Luke 7:11-17

7:11 Soon afterwards Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd accompanied him.

7:12 As Jesus approached the gate of the town, a dead body was being carried out – the only son of a widowed mother.  A considerable crowd of townspeople were with her.

7:13 Jesus was moved with pity upon seeing her and said,”Do not weep.”

7:14 Then Jesus stepped forward and touched the bier; at this the bearers stood still. Jesus said, “Young man, get up!”

7:15 The dead youth sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back  to his mother.

7:16 Fear seized all of them; and they began to praise God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has truly visited us.”

7:17 This was the report that spread about Jesus throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

Today in churches all across across the country, people are hearing this text from Luke: Jesus raises a young man to life and gives him back to his grieving mother. The I Kings text assigned for the day is similar: Elijah raises a dead son and gives him back to his mother, restoring her joy.

What a strange and cruel irony that we read this as we are remembering those who have died violently, who will not get up again. We remember the weeping and the pain of parents, family and friends. In effect, we are the townspeople in the story, that accompany the mother as she goes outside the city gate to bury her beloved son.

We just heard Sharon’s story. It is heartbreaking, unbearable, to hear her speak of how she lost Malek. He will not sit up and be hugged by her again. As much as we love Jesus and try to follow his way, in the twenty-first century we know that mothers can’t stop their tears just because Jesus says, “Don’t weep.” Dead children don’t just come back to life when Jesus stops the funeral procession and says “Get up.”

In Matthew, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” In Luke, Jesus says, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”

In this story, Jesus doesn’t bless the mother in her weeping, he tells her to stop weeping. What might it mean that Jesus can approach a grieving mother and tell her not to weep, to believe that she will one day laugh again? What powerful hope must it take to tell those who have lost all belief in life to “get up” out of death?

Ciera Hussein and Veda Rasheed are two women in DC’s Ward 7 who decided they have had enough of the violence and death in their neighborhoods. Yesterday at a peace rally and parade that they planned, they called on their friends and neighbors to get up, to speak out against death and violence and reach toward life.

Children, moms, dads, aunts, uncles, mentors, friends, community members walked together for two miles on Benning Road. Escorted by the police and stopping traffic all along the way, we chanted “Stop the violence and increase the peace.” People in cars honked support, people on the sidewalk clapped and gave thumbs up. One little girl walking next to me said, “I am like Dr Martin Luther King walking for voting rights. I am walking for peace.” How empowering for this young girl to see her actions alongside Dr King’s, to see herself as part of history.

The walk was not the end. At River Terrace Park there was a program of speeches and entertainment that showed that the community is alive – dancing, singing, connecting with local government, police, churches and businesses. From a distance, through the media, people might think Ward 7 is only a place of violence and death. Ciera Hussein and Veda Rasheed helped people see that they are part of a caring, accomplished, talented, vibrant community. There is life.

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus makes it look so easy. Walk up to the dead and tell them to get up. The young man sits up, starts speaking and goes back to take care of his mother. What joy, what laughter, what wonder. Ciera Hussein and Veda Rasheed can only wish for such a quick and easy way to bring life from death.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Maybe this story of the dead man being raised to life is not only a cruel irony but an amazing and blessed serendipity. Because if there was ever a time when we need a word of hope, when we need to lean into laughter and life, it is now. Young people in neighborhoods all over our region do not laugh freely. As community organizer Ciera Hussein said yesterday, these young people are not afraid – not afraid of jail, not afraid to die. But they are afraid – to hope and plan. They are afraid of life, they are afraid to live.

This is the crowd’s initial reaction as well, fear. When the people see the young man come back to life in that funeral procession, they are afraid. Such a radical, unusual, out of the ordinary act makes them afraid. And then – they praise God, the God who we can not predict or understand. They recognize that this mysterious God is present among them and they tell people all over the region what they have seen. I hope people who were at the parade and rally are telling others about the life they experienced at the park yesterday. We cannot live in fear; we must spread the word. There is life and it is more powerful than death.

As Jesus followers, how can we do any less than mourn with those who mourn, weep with those who weep – and be prepared to laugh with those who laugh once again. And we cannot stop there. We must also be part of Jesus’ work of calling life out of death, of believing the impossible – and then walking into life together.

Thank God for women like Ciera Hussein and Veda Rasheed and Sharon Becks who are willing to look death in the eye and weep – and not stop at the weeping. Thanks be to our mysterious God that Ciera and Veda and Sharon believe that somehow, in some inexplicable way, life can come out of the death, that there is hope and there can be laughter again.

Opening words at the memorial site –

We gather here to stop, remember and pray. Right now this is an empty space except for these four shirts. Soon the other shirts will arrive and we will display 202 shirts for those killed by guns in the metropolitan area in 2015; white shirts for those killed in DC, blue shirts for Maryland and yellow shirts for Virginia. This small strip of land will become a graveyard that helps all who pass by see what gun violence is doing to our communities. But seeing is not enough, we must also respond.

Please join in the litany of lament and hope as Sharon leads us.