Hello my friend Dr. Brad Miller here with the Daily Bible Refresh.

This is your daily reading of the Bible from a progressive point of view.

In a bit I will read the New Testament lesson selected from the Revised Common Lectionary for this very day.

The reading is understandable.

I use the message version relatable.

Please listen to the points to ponder and applicable with action steps you can take.

We pray and are done in less than 10 minutes.

It's all brought to you by voiceofgoddd daily.com which is the home of your free personal Bible Study Guide, the ABC1, 23 Bible Study Method.

Please join me in my mission of getting the audible word of God into two millionaires a million people by 2028.

You can help by saving and subscribing to the podcast and tagging your friends.

Here's today's reading from the gospel of

John 11:1 48 for the message the Death of Lazarus A man was sick.

Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

This is the same Mary who massaged the Lord's feet with aromatic oils and then wiped them with her hair.

It was her brother Lazarus who was sick.

So the sister sent word to Jesus, master, the one you love so very much is sick.

When Jesus got the message, he said, this sickness is not fatal.

It will become an occasion to show God's glory by glorifying God's son.

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

But oddly, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed on where he was for two more days.

After the two days, he said to his disciples, let's go back to Judea.

They said, rabbi, you can't do that.

The Jews are out to kill you and you're going back.

And Jesus replied, are there not 12 hours of daylight?

Anyone who walks in daylight doesn't stumble because there's plenty of light from the sun.

Walking at night, he might very well stumble because he can't see where he's going.

Then he said these things and then announced, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.

I'm going to wake him up.

The disciples said, master, if he's going to sleep, he'll get a good rest and wake up feeling fine.

And Jesus was talking about death while the disciples thought he was talking about taking a nap.

Then Jesus became explicit.

Lazarus died, and I'm glad for your sakes that I wasn't there.

You're about to be given new grounds for believing.

Now let's go to him.

That's when Thomas, the one called the twins, said to his companions, Come along.

We might as well die with him.

When Jesus finally got there, he found Lazarus already dead four days.

And Bethany was near Jerusalem, only a couple of miles away.

And many of the Jews were visiting Martha and Mary and sympathizing with them over their brother.

And Martha heard Jesus was coming and went out to meet him.

And Mary remained in the house.

And Martha said, master, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died.

Even now, though I know that whatever you ask God, he will give you.

And Jesus said, your brother will be raised up.

Martha replied, I know that he will be raised up in the resurrection at the end of time.

You don't have to wait for the end.

I am right now.

Resurrection and life.

The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live.

And everyone who lives believes in me, does not ultimately die at all.

Do you believe this?

Yes, Master.

All along I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God who comes into the world.

After saying this, she went to her sister Mary and whispered in her ear, the teacher is here and is asking for you.

The moment she heard that, she jumped up and ran out to him.

And Jesus had not yet entered the town, but was still the place where Martha had met it.

When her sympathizing Jewish friends saw Mary run off, they followed her, thinking she was on her way to the tomb to weep there.

And Mary came to where Jesus was waiting and fell at his feet, saying, master, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.

And when Jesus saw her sobbing and the Jews with her sobbing, a deep anger welled up within him.

And he said, where did you put him, Master?

Come and see, they said.

And now Jesus wept.

The Jews said, look how deeply he loved him.

Others among them said, well, if he loved him so much, why didn't he do something to keep him from dying after all, he opened the eyes of the blind man.

Then Jesus, the anger again welling up with him, arrived at the tomb.

It was a simple cave in the hillside with a slab of stone laid against it.

And Jesus said, remove the stone.

The sister of the dead man.

Martha said, master, by the time the there's a stench, he's been dead for four days.

Jesus looked her in the eye.

Didn't I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?

Then to the others, go ahead, take away the stone.

They removed the stone, and Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and prayed.

Father, I'm grateful that you have listened to me.

I know you always do listen but on account of this crowd standing here, I've spoken so that they might believe that you sent me.

Then he shouted, lazarus, come out.

And he came out a cadaver, wrapped from head to toe and with a kerchief on his face.

And Jesus told them, unwrap him and let him loose.

