5th Sunday of Lent 2023

Today I’m finishing up the series of homilies I’ve been giving this Lent on the topic of “When God doesn’t make sense.” Over the last few weeks, we’ve covered how God doesn’t make sense when God says “no” to our prayers, even when we believe our request is reasonable. We looked into why God allows suffering and death, especially when it involves a young person filled with great potential. We’ve examined when God seems to put unnecessary roadblocks and challenges to our faith in our way. Last week we reflected on how God allows unjust leaders to have power in our world.

We must remember three principles when we face situations where God doesn’t make sense to us. First, God sees the big picture, while humans only see through a narrow window. God knows the course of history and can see the future clearly, while our view of history is prejudiced and our foresight imperfect.

Then we must remember it isn’t so much that God doesn’t make sense as that the world doesn’t make sense. So much of our world’s suffering God doesn’t inflict, but it comes from our human sinfulness. God gave us free will to choose between right and wrong so we can learn to love as God loves, but we abuse free will and choose evil.

Lastly, God is all wisdom and power. We can never completely learn all there is to know about God, but there is a part of God we can understand completely. We can know God’s heart. God so wanted to reveal God’s heart to us that He sent Jesus into our world. Jesus, through His ministry, showed us God’s love, compassion, and mercy.

Today I’d like to reflect on when God doesn’t make sense because God’s timing isn’t our timing. We can see that in today’s Gospel story about the raising of Lazarus. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus was very friendly with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. When He was visiting Jerusalem, He and the apostles often stayed at their home in a village a short distance from the city.

So, when Lazarus became ill, Martha and Mary sent Jesus word and asked Him to come heal Lazarus. Since Jesus and Lazarus were such close friends, we would expect Jesus to respond immediately, drop everything He was doing, and head directly for Bethany. John tells us Jesus didn’t do that. Instead, Jesus lingered where He was for two days before finally starting toward Martha, Mary, and Lazarus’ home.

When Jesus finally gets to Bethany, He is too late. Lazarus is dead and has been buried for four days. The Jewish people believed the soul lingered in the body for three days after death. So, when Jesus arrived four days after Lazarus died, it was too late. Everyone would believe Lazarus was "really" dead, and decay would have set in. All hope for Lazarus to come back to life was lost.

Lazarus’ sisters- Martha and Mary- go out to meet Jesus when they hear He is coming. They scold Jesus a bit for His delay but profess their faith that God will do whatever Jesus asks. Mary’s grief strikes Jesus, and He, too, weeps for Lazarus. Jesus asks them to take him to Lazarus’ grave.

When Jesus gets to Lazarus’ grave, we learn why God’s timing isn’t always ours. We discover two reasons why God sometimes waits to answer our prayers. We remember when Jesus and His apostles first heard of Lazarus’ illness, His apostles believed Jesus would go directly to be with him and were surprised when He hesitated. Jesus told them thenthat Lazarus’ sickness wasn’t going to end in death, but God was going to use it to give God glory.

When Jesus gets to the tomb, He prays, but He doesn’t ask God to give Him the power to raise Lazarus from the dead. Jesus already knows God gave Him the ability to raise His friend. Jesus’ prayer is for His miracle to help the crowds believe God the Father had sent Him into the world to reveal God’s love and mercy. The miracle does that for the onlookers. John tells us it brings many people to profess their belief in Jesus.

That is why God sometimes delays in answering our prayers. God doesn’t respond right away to them because God wants to use our need to show the world God’s glory. God wants to use our turning to Him in prayer for us and others involved to grow in our relationship with God. God takes time to answer our prayers so we can grow in our faith.

It’s important to remember that, because sometimes we act like whiny children when we pray. We plead and nag God; then, when God answers us, we stop praying. We are satisfied with the results; we got what we want and move on without growing in our relationship with Jesus. God wants to show God’s glory.

A small detail in the Gospel story shows the second reason God can delay answering our prayer. When Jesus gets to the tomb, He asks the bystanders to roll back the stone to open the grave. Couldn’t Jesus have done that Himself? Even if it were so heavy, usually, several people would need to roll it back; couldn’t an all-powerful Jesus roll it out of the way Himself? Couldn’t He have just commanded the stone away from the entrance?

Instead, Jesus requests assistance from His disciples. In the gospels, Jesus often insists on help from His disciples to bring about His mighty acts, and He presses His followers to help Him provide His services. Jesus can delay answering our prayers because God wants to use our need to allow more disciples to get involved. We all recognize that, and often, when we are in need, our first inclination is to ask others to pray with us. Our request causes them to grow in prayer too. God uses our need to help others to increase their relationship with God.

God is slow in answering our prayers because it takes time to roll away the obstacles to our growth in faith, but when it does, great things can happen. This week I had a great conversation with a parish council member, and we talked about my plans for the parish. At one point, they said- and I’ll paraphrase here- "...your objective is to help prepare us to reach out to others, help them come to church, and strengthen their faith." I wanted to jump out of my chair and yell, “Yes”! Even though we have that as part of our mission and vision statements, it takes time to click in the minds and hearts of even our most faithful parishioners. That is why God sometimes delays in answering our prayers. It takes time to remove the obstacles that block us from learning; God wants a strong, loving, personal relationship with us.

As the parishioner realized this week, Jesus needs us to help remove the obstacles preventing many in our community from coming to church to learn God wants a personal relationship with them. Often they are pretty simple and easy to overcome. Some unchurched people fear they won’t be welcome in church. Coming into a church when you feel you won’t know anyone can be intimidating. People avoid church because they haven’t come in a long time and fear judgment from regular parishioners.

Others are reluctant to attend church because they falsely believe it is only for insiders. Church feels like a private club to them, and they fear they will stick out if they don’t know when we sit, stand, and kneel. Older people have stopped attending church because they have trouble getting in and out of the building. Families stay away because they fear their little children will make noise and others will be exasperated with them.

We are about to begin our church renovation project and hope to tackle some of these physical obstacles. Plans call for a new elevator to provide easier access to the building. We will create more room at the back of the church for hospitality and offer a more welcoming space. We’re planning to install new pews with padded seats. We want our building to be as welcoming as possible.

The preparations for our renovations took a step forward this week. The local historical commission approved our plans, and now the necessary building permits can be applied for, and our objective to break ground in early June seems on track. Also, some parishioners and I met with the architect to see some interior design samples. As often happens when we do renovations, there was the usual “While we’re at it, we should ….” I’m determined to keep those to a minimum, but more necessary renovations will always arise and add to the project’s price.

Last fall, we conducted a capital campaign to raise $1M to help fund the $3M total cost of the project. We slightly exceeded that goal, but considering that additional costs will be inevitable, I’m asking those who have yet to contribute to the capital campaign to consider doing so. We all need to support our parish. Maybe you have contributed, but as the groundbreaking approaches, you realize you can contribute more to the campaign.

Every Holy Redeemer Parishioner needs to take responsibility for removing physical and spiritual obstacles preventing community members from becoming active in the church. We have instituted our children’s program where they go to our parish center to reflect on God’s Word and receive instruction in the faith at a more understandable level. This program allows parents to listen to our message without continuously quieting their fidgety children. The parish is developing other plans to help strengthen everyone’s faith so we can remove more situations blocking us from a deeper, personal relationship with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Easter is almost upon us. It offers us the chance to try removing some obstacles blocking the way of our fallen away and unchurched family, friends, and neighbors from experiencing the glory of a personal relationship with God. This Easter, risk inviting those who have never been to church or haven’t attended for a while to come with you this year. Help them learn to start making sense of God and rejoice in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to share everlasting life with all who have a loving relationship with Him.