SUBURBAN DISPOSAL

Henrietta United Church of Christ

Rev. David Inglis John 11:20-27, 38-44, dramatized

Easter April 16, 2006

“Rehearsing our Resurrection”

In his book The Life You’ve Always Wanted, John Ortberg describes one of his parishioners, who, unfortunately for John, came to church almost every Sunday. Hank, as we'll call him, didn’t smile easily, and when he did, the smile often had a cruel twist to it, and came at someone's expense. Hank made it a point not to affirm anyone. He believed that if you compliment someone, it might lead to a swelled head. Hank took it upon himself to establish a ministry of cranial downsizing.

Hank’s native tongue was complaint. He carried judgment and disapproval the way a prisoner carries a ball and chain. Although he went to church his whole life, he never used the key of faith to get unshackled.

A deacon in the church once asked him, "Hank, are you happy?"

Hank looked at him blankly and replied, "Yeah."

"Well, tell your face," the deacon said. But apparently Hank's face never got the message.

One of Hank’s pet complaints was the music in the church. "It's too loud!" Hank protested—to the staff, the deacons, the ushers, and to the innocent visitors to the church. One day a rather embarrassed agent from OSHA—the Occupational Safety and Health Administration—showed up at the church to follow up on a complaint about the decibel level of the church music.

His children didn’t really know him, and he didn’t really know them. His son had a wonderful story about how he met his wife at a dance, but he never told his father because Hank didn’t approve of dancing. Hank criticized and judged and complained, and his soul got a little smaller each year.¹

Doesn’t it sound like Hank’s spirit was stuck in a cold, dark tomb somewhere? Maybe he needed Jesus calling to him, “Hank, come forth! Don’t you know you weren’t created to be a caterpillar with your out-of-joint nose so close to the dirt that’s all you can see? God made you out of butterfly material! Find that butterfly inside you, and come forth and fly!”

Do you know how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly? After the caterpillar spins its cocoon, its body and all its organs break down into a formless soup. But within this lifeless mush are a few cells that scientists call “imaginal cells. It’s as though their molecular structure has the “imagination” for a whole new creature. And as these imaginal cells begin to gather themselves together, a genetic code wakes up. These imaginal cells use the old carcass as their nutrition, and they multiply and grow into a new body, a beautiful new winged creature that seeks its way to freedom and flight and migration--things that the caterpillar knew nothing of.

I wonder if Lazarus might have gone through something like that spiritually while his body was in the tomb for four days. Don’t you suppose his old earth-bound fears and anxieties and disappointments broke down and died? Maybe his spirit’s imaginal cells took over, and reorganized his whole being in a way that was totally free of fear, loss, death, guilt, or suffering.

In Eugene O'Neill’s play "Lazarus Laughed," Lazarus stumbles out of the tomb, blinking in the light. After the grave clothes are taken off of him he begins to laugh– a gentle, soft laugh–a bubbling, wonderous, joyful sound. And he just laughs and laughs and laughs.

Then he tells the amazed crowd,

There is no death. There is only life. There is only laughter...the laughter of God soaring into the heights and the depths. . . .Death is not the end, it's not an abyss or the entrance into nothingness or chaos or punishment. Death is a portal, a passageway into deeper and brighter life. Eternal change, everlasting growth...that is what lies ahead. There is only life sisters, nothing but life. the grave is not what you think it is. It is literally empty...a doorway, not destruction.²

He goes about laughing and living in complete freedom from any fear, much to the consternation of the dead-serious town fathers and the cruel Caligula, heir to the Roman throne. Caligula threatens him with torture and execution. But Lazarus looks into his face and laughs softly, and says to him, "Death is dead, Caligula, Death is dead!"

Lazarus is the same man who had died. But his imaginal cells have rearranged his life. Now he knows how to fly free in laughter and love.

This is our potential and our destiny as spiritual beings. Why do we so easily get stuck at the caterpillar stage.

I think of people like George, who’s been with the same company for over 20 years ago. If he’s honest he’ll tell you that he hates his job. He’s tired of the routine, tired of the politics, tired of the pettiness, tired of the pressure.

“So, have you ever thought about trying something else?” you ask him.

“Well, this is what I’m trained to do. It’d be the same anywhere else. Good jobs are hard to find. With the kids getting ready for college, I can’t take any risks. I can’t afford to lose my benefits.” He’s got his reasons for staying stuck all laid out. In the meantime he’s gaining weight physically, but he’s malnourished spiritually, and you can see a little more life draining out of him every year.

He needs to hear Jesus say to him, “George, come forth! Don’t you know you weren’t created to be a caterpillar, grubbing for security and benefits all your life? God made you out of butterfly material! Find your imaginal cells and organize your life around the gifts you would love to develop and offer to the world. You can fly as soon as you believe that success isn’t sticking with what you hate but giving what you’re created to give.

