Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our second reading is John chapter eleven, verses twenty eight
through forty four. Now, when Martha had said this, I
have come to believe that you are the Messiah, God's
only begotten, the one who was coming into the world,
she went back and called her sister, Mary, the teacher
is here asking for you, she whispered. As soon as
(00:24):
Mary heard this, she got up and went to him.
Jesus hadn't gotten to the village yet. He was at
the place where Martha had met him. Those who work
there consoling her saw her get up quickly and followed Mary,
thinking she was going to the tomb to mourn. When
Mary got to Jesus, she fell at his feet and said,
(00:46):
if you had been here, Lazarus never would have died.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the other mourners as well,
he was troubled in spirit, moved by the deepest emotions.
Where have you lain him? Jesus asked, Come and see,
they said, and Jesus wept. The people in the crowd
(01:07):
began to remark see how much he loved him. Others said,
he made the blind person see Why couldn't he have
done something to prevent Lazarus death. Jesus again was deeply moved.
They approached the tomb, which was a cave with a
stone in front of it. Take away the stone, Jesus directed.
(01:29):
Martha said, Rabbi, it has been four days now. By
this time there will be a stench. Jesus replied, didn't
I assure you that if you believed, you would see
the glory of God. So they took the stone away.
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, Abah, thank
you for having heard me. I know that you always
(01:52):
hear me, but I have said this for the sake
of the crowd, that they might believe you sent me.
Then Jesus ride out in a loud voice. Lazarus come out.
And Lazarus came out of the tomb, still bound hand
and foot, with linen strips, his face wrapped in a cloth.
(02:13):
Jesus told the crowd untie him and let him go free.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Edna approached the pulpit slowly. You see her trembling a
bit while we were all trembling. It was preaching lab.
The first preaching experience in the preaching class required in
seminary and preaching Lab was in the preaching laboratory, a
(02:57):
room designed with a video camera a glass window so
those in the technology side could record it. And there
was the professor there with his notepad and a member
from two different congregations in the Durham, North Carolina area
(03:20):
with their own evaluation sheets, which the other students had too.
I wasn't the first to preach, but Edna was. Edna
began sort of haltingly as she began to preach, which
(03:43):
she later told us was the first sermon she had
ever preached for anyone anywhere. She began to cry. She'd
wipe away the tears, say I'm sorry, catch her wrath,
and continue. She began to cry again, figure out where
(04:09):
she was in her notes, preach a bit and cry again,
and the words I'm sorry. She ended her sermon, Thanks
for listening. Sorry, I cried so much. I was next.
(04:33):
I wanted to cry because sitting straight across from me
was the video camera embedded into the wall. There was
doctor lysher, the two other outside and my fellow students,
and I had to preach the same scripture lesson as well.
(04:57):
After me was at Twinda. She began to cry, almost weeping,
and she kept going with the energy and the pace
that made one of the best sermons I ever had heard,
and she never apologized for crying. Each of us had
(05:21):
ten minutes each to preach our sermon, and then we
spent the next twenty minutes talking about all our sermons together.
One of the things I remember most from that lab
experience was doctor Lisher saying to all of us, remember,
(05:42):
God created tears too. You don't have to apologize for crying,
even if it happens during a sermon, for we're all human,
and the Divine speaks through tears and smiles and weeks,
even through our halting words. When was the last time
(06:08):
you cried? When was the last time, perhaps, did you
apologize for crying? Sometimes? I think those of us who
(06:31):
are white, we have a problem with crying in front
of others. I don't know if it's the tradition that
we're supposed to be strong and powerful, but crying shows
our underbelly. Those of other races and nationalities, they tend
to cry much more easily, easily, and they don't apologize
(06:52):
for it, for they know that this is who they are.
Can you imagine God, the Divine Jesus, crying with you,
(07:15):
God's presence with tears coming down God's face, knowing that
the pain that you are suffering, the loss, the weeping,
that God is not so much more than we are,
but God is sitting right next to us. But sometimes
(07:38):
it appears, at least when you google such things, crying
and a weeping God aren't really the first things that
come up. And I know so because this past week,
early in the week, I didn't have a sinnering. Yet
(08:01):
sometimes those words that show up on the screen come easily,
or I can find them easily. This week it was tough,
so I put in weeping God, crying God, and it
always would come up ten to eleven pages and I'd
finally give up. It would always talk about the reason
God or Jesus was cry was because we were evil,
(08:27):
sinful people, and God cries because we sin. The reason
one website said Jesus cried at the tomb of Lazarus
because Mary and Martha were not faithful to enough to
believe that Lazarus would rise and they didn't have enough
(08:48):
faith in him. And I finally said enough. I spent
another day flipping through pages of books that I thought
would finally come up with something suitable. And sometimes I
think when we're at that edge of emptiness. It's when
(09:11):
we encounter a God that is both divine and human
like us and weeps. Some would argue that, well, a
God that weeps and cries makes God too vulnerable to
be God. Because God is powerful and mighty, God controls
(09:35):
his That's what the website said in this one. God
controls his emotions because we are to be strong. And
I sat there imagining perhaps the one who had authored
those words had been told that boys don't cry. But
(09:58):
believing that God is more than a boy and God
is more expansive, reminds us that it is okay to
weep when our hearts are hurting, even when we feel
even abandoned. God is weeping with us. That it is
(10:22):
so much love and concern beyond our imagination. God, in
all God's mercychriest because Lazarus is dead. God cries because
the sisters are mourning. The shortest verse, Jesus wept, human
(10:58):
also divine, and it is that divinity, that humanness that
connects us with something greater than ourselves, and also connects
us with others who will weep with us without apologizing,
for we are enough even through our tears.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Amen.
