Here lies the body of John Crow
by Thomas Paine
Here lies the body of John Crow,
Who once was high, but now is low;
Ye brother Crows take warning all,
For as you rise, so must you fall.
There was a confluence of names working on this sermon this week. John at the center of the vortex. We have a very long scripture to talk about this week. Almost the entire chapter 11 of John. Twenty-one chapters in all we are at the beginning of the end.
The only part of the chapter not in our scripture is the beginning of the conspiracy to kill Jesus. John 11:49b“You know nothing at all! 50 Nor do you understand that it is expedient and politically advantageous for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”
There is a beautifully written section at the end of the chapter. We are shown that God is doing what God is doing regardless of what people think.
51 Now he did not say this [simply] on his own initiative; but being the high priest that year, he [was unknowingly used by God and] prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, 52 and not only for the nation, but also for the purpose of gathering together into one body the children of God who have been scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.
Why was it that day? Well this is this long scripture we have today. Jesus had been revealed and glorified the father in a way that could not be ignored or explained away. 54 For that reason Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but left there and went to the district that borders on the uninhabited wilderness, to a town called Ephraim; and He stayed there with the disciples. Can you feel what is coming? We know the story. We know the end. But can you feel what is coming? This is the lesson of lent.
The other name that came to me was John Crow. This is an alternate name for turkey vultures in parts of the world. Specifically there is a ridge in Jamaica where this name comes. The poem Thomas Paine wrote at eight years old was about a pet crow. An actual crow in that case. I find the association our buzzards and John Crow not surprising. There is this similar intelligence. A large group of turkey vultures is called a kettle when they are flying. I think that is amazing. You see them mostly alone, but they live and roost in large groups and are quite social in their kettles.
When you see a flock of vultures in flight, you're witnessing a kettle of vultures. When you see vultures at rest in a tree or on a fence post, that's a committee of vultures. And since vultures feed mainly on dead animals, when you see a group feeding, you're in the presence of a wake of vultures.
You could almost imagine them Methodist. Nottingham does have something in common with them: as much as the neighborhood has changed over the years we still belong. You might wonder why I am talking about turkey vultures. I on the other hand have so many reasons. Sure they leave every year, but they always come back. As different as this place we call Nottingham becomes they continue to call it home.
If your in tune with the wilderness around us you might notice they are back. Maybe the best reason to write about them: they fit so well into this world. For the most part they do their thing. For the most part when you see a six foot wing span in Collinwood it is them; as I saw the other day driving out of the church parking lot. Six feet wing span and the real world so real it shocked me for that first second. I know enough about science to doubt everything I see to some degree. Six feet of wing swooping low to the ground is one of the things that is hard to mistake. Clear sign. Another reason you might think I am talking about buzzards: a sure sign of spring.
You might already know this or you might have been in my art class then you would know for sure: the buzzards always return here on the ides of march. People have been gathering in the Metroparks in Hinkley for the last sixty plus years watching for their return. If you ask them they say they always arrive on the fifteenth, but I can tell you they don't look before the fifteenth.
They travel far and always in familiar places. They are at home wherever they go. Everyone welcomes them. Even my first graders understand why they are welcome everywhere. They provide a service. We spoke last month of this mysterious connection we and Jesus had to the wilderness. These fifty years of witness in the park at Hinkley ridge is a whisper of this connection we had. When we knew things directly from nature. Our buzzards are remnants of this knowledge that isn't completely lost. As it swooped by I felt spring in the air.
John 11:1-45 I will read in parts from the Amplified Bible. The title of the section The Death and Resurrection of Lazarus. So this resurrection is first met with conspiracy, but first our story today:
11 Now a certain man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village where Mary and her sister Martha lived. 2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
So we start here where I usually end. The importance of understanding the role of women in the ministry of Jesus. This is where Jesus finds the least amount of support even today. So few words written about Mary in the Bible. So many written elsewhere. If we look at just the words we see the place they take with Jesus. Center stage or as some say apple of the eye. It is everywhere you just need to want to see it.
3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, he [our brother and Your friend] whom You love is sick.”
What Jesus would do that would finally get him killed he did for women. Like something more than center stage. Jesus didn't bring balanced scales, he balanced them. The active participant.
4 When Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness will not end in death; but [on the contrary it is] for the glory and honor of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”
Women set it in motion. You say yes, but I just say this is what I do.
5 Now Jesus loved and was concerned about Martha and her sister and Lazarus [and considered them dear friends]. 6 So [even] when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed in the same place two more days.
There is then an interesting conversation about waking someone from sleep and waking someone from death. Jesus is at first confounding then explicit with his disciples. They ask if he is sleeping will he not wake. Interesting because it tells us that for Jesus there is not much difference even as he understands that it is the biggest difference for all of us: being alive or dead. Or so we would think.
17 So when Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away; 19 and many of the Jews had come to see Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning [the loss of] their brother.
After the interment, mourners return home to sit Shiva for seven days. Shiva is a Hebrew word for seven. During the Shiva week, mourners are expected to remain at home. There are seven relatives for whom a Jew is required to observe Shiva: father, mother, brother or sister, son, daughter, or spouse.
