Two weeks ago, many of us were struck by the words of Jesus in the Gospel reading. In that Gospel, Jesus said to his followers, "The things that I've been doing, you will do. In fact, you will do greater things than me."
We'll do greater things than Jesus. Now, I can see Jesus challenging the religious authorities of his day, and Jesus eating with sinners and outcasts, and breaking down barriers of exclusion -- I can see us doing that.
But in today's Gospel lesson, Jesus raises someone from the dead. That's a little much. I mean, I've tried... well, actually, I haven't. I've never really had the courage to pray for someone after they were dead, that they would rise from the dead. And if I did offer up such a prayer, and it worked, I don't know what I would do. But I don't think such a prayer would work, because there have been enough occasions where someone who was dying was prayed for, and they still died. I've had enough experiences where people who I have cared about have died, where I was yearning for their continued life, and I was praying for their continued life; and they still died.
And so, I wonder how it is we are supposed to emulate this story, how we're supposed to emulate this Jesus. But if I think about it, perhaps Jesus' work, Jesus' ministry, was not raising people physically from death to life. He only did it three times. We have three stories where Jesus raises someone who is physically dead, raises them back to physical life. Now I am sure that many other people died while Jesus was around. But it wasn't his work, it wasn't his ministry to run around and resurrect people. In fact, if you look at today’s Gospel story, it's really a story of someone else being brought back to life. It's not the story of the physically dead son being brought back to life. It's the story of the widow being brought back to life.
Look at how the story is told. Jesus is walking down the street, and if you look at it cinematically, the first thing the camera focuses on is a dead young man being carried on a bier. “He was his mother's only son.” Then, in the next clause, the focus shifts. "She was a widow." We may not get the significance of that statement now, in our own time. But in Jesus' day, where women only had honor and status and financial security through the men in their family, a widow who loses her only son is destitute. She'll likely become a beggar, maybe a prostitute, perhaps a servant in some other man's household.
She was a widow. Everything that follows in the story is about her. Jesus sees her; Jesus has compassion for her. It doesn't say Jesus had compassion for this young man whose life was cut too short; that young man is fine. It's the widow for whom Jesus feels compassion, and not just mild compassion. The Greek word doesn't really have an English equivalent. He is struck in the gut, he's torn apart, in his concern for her. He speaks to her, not to the dead young man -- "Don't weep. It'll be okay." And then, sort of as an aside, he tells the young man to get up, and he gives the young man to the widow. It's about the widow been raised to life. Jesus sees someone broken, and he uses the means at his disposal to bring her back to life. That was the work of Jesus. And that's the work that we can do.
Imagine this -- What if Jesus didn't pass by this dead young man at that particular moment? What if the funeral procession was on the next day, or the day after, or one that happened the following week, and a different widow had lost her only son? Was there no hope for her? Just because her son was not one of the lucky three that Jesus raised from the dead during his entire ministry, does that mean there is no hope for new life for her? No.
The hope for new life comes through community. I can imagine this other widow being surrounded by her community; I can imagine the cultural paradigms changing, for this widow not to be left destitute, a beggar, or a prostitute. That the community gathers around and supports those in need, and not just with financial contributions but with their love, their compassion; they are torn apart when they see the widow’s need. The widow is raised from the dead.
I think that is the work of Jesus that we are called to emulate. I think the mission of the Church is to raise people from the dead! I think we are surrounded by people who are lonely, who are starving, physically and emotionally, who are dying, or dead inside. And the greater work that we are called to do is to raise them, raise all of them by our compassion and our love. To raise the dead.
I know that is possible, because I've been raised from the dead myself. There are times when I've been broken, and heartbroken, and lonely and afraid, and I've had people reach out to me, and raise me from the dead. That's our ministry. And what does it matter that Jesus raised this one widow from the dead 2,000 years ago, if we don't do it now? If we don't do it in our community, and in our world? We are here not merely to be here, in these pews, in this church, but also to go out there, into the world, and raise the dead.
Yesterday in the Cathedral we had the joy of participating in Cindy Long’s ordination to the diaconate. A lot of people don't know what it Deacon is. A Deacon is a person who is ordained to a particular function. In the very earliest churches, it quickly became clear that they needed people who could pay particular attention to the needs of the hungry, the needs of widows, so they set certain people aside. These people who were set aside were given the job of paying attention to the needs of those outside the Church. The Deacon is the person with that job. The Deacon's job is to bring the needs of the world into the church, and to bring the church out into the needs of the world. That's the reason the Deacon takes the Gospel out into the middle of the congregation to read it -- these are the words of Jesus; this is the work of Jesus. Then, at the end of the service the Deacon stands at the door and says, "Get out of here, and go to work! Do the work of Jesus by raising the world to new life!"
It matters that people in our community are dying. It matters that one in six people in the world live on a dollar a day. Half the world's population lives on two dollars a day. Someone dies of hunger every three and a half seconds. During this service, over a thousand people are going to die of poverty-related causes. It matters.
What good is it if Jesus raised people from the dead 2,000 years ago, if we don't do it now? Our job is to serve the community, and one of the things we're going to do at today's service is to honor those who are involved in outreach ministries. We are going to honor those people who are feeding the hungry, who are taking care of the sick, who are raising people from the dead. During coffee hour there's going to be a ministry fair where you will see opportunities for you to sign up and do the same thing. Another thing were going to do at today's service is that were going to have special prayers for healing. Laypeople and clergy will lay hands on you, and pray for healing; pray that you be raised from the dead.
I invite you to come up not just for prayers for yourself, but for the world. Part of how we serve others is by giving our hearts to them in prayer; part of how we serve the hungry, the lonely, the broken, is by giving our hearts to them in prayer. So come forward, kneel, and we will pray for the healing of the world. Then, once church is over, Tina Campbell, our Deacon, will stand in the back and say, "Get out of here and go to work! Go out and raise the dead!"