I Am the Resurrection and the Life

I am returning, after various diversions, to the series of sermons and sonnets on the mysterious I Am sayings in John’s Gospel which I mentioned to you in a previous post. In the midst of so many crises, so much sudden carnage, so much grief and bereavement, perhaps its good to return to that poignant and painful moment in John’s Gospel when the desperately grieving Martha confronts Jesus with the loss of her brother Lazarus and asks him why he wasn’t there, why he didn’t prevent it. And she wins from Jesus, who weeps for Lazarus as much as his sisters, the declaration ‘I Am the Resurrection and the Life’. The new life, and the redemption of all things is already in our midst to inspire our hope, the true good ending, the ‘eucatastrophe’ as Tolkien calls it, has come to meet us in the midst. Below I have pasted part of the passage from St. John, then the poem I wrote in response, a kind of dialogue with Jesus, which you can hear by clicking on the title or the ‘play’ button, And then the sermon I preached on this text at Girton on All Souls day. I hope you find some of this helpful. The Poem will be published in my next book Parable and Paradox which will come out with Canterbury Press in 2016

John 11:20-27:

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘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?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

 

I Am the Resurrection 

“I am the resurrection and the life” John 11:25

 

How can you be the final resurrection?

That resurrection hasn’t happened yet.

Our broken world is still bent on destruction,

No sun can rise before that sun has set.

Our faith looks back to father Abraham

And toward to the one who is to come

How can you speak as though he knew your name?

How can you say: before he was I am?

 

Begin in me and I will read your riddle

And teach you truths my Spirit will defend

I am the End who meets you in the middle,

The new Beginning hidden in the End.

I am the victory, the end of strife

I am the resurrection and the life.

 

You can listen to my sermon on this passage, which also includes a reading on this poem, by clicking HERE