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Dirty Discipleship

Dirty Discipleship

May 4, 2008

Text: John 11:38-44

John 11:38-44

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus , come out!" 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

NRSV

It’s very cool to be a “germ-o-phobe” in today’s society.

Go into a hospital, every five feet there’s a hand sanitizer dispenser. Go into a grocery store and there are antiseptic wipes for you to use on the cart. Go to the “home” section of a hardware or department store, and you’ll find all sorts of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the warfare against germs.

Speaking of air fresheners…Martha, a friend of Jesus, is grieving the loss of her brother Lazarus. In the story you’re about to see, Martha wishes air fresheners had been around in her day.

Martha is the only one who has the courage to say what everyone else is thinking. “Ahhh, Jesus? We want you to stop our sorrow, we want you to dry our tears, but…ah, umm: Well, we don’t want to deal with the smell. Our brother, God bless him, has been dead four days. This is Palestine, not Alaska. It’s like an oven in that tomb—the sun bakes those rocks all day. He’ll, well, he’ll STINK. We want to see the glory of God, but if we roll away the stone, mercy sakes, our sinuses will be running all day! And remember, the Jewish law says the dead are unclean, we’re not to get close to them. Yes, Lord, we want resurrection—it’s just that we don’t want to get too close to the signs of death!”

Put concisely, Jesus gives a command—“ROLL AWAY THE STONE”—and Martha replies, “THAT STINKS!”

I guess Jesus hears that a lot from us.

Jesus says, “Hey, there’s that person in your class who has a drug problem, and their life is spinning out of control. Get involved in their life, even talk to the parents if you need to.” “Well, Jesus, that stinks—drug addicts are pretty messy people, and I’m opening myself up to a lot of abuse.”

Jesus says, “Why not volunteer to visit folks in the hospital?” “Well, Jesus, that stinks—they’re sick! I could catch all sorts of things in there. Besides, it’s difficult finding a parking spot.”

Jesus says, “There are a lot of organizations that help people. Food pantries, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, inner city organizations. They could use a volunteer like you, now that you’re retired.” “Well, Jesus, that stinks—I’d have to drive through a dangerous neighborhood. Besides, I want to improve my golf game.”

Jesus says, “What about volunteering to teach a summer Sunday School class for kids?” “Jesus, that stinks. I’m gone a lot during the summer—vacations and trips and all that.”

Jesus says, “You’re getting that rebate check from the government real soon. What about giving a part of that as a thank-you gift to God? Give to a good cause, like Nothing But Nets or the Smile Train? Catch up on your church pledge?” “Well, Jesus, that stinks—I’ve had my eye set on a 46” LCD, 1080p, high definition TV.”

And Jesus, hearing our excuses, says, “That stinks! How am I going to raise the dead, if people are afraid to roll away the stone? How am I going to free the addict, if no one gets involved? How am I going to heal the sick, if no one sets foot in a hospital? How am I going to feed the hungry, if no one unlocks the soup kitchen? How will the young be taught, if there’s no one to teach? How will an African child be saved from malaria, if you’re watching TV?”

“Yes,” Jesus says, “When I hear the excuses people give, I just have to say, ‘THAT STINKS!’”

The story of Jesus raising Lazarus reminds us to always be outward-focused. If we bear the name Christian, we have to be willing to go to the unclean, unsanitized places in life. We have to understand that what we call “stink,” Christ calls, “opportunity.” Opportunity for new life to be called out of a dark tomb.

I think we, as a church, do a pretty good job of not making excuses. We haven’t grown to where we are without people willing to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. Yet, we have to remember that once we wash our hands, we often want to keep them clean.

A couple of psychology professors once conducted an interesting experiment.

They asked students to sit at a computer and type out a description of a past moral error [a “sin” we would call it, but they can’t say that at college]. When they were finished, the profs offered some an antiseptic wipe, saying they’d just used a public keyboard. Every one of the students who received a wipe used it. Another group of students weren’t offered the wipes after reflecting on their past misdeeds.

The profs then told each student that one of their colleagues was desperately in need of help in the form of unpaid volunteers for another research project. The request was actually part of their study: it was a test to see which of the now “cleansed” students would donate their time to someone in need. The results were interesting. Seventy-five percent of those in the “uncleansed” group immediately offered their help, while just 41 percent of the “cleansed” group were willing to do so. --Zhong and Liljenquist

The conclusion? Once you feel cleansed, you feel that’s where your obligation stops. You don’t want to get dirty again, you don’t want to have to sacrifice.

But we know better this morning.

We’re going to be taking communion.

Communion is the sign that we’ve been cleansed. Jesus, the one who was clean, got himself dirty for us—he took our dirt upon himself.

But communion is also the sign, contrary to that psychological study, that we’re free to get dirty again. If Jesus has made a difference in your life, make a difference in the life of someone else. He wasn’t afraid to get near our dirt, to clean us. Neither must we be afraid to get near other people’s dirt, in his name.

Hmmm. “Communion.”

Think about that.

Taking communion is not exactly a germ-free act, is it? Some traditions have you drinking from the same cup—a lovely thought if the person in line in front just sneezed.

We try to minimize germs here. It’s not an accident that we want you to see us doing this before we serve…

But still, our system isn’t perfect. These are still flesh and blood hands, and you’re taking the gifts with flesh and blood people, dipping in the same cup.

Good.

When you take the bread and cup this morning, you’re showing to the world that your discipleship isn’t about being clean. It’s about joining together, going to the tomb, rolling back the stone.

When you take the bread and cup this morning, you’re showing to the world that you’re not afraid of death and its smell. That’s because you know from it Jesus will bring life, and its perfume.

When you take communion today, you’re showing the world that you’re ready to look into the darkness of that tomb and say, “In the name of Jesus, COME OUT INTO THE LIGHT AND LIVE!”

Jesus never said, on the night in which he was betrayed, “Go, be clean, put on rubber gloves, and make the world Spic and Span.”

No. Rather, on the night in which he was betrayed, he took bread in hands that had not been washed to our standards, and said…