How Long have you Lived?
John 11:1-27
The Gospel appointed for All Saints Day is the story of the Raising of Lazarus. Jesus raises the man Lazarus who had been dead four days. One could call this a miracle that Jesus performed , however, the miracles that Jesus performed in the Gospels all had meaning beyond the event described there. They had an inner meaning. They had a meaning for all time. They have a meaning for us today. We have to ask, “What difference does this story make in my life?”
I think that the Gospel writers told these stories in such dramatic and baffling fashion as a way of showing what kind of impact the life of Jesus had on them. I believe that the miracle stories of healing and raising people from the grave were ways of saying that when they encountered the life of Christ, their lives were transformed. The coming of Lazarus out of the tomb and being unbound from the grave cloths that were wrapped around him presents an image to us of a transformed life – a life that is unbound from the things that hold us back from being truly alive.
We have to ask, “What difference does this story make in our lives?” It means our lives can be transformed. Our lives can change. I always liked the statement “I believe in the resurrection at every stage of life including death.” We can experience resurrection now. Here and there in the world and now and then in ourselves we are a new creation.
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At the beginning of his course entitled Existentialism and Sociology, at the University of Pennsylvania, Tony Campolo would ask the question of one of his students, “How long have you lived?. Usually the student would be stunned into silence by this abrupt interrogation. Tony would ask the question again. The student, not sure of what he was really being asked, might utter “twenty two” or “twenty-three”. Tony would retort, “No! No! That’s how long you have been pumping blood. I asked you how long have you lived?” Then he would tell a story of when he really felt alive by experiencing a moment so intensely that he was at one with all of life. The problem is that our lives are often the meaningless passage of time between all too few moments of real aliveness.
But, we can live? That’s what people discovered in Jesus, they discovered that they could truly live by following his way and reaching our true potential as human beings. Look at how Jesus treated people in the Gospels! He was often talking to people who were the poorest of the poor living in desperate circumstances, and he would treat them as being important and they knew that they were loved in his presence. He says to them in effect.
“You may be poor, hungry, sorrowful, not popular in society, but you are important in the eyes of God and you are important for the advancement of the Kingdom of God on earth. Why? Because you have learned that there are riches beyond wealth and status. Because you do not have all the trappings around you distracting you, you are more aware of the spiritual center of your life where true joy, happiness and peace are to found. You know that you are dependent upon God and one another. You know that love above all else is to be treasured. You know how to laugh in your heart and not just in your mouth. You know that sometimes you need take on some of the world’s pain in order to do God’s will. You are the people through whom the reign of God will become a reality.”
Jesus treated them as they ought to be and could be. Many people heard him gladly. His words touched them within. It is simply amazing how people who were materially depraved became so in touch with their inner selves they became spiritual giants. They knew that they were alive.
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How long have you lived? Our aliveness does not come from our outward circumstances but comes from within. You can have a lot of possessions, power, success on the outside but still not be truly alive or actually happy.
When the late Mother Teresa first came to America in conjunction with opening mission centres in some of the cities there, she was very unimpressed by the signs of affluence and wealth that she saw. Instead, she noted how harried and unhappy so many people seemed to be. She commented that there are two kinds of poverty. The material kind afflicts the people of her country and other so-called “underdeveloped nations.” But all too many Americans are plagued by the other kind of poverty, that of the spirit. She saw signs of this spiritual poverty everywhere – in the streets where the homeless huddled, in nursing homes where vacant-eyed people sat unvisited and in crowded stores where people bought things that were poor substitutes for love and companionship. This spiritual poverty, she asserted, is far more deadly than the material kind.
How can we change?
Jesus talked about dying to self in order to live and giving up self in order to find our true self. He has been called the “man for others”. We ought to be and could be the people who live for others.
We all have a tendency to see others, the world as a whole, and other forms of life with the lens of the ego. Everything is seen from the viewpoint of self. “I”, “Me”, “My”, Mine” are some of the first words we learn and probably the words that we use most often.
