Recalled to Live

 

Recalled to Life. Chapter One of "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. 

“Recalled to Life” is the title of the first section of Charles Dickens’s classic novel, “A Tale of Two Cities.” In that story - spoiler alert - the person ‘recalled to life’ was a prisoner held incommunicado, indefinitely, in a prison of the old French regime before the Revolution of 1789. He is ‘recalled to life’ from his imprisonment, and is reunited with a daughter he last saw as a toddler.

This is an example, drawn from classic literature, of a transformation of a life from a living death to a life lived in the sunlight of freedom. Another example, from another novel of Charles Dickens, is that of Ebenezer Scrooge, in “A Christmas Carol”, who lived in a dungeon of his own making until he was brought into a fuller life by, yes, loving relatives, but more by the spirits of the holiday, and by the examination they provoke, confronting him with his past disappointments and failures, and his own choices that had led him into the cramped cold corner he had been making of his life. 

Scrooge, unlike the prisoner in the first tale, was not imprisoned by others. But he is freed, nevertheless, and restored to a fullness of life. He is still an old man, but a happy one.

Of course what recital of near-death resuscitations in popular culture would be complete without the words of Miracle Max from the now-old movie, “The Princess Bride”. Confronted with the challenge of reviving The Man in Black, he makes a key observation. His friends think The Man in Black is dead. But Max says, “Your friend here is only mostly dead.There is a big difference between mostly dead and all dead… Mostly dead is slightly alive.” And begins his bogus but effective curative efforts. 

But few Bible commentators would agree with the proposition that Lazarus, whom Jesus raised, was only mostly dead. In fact the evangelist makes the point clear when “Martha, the sister of the dead man, said, ‘Lord, the smell will be awful! He’s been dead four days.’” (John 11:38b) The tradition was that after four days a person was surely all dead. 

Lazarus is dead. Now Jesus begins to work, when all earthly hope is gone. And he has said to the grieving family and their friends that the delay in reaching the deathbed until too late for Lazarus to recover would provide an opportunity for them to believe, to have faith, and to see God’s glory. 

This is a partial answer to the vexing question, why doesn’t God save everybody? Why does anybody have to die? In the case of the man born blind, Jesus said that affliction was not due to anyone’s sin, not a punishment, but an occasion in which God’s glory could be shown.

And here he goes again, healing somebody, and he says this too is an occasion to see God’s glory, and to receive the gift of faith. It is not a fix-it situation. 

That is hard to say. Causes a wrench in the gut. Why not heal the poor guy? He does, of course, this time…

Jesus’ ministry of walking around Palestine, Galilee, Samaria, Judea, and beyond those borders, was one of proclamation of life, and of a fullness of life, that became possible as people began to accept the limits and truth of their own folly and hardness of heart, as with Scrooge, with the call of love, as with that cast of clowns in the old movie, with the injustice and redemption again of the people in “A Tale of Two Cities”, and with us, as we begin to receive the words of life in the midst of death, mostly dead or even all dead.

One well-worn Bible study technique is to listen to a passage being read, then call out key words or phrases that have struck each person in the group. When I listened in on a Zoom Bible Study about the Raising of Lazarus the words that called out to me were “dead, dead” and “life, life”. 

Jesus calls us to turn from death to life. From the death-bringing patterns of our past to the freedom he brings to us in his own gift and sacrifice. We are to be “recalled to life” and enter into the fullness, however painful, of that restoration, to the people whom we are called truly to be.

Almighty God, your Son came into the world to free us all from sin and death. Breathe upon us the power of your Spirit, that we may be raised to new life in Christ and serve you in righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Lutheran prayer for the Fifth Sunday in Lent)

The Rev. John R. Leech, D.Min., is a priest associate at the Episcopal Church of Saint Matthew, Tucson, and a frequent guest preacher in southern Arizona churches.

• Ezekiel 37:1-14

• Romans 8:6-11

• John 11:1-45

• Psalm 130

http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Lent/ALent5_RCL.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAcRvlTZDv8

https://youtu.be/ZTggSdU8pFw

Miracle Max (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4ftmOI5NnI)

