The Three Christians

So, three Christians walk into a bar....   LOL, no I am not going to tell a joke but it sure seemed a fitting opening!  But, seriously:

Have you ever noticed that there seems to be three kinds of Christians?

There are the "God is so good, He gives me everything I want." type.
There are the "Yeah, so what has He done for me today?" types.
And the much rarer, we will just call them the "Involved" ones.

With the spread of the prosperity doctrine, havoc has been brought to the Charisma circles, leaked out and captivated the faith of the weak children.  Woe to those preachers whom have so willingly and easily mislead the multitudes.......  Of course, these are sheep whom have used the belief that God blesses you and gives you what you want.  Really?  It must be my Luther Bible, it just does not support that idea.  In fact, mine condemns materialism and the accumulation of what you are making your replacement God.  No, God is not in the idol making business and He does not need you to have riches for you to use on yourself - my Bible says He wants your obedience above all else, in all things.  So rich young rulers, praise the living God and mourn your poverty.

Others are more interesting to me.  Everyone can see God's active hand in their life but they do not.  In fact, where is that God?  "Yeah, I know he was around here yesterday but what about today?"  Oh He is still there working in the background but you can not see Him because it is you He is working on!  No, I am not thinking of anyone in particular here because this is a common problem with all of us.  God gets active and we still see ourselves as how we used to be - or with subtle changes incorporated, but never as the whole person everyone else sees.  Of course, in our culture of rapid expectations, we tend to lose sight of any activity which takes over 30 minutes.  Where is that God? Right beside you.  What has He done lately for me? Well, you are still alive for starters...........  Best get to thanking Him for each breath cause those depend upon Him as well.

Of course, I saved the best for last - the one I really wanted to talk about, our involved Christian.  Oh, I know you are already forming opinions as to what I am going to be saying, so let me throw you off the track by reading John 11:38-44.

1)  Let us start off by getting God out of your box you have put Him in.  We are all guilty of saying that God only works in such and such a way.  Or He is capable of doing anything, except...... (fill in the blank).  That is putting God in a box.  Yeah, we take Him out, dust Him off occasionally and then hit Him with our never ending shopping list of wants and desires.  Even I am guilty here, because of my "knowledge" of how God works, I could not allow for what God had planned for me to do - it took quite a large bat, over the head, for me to understand that the God of creation and the universe was completely capable of telling me to not only become completely  vulnerable, but to put at risk everything I prize, to accomplish His goal.  Whoa!  Do you understand what I just said?  God demanded that I put at risk my sunday school teaching, my witness, what people think of me, even my own family - in order to be obedient.

Now switch back to our passage and think of Martha here.  Her brother is dead, her brother is rotting in the grave, Jesus could have saved him but was just too late.  And now what?  Martha believes in the resurrection, but she knows that it will not come - yet.  Is anything too hard for Jesus?  Yes, when you really do not understand that He is God.....  Read: Genesis 18:14, Jeremiah 32:27 and Ephesians 5:20 as you consider this.

2)  So Jesus told them to roll away the rock which was sealing the tomb.  Hold your breath here, this is really going to stink!  I suspect that no one was really in favor of this idea.  First off, it was going to be a major problem.  Graves were unclean, dead bodies were unclean, either would contaminate your body so that you were banded from attending Synagog!  And a devote Jew would not wish that, nor the cleaning process so you could attend a week later!  Next up, who wants to smell a rotting corpse?  Certainly Martha did not want the tomb opened, to be reminded of the state of her dead brother, to relive the pain of his death all over again.  No just leave it shut.

But Jesus was so insistent.....

3)  The stone is rolled away.  Was there the smell of rot?  Probably.  Was Lazarus reclined and wanting a lite beer?  No, he was quite dead.  And Jesus calls him out.....
Believe
You will see
God's Glory
Miriam and Martha got joy.

4)  Those whom remained were to witness the resurrection of life to Lazarus' body.  But, in order to witness this event, they had to PARTICIPATE in the event.
They had to overcome their religious tenants.
They had to roll away the stone.
They had to unwrap Lazarus from his shrouds!

Just think about the converse here.  The village people could not overcome their tradition and touch a grave, so the stone stayed in place.  The people could not come to have the faith in Jesus it would take to be a participant in this miracle.  Instead they took up stones and beat Jesus  and the slow running disciples to death.....  Yeah, not so far fetched as you might think.

We fail because we do not participate.
We fail because we can not let go of our tradition.
We fail because we want to fix people before they are actually alive.
We fail because we abandon the living and hope they make it on their own.

It takes lots of patience to help others.
It takes real love to be willing to pour yourself into another, without thought of "payback". 
It takes a miracle for you to be vulnerable and at risk for another.
It takes a miracle for everything to come together for God to work.
It takes only your willingness to be used, to change the future of others.....

So, what is the big idea here?  God wants to involve you in what He is doing for others, so get involved!