Palm Sunday

This week Cullen and Eric are the two youth acolytes at 9 am.
At Confirmation we will finish our discussion of the Eucharist by going through the Eucharistic Prayer. Be prepared--you may be asked to play the role of priest---

Below is the sermon I was supposed to preach at St. Phillip's Church last Sunday. But they were closed because of snow so I am preaching it tonight at their Lenten study:


Lazarus Laughed.
Lazarus Laughed?
That’s the title of a play written by Eugene O’Neill: It is the playwright’s thoughts about what Lazarus did upon his resurrection. And the first thing he thinks Lazarus would have done? Laugh.

When my friend Lynn tries to tell a joke she starts to laugh about halfway through. Usually you never hear the punch line but it doesn’t matter if you don’t hear the rest of the joke, you’re laughing right along with her, because laughter is contagious.
My nephew, John, who has cerebral palsy can’t speak. But boy can he laugh. He has this deep down, belly laugh which shakes his entire body. He has tipped over laughing so hard. No one can resist that laugh when he gets going. His laughter is infectious.

People who are depressed have a hard time laughing. The trigger in the brain which causes laughter is broken, so laughter doesn’t come easily.
Can you imagine that? Not being able to laugh? Rarely if ever tossing your head back howling in laughter? Laughter is good for us. It is a medically proven fact. Laughing is contagious, infectious and absolutely necessary to our health

Now, laughter isn’t an unfamiliar action in the Bible, Sarah laughed when she heard God tell Abraham that she—at 90 years old—would have a baby.
Absurd! Outrageous! Ridiculous! How could such an old couple have a baby?
But they did, and they even named him after laughter-----translated
Isaac means “God laughed.” Surely, God laughed, right? After all it was indeed outrageous, unbelievable and quite comical for a baby to be born in such a circumstance.

But babies do that don’t they?

They bring smiles, giggles and laughter.
We call them bundles of joy.
Think about a baby’s laugh-- Isn’t it the greatest thing? The worst day at work melts away at the sound of a baby’s giggle. It is pure and full of delight.
It’s a little bit of heaven right here earth.

So to me it makes sense that Lazarus, upon exiting the tomb, laughed. I bet it was a low guttural chuckle building up to a good ol’ belly laugh. In the play, all Lazarus does for the first day or so after resurrection is laugh.
When he finally speaks Lazarus says he laughed because, after death all he heard was laughter. The laughter of Jesus filled his heart.
Laughing Lazarus proclaims that there is no death, there is no fear, there is only life and that life is full of laughter. Lazarus has been to the other side and what he saw there was a life full of laughter.
Nothing else, just eternal life and laughter.
In the play, Lazarus exclaims:
Laugh! Laugh with me! Death is dead! Fear is no more! There is only life! There is only laughter!

Yes, Lazarus laughed.
But Jesus? Jesus wept.

As Jesus saw the sadness of all those who loved Lazarus, he was overcome with sorrow. Was it remorse for being late, for not being able to save his friend?
Or was it sadness at the lack of faith displayed by Mary and Martha? They both had yelled at Jesus---“if you had been here, he wouldn’t have died.” Talk about guilt. They were laying it on Jesus. But that wasn’t it, he wasn’t guilty or ashamed or remorseful. He was sad…sad that people were still so afraid of death, sad that people still didn’t get it.
Jesus said it as clear as can be:

I am Resurrection and I am Life.
Jesus, through his Father, and through the Holy Spirit, assures us that there is no death, no end, just life eternal.
That’s the whole point isn’t it? Christianity 101: believe in Christ and have eternal life.

But, really, why would Lazarus laugh?
Because it was so absurd that he had been brought back to life?
That could be it.

But in the play he laughs is because that is what heaven is full of: laughter. God laughs all the time, and so everyone else does too. After all, laughing is contagious. But back among the living on earth? Lazarus’ laughter was not funny. Those first few days outside of the tomb everyone was trying to snap him out of it: Lazarus, stop your laughing, there is nothing funny about what happened to you.

But Lazarus says he laughs because there is nothing to fear. Death is not the end; death is not the enemy, death is not scary. Death, says Lazarus, is really nothing at all. Now that is a pretty outrageous thing to hear: death is nothing at all! Death is certainly something for those who have experienced it, those who have lost a loved one or someone who is struggling with the imminent death of a loved one.

So when Jesus calls Lazarus out from the tomb, he is telling him that it isn’t time yet, that he has more to do on earth. So Lazarus comes back. With a new attitude, one free from fear. One free from death. For death is just a human construct, it is of human design. Life, a life in Christ, a life in love with our Creator God—is not complicated. It is simple. Let God’s love wash over us. Be tickled by that love.


I think this story is telling us to die.
We must die.
We must die to death.
Jesus wept because that is what we don’t get .We don’t get that dying is just another step toward the full glory of God.
At baptism, we are figuratively plunged into the deep, into the depths of a life without living, of an existence marred by sin and sorrow and regret. But, during the Easter Vigil when new Christians across the world emerge from those waters and are sealed as Christ’s own forever they are alive in a new way. Christians have died to the old way and been born into the new.

In a little while when we approach the altar for the nourishment of communion we must die to everything we fear-- everything we cling to. At the Eucharist we let go of this world and are transformed into the new world of everlasting life.

When Jesus told Lazarus to come out of the tomb! He was telling him to die, die to the shackles of a life without hope, die to a life filled with fear, die to a life with limited love. And Lazarus did, he died to all of that and was born anew to an everlasting life full of indescribable happiness. He was born anew to a life full of eternal love and never ending laughter.

This is what we are called to do, tonight at communion, tomorrow at work and next week at the grocery store. We are called to die to all the petty jealousy, the fear of each other, the old hurts and resentments Because nothing, not death, not dry bones, not doubt and not despair is enough to keep us from the giggling, chuckling never-ending love and laughter of God. That’s why Lazarus laughed and why we should too, for the joy of a new life in Christ is contagious, infectious and absolutely necessary to our health. So join me in chuckling at death, giggling away fear and embracing a God who laughs and loves us forever. AMEN