BREAKTHROUGH
Open-ended, Life-centred Explorations of the Sunday Gospels for Home
Groups
JN 11: 32-44...All Saints
Day...November 5th, '06
NOTES:
1] The reading jumps in right out of context; privately, we
need to read from v.1 to understand what's going on. 2] There was no agreement
among Jews of Jesus' day about whether there was any kind of
resurrection. 3] In setting
this reading for All Saints' Day, maybe the church has fallen into
the trap of connecting 'being a saint' with when we die, rather than
how we live? 4]
Whatever else we make of it, the story of Jesus raising Lazarus is a
kind
of acted parable of his own coming death & resurrection. Many
scholars think this incident was what sealed Jesus' own fate in just a
short time.
WARMING UP: How
comfortable do we feel about current practices relating to death &
funerals?
TREASURES OLD & NEW:
Identify God at work in anything this week?
ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
32-35 Have we ever felt, like Mary here, that if God had
been present, someone close to us wouldn't have died? Is that a
reasonable way of looking at things? from a Christian point of view, or
any other? If someone close ot us has died without us being able to be
present with them, has that left us feeling any particular emotion,
even after a long time, maybe? Has death become too final
for most of us despite our belief in Resurrection, Jesus' & ours?
What do we make of the current emphasis on reaching 'closure'? Is there
any such thing, really? Given the description JN gives us of how moved
Jesus is here at Lazarus' death, where are we now, personally, as a
congregation, as a society, in showing our emotions about serious
illness & death? Have we maybe moved too far from 'keeping a
stiff upper lip' to 'letting it all hang out'? Is there a happy medium
in things as serious as these, or is it all too emotional for such a
thing? What example does Jesus set here?
36-44 Is expressing our
love for someone by showing & telling them we love them now
something we need to be better at doing in this life rather than
talking about how much we loved them after they've died? Maybe we even
suspect some 'funeral talk' of being a little insincere? If we believe
that love is stronger than death, & continues beyond the grave,
wouldn't it be better to get on with our loving now so that that love can continue
beyond the grave - theirs & ours?
Are there 'stones' of various kinds we need rolled away from our lives
so that we can really begin to walk free & live? Do we sometimes
try to do the rolling ourselves when what we really need is for God to
roll them away, whatever they may be?
Are we as confident as Jesus that God always hears our prayers? Do we
need to become more bold even to the point of asking God for the
seemingly impossible? Can we then cope if the answer is not to our
liking? What enables us to cope? What is there about Jesus that makes
us believe God sent Him into the world? Does our failure at this, that,
or the other have anything to do with whether we're a saint or not? How
would we define a saint? How might God define a saint?
