Sermon 8/16/2022 “Elizabeth lives”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection, Alexandria, Virginia
Text: John 11:21-27
“Jesus said to [his good friend Martha], ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
So begins our Gospel lesson today. I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ question for the past week as I prayed about what to share on this day of celebrating the earthly life of Elizabeth White. And what I want to share is that Elizabeth lives today—and not just in our memories, either.
Why are you here today? I daresay you are here to honor Elizabeth, who “aced” life. I will share more about “acing life” in a minute.
Of course, we are also here to grieve in community with Elizabeth’s family and friends, and to gently remind ourselves that we, too, will have a “home-going” sometime soon.
I hope you know what a “home-going” is and how a home-going is different than a memorial service or a funeral. Rather than only mourning a person’s departure from this life, home-going celebrations view death in a positive light. At a home-going celebration, such as this, family members, friends, and the community rejoice. We rejoice through our grief, even while we celebrate Elizabeth’s victory over death.
Like you, I am here today because I knew and loved Elizabeth while she was still with us. We love her still now that she has gone home.
Some of you knew Elizabeth better than others. Her family members, for instance, knew Elizabeth up close and personal and might share stories about her that the rest of us didn’t experience. Her fellow 8:00 am parishioners each Sunday, for instance, knew Elizabeth as a faithful fellow worshiper, someone always willing to help, willing to lead, willing to let others shine, willing to do whatever was necessary to build and keep community.
I have been seeking stories this week from people about Elizabeth. I have heard about Elizabeth’s love of hospitality, especially of growing and preparing and sharing food. In fact, her love might well have been best expressed by one of her favorite sayings, “warm baked goods.” And I have it on good authority that her cookies—all versions of her cookies—were highly sought.
I know that each of you are here today because you, too, loved Elizabeth. There are so many of you involved in this service that I had to elbow my way into this celebration, and I thank you for letting me. I want to give a shout out to Rev. Susan, our Senior Warden Linda Goff, our Music Director Deena Jaworski, and our many parish leaders, who with Elizabeth’s family and many others at Resurrection have planned this day so well. I also want to thank Mother Linda Watkins, Rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, who in these last days was Elizabeth’s priest. Mother Watkins knows, as we do, that Elizabeth “aced life.”
Like all of you, I admired Elizabeth. She worked at staying connected, staying in relationship, even after moving away to a more glorious retirement. And she always shared something from the farm, something from her family’s love, with those in our congregation who live at Goodwin House. I never asked her for anything major, but I knew that I could.
I hope that you who knew Elizabeth more intimately than I will share your stories about her with me at the reception. My job here today is to connect Elizabeth’s life to the gospel lesson that her family has chosen to remember her by today to gently suggest and to strongly affirm that Elizabeth is still alive, which is the outcome of “acing life” and achieving “victory over death.”
In our gospel lesson today, Jesus had arrived at the home of his close friends, three siblings named Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Even though Jesus had known about Lazarus’ terminal illness, he had intentionally arrived days after Lazarus had died. Mary and Martha were grief-stricken, as was Jesus. Martha met Jesus on the road and accosted him for not having arrived sooner to save her brother’s life. “Lord, if you had been here,” Martha said, “my brother would not have died.” Isn’t this what we do in our grief? We initially blame God for not doing away with physical death.
Martha urged Jesus to resurrect Lazarus, to retore him to this life, not just believing but KNOWING that Jesus had this power. Martha and Jesus then got into a short but deep theological discussion about resurrection. Jesus told Martha that Lazarus would “rise again.” In those days, Jews believed that people who had died remained dead until some future time, when God would call the faithful back to life again, together, in a re-created world. So, when Jesus told Martha that Lazarus would “rise again,” Martha objected. She made plain that she wanted Jesus to act RIGHT NOW, not at some unknown future “last day” when everyone would be resurrected in the great beyond.
So, Jesus gave Martha what she asked of him, what he apparently had been planning all along. Jesus returned Lazarus to this life. But by doing so Jesus didn’t cure Lazarus of death; Lazarus eventually died again. Jesus raised Lazarus to show us that our physical death is not the end of us. Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.”
We don’t know exactly what Jesus meant by these words, so we debate them. However, what is certain is that—based on these words of Jesus—Elizabeth passed from death to life long ago by believing in Christ Jesus. Elizabeth ceased dying the day she came to believe and began her eternal life. Jesus was clear, crystal clear. He said to Martha, “Those who believe in me will never die.” (John 11:26) This is the basis of home-going. We do not die; we simply change our residence. Elizabeth’s eternal life continues now that her body has stopped functioning and she has gone home to Jesus.
How do I know that Elizabeth “passed” from death to life a long time ago? She was truly alive. I’m not claiming she was perfect, not claiming she was a saint (although I think of her that way). What I am testifying to is that Elizabeth believed in Christ Jesus and that she was fully alive because she acted on that knowledge, acted on her belief by tapping into and sharing Christ Jesus’ love. You all know what I mean: Elizabeth helped people. She cared about others. She shared what she had and (above all) she and her love showed up, often with warm baked goods. And love never dies.
So, Elizabeth “aced life” by believing in Christ Jesus and by living to the best of her many abilities the life that Jesus taught us to live. She tapped into that well of love that our Creator spread around our world, tapped into that well of love that came to us as Christ Jesus, and shared that love with those she met. We have faith that she now continues her life in that love that never dies. How could anyone live a better life than Elizabeth lived?
As we honor Elizabeth’s victory today, we give thanks to God for giving us someone who consistently pointed us in the right direction.
