Lazarus – Council Nedd II

Jesus … Who Does He Think He Is?

September 23, 2015Leave a comment

By Bishop Council Nedd

Jesus in today’s story doesn’t go through any elaborate ritual like the great prophets Elijah and Elisha when they raised children from the dead. He doesn’t even mutter a brief prayer. At Nain, he offhandedly says to the corpse: “Okay, Kid, get up.”

And at the graveyard in Bethany, he basically strolls up to the newly opened tomb and hollers, “Lazarus, come out!”

Both of these events must have stunned the onlookers, and not just because of what he had done, but because of the way in which he did it. Raising people from the dead was one of the signs by which the Jews of the First Century expected to identify the Messiah. However, he didn’t perform the miracles in the way they expected the Messiah to perform them.

His approach left everyone asking… Who Does He Think He Is?

Jesus Was Not Condemning Martha

August 5, 2015Leave a comment

This was the sermon that I delivered on the Feast of Mary and Martha of Bethany, July 29, 2015. The sermon was delivered at All Saint’s Cathedral in Nashville, TN during the synod of the Southern Episcopal Church.

http://stalbansanglican.org/System/Media/Play.asp?id=40752&Key=9DFD8073-931D-4665-9113-59F2A3FD76B5

The Real Truth about the Rich Man and Lazarus

June 9, 2015Leave a comment

This morning, the parable opens by Jesus telling us…

“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously ever day, and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table.”

This parable is one of the most regularly misused passages in Scripture. Every social welfare movement, and every liberation theology adopts Lazarus as its standard bearer and converts this parable into a political message. The goal of this is to draft Jesus into their movement, and somehow retroactively imply the support of Jesus for their political and social agenda. There are many problems with that, and I get it, but the biggest problem with that is — this gospel lesson has nothing to do with anyone’s political or social agenda.

So, what is the real truth about the rich man and Lazarus? Click the following link to hear the rest:

http://stalbansanglican.org/System/Media/Play.asp?id=40752&Key=05C6ADD0-60D7-417D-A1D1-48373DFFE7BA

Jesus Groaned in His Spirit

September 16, 2013April 23, 2015Leave a comment

. . . Instead of immediately raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus spends a long time in fruitless debate with the young man’s sisters, Mary and Martha, trying to persuade them not to press for Lazarus to be raised from the dead. “I am the resurrection and the life,” he tells Martha, “He that believeth on me, though he were dead yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth on me shall never die. Believest thus this? St. John then tells us that Jesus “groans in his spirit” and is “deeply moved.”

http://www.stalbansanglican.org/System/Media/play.asp?id=40752&key=27D137F5-C76D-4C68-90B1-664D864B74F4