Our second reading is John chapter eleven, verses twenty eight
through forty four. Now, when Martha had said this, I
have come to believe that you are the Messiah, God's
only begotten, the one who was coming into the world,
she went back and called her sister, Mary, the teacher
is here asking for you, she whispered. As soon as
(00:24):
Mary heard this, she got up and went to him.
Jesus hadn't gotten to the village yet. He was at
the place where Martha had met him. Those who work
there consoling her saw her get up quickly and followed Mary,
thinking she was going to the tomb to mourn. When
Mary got to Jesus, she fell at his feet and said,
(00:46):
if you had been here, Lazarus never would have died.
When Jesus saw her weeping, and the other mourners as well,
he was troubled in spirit, moved by the deepest emotions.
Where have you lain him? Jesus asked, Come and see,
they said, and Jesus wept. The people in the crowd
(01:07):
began to remark see how much he loved him. Others said,
he made the blind person see Why couldn't he have
done something to prevent Lazarus death. Jesus again was deeply moved.
They approached the tomb, which was a cave with a
stone in front of it. Take away the stone, Jesus directed.
(01:29):
Martha said, Rabbi, it has been four days now. By
this time there will be a stench. Jesus replied, didn't
I assure you that if you believed, you would see
the glory of God. So they took the stone away.
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, Abah, thank
you for having heard me. I know that you always
(01:52):
hear me, but I have said this for the sake
of the crowd, that they might believe you sent me.
Then Jesus ride out in a loud voice. Lazarus come out.
And Lazarus came out of the tomb, still bound hand
and foot, with linen strips, his face wrapped in a cloth.
(02:13):
Jesus told the crowd untie him and let him go free.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Edna approached the pulpit slowly. You see her trembling a
bit while we were all trembling. It was preaching lab.
The first preaching experience in the preaching class required in
seminary and preaching Lab was in the preaching laboratory, a
(02:57):
room designed with a video camera a glass window so
those in the technology side could record it. And there
was the professor there with his notepad and a member
from two different congregations in the Durham, North Carolina area
(03:20):
with their own evaluation sheets, which the other students had too.
I wasn't the first to preach, but Edna was. Edna
began sort of haltingly as she began to preach, which
(03:43):
she later told us was the first sermon she had
ever preached for anyone anywhere. She began to cry. She'd
wipe away the tears, say I'm sorry, catch her wrath,
and continue. She began to cry again, figure out where
(04:09):
she was in her notes, preach a bit and cry again,
and the words I'm sorry. She ended her sermon, Thanks
for listening. Sorry, I cried so much. I was next.
(04:33):
I wanted to cry because sitting straight across from me
was the video camera embedded into the wall. There was
doctor lysher, the two other outside and my fellow students,
and I had to preach the same scripture lesson as well.
(04:57):
After me was at Twinda. She began to cry, almost weeping,
and she kept going with the energy and the pace
that made one of the best sermons I ever had heard,
and she never apologized for crying. Each of us had
(05:21):
ten minutes each to preach our sermon, and then we
spent the next twenty minutes talking about all our sermons together.
One of the things I remember most from that lab
experience was doctor Lisher saying to all of us, remember,
(05:42):
God created tears too. You don't have to apologize for crying,
even if it happens during a sermon, for we're all human,
and the Divine speaks through tears and smiles and weeks,
even through our halting words. When was the last time
(06:08):
you cried? When was the last time, perhaps, did you
apologize for crying? Sometimes? I think those of us who
(06:31):
are white, we have a problem with crying in front
of others. I don't know if it's the tradition that
we're supposed to be strong and powerful, but crying shows
our underbelly. Those of other races and nationalities, they tend
to cry much more easily, easily, and they don't apologize
(06:52):
for it, for they know that this is who they are.
Can you imagine God, the Divine Jesus, crying with you,
(07:15):
God's presence with tears coming down God's face, knowing that
the pain that you are suffering, the loss, the weeping,
that God is not so much more than we are,
but God is sitting right next to us. But sometimes
(07:38):
it appears, at least when you google such things, crying
and a weeping God aren't really the first things that
come up. And I know so because this past week,
early in the week, I didn't have a sinnering. Yet
(08:01):
sometimes those words that show up on the screen come easily,
or I can find them easily. This week it was tough,
so I put in weeping God, crying God, and it
always would come up ten to eleven pages and I'd
finally give up. It would always talk about the reason
God or Jesus was cry was because we were evil,
(08:27):
sinful people, and God cries because we sin. The reason
one website said Jesus cried at the tomb of Lazarus
because Mary and Martha were not faithful to enough to
believe that Lazarus would rise and they didn't have enough
(08:48):
faith in him. And I finally said enough. I spent
another day flipping through pages of books that I thought
would finally come up with something suitable. And sometimes I
think when we're at that edge of emptiness. It's when
(09:11):
we encounter a God that is both divine and human
like us and weeps. Some would argue that, well, a
God that weeps and cries makes God too vulnerable to
be God. Because God is powerful and mighty, God controls
(09:35):
his That's what the website said in this one. God
controls his emotions because we are to be strong. And
I sat there imagining perhaps the one who had authored
those words had been told that boys don't cry. But
(09:58):
believing that God is more than a boy and God
is more expansive, reminds us that it is okay to
weep when our hearts are hurting, even when we feel
even abandoned. God is weeping with us. That it is
(10:22):
so much love and concern beyond our imagination. God, in
all God's mercychriest because Lazarus is dead. God cries because
the sisters are mourning. The shortest verse, Jesus wept, human
(10:58):
also divine, and it is that divinity, that humanness that
connects us with something greater than ourselves, and also connects
us with others who will weep with us without apologizing,
for we are enough even through our tears.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Amen.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.