a wrenching helpless feeling if you have ever experienced such grief and love intimately together.

Jesus did what we all do. He looked up and he prayed. (John adds a bit of theological fringe talk, even scolding Martha for questioning his teaching and to believe the glory of God. Didn’t I tell you it would be revealed?) But Jesus prays.  He asks God directly, even remembering first to thank God, something I rarely remember to do myself. His prayer is strong.

“Lazarus come out!” Jesus shouts at the now opened tomb. Everyone waits.

The “dead” Lazarus emerges from the tomb. He staggers out, all bound by the burial clothes. You would think Jesus would have held a prayer service of thanksgiving, rejoicing, making sure the greater glory of almighty God was properly honored. Even a simple thanks would be acceptable. But no, Jesus orders those standing there agog: “Unbind him, and let him go!”

And that, my friends, is the point.