John 11:1-45

Lent 5 – Year A

John 11:1-45

Who's to blame? A person born blind? Their parents? Jesus for intervening? Jesus for delaying? Last week the wonder of G*D was revealed in a creation story involving mud. This week, with Jesus' delay in coming, Lazarus gets all the way to "mostly dead" (read The Princess Bride). Everyone understands Lazarus and Westley to be dead, but all great stories find a way to a larger possibility beyond apparent limitations. Even tragedies give instruction that we might find another way.

The unbinding in this story is very similar to the revealing to Photini who she might yet become. The unbinding of Lazarus is also our unbinding, even as Photini's enlightenment is ours. All of these Johannine encounters hold a creative edge with possibilities and realities of new births.

Do you see how beloved Photini was, how beloved was Lazarus? This pushes us again to recognize our own belovedness. We are worth being wept over. We are worth being called forth. We are worth being unwrapped (shedding our skin one more time) and set free to a next stage of life. [image here - Lazarus as butterfly emerged]

What a difference a moment, a day, or even four days can make. Each of them hold the initial state of a new way of being/moving – use your favorite search engine for "butterfly effect" references.

Another way of playing with this is to investigate, at whatever leisure you will unbind, the Suzy Butterfly site.