Raising The Dead

Sermon preached on June 9, 2013 at Church of the Ascension, Munich

Pentecost 3: 1 Kings 17:17-24, Galatians 1:11-24, Luke 7:11-17

Doesn’t today’s Gospel story sound rather like a film remake, like a remake of the OT narrative from 1 Kings? We have the same basic plot: a widow’s son has died and is brought back to life again. And even some of the lines are the same: Elijah “took the child and gave him to his mother” (1 Kings 17:23); “Jesus gave him to his mother.” (Luke 7:15) But just like in many remakes, there are significant differences too. The setting changes:  from Zarephath on the coast to Nain in Galilee. We have a different main character: Jesus instead of Elijah. The son, who was a child in one story, is a young man in the other. Actually we could almost call this a multiple remake as even in the Old Testament we find two very similar events. In the one, as we heard a moment ago, Elijah healed a widow’s son, in the other in the 2^nd Book of Kings it was Elijah’s disciple and successor Elisha who had healed a young boy: in the town of Shunem, which is just on the other side of the hill from the town of Nain of today’s Gospel.

And we are supposed to notice these similarities. Luke wants us to see all of Jesus’ healing events as part of a larger narrative in which each healing is one more in a succession of saving events through or by God. The ‘supporting cast’ is also significant: A widow, an only child. In Hebrew Scripture widows, orphans, and strangers personify those who are marginalized and are powerless. These three groups of people are considered to be under God’s special protection and are therefore to be treated justly and helped by all. Jesus was always reaching out to and caring for the marginalized, for widows, those who were seen as sinners, those who were excluded in any way from the society of his day. And he was always willing to cross societal boundaries, even risking impurity and his own exclusion, to reach them. Here too he risks ritual defilement by touching a dead body. Jesus is the prefect human being, risking all to obey God’s commandments. 

But of course he is much more than this, for bringing someone back from the dead is the ultimate miracle, the ultimate proof of a power beyond human capabilities. While Elijah calls on God to let this child’s life come into him again, Jesus commands the young man to rise by his own power and authority. That’s the moment when Luke shows us that this is more than just a remake, and that Jesus is more than just another human prophet like Elijah – even if that is the people’s first reaction: “A great prophet has risen among us!” (Luke 7:16) But Jesus is not just the perfect human, he is also perfectly divine.

The motif of resurrection, of conquering death is part of our Christian faith: Christians are a resurrection people. We believe, and I’m quoting from our prayer book here, that “by the glorious resurrection of God’s Son Jesus Christ God destroyed death.” (BCP, 493) We live in the “sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life.” (BCP, 501) But that’s God’s work surely, not ours. We can’t bring people back from the dead. During my time as a hospital chaplain last year I would often pray for healing for and with those I visited. But when I was confronted with death, as I was, I did not ask God to “let life come into him again” or say to the dead person, rise! And if I had tried to use Elijah’s method of healing, by “stretching myself on top of the body three times,” I fear I would have got into a lot of trouble!

But as resurrection people we Christians not only believe in the possibility of resurrection. We must also be willing to bring it about. We are both called to and capable of bringing life out of death. God has given us this power just as Jesus commissioned the twelve disciples whose successors we all are to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons.” (Matthew 10:8)

A key part of our “training” for this calling is our own experience of death and resurrection to a new life in Baptism: In the water of Baptism “we are buried with Christ in his death. By it we share in his resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.” (BCP, 306)

So, how can we raise the dead, how can we bring new life?

Let’s look at the many ways in which Jesus and the apostles brought new life:

By inviting Levi the tax-collector to follow him, and by sharing a meal with Levi, Jesus gave him a new life in a new community (Mark 2:14-17). When we welcome all people into the church, when we both proclaim and show God’s love and forgiveness, we can enable anyone who is suffering from doubt, guilt, or perhaps even self-hate to find in the Christian faith and community a new life and a new perspective. 

Jesus showed compassion and love for those who mourn. We find that in today’s Gospel: “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, ‘Do not weep” or also in the beatitudes, “blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4) When we show someone who has suffered loss and grief that we love and care for them, and when we are patient but still persistent in bringing them back into community, we help them find a new life and a new perspective.

Again and again we read of how Jesus freed people who were possessed by demons (e.g. Mark 1:23-26). When we help someone addicted to alcohol or another drug to free themselves from these modern demons and to find their way back into the community after their treatment, then we are helping them receive a new life and a new perspective.

Many of Paul’s letters were written to heal communities that were divided, such as the Church in Corinth to whom he appealed that they may be “united in the same mind and in the same purpose.” (1 Corinthians 1:10) He did this precisely because they were not united and had very divergent ideas about their purpose. Whenever we see or experience conflict, discord, or polarization in a Christian community, let us renew our commitment to a common life as the body of Christ, so that the communities we belong to can find a new life and a new perspective. 

The early apostles sold their possessions and goods to distribute the proceeds to those who were in need (Acts 2:45). Paul was constantly asking the churches he founded to collect money for the church in Jerusalem. When we give of our time and talents and treasure to help build a community center in Rumania, to rebuild homes destroyed in an earthquake or hurricane, or to bring medicines and mosquito nets to save lives we bring others hope, a new life and a new perspective.

In his letter to the Galatians that we read from this morning Paul writes about his own rebirth. About how he is transformed from being a violent and zealous persecutor of the church of God, how he changes from one who was trying to destroy the faith, into one who proclaims and spreads the Good News. In faith he began a new life and found a new perspective.

I’m certain you can think of many more examples.

We really can bring new life, our faith in Jesus Christ both empowers and calls us to do so: To revive relationships, to bring communities back to life again, to bring people to a new life in faith, to renew spiritual and emotional lives, to make people feel whole again, and to bring life and health to the poor.

Just think what doing this says to the world about our faith! When Elijah brings the widow’s son back to life, she says: “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.” (1 Kings 17:24). When Jesus restores the widow’s son to life the crowd glorifies God and the Word, the Good News, spreads throughout Judea. When Paul is transformed from persecutor to apostle, the churches glorify God. If we act as transformers of lives, if we show that the belief in resurrection is not only a hope for the future, but also a present reality that we stand for, if we practice what we preach, then people will say about us that the word of the Lord in our mouths is truth, they will glorify God, and the Good News will continue to spread. The Good News of a God of grace and mercy who brings light out of darkness and causes the dead to live. 

Amen