Just What the Doctor Prescribed

0:00 I'll bless the Lord at all times. And his praises shall continually be in my mouth. I will glory in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. Good morning, Alfred Street. Good morning. I bless God for our pastor, the Reverend Dr. Howard John Wesley, in his absence, for this opportunity to stand before you. I bless God for the three-fourths of our congregation in Texas. I'm seeing all the food posts. You know, the food in Virginia is good, too. got Nando's God is good this month we've been in the theme grow in truth growing in truth and we're dealing with some difficult topics specifically this weekend and I thank God in advance for the opportunity for all of us to grow in truth this morning amen we'll be reading from John 11 verses 28 through 37 If you are able, please stand as we read the word of the Lord.

2:57 We'll be preaching from this subject just what the doctor prescribed. You may be seated. Let us pray. God, every day at some point, you have a way of reminding us that there is truly no one like you. So God, in this moment, we ask that this be it. You remind us that there is no one like you. Let us know what it is that you have for us in this life as we anticipate celebrating the next. in the name of Jesus the Christ we pray amen Alfred Street. I love Netflix.

3:55 Not just because of the wide variety of shows and movies, but because of its lack of commercials. And it wasn't until I was watching TV at a friend's house that I remembered just how interesting commercials can be. but particularly the prescription drug commercials without fail there is always someone dealing with some medical condition and she or he has been trying to conceal it from their family and their friends and one day they take this prescribed drug the sun comes out the birds are chirping she has a job promotion, a new man, she bought a new house, all because this drug has entered her life.

4:49 But while you see the butterflies flying and the birds chirping, you also hear in the background a scrolling list of side effects for taking that particular drug. Lung disease. Inflamed heart. If your nose begins to itch, go to your doctor immediately. And it makes me wonder just how often this cognitive dissonance reflects in our own lives, where we see one thing, but we're hearing quite another. What you see is this girl whose life somehow instantly was better after taking this thing. But what you're hearing is that everything can fall apart at any moment.

5:46 What you see are blue skies and birds chirping, but what you're hearing is that a storm may come and tear everything apart. What you see is a smiling face, a smile full of hope, but what you hear is that your hope is contingent upon whether or not the side effects of life might happen to you. What you see and what you hear are not quite the same. and when I think about what it's like to be a Christian, it seems that life can often feel that way. What I see is an image of God being a healer, but what I hear is that I have a condition that's untreatable. What I see is that God is a way maker, but what I hear is that there is a dead end up the way. What I see is that God is a provider, but what I hear is that the mortgage is due and my job is doing layoffs. What I see is an imagery about faith the size of the mustard seed.

6:50 But what I know is that my mama had a lot more faith than I did and things didn't end up so well for her. And if you haven't been saved your whole life, maybe just a little bit, a little part of you is wondering, is this the life that God has prescribed for us to live? Where what we see is not quite lining up with what we are hearing, where we are expected to see a picture-perfect life, but what we're hearing is that the news of suffering is not just possible, but quite inevitable. It's not enough that in teen church we have to talk about Atiana Jefferson. It's not enough that driving in a black body might be fatal to me. It's not enough to know that there are social woes waiting for me at every corner, but I know right in my own community, my neighbors might be smiling, but there's domestic violence going on in their homes.

7:59 My student is laughing, but I know she cries in the bathroom during her lunch hour. They are at the gym working day and night, but I know they just received a dire medical diagnosis. My marriage looks good to my friends, but we're hanging on by a thread and it's not even a strong one. My children are bringing home good grades, but I know they're not making the right friends. My heart is beating just fine. But every time I think about that last heartbreak, it beats a little harder. And when you realize that your life really looks good on the outside, but sounds pretty bad on the inside, you know that your life is starting to look like a prescription drug commercial. When you're in your Sunday's best and you're lifting up freshly manicured hands, you have your Bible laid out on your lap and all you hear in your head is the running list of side effects of living life in this world. And what if the worst actually happens? You lose your job, you lose the boo. You lost your health. You lost a loved one. You are now in the part of the commercial they don't show. When if becomes when, and you actually have to consult your doctor.

9:29 The reality is that we're all suffering from the side effects of life, and we're all wondering what do we do with it? Can you imagine Lazarus lying down on what's about to be his cooling board, asking his sisters for Jesus and expecting him to come? Mary and Martha says, we sent a message to him. Lord, the one you love is sick. We hope he comes soon. And then four days later, a dejected Mary and Martha sit in a town called Bethany having lost a brother and probably a little bit of faith in their savior. Can you imagine that after all that time they had spent living together in their home, Martha preparing food, complaining about Mary not helping, Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening and taking in all that Jesus had to teach, Mary breaking into a party.

