Call to Worship 

One: We come into this scared space, to hear our sacred story. 

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Many: We come longing for light because our lives are crowded with shadows. 

 

One: We come because God loves us out of darkness into light over & over again. 

 

Many: Today we make space for Grief. We give Grief a place at the table. We will not be quick to dismiss or silence Grief. We will be attentive; we will meet with Grief.

 

One: To see, really see, that Grief is simply an expression of Love. 

 

Many: We come because in our grief we long to meet with the One who brings light & hope. 

 

One: We journey in the footsteps of Jesus carrying the deep grief & heaviness of sorrow — to be carried by grace & held in the stillness of knowing we are loved & beloved of God. 

 

Sermon: Good Grief

A sermon on John 11:17-44 

 

Isn’t that how we all feel these days? We look at the weary world around us & take an honest inventory of our own hearts & say — good grief. 

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Come journey with me as we put ourselves into this story before us and hear it anew — to encourage our hearts. 

 

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him. 

 

It would be easy to read this and picture Martha leaving her home to meet Jesus outside the door… yet it is so much more than that. 

 

Martha hears Jesus is coming and she goes to meet him. We learn later in this passage Jesus had not yet entered the village where Martha lives. So she didn’t simply walk outside her door; she walked 2 miles. Hurrying to meet him. In the heaviness of her sorrow, when even simple tasks cost so much, when deep in grief she is moved to walk miles to meet Jesus…. Because in our grief we long to meet with the One who brings light & hope. 

 

“Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”

 

For those of us familiar with grief work you can hear stages of grief in her remarks to Jesus — anger, even blame, bargaining too… it sounds like “this is your fault, but you can fix it.” 

 

Can you picture this? Martha is covered in the dirt of her travels to meet him outside the village… with tear-stained cheeks from dust that also covers her face… exhausted not from her journey to meet him but from her journey in deep grief, the heaviness of sorrow.

 

Before Jesus even speaks to her, this friend he loves, whom he has journeyed to see…. She says “this is your fault.” Jesus doesn’t pull away offended. He meets her right where she’s at. With compassion. Because in our grief we long to meet with the One who brings light & hope. 

 

Back in town, miles away, Mary hears Jesus is asking for her as well. She leaves the house in such haste & urgency her family, friends who have gathered to comfort her — they believe she is moved by her grief to go to the tomb to mourn. Because grief happens in community. But there is something more deeply rooted happening here. Because in our grief we long to meet with the One who brings light & hope. 

 

Mary falls at his feet and says the same refrain as her sister, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

 

So Jesus asks to see where Lazarus is buried.

 

Jesus stands at the tomb.

 

Death does not have the final word.

 

The stone is rolled away as tears still roll down the cheeks of those who mourn.

 

Jesus, deeply moved by grief & love, speaks life into the tomb and Lazarus grave clothes were unbound that he might live again. 

 

Jesus wept with a heart deeply moved, filled with compassion. Even knowing the full promises of eternity. Jesus wept. 

 

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition and of unspeakable love. — Washington Irving

 

Grief doesn’t come and go in an orderly, confined timeframe. Grief isn’t linear. You don’t complete the stages of grief in an orderly manner. One step to the next. For those type A folks. Any of ya’ll out there like me. This only adds to our frustration and angst. Just when we think all is quiet & still, another wave sweeps in and we are forced to revisit the memories, the pain, the fear. 

 

Sometimes we try to resist the demands of grieving. We long to avoid this fierce, yet holy journey. We fight against the currents, terrified of being overwhelmed, of being discovered, of becoming lost in our brokenness. 

 

We have some how come to internalize this narrative that says if we are grieving “too long” if we sorrow, if we are heavy laden with a sadness that seems to great to bear that we have “lost faith.” Or just don’t have “enough faith.” Those words for that reason are spoken to me multiple times a week in my role as hospice chaplain. My friends please hear me. That isn’t the truth. The truth of the Gospel is that Jesus weeps with us, beside us. 

