The Sunday After All Saints Day - The Rev. Colette Hammesfahr

 John 11:32-44 

Theologian and writer C.S. Lewis grew up in a Christian home but lost his faith and rejected Christianity after several traumatic events in his life. At a young age, he grieved tremendously after the death of his mother. At 19, he joined the British Army and fought in WWI. Serving on the front lines in France, he was traumatized by the sight of fellow soldiers being killed, the screams of the wounded, the effects of trench warfare, and living with the constant threat of death. He could not understand the suffering and pain he both witnessed and felt himself. He questioned how a loving god could allow this kind of pain, and so he became a committed atheist. 

Later in life, Lewis married a woman named Joy. Just a few years after they were married, Joy got cancer and died. Again, he was stricken with grief. This event convinced him even more of his atheistic views. He kept a journal that he later published called A Grief Observed. In chapter 1, he wrote, “Where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms... When you are so happy, you are tempted to feel God’s claims upon you as an interruption. If you remember yourself and turn to Him with gratitude and praise, you will be welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become. There are no lights in the windows... What can this mean? Why is God so present a commander in our time of prosperity and so very absent a help in time of trouble?”1 

This is the hardship of living our lives as Christians. Where is God’s power and presence when we are waiting for God to intervene in our lives? For thousands of years, we, God’s people, have prayed for God to intervene at the time we want and in the way we want. As we wait with unanswered prayers, God’s silence is deafening. A door slammed in our faces.  

In the story of Lazarus, Mary and Martha experienced the deafening silence of God. They knew their brother was sick. They knew their brother was going to die. They also knew the power of Jesus, so they sent for him – asking him to come and heal their brother. Mary had just anointed Jesus with perfume. She had just wiped his feet with her hair. Surely, she had served the Lord well enough for him to save her brother from death. It is what Jesus does. Jesus saves. He heals the blind. Yet, in this instance, with their brother Lazarus dying, there is nothing but silence. They waited by their brother’s side for Jesus to come for two days, but it was not to be. God’s silence was deafening.  

Jesus did finally show up. But, it was not before their brother had died. All of this could have been prevented for them had Jesus come when they needed him. Bringing all of her pain and disappointment in Jesus, Mary comes to his feet. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” As Jesus looked around him, he felt all the mourners' grief and pain. He felt the grief and pain of Mary and Martha. Jesus himself felt the suffering and pain, and Jesus wept. Jesus was “disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.”  

When we cry, God cries with us and sheds tears alongside us. When we ache, God aches. When we suffer, God suffers. God feels our pain. It’s in our suffering that God draws us closer. Just as God has joy and triumphs when we have joy and triumphs, God suffers when we suffer.  

Jesus reminds Martha of his promise, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” It is hard to believe in these promises when grieving like Martha. But Jesus calls Lazarus from the tomb. When Lazarus rises from the dead, Mary and Martha get a taste of the promise made to all of us. Just as Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb, He promises eternal life to all who follow Him.  

Today, we celebrate All Saints Day. We remember all the saints and loved ones who have gone before us and are feasting on the heavenly banquet. It is also a time for us to celebrate the promise of looking forward to the day when God will raise all believers and reunite all in God’s kingdom. This story of Lazarus is a reminder of our hope that death is not the end but a passage to new life with God. 

Over the years, C.S. Lewis turned from atheism back to Christianity. For Lewis, God’s silence in the tragedies in his life was deafening. God’s silence was one of the most challenging aspects of his faith. However, Lewis came to believe that God’s silence does not mean God’s absence. In his book The Problem of Pain, he wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”2  

Silence is where our faith is tested. It’s where we are pushed to seek God more deeply and understand God beyond what we ever expected. God’s silence can be a path to a richer, though sometimes painful, trust in God. Perhaps God’s “deafening silence” is part of a larger narrative where faith must step in, holding onto hope even when answers seem distant. 

When have you felt that God’s silence was “deafening” in your life, and how did you respond? In what ways might God be speaking to you within God’s silence? How can we hold onto hope and faith when God seems silent? 

I will leave you with these words from Pastor Cynthia Jarvis:  

Live as though the eternal were now because God is.  

Live as though death has no power over your days.  

Live as though you belong, in life and death, to God.3  

 

Amen.