I think of people like Sandra, who was driving her three-year-old daughter Kristin to day care one morning. Kristin was crying because she didn’t want to go, and Sandra was distracted trying to calm her down. She didn’t see the light turn red. A pickup slammed into Kristin’s side of the car. Kristin survived, but she got a bad head injury, and now she’s behind the other kids her age mentally.

Sandra wasn’t seriously injured physically, but her spirit hasn’t recovered five years later. She blames herself for not seeing the red light. She blames herself for working outside the home in the first place and putting Krisin in day care. She blames herself for not having a car with side air bags. Any frustrations that Kristin has in learning to read or socialize or ride a bike Sandra takes responsibility for herself. She lives under a heavy burden of guilt and self recrimination.

She needs to hear Jesus say to her, “Sandra, come forth! Don’t you know you weren’t created to be a caterpillar, groveling around in guilt and remorse? God made you out of butterfly material! Find your imaginal cells, so you can love Kristin unconditionally, as she is, as I love you; so you can teach her the wonders of living, and give her confidence in herself, and help her find the courage to face the challenges she has to deal with. Kristin doesn’t need a remorseful caterpillar for a mom. She needs a butterfly of a mom who can help her find her own wings, because there’s a butterfly in her too.

I think of people like Beatrice, whose teeth, beauty, stamina, friends, and smile are pretty much gone. What has taken their place are partial plates, pains, pills, and lots of complaints. Every time you talk to her, she recites her long list of all the things she’s lost. She’s just waiting to die. Yet you look around her and see pictures of smiling great grand children and the cheery drawings they have made; you see her dog looking at her expectantly; you see daffodils springing up outside her window.

Maybe she needs to hear Jesus say to her, “Beatrice, come forth! Don’t you know you weren’t created to be a caterpillar, crawling around in your own complaints? Heaven won’t come to you by you grimly waiting for death, but it will open to you now as you savor every drop of heaven that’s offered you in life. Call your great grandchildren on the phone. Call up your ailing friend in the nursing home, but try to out-do her in gratitudes instead of bad news. Tickle your dog’s belly and throw him a ball. Smile back at the daffodils. How will your eyes be able to stand heaven’s wondrous light after your death if you can’t behold any of it before your death?

I think of people like me and probably many of you. We race on our little caterpillar legs from one leaf to another. There are so many leaves to taste, to finish off, to scratch off our to-devour list, and so little time. And if we don’t hurry, something bad is likely to catch us and eat us up. What is that menacing monster that threatens to catch up with us and overtake us? Is it time? Inadequacy? Loneliness? Whatever it is, it drives us to exhaustion.

We need to hear Jesus calling to us, “Dave, Joan, Charlie, come forth!” Don’t you know you weren’t created to be a caterpillar, driven by the endless deadlines, duties, details, and diversions? God made you out of butterfly material! Find your imaginal cells and organize your life around the things that link earth and heaven, time and eternity. Make room in your relationships for love to grow as it is given and received without agendas and conditions. Make space in your schedule to savor, explore, appreciate, ponder, and play. Make Sabbath time in your week to just be, to pray, to worship, to give thanks, to be inspired. Make space in your life to seek, question, learn, and grow. Spread your wings, and let your body and mind be linked to your heart and soul. Let your doing come from your being. Let your work flow from your gifts. Let your words speak the language of love. You are a child of the Eternal. Your purpose isn’t to race through life and cover as much ground as possible. Your purpose is to find as many ways as you can to link your mortal life with the eternal.

For me, the real message of Easter doesn’t stop with Jesus being raised from the dead. It’s not, “Good for Jesus; at least someone made it out of the grave.” In John 5, Jesus says,

Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. . . .Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and. . .has passed from death to life. (John 5:21, 24)

“Anyone who hears my word.” What are his words? They are words of infinite love, grace, forgiveness, life, light, freedom, compassion, peace, healing, hope, truth, and joy. Can you feel those words of life stirring your imaginal cells to life? Don’t those words help us glimpse our butterfly potential, and summon us out of our tombs and into life anew?

“Believing him who sent me” means believing that the God who created the earth, the oceans and the air and all that crawl and leap and swim and fly in them, the God who was so visible and compassionate and accessible in Jesus, the God who brought you into this world and who knows you by name, the God who is over you, around you, in you, and even works through you, didn’t create you for crawling through your life held down by your shortcomings, worries, regrets self-doubts, distractions, or losses. God created you for eternity. And just when do you think eternity starts? Hasn’t it already started? If we don’t start living in the love, freedom, hope and joy of eternity now, what makes us so sure we’ll be ready for it later?

So listen from inside whatever tomb you find yourself stuck in today. Do you hear a voice calling your name? “John, Mary, Stan, Martha, come forth! God didn’t create you to be a caterpillar. You are created out of butterfly material! Today is your resurrection day! Eternity has already started. Come forth, find your wings and fly.”

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