The man who creates God signs.

That was a turning point for many of the Jews who were with Mary.

They saw what Jesus did and believed in him.

But some went back to the Pharisees and told on Jesus.

The high priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish ruling body.

What do we do now?

They asked.

This man keeps on doing things, creating God's signs.

If we let him go on, pretty soon everyone will be believing in him.

And the Romans will come and remove what little power and privilege we still do have.

Well, that concludes this very, very powerful passage here.

And so let's, let's just get into a couple of points to ponder, a couple of teaching points.

First quote, I am right now.

Resurrection and life.

Close quote.

Right now.

Not someday, not down the road, not after you die.

Right now.

Martha had the standard theology kind of down, you know, for the time she knew about the resurrection in the last days.

And Jesus essentially says, that's not wrong, but it's not big enough.

Resurrection isn't just a future event you wait for.

It's a present reality that you live for, that you live in.

And this changes everything about how we walk through suffering.

On my cancer related podcast, I sit with people every week, are facing some hard things, some hard life and death things.

And the ones who find a way through it aren't just banking on someday.

They're finding small points of life and light.

Resurrections every day right now.

A good scan, a good visit, a moment of laughter, a friend who shows up.

Resurrection, that happens in real time, in the middle of a mess.

And a progressive faith insists that God's life giving power isn't just a ticket to the afterlife.

It's an invitation to come alive today, even in the places that smell like death.

Second point to ponder, unwrap, and let him loose.

And Lazarus came out of the tomb, but he was still bound up, still wrapped up in grave clothes.

And Jesus didn't unwrap him himself.

He told the community, the others, to do it.

And that's the part that I think I really want to drill down with you here.

Resurrection might be God's work, but liberation is for all of us.

It's a community project and there are people all around us who have Come back to life in some way or another.

They've overcome addiction or they've left an abusive situation.

They've come out of the closet.

They walk through your grief and they're standing upright and they're still wrapped up in the old stuff, but they need us to help them unwrap it.

Old shame and old labels need to be unwrapped.

Old narratives that other people put on them need to be unwrapped.

And Jesus looks at us, the community, and says, unwrap them and let them loose.

And that's our job, not to judge whether they deserve to be alive again, but to help get them free.

And then there's the Pharisees at the end of the story who's real concerned.

Wasn't theology at all.

It was power, privilege.

When the resurrection threatens the system, the powers that be, sometimes the system pushes back.

And that's still true today, of course.

So here's an action step for the day.

Think about someone in your life who alive again, but maybe still wrapped up and bound up and still carrying some old shame, old identities, old junk, old baggage that they need help reinforcing to unwrap them, so to speak.

Maybe you can be that person, help unwrap them a word of affirmation, doing something to be helpful, a refusal to bring up the past, an invitation back to the table.

Be the community Jesus calls for in this story.

We're going to pray here just a minute.

Before we do, just a reminder that we have a great, great resource for you called the ABC 123 Bible study method.

We invite you to head over to our website, voiceofgoddaily.com pick it up right there.

Let's pray.

Oh God.

We've all stood at the tomb and thought it was too much.

Or thought it was too little, too late, too far gone, too long dead, too much stench.

And that you are here shouting names and calling the dead back to life.

And forgive us for the times we've been more like the Pharisees, more worried about our comfort and control than about the people you're setting free.

Give us hands willing to unwrap the grave clothes of the people around us and open our eyes to the resurrection that's happening right now, not someday, but today.

In our homes, our friendships, our own stubborn hearts, we believe God help the part of us that's still not sure.

Amen.

My friend.

I am delighted you chose to join me for today's reading.

The daily Bible refresh is completely listener supported.

Your gift goes a long way to getting the audible word of God from a progressive perspective into two millionaires a million people by 2028.

I would be so grateful if you would go to voiceofgodddaily.com and share your gift of any amount.

Thanks much.

My name is Dr. Brad Miller and I'll be right here tomorrow with your daily Bible refresh.

Please subscribe and tag your friends until tomorrow.

Remember, God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up, it's created new every morning.