Monday, June 21, 2010: Lazarus' Resurrection

Today's devotional was given by Kari and she display a popular artwork from Van Gogh of his The Sower. The painting if I can best describe it involves bold colored brushstrokes depicting a man planting seeds going down a hill slope while the tree is growing diagonally with an overbearing size sun.

The Sower by Kari Heywood

The Seed can't grow unless it is thrown down

The sower knows that it must die and be buried in the ground

This truth is not just for the farming man

This is how my life must go and find its way

And I give my life away

So many things I thought I'd have by now

So many dreams that fade to black and torn into regrets

All this time I'm trying to save me

Who would have thought to give me up is to be truly found

And I give my life away

If I take this life and lay it down, I bury this seed in the ground

If I take this life and bury it down, I won't let those things turn me 'round

Lazarus' Miracle

John 11:1-44

John 11

The Death of Lazarus

¹Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ²It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. ³So the sisters sent to him, saying, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." ⁴But when Jesus heard it he said, "This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."

⁵Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶So, when he heard that Lazarusw as ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. ⁷Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." ⁸The disciples said to him,"Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?" ⁹Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." ¹¹After saying these things, he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him." ¹²The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." ¹³Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. ¹⁴Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died, ¹⁵and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." ¹⁶So Thomas, called the Twin,^[b] said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

¹⁷Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. ²¹Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you."²³Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." ²⁴ Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." ²⁵Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" ²⁷She said to him, "Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world."

Jesus Weeps

²⁸When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private,"The Teacher is here and is calling for you." ²⁹And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. ³⁰Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. ³¹When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. ³²Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."³³When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. ³⁴And he said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" ³⁷But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?"

Jesus Raises Lazarus

³⁸Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. ³⁹Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days." ⁴⁰Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?" ⁴¹So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me." ⁴³When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." ⁴⁴ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

There's a lot you can ay in this passage but what I want to focus on is the involvement of Jesus' disciples and people there with him when he resurrected the tomb.

1) Jesus asked the disciples "Where is he?" As God I expected Jesus to know where Lazarus is and this give off that Jesus wanted his disciples to point where Lazarus is.

2) Jesus asked for the people to remove the stone that covered the cave. I see this stone as part of our spiritual barrier that keep us from the awakening knowledge of God. He incorporate his believers to remove the barrier for Lazarus to become alive again.

3) Without removing the stone Lazarus would not heard Jesus' voice in calling him.

Columbia University

Today we were on different campuses I was paired up with Joseph again and we went in a group with Sarah & Mike Evers to Columbia. The campus was beautiful as we step foot on the pavement. We used a image survey called Soularium. For those who never heard of Soularium checkout http://mysoularium.com/. Soularium is intended for exchange of dialogue of one's life story and finding commonality and intersection of different people stories. It is harder to lie using an image and we want authentic answers from folks. This is a tool for us on the Art Track because people's responses will be incorporated into our art project for the next week.

Zack

Zack responded favorably to the survey and questions. Connection with Zack and I is we are both from the greater Washington D.C. area. Zack is a promising composer musical theater major who lives in the city. His spiritual journey has progress from being an atheist to being an agnostic still searching already look into different religion and finding at peace with God through being inspired by nature.

Juan

Juan is a hispanic student who is running a program called outerbound program which accepts low economic status students from Harlem as a community-based program. He was in a rush so I felt his answers were less developed. He will be in Paris in the fall on vacation. He is looking for a permanent place having to move a lot within New York City. He value family a lot. He said he sees God in homeless people because he always learn something new from homeless people because they have a message every time he speak to them.

Seana

An African-American young lady studying a major with a long title I don't remember but it has to deal with being the personal relation person for organizations. Seana grew up in Pennsylvania and looking for a job within the city to play rent. She is a Christian who goes to church at First Baptist Church in Brooklyn. She describes God as an energy she consistently needs to rely upon. She took the survey only if we accept her invitation to Afro-Fest 2010 card, so we offered to do so if she accept our art show invitation. She sound interested in coming to our show and inviting her church friends whom happens to be performing arts students.

MNM Worship Night

Different ways People like to Worship God

• Running clears my head and a quiet time of reflecting on my life and my relationship with God.
• Hiking helps me see God's beauty in His majestic creation of the earth.
• Cooking and serving others help empty myself to worship God.
• Making art is a way of worship as an artist.
• Seeing God through develop of civilization.
• Seeing God by helping others.
• Seeing God through people watching.

Favorite Quotes

"My favorite way to worship God is putting on Skull headphones and toning everything out." Adam