10:28 She wasn't invited to all to anoint Jesus with her alabaster box. They had been friends. And after all they had been through, Jesus had not shown up. And when I think about all the times I was left on read by God, while I was suffering or a loved one was suffering, after asking why me and why them, I was left with the same confusing and frustrating question the Jews ask at the end of this scripture. Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man not have stopped this man from dying? stop this dream from dying, this hope from dying? Could he have not helped my neighbor like you's helped me? Could he who healed this person's pain not take away mine? Lazarus is not supposed to die when you try to be the best Christian you can be. Lazarus is not supposed to die when Jesus calls you friend. Lazarus is not supposed to die when you've walked with him and talked with him. Lazarus is not supposed to die and surely Jesus is not supposed to show up four days later.

11:55 and it is the temptation of the church to get to this part of the story where the dissonance between what we know about God and the way our lives look to be true when we get to this part of the story we rush to when Jesus raises Lazarus we rush to I'm blessed and highly favored when we're asked how we're doing we lean on the phrase God is good and all of that is yet true but it's also true that we're not okay, that we're in pain, that we're disappointed, that we're suffering, and that we don't know what to do with it all. We Christians get to that part where we can't explain why we're suffering and why God didn't prevent it, and we don't know what to do with it. But in order to appropriately deal with the relationship between our faith and our suffering, the doctor prescribes that we first deal with the harmful ways we understand our grief.

13:01 We have to be real about the fact that we tell people when they are grieving a divorce, grieving a job, grieving a loved one, dealing with depression, that they are now suffering so that they could be a better person. We tell them that they're suffering because they need to be more equipped for their call. We so badly don't want to deal with the fact that we are in pain that like Job's friends, we either attach their pain to something else we did or something we need to learn from. It is dangerous to attach our flourishing to someone else's demise.

13:37 It's dangerous because we begin to set ourselves up to think that the more miserable we are, the more holy we're going to be. Somewhere along the way, we have made suffering a glorious enterprise, a gold medal for our faith, but we cannot and never reconcile our faith and our suffering if we don't first put down the idea that our suffering somehow can add to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus. The sacrifice he made so that we can live life and life more abundantly. the only death that is directly correlated with our lives being better is that of Jesus. Your suffering is not redemptive.

14:27 Though God can make good come out of it, the experience on its own without God does not produce goodness. In other words, there is nothing inherently holy about us going through pain and grief. no my sister his abusing you is not bringing you into the glory of God no you're my brother your being in pain does not make you look more like Jesus no you losing yourself in order to get your family together does not bring you closer to salvation no the cancer doesn't make you more or less righteous it just means that you are human living in a broken world. Take up your cross and follow me is not a call to embrace self-debasement. It is a call to submission. And when we glamorize suffering, we undermine the power of the sacrifice Jesus already made for us.

15:28 It is how we perpetuate the same harmful practices of those who say that they serve God but brought detriment to the world. It is how the slave traders thought they could build a church on top of a slave dungeon. As Dr. Leslie Callahan said recently, it is how we can let black women become living martyrs for our communities and we never send relief because they're all believed to be superwomen. That's how we perpetuate the harmful understanding of suffering. It's how we tell our black men not to cry because their masculinity is measured by how much pain they can ignore. We can't get better until we know how we make our suffering worse.

16:17 This is how we first address our suffering. We address our suffering by dealing with the harmful ways we as the church think of our pain, and we also deal with our suffering by admitting that the worst has actually happened. There was that moment where you, just like Mary and Martha, has said, Jesus, had you been here? We address our suffering by admitting that, like Mary and Martha, we had a Jesus had you been here in our hearts and on our tongues. Even though we know that God never leaves us and God never forsakes us, even though we know Jesus never leaves us today, Even though we know Jesus intercedes on our behalf and the Holy Spirit interprets our groans, we also know that cognitively and spiritually, Jesus didn't feel like he was there. In our minds, we know that thing would not have happened if Jesus were there.

17:19 Knowing our disappointment and what feels like bad timing, knowing our disappointment and what feels like him not showing up, Jesus, in the midst of all of that, teaches us how to deal with our suffering. So with a crying Mary at his feet, he doesn't say, Mary, don't you weep, oh Martha, don't you moan. He doesn't go straight to the shout. He doesn't scream early Sunday morning just because her pain made him feel uncomfortable. The good news himself is very well aware that there is some bad news in this life. he doesn't say that God needed another flower in his garden that's why he picked your brother He doesn't say that God allowed this to happen to you so that you can help someone else. Jesus doesn't try to overwhelm the sound of her pain with an image of joy and happiness, or even the possibility that your pain might be productive for someone else, Jesus himself.

