From the Deacon’s Desk 3-29-2020
Dear Friends:
Today we hear from the Gospel of John (11:1-45) once again. Lazarus, Mary and Martha were brother and sisters. Jesus is a two-day journey away and Martha sends word to Jesus, “Master the one you love is ill.” When Jesus hears this he says to his disciples, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus and yet Jesus does not rush to cure Lazarus and Lazarus does indeed die. When Jesus finally arrives Martha says to him, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”
It seems that Jesus is being a little harsh here. Why didn’t he drop everything and run to the side of his dying friend. Perhaps he was trying to teach his friends and us something! We will never really know why, but we do know he was asking his friends and, subsequently, us to trust in him and trust in God. Jesus does raise Lazarus from the dead. And the next week Lazarus will see Jesus put to death.
I believe the message of this Gospel is hard to understand and perhaps is one of the most valuable lessons we have from Jesus. Since the beginning of time, God, our Father, Son and Holy Spirit have been with the people. There has never been a time in history that God deserted us or left us without some ray of hope. In times of great trial, like the Corona Virus we are dealing with, it’s not easy for us to understand how God works. We question why God would allow this to happen.
Sickness, natural disasters, death and other natural occurrences will always be a part of our life here on earth. It is part of the natural order of our world. Remember is that our Lord is always with us even in times of great or even minor stresses. It is a good time for us to remember to pray and ask God to be with us in a special way during these special circumstances. He is waiting to hear from us. Why not join our prayers with so many others and let God know we trust in him even now when we are struggling to understand?
Maybe over the next few weeks we can think about the times we recognized that God was with us and we weren’t paying attention or missed his message. Pray that we will always recognize when God is speaking to us and that we will all respond positively and with love!
Peace and All Good!
Deacon Jim