Tag Archives: Lazarus

No longer Monday

It’s not Monday any more, but the scent still lingers in the house when they awaken, and Lazarus is grateful for the distraction; he hardly knows himself these days, still amazed at the complicated gift of life. The echoes of … Continue reading

Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

God’s time

His last breath took him by surprise. Until its vapour dissipated in the ragged inhalations of his sisters, beginnings to convert his death into ululation; until then, he had thought that he would come. Hard to say what happened next: … Continue reading

Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, preparing for Sunday with poetry, sermon preparation | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Witness

A sermon for All Saints Sunday We all know about Lazarus, don’t we? Lazarus has become a byword for those who return from the dead. In paleontology, Lazarus names those species that disappear from the fossil record as though extinct, … Continue reading

Posted in holy days, homily, sermon | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jesus wept

To suffer the indignity of grief, that utter exhaustion of the spirit that has sucked hope from the air too long after the dew has dried; the kind of defeat that drives you to your knees and elbows, heaving with the ground, troubling the very earth upon … Continue reading

Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, preparing for Sunday with poetry, sermon preparation | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Palm Sunday 2024

If we are still looking for a military ruler, or a magician, or a mighty Messiah, we had better look elsewhere. What Jesus offers us is merely the humility, servitude, self-sacrifice, self-abandonment of an all-encompassing, death-defeating love: the creative, life-giving, all-absorbing love of God that will not let us go, nor let us down, nor leave us alone. Continue reading

Posted in holy days, sermon | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lazarus campaigns against the death penalty

This is a #preparingforSundaywithpoetry prologue post. At last evening’s Bible study, we noticed the “Lazarus framework“ to John’s Palm Sunday story (if you’re using Mark, another poem from the pov of the colt is coming). No wonder, we said, authorities … Continue reading

Posted in holy days, lectionary reflection, preparing for Sunday with poetry | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How I got up this morning

Because I thought
I am Lazarus
and you are calling me
out of my stupor
and unbinding
unwinding me
toward you Continue reading

Posted in poetry, prayer | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Afterwards

It was the following day that sealed it for him waking with the rooster an hour before dawn the darkness of the room unfamiliar tangled in bedsheets he shivered still straining his hope to conjure up that sun light and … Continue reading

Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer, sermon preparation, story | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The prayer of Lazarus

The prayer of Lazarus, silent by necessity. Continue reading

Posted in lectionary reflection, poetry, prayer | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Jesus wept

Lazarus, lying in the tomb, locked in death, was not deaf to the call of Jesus upon his body, and his spirit, and his enduring life. Continue reading

Posted in sermon, spiritual autobiography | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment