Jesus Wept
Dear Friends, Members, and Guests,
Today is my final sermon in this series on "rituals." While Adventists aren't used to framing their behaviors with this particular word/concept, it can be enormously helpful as I trust you've seen! We've covered a lot of territory.
My sermon today is also profoundly shaped by loss and grief. Tuesday, our friend and fellow journeyer, Mark Harman, collapsed at home, and died at the young age of 33. Nearly every week, his presence, friendship, kind and generous manner, inclusivity, eagerness to serve, consistency, knowledge, expertise, willing servanthood, gifts and talents impacted us all. His work with AV and service to Finance Committee were true gifts. I'm not able to get my mind around this loss—so sudden, so unexpected.
We're told not "to mourn like those who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13) and yet the gospel of John tells us that when his friend Lazarus died, “Jesus wept.” It's the shortest text in the Bible (John 11:35), and yet so packed with power. Jesus shows up days after Lazarus has passed, and we're witness to rituals that defined and gave expression to grief in that culture, at that time. So what of today? Clearly we must mourn. And also, hold onto hope. How we do both matters. Today we'll look at rituals of loss and mourning while holding onto what I consider the most comforting of theology positions when it comes to understanding death, and what happens to us when we die.
We're also going to look at the parallel universe of meaning in the corporate value of rituals around death and dying, loss and grief, and the way these reflect and give rise to hope and the will to live another day. For Christians, Christ is at the heart of all of this. Thank you for joining us today in our collective grief, and hope.
May God be with us, granting us comfort in community, and hope through faith.
Sabbath Rest and Blessing to you,
Pr Greg