Jesus arrived on the fourth day just past the halfway point. Something like chapter eleven of twenty one. Jesus knew they would be home. What is more they knew he would come.
20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him, while Mary remained sitting in the house. 21 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give to You.”
There is a strength of faith here that is difficult to relate to here. Lord, if You had been here is not a luxury we have. It was extra help for those who didn't have extra help. Speaks of a new covenant with an old people too. As well as they understood they would have to come to understand again.
23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise [from the dead].” 24 Martha replied, “I know that he will rise [from the dead] in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, relies on) Me [as Savior] will live even if he dies; 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me [as Savior] will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed and continue to believe that You are the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), the Son of God, He who was [destined and promised] to come into the world [and it is for You that the world has waited].”
We cross the bridge from the old to the new covenant here with Martha. There is no going back. This is what gets Jesus in trouble. This is where we stand as Jesus followers. And our fifth I am of John. 8:12 (Light); 10:9 (Door); 10:11 (Good Shepherd); 11:25 (Resurrection); 14:6 (Way, Truth, Life); 15:5 (Vine).
28 After she had said this, she left and called her sister Mary, privately whispering [to her], “The Teacher is here and is asking for you.” 29 And when she heard this, she got up quickly and went to Him.
So most of the facts about Mary where whispered by men later. We know she was quick.
30 Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him. 31 So when the Jews who were with her in the house comforting her, saw how quickly Mary got up and left, they followed her, assuming that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came [to the place] 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.” 33 When Jesus saw her sobbing, and the Jews who had come with her also sobbing, He was [f]deeply moved in spirit [to the point of anger at the sorrow caused by death] and was troubled, 34 and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him [as a close friend]!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the blind man’s eyes, have kept this man from dying?”
“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” repeated again here by another Jesus loved. The old covenant no longer worked is what they seem to be telling him.
38 So Jesus, again deeply moved within [to the point of anger], approached the tomb.
What made Jesus Mad? This is for you to whisper I think. I imagine he was angry about what had come and what would come. That he would soon comfort Mary by another boulder. It was tiresome.
It was a cave, and a boulder was lying against it [to cover the entrance]. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be an offensive odor, for he has been dead four days! [It is hopeless!]”
Martha saw what she saw.
40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe [in Me], you will see the glory of God [the expression of His excellence]?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised His eyes [toward heaven] and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. 42 I knew that You always hear Me and listen to Me; but I have said this because of the people standing around, so that they may believe that You have sent Me [and that You have made Me Your representative].” 43 When He had said this, He shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 Out came the man who had been dead, his hands and feet tightly wrapped in burial cloths (linen strips), and with a [burial] cloth wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and release him.”
if you believe Martha, but I have said this because of the people standing around, here we see why we have such a long scripture. Maybe we found our focus for next week: the people standing around. As you count them notice that we all fit in this category.
45 So then, many of the Jews who had come to [be with] Mary and who were eyewitnesses to what Jesus had done, believed in Him.
This is the way. Old covenants don't die they lead to knew ones. When you know better you do better you might say for you and me. When you know everything you do it all we might say for Jesus. John likes to point out that Jesus is a divine messiah and that is the main point of his ministry. I don't know that it is, but it is as important as any other aspect of the ministry of Jesus.
Where people see things broken I see different aspects. Where religion fails is the same place banks fail: the people department. Sometimes it really is all because of the people standing around. Don't just stand around always be in service like Martha and our Savior.
This model we finally have, but what Martha and Mary had was something different. What they both said is surely true. If Jesus had been there he would have healed him. They had seen it done before. All they had seen. If he was there he would not have died. I think that is why we need the comforter. We do always have Jesus but people sometimes die. Martha and Mary knew something different.
So we have our brother John Crow as another model I am reminded this week. We will fit into this world if we are always providing a service. Taking death and making life is a resurrection. I keep mentioning this service in indirect ways instead of like Jesus: they clean up dead things. Everything is happy to see them. Things that are not going to wake up or confuse the disciples.
It is listed as a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. So the model is working. A species of least concern unless he swoops by you an early spring day.
Ye brother Crows take warning all, For as you rise, so must you fall. The opening poem hints of the pride, but these are the words of an eight year old. Children don't have agendas is my experience and what I hear is preparation for resurrection: lent. As surely as the turkey vultures know their roosts and return each year. Even so, as Martha and Mary said, Had he been there he would not have died. It was special is why it endures.
Filter out people from the message and you will find your lord blameless even as those two did not.
Let Us Pray
Because of the people standing around
We ask your strength to be shown to them in Nottingham
Bring your messengers near
Make them loud
Let them repeat themselves
Save us from ourselves
That we would glorify God in All we do
You are the Light, Door, Good Shepherd);
The Resurrection, the Way, Truth, Life
Vine
Amen
Benediction
Because of the people standing around
Let the light you have received shine
Ye brother Crows take warning all,
Be of service
Nottingham UMC 3/26/2023