18:30 Knowing you are distraught, knowing you are disappointed, knowing your dismay, asks a question he already knows the answer to. Where have you laid him? where have you laid your beloved one? Where have you laid your burdens? Where have you laid your pain? Where have you laid your hurts? Where have you placed your struggles? Where have you buried your tears? Where have you drowned your sorrows? Where have you gone down to lay down your dreams unborn? Jesus asks, where have you laid your Lazarus? God cares about where you've laid your pain and Jesus cares so much knowing their answer and their response come and see God come and see where my scars are God come and see where my heartbreak is God come and see what the doctor showed me in my scans God come and see where the accident happened. God, come and see why I almost lost my mind. God, come and see. And Jesus cares so much about us and about our response. Come and see. This is what Jesus does. Jesus weeps.

19:52 I don't know about you, but I don't want a God who has no idea what I'm going through. I don't know about you, but I don't want a God who has to ask me what it feels like when I bleed. I don't want a God who is so big that he can't get into the smallness of my chest cavity and show me how to breathe again. I want a Savior who can look me in the eye and count every tear, calculate the salt content, Report it back to God and still be with me in the moment. Jesus wept. the reality is we don't all know why jesus wept it can be because of the grief of losing his friend or knowing that his own tomb lay before him just a few chapters ahead all we know is that jesus felt Jesus felt maybe what the doctor is prescribing is that you don't need an answer to your suffering but that your suffering needs your response you can't get to the other side of your pain without feeling it even Jesus didn't take one step closer to Lazarus' tomb without allowing himself to feel someone in here has an assignment to release what's been weighing them down.

21:33 Someone in here has to recognize that they can't make room for what is new until they acknowledge what has hurt and what has died. Someone has to cry about what happened to them as a child. Someone hasn't wept for that little boy or that little girl inside of them that had been abandoned, rejected, bullied, or violated. Someone hasn't allowed themselves to mourn their grandmother, their grandfather, or their loved one. Someone hasn't allowed themselves to be angry at God for not showing up in the way they thought God should.

22:10 And we must feel with them. One theologian once said that weeping is the first prophetic act. Meaning, weeping is the first act to bring about the kingdom of God. So maybe your work isn't working because you haven't done the work of your weeping. maybe your ceiling is just above the last time you thought about your pain and your hurt maybe you can't move on because you haven't allowed yourself to move within maybe your miracle is actually tear activated Even Jesus showed Thomas the holes in his hand to prove that life and death and resurrection all happened. Before he resurrected, he went to the grave.

23:17 And before he went to the grave, he hung on a cross. And before he died, he cried, Father, Father, why have you forsaken me? I thirst, he cried. He cried out before he gave up the ghost. Our God is like no other God because he is living and because he sent Jesus to live life and to die death. it is because Jesus thought so much of us to live and to die that we can say through our tears, pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry while on others thou art calling. Please do not pass me by. It's because of Jesus we can say, Lord, I hear of showers of blessings. Thou art scattering full and free.

24:10 showers the thirsty souls refreshing. Let some drops fall on me, even me, Lord. Even me, Lord, let some drops fall on me. Even me, Lord, even me. and something about grief gives you the audacity to say what you wouldn't say in your happiness something about grief gives you some kind of boldness and clarity that like martha you can say to jesus himself jesus had you been here my brother would not have died Okay. but she also says, but I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask. I don't know if Martha said it with some grit or a desire to persuade Jesus or with good old plain old confidence, but I know the Bible says that Martha declared in the middle of her grief, I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask.

25:22 Even now, I know that you're greater than this situation. Even now, I know that you are greater and more wonderful. Even now, even if this doesn't go my way, I know that I will trust you. Even now, with Lazarus still in the grave, Jesus still wins. because even now this I know for I reckon that my present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed within me for the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. I heard from the other side of pain, oh death where is your victory? Oh grave, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God. But thanks be to God. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. My victory is not in pain not happening.

26:28 my victory is not in the worst not happening to me my victory is not not having rainy days my victory is and even if it does happen God is still by my side I don't need God to prescribe fleeting happiness. I need joy unspeakable, joy unshakable. I don't need the good doctor to prescribe excessive wealth and material things. I need the invaluable love of Christ to never leave me, no matter where I am and no matter what is happening. I need to be reminded of this one thing, for I am persuaded. That neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any created thing shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. nothing can separate us from the love of God even if your Lazarus doesn't come back to life, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

28:00 Nothing can separate us from the love of God. That thing that just popped up, that thing, yes, nothing can separate us from the love of God. And since nothing can separate us from the love of God, we might as well do life at his feet.

28:26 Laugh and smile, cry and weep, whatever you do. Do as the doctors prescribed. Lay it all at his feet.