“Breathe on me, Breath of God” Hymn #508

trash

 So here’s the story as best I remember it from Sunday afternoon of the Tucson festival of books: Luis Alberto Urrea told us about Negra and her daughter Nayeli whom he first met when Negra was seven years old and living in the trash dump in Tijuana, where he was a relief worker, and he became friends with her and has known her ever since but when he went back years later with an NPR radio crew to interview her and her family, they decided to have something special to eat and they had shrimp but this was the first time Negra’s daughter Nayeli had ever had shellfish and she went into anaphylactic shock so they jumped back in the NPR van and drove back into Tijuana in search of a clinic and they came to one. This is her only shot to save her… he was holding her and she was getting cold. She was hardly breathing and they got to the clinic and then went to the door and the doctor came out, put his hand up and halted them: No, Indio, she is Indian, and we won’t treat her here. At this point, Luis learned about the power of the media, he says, even for a small one, a forgotten one, like Nayeli’s daughter, the Indian girl from the dump. The NPR producer had his microphone with him. He pulled it out, put it in the doctor’s face and said, do you mean to tell me and you mean to tell our audience, our large audience in the United States, in Mexico, in Canada, in Latin America, in Europe, and in Spain that you won’t treat this girl because she’s Indian?! Oh you misunderstood me he said, and then he treated her and her life was saved, the little one the forgotten one. I want to remember that story because our Lord was both the little one and the Savior in his own story. Will you look at David who is the shepherd? He was the forgotten one, the kid they always just left out in the field when something important was happening and it was God’s prophet who made sure he was in the picture … so Jesus, from this small little village, on the edge of the empire of the time on the edge of Israel became the savior of his country and of humanity, and he did it not forgetting that he was both lamb and shepherd. When we look at Psalm 23 “the Lord is my shepherd” and then we listen to the gospel, we may want to remember not just the ninth chapter of the gospel of John but the 10th, which is when Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep and my sheep know me …. he know he says as a shepherd, my sheep know my voice. And elsewhere he talks about the shepherd going after the one lost sheep and leaving the 99 behind to search for that lost one sheep… so I tell the story because it relates to our Old Testament lesson and our Psalm and our Gospel reading because we are often in the place of Jesus, of being in God's hands as he works in the world: we are the ones who are called to not forget the little one, to be oh, assistant shepherd, as it were, to go after the last little one, and bring it back to life.

Garbage: at the Tucson festival of books, Sunday afternoon, 5 March 2023, Luis Alberto Urrea told us about this episode in “this American life” — on the experience of people who live in the trash dump in Tijuana. Another episode in this true story is found online at:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/249/garbage 

beloved

 If you are the Son of God…

How does Jesus deal with this challenge to his identity, security, faith? his place in the Father’s heart? By recalling the words of God by which he lives. 

 “You are my beloved Son.” You are God’s beloved child. 

Nothing can break that bond. 

And from that bond comes the good news for all of us. For we are God’s beloved children too.

There are lots of good commentaries that talk about the temptations: to satisfy immediate self-interest, to display power, to sell out for the illusion of power over others. 

There are fewer that focus on what Jesus said. But after all, all those Bibles with the Words of Christ in Red feature what Jesus said. And what Jesus said is what turns this around, night into day, and transforms, potentially, us. 

One does not live by bread alone,

  but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)

Jesus reminds us that we are dependent on God, not our own merits or powers. We are not dependent on material things. Difficult as it may be to live without our daily ration of what we daily need, someday we will not have that ration, maybe for a day, a fast day or a day without, but the day will also come when we will not have it forever. Ash Wednesday, and Lent, are about more than temporary deprivation, hard as that may be, or voluntary abstinence. The fast of Lent is about more than that. It is about the inevitability of death.

And it is about Life. The fast of Lent does not end on Good Friday, with Jesus’ death. It does not end on Holy Saturday, with his body entombed below a stone. It ends with Easter. It ends in life. It ends in the resurrection, the hope of resurrection for all people, that began on the third day after Jesus’ execution.

Death is not the winner. But we need to take account of what happens before eternal life begins. 

In this world, in this life, there is plenty of death and pain to go around. We do not need much reminding of that. But we do need to remember that we are not dependent on this world’s bounty, this life’s abundance; we are dependent on God alone, and his Word, his Word who is Jesus.

***

When he spoke at a preaching conference in San Francisco, Desmond Tutu said that a preacher has one sermon. His was: God loves you. But the implications were tremendous.

One sermon. And I recall the words of Jesus, in response to the first temptation:

One does not live by bread alone,

  but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)

And then I recall the context. Jesus had been fasting, in the desert, for forty days. 

What do we live by? Bread certainly. But much more so the words that come from God.

And I recall what Jesus heard, ringing in his ears, just before the Spirit led him on that forty-day fast. 

“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

These were the words that came from the mouth of God, the words that Jesus had forefront in his mind.

God loves you. Loves you like his own beloved child.

Sometimes in the past I’ve given my own one sermon: You are the beloved child of God.

And the implications are tremendous.

If you are God’s beloved child, and I am, and all of us are, even people we haven’t met, then how we treat each other - even people far away whom we’ve never met and never will - is of paramount importance. 

Everything we do comes after God’s loving action in making us, redeeming us, making us his own delight, his own joy. 

The Rev. Dr. John Leech is a priest associate at the Episcopal Church of Saint Matthew, Tucson.

A version of this essay appeared in the Arizona Daily Star, March 12th 2023, under the title,
“Treat each other as children of God.” https://tucson.com/lifestyles/faith-and-values/treat-each-other-as-children-of-god/article_1a53b1ba-bc3e-11ed-b858-f71d6358bd36.html