I remember a number of years ago, members of my family putting on a skit during “Skit night” at Sorrento Centre in the interior of BC where we spent many of our summers. The skit included one word “ME”. The skit started off with two people saying “ME” affectionately to one another as both were having their ego nurtured from the relationship. They marry and both and rings are given each person saying, “ME” at the giving and receiving of rings. As time went on the “ME” began to be said with tones of anxiety as doubts began to creep into the relationship and then with anger as the relationship began to falter. When the couple dealt with other people the”ME” became a source of contention over many things including “what is mine and what is yours”. The skit proceeded with the couple shouting”MEEE” and throwing the rings at each other as their egos were no longer fed by each other. Then the skit ended with each person in their separate places in tears crying “mmmmeee” and “mmmmeee”.
Yes, the concentration on self causes many of our problems in our relationships with other people. Our ego leads us to fear, greed and the desire for power which in turn are the motivating forces behind warfare, violence between nations, tribes, religion, and ideologies. They are also behind the disregard and abuse of the environment and other life forms in the eco system in which we live. Because of this concentration on ego concerns, the art of compassion is almost a lost art in our world. Yet, it is in compassion that happiness is to be found.
Annie Dillard the author of Pilgrim at Tinkers Creek on commenting on The Lost Art of Compassion, a book by by Lorne Ladner says :
You’ve probably noticed that you can’t make yourself happy. Exercising compassion will not only get you through many a traffic jam, but will begin building an unshakeable happiness”
Jesus showed us that transformation to the compassionate life was possible in our lives. That is the inner meaning to the story of the raising of Lazarus. Just as he called Lazarus out of the tomb, Jesus calls us to the new life – a radical transformation which was the hope of the world
This kind of transformation has been a central message in other wisdom teachings. In Hindu teaching this transformation is called enlightenment. In Buddhism it is the end of suffering. Other words used to describe this transformation are liberation and awakening. Christians often describe it as salvation and that word comes from the same root as wholeness.
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On this Sunday after All Saints Day we recognize that those we call “saints” are people who have lived their lives to the fullest. Some have said that they have lived their lives inside-out. They have been so in touch with their inner reality that every aspect of their outer life has been affected. It seems like all of them had a way of meditating to get at that inner person.
If we are to live inside-out, we have to find some time each day to be silent. It is not a “take two aspirins and call me in the morning” solution. It a disciplined and daily work not in the sense that we are striving so hard that our souls are white with stress. It is in the sense of letting go of ourselves in such a way that the Spirit of God is allowed to work through our lives..
Out of this kind of surrender comes an awakening to the consciousness that we are at one with the Ground of all being and at one with all others and with life itself. True compassion derives from that sense of oneness. It is hard to hate another or walk away from them or ignore them when we see that their suffering is our suffering. as well.
It takes time and hard work in our use of silence to get to that point. It is always a work in progress; little by little we are transformed and loosen the fetters that hold us down becoming the person we have the potential of being.
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How have I tried to use my silent meditation? It would be very long to go into great detail but this is a summary of what I do.
First of all, I spend time looking at my life today and how it is dominated by the ego and that so much of my behavior comes from ego concerns. It has been a beginning of a desire to change. Sometimes I say, “I don’t know who I am anymore” which can be a good thing and a step forward toward finding our authentic self. So the road to a new awareness begins with recognition how imprisoned we are to the ego.
Then, I have tried to look at the stories of Jesus and other scriptural passages not with the idea of understanding them intellectually but capturing the feeling of them and trying to get in touch with the Jesus consciousness. I want be in the presence of Jesus to see all things as Jesus sees them. It is in that empowering presence of the Christ that our spiritual eyes are opened.
After that, I try to be continually aware of the present moment. I attempt to be completely present to whatever is happening and to whomever I am with. This is difficult because my mind wanders to other things both what has happened in the past and what might happen in the future. However, when I can live completely in the present moment, I begin to see that I am not just a single entity but a part of the one-ness of all of life. We are all united deep within us with the total Ground of all Being.
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After spending time there each day, we have to be prepared to get up, go out, and be who you really are – another of God’s saints.
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