TAKE AWAY THE STONE

A sermon by George R. Pasley

John 11:1-45 

The summer that I was 19 was the first time I looked hard for a real summer job. Oh, I’d had summer jobs before, and they were good ones, but that summer I had to look for one.

It took me a few weeks, so summer was going strong by the time I started. My job that summer was riding along on a garbage truck, jumping off and emptying the big cans in to the side of the truck, then running the compactor and squeezing it all together so more garbage could be collected, transported to the landfill, and disposed of properly.

I started on a Monday late in June. We started at 6 in the morning, and it was already hot that day. Maybe I need to inform you that summer days in Maryland are often brutal, frequently hot, and always humid.

By mid-day on my first day at work the temperature reached 105 degrees. We had been working all day, picking up all the trash in what was then the largest sub-division in the county, then collecting all the refuse from farms scat3ered all over the eastern-end of the county, then collecting the garbage from two small towns.

Finally we arrived in Woodsboro, where our first stop was the American Legion Hall. As we pulled into the parking lot I suddenly sensed that things were going to get nasty, because the smell of death enveloped me like a cloud of mosquitoes.

You see, the American Legion had held a Crab Feast on Friday night, almost three whole summer days before our arrival. Waiting for our pick-up were barrels and barrels and barrels of crabs that had been dead for a long time, and well, I think you know what I’m talking about. You’ve ALL seen a few dead crabs.

When life stops being life it is not a pretty picture.

A few summers later I was heavily involved in my sheep shearing business, and I had a call to meet a man at a certain place. On another typical miserable summer day in Maryland I pulled into the lane of what appeared to be a very expensive suburban home. Following the directions I drove around back, and found a very old barn which was probably the remnants of an old farm that had been sub-divided and developed. An old car was parked beside the barn. The car did not appear to have current registration tags, and it appeared to be filled with garbage bags.

A tiny gentleman stood beside the car. He had the appearance of having lived in the old car. He introduced himself, and I learned that he was the sheep owner, and he was borrowing the premises. We stepped into the barn together, and I gagged.

It was like getting hit with something hard. I stepped back. I cleared my head. I held my breath and stepped in again. There were six sheep inside waiting to be sheared, but there were also an assortment of dead sheep in various stages of decay.

When life stops being life it is not a pretty picture. But I’m sure you’ve all been around enough dead fish to know all about it.

But life doesn’t have to stop all together to stop being life.

This week I met a homeless mother who has had surgery for cancer and who has now been diagnosed with Leukemia.

This week I heard that a friend of mine had been fired.

This week I heard that another friend of mine has had a series of extramarital affairs, and that REALLY disturbs me because there are at least two children who have been hurt, and maybe more than that.

Because there are at least two spouses that have been hurt.

Because when you throw a heavy stone into the lake, it makes a huge splash and the ripples go on and on…for an awful lot of people, life may have stopped being life, at least for a little while, and it stinks.

But we worship and adore a second chance God who does not roll the stone over us and shake the dirt off of his hands. No, from beyond the holes where we are buried, no matter how deep the hole and no matter how we got there or what was used for a shovel, God takes one whiff of our stink and says, ROLL THE STONE AWAY!

Lazarus had his chance at life, until death took it away. But Jesus gave him a second chance and Jesus has another chance, all clean and new from the box, waiting just for you.

Now, second chance lives are no easier than first chance lives. In fact, they may even be harder. They may be so hard in fact that we need a third chance or even a fourth chance or even more.

No problem. We worship and adore a mercy loving God.

So let me point out to you three other people in the story, who were trying to live with all the stink. We can learn from them.

The first is Martha. You know that name, her story has been told a billion times. Martha cooked while Mary sat and listened. Martha whined that Mary didn’t help. Jesus said, “Martha, Martha…”

But this is a different story. In this story, Martha identifies herself as the first Christian with these words, “Jesus, I believe God will do anything you ask. I believe you are the Christ. I believe in the resurrection.”

Sometimes life stinks and there’s not one thing we can do about it, but Martha, the woman who always believed there was something that could be done, gives us something not to do, but to remember: Our friend Jesus has come to see us in our time of need. Jesus is the Christ, and he is the king of second chances.

Remember those words, when life stops being life.

Now look at Mary. She was way more emotional than her sister. In fact, she was a little bit angry: “Lord, there was nothing I could do, but you COULD have done something, if you had CHOSEN to do something!”

But she could do that only because Jesus came looking for HER.

Maybe she didn’t quite understand everything the way Martha did, but she knew Jesus well enough to give him the truth- and look what it got her. Jesus wept.

Whatever makes life stink when life stops being life, Jesus feels the throbbing pain. Jesus has felt the gut-wrench. Jesus has taken the blow to the head. Jesus has known the hunger. We hurt without knowing the possibility of relief, and Jesus weeps right her with us. That’s a promise and you can take it to the bank.

Remember that, when life stops being life.

Okay. There’s one more person mentioned by name…Thomas.

You remember Thomas- sure you do. The one who doubted.

Thomas did not “get” the resurrection, no more than any of us would have. But in this story, before the resurrection, before the cross, Thomas does “get” something: Jesus is not taking the easy road and if we want to follow Jesus, we have to follow.

Going to Bethany meant going into a pack of wolves. Jesus knew that and the disciples knew he knew it, but when Jesus went that way, Thomas said, “Let’s go to.”

Yes, we know it was untested courage. But it was acknowledgement: Jesus was not afraid of a little stink, and he was not afraid of the death that causes the stink, and- oh my, here it comes- we shouldn’t be, either.

So let’s remember that, wherever we go. Because along the way, LIFE WILL STOP BEING LIFE.

When it does, Jesus will be right there, asking somebody to roll away the stone. Maybe we’ll be under that stone. But maybe we’ll be standing there watching, and when Jesus says, Take away the stone, he just might be talking to us.

In a few minutes Robin is going to ask you to fill out time and talent surveys, to help Love In the Name of Christ. I hope you will accept her invitation, because filling out those surveys is a way of saying, “In these certain situations, I will help roll away the stone.”

Earlier this morning we confessed our sins, but we didn’t stop there. We pronounced forgiveness, and we sang it out insistently. That was rolling away the stone, and we need to keep that stone rolled away anytime we meet a sinner in need of mercy.

Over the last few months several un-churched people have come to me and asked me to pray, and you’ve helped me to pray. That was rolling the stone away, and tonight I hope some of them will start hearing the news about the 2^nd chance God that we worship and adore.

There was a place I visited once. I took my dad along for the ride, and we discovered a little rock-strewn corner of Kansas. It looked like something right out of the old-west movies, and maybe it was. The road was crooked and there were giant boulders everywhere, most of them the size of small houses.

Life is like that. It is filled with stones, and every stone covers up something that stinks. But Jesus is not about cover up, he’s about something new and clean and absolutely awesome.

So I know there are more stones out there. Some of you work on the ferries, and maybe there are stones there that we can help roll away.

Some of you go to the high school, or maybe the college, and maybe there are some people there who are buried beneath a heavy stone. If so, you need to tell them about Mary- about how Jesus was looking for her during the worst time of her life. Maybe, the rest of us can help.

Every one of us knows somebody who is walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Every one of us knows somebody for whom life has stopped being life. Every one of us ought to pray for every one of them every chance we get, even if it’s just a breath prayer, “Lord, take care of Beth today, Amen.”

Then let’s open our eyes, take a whiff of fresh clean air, and look for another stone.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.