A homily by Fr. Gene
Tucker, given at Trinity
Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois on Saturday, December 17, 2011, on the occasion of the burial of William
“Bill” McIntire Schelosky.
“THEREFORE, WE WILL NOT FEAR”
(Homily texts: Psalm 46 & John 11: 21 – 27)
“Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth be moved, and though the mountains be toppled into the depths of the sea.” That was verse two of Psalm 46, which we read together a few moments ago.
Psalm 46
has been the source of comfort to many of God’s people down through the ages.
Its
sentiment captures a key facet of life for Bill and Esther over these past
years, as difficulties and challenges have mounted, and as answers to those
difficulties and challenges have eluded the best efforts of medical science to
provide. That key reality for them both
is the lack of fear.
“Therefore,
we will not fear!”
How can we
say that? How could Bill and Esther have
believed that so firmly as they walked together through the hardships that came
Bill’s way?
Here is the
answer: It is also found in Psalm 46
(three times!): “The Lord of hosts is
with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”
That same
sort of bewilderment (and perhaps fear) is found on our gospel reading for
today. In it, we hear Martha say to
Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother (Lazarus) would not have died.”
We might
need a little reminding about what’s going on here, as Martha converses with
the Lord…..Her brother had died four days earlier, and had been buried in a
tomb near their town of Bethany (which is about two miles southeast of
Jerusalem).
Since he
had been dead for four days, he was really dead, for the Jews of that day
believed that a person’s soul lingered around the body for three days, in hopes
of being reunited with it.
“Lord, if
you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Perhaps we
could apply that same feeling to our situation with Bill today, saying to God, “Lord,
if you had been here, Bill would not have died.” If only the answers and the treatments could
have conquered the power of disease and death, Bill would not have died.
Notice that
Martha affirms that Jesus can do anything that He asks of the Father, as she
says, “And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
But yet,
Martha can’t quite grasp that reality.
You see, Jesus puts her to the test as He responds: “Your brother will rise again.”
She says to
Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” This sounds a bit like “pie-in-the-sky”.
“Oh yes”,
we might say, “we can affirm that reality for some day, far in the future, but
not now.”
Jesus’ next
line is important. He says, “I am the resurrection
and the life, he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and
whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
(Hold onto
Jesus’ statement about dying, living, and never dying. We’ll come back to that in just a moment.)
Martha
still can’t quite grasp this reality.
She gives a puzzling answer:
“Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is
coming into the world.”
It is now
clear that the stage has been set for Jesus to prove that He has the power over
death, and the power to give life. He
instructs those who’ve been standing around to roll the stone away from the
door to the tomb. Once it is out of the
way, He says in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” And Lazarus came out, still wearing the linen
wrappings that were put around the dead man’s body in those days.
Jesus’
raising of Lazarus is the curtain-raiser on His own resurrection, which will
take place not many days after Lazarus’ resurrection. Again, Jesus proves that He has the power
over death, and the power to give life.
“He who
believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and
believes in me shall never die,” Jesus said to Martha.
“Do you
believe this?”
Bill and
Esther believed this, and continue to believe it. Bill believes it fully, now that he has come
into God’s presence through the power of Jesus Christ to conquer death and to
create life. God’s promises, made to
Bill at the time of his baptism, are now reality.
With St.
Paul, Bill can now say, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the
Lord.”
Let’s return for a moment to Jesus’ statement about
dying, living, and never dying.
At first
glance, His statement doesn’t seem to make much sense. In fact, it’s a whole lot like a lot of
things we read in John’s gospel account.
How can a
person die, then live, and never die again?
Isn’t the reality of our lives that we die, and that’s the end of the
story?
For the
Christian believer, the answer is “No!”
We love a God
who has a wonderful habit of saving His people.
We hear it in the words of Psalm 46:
“Come now, and look upon the works of the Lord, what awesome things he
has done on earth.”
One of the
awesome things God has done is to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to save us from
our sin, that sin that blocks our way to God.
That promise was
made to Bill in his baptism.
And though
Bill received that promise when the water was poured over his head, it would
take a lifetime of experience for Bill to completely and fully claim the
promises of God. But fully claim them he
did. For Bill came to know that he is a
child of God, dearly loved by God. Gradually,
Bill came more and more into God’s loving
embrace, an embrace that is now complete, up-close-and-personal, in God’s
presence.
Many times
we know God’s saving power as we experience difficulties. Bill certainly had his share of those, didn’t
he? And oftentimes we know that God is
not only near to us, but present in our troubles, as we look back over our shoulders
to see His presence and power in hindsight.
(Perhaps your life experience is just that way….I know that mine has
been.)
As God
reaches out to us in the person, work, teachings, death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ, we are called to reach out to Him in response. God offers us all of the richness and the
blessings of new life in Christ, but we need to reach out in response to claim
those blessings and that richness.
We can be
thankful that Bill did that reaching out to God, responding to God’s love and
to God’s power to save.
“Therefore,
we will not fear, though the earth be moved, and though the mountains be
toppled into the depths of the sea.”
For Bill
can say, along with believers down through the ages, that “The Lord of Hosts is
with us, the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”
Thanks be
to God. AMEN.