 

Some words on grieving while still living.

 

The tempo of life keeps moving, relentlessly, unwaveringly even as we may waver.

 

The waves of grief come & bring us to pause… to acknowledge the grief, to make space for the memories… that the memories bring gratitude, comfort & peace. For love carries us & holds us. 

 

This theme of weeping fills the pages of our holy, sacred story from generation to generation. They lifted up their voices & wept. Journey with me now as I share this “litany of tears” from Genesis to Revelation. 

 

A Litany of Tears 

When Sarah died in the land of Canaan; Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah. 

He lifted his voice and wept. (Genesis 23:2) 

 

When Jacob deceived his father Isaac into giving him the birthright that belonged to his brother Esau. Esau lamented to Isaac “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.” He lifted his voice and wept. (Genesis 27:38)

 

When Jacob, seeing his son Joseph’s bloody coat, believing his son had been ripped into pieces, ripped his clothes & wore sackcloth, and mourned for many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, “For I will spend the remainder of my days in the depths of darkness.” He lifted his voice & wept. (Genesis 37:35) 

 

Joseph, rose from being a slave in Egypt to being in command as regent in Egypt, answering only to Pharaoh. When he revealed his identity to his brothers… the same brothers who sold him into slavery & told his father he was dead… he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household soon heard of it.

 

“I am Joseph, your brother,” he said, “the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me into this place, because it was to save lives that God sent me before you.” Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept over them, deep forgiveness & reconciliation after deep betrayal & loss. They lifted their voices & wept. 

 

When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found their enemy had destroyed the city by fire and taken their wives, sons & daughters captive. David and all those with him stood in the desolate, once thriving, now abandoned city. They lifted their voices and wept until there was no strength in them to weep. (1 Samuel 30:4) 

 

David the Psalmist & King who wrote: 

My tears have been my food day and night,

While other mock me all day long saying, “Where is your God?” (Psalm 42:3) 

 

After the deepest & darkest kind of betrayal… at her bothers hands because of his lust. Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her garments; and she went away, weeping. (2 Samuel 13:19) 

 

When Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, “Before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly. (Matthew 26:75) 

 

When Jesus therefore saw Mary weeping, He was deeply moved. Jesus lifted his voice & wept. (John 11:33)

 

And in Revelation we hear the promise of eternity — no more sorrow, no more tears.

 

And Jesus knowing that promise still wept. 

 

Jesus still weeps. And we journey to meet him… carrying the deep grief & heaviness of sorrow to be carried by grace & held in the stillness of knowing we are loved & beloved of God. 

 

Jesus is still speaking life to us today — proclaiming the kingdom of God on earth that sets the captives free. 

 

Jesus speaks life into the tombs we find ourselves in, in our darkness places of despair.

 

Jesus speaks freedom to those of us held captive by the fears that bind us. 

 

Being in relationship with Jesus means facing death & grief with him and learning that in spite of the death and the dryness and the finality of the stone at the entrance to the tomb of our hopes, God in Christ loves us out of darkness, death into light, life over & over again. 

 

Jesus calls us to take off our grave clothes and live unbound in the fullness of life as a resurrection people who follow in the footsteps of a Risen Savior.

 

Even so we have been given permission to grieve with hearts filled with compassion & sorrow as we journey through the world. Just as we heard the litany of tears & weeping, that fills the pages & stories of our scriptures. We give Grief a place at the table. We will not be quick to dismiss or silence Grief. We will be attentive; we will meet with Grief. To see, really see, that Grief is simply an expression of Love. 

 

In our grief let us meet with the One who brings light & hope. And may we live unbound in the fullness of life as a resurrection people who follow in the footsteps of a Risen Savior. 

 

And may we know that as we carry the deep grief & heaviness of sorrow — we are carried by grace & held in the stillness of knowing we are loved & beloved of God.