FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Sermon by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

 

The Fifth Sunday in Lent

April 6, 2003

 

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY:

THE STAGES OF LIFE, DEATH AND RESURRECTION –

“DEALING WITH DEPRESSION”

 

Scripture:  John 11:1-37

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Before we begin, just these few words of introduction about our scripture lesson and sermon for today.

 

During this Lenten Season, we have focused our attention on the theme “From Here to Eternity: the Stages of Life, Death and Resurrection.”  As we have made the journey toward Jerusalem with Jesus and his first disciples, the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke have served as our guides along the way.  This morning and next week, Palm Sunday, we move on to the gospel of John and the story of Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha.  The first half of the story as you will see, leaves Lazarus for dead and so our sermon today is entitled “Dealing With Depression.”  The second half of the story will come next Sunday as Lazarus is raised from the grave, foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Day.  This is an amazing story from the 11th chapter of John which I now commend to your attention.

 

I.

 

The warning signs were evident as Herbert Hoover was inaugurated President of the United States in January of 1929.  The “roaring twenties” had been a period of great prosperity for America, and the national mood was upbeat, verging on euphoria.

 

But the signs of economic trouble rolled in like thunderclouds across the horizon, and when the storm finally hit on the 29th of October, 1929, our country plunged into “The Great Depression.”  The Stock Market crash cost investors 40 billion dollars, and in the weeks and months that followed, banks failed, factories shut down, stores closed, local governments could not collect their taxes, international trade was paralyzed and millions of citizens lost every cent they owned.  By the end of 1931, more than 12 million men and women were out of work, and it took us ten years to recover from that disaster, which many of you older adults here this morning can still remember as if it were yesterday.

 

(Statistics from the World Book Encyclopedia, United States History, “The Great Depression”)

 

More than 70 years later, as our country once again is struggling with tough economic times, and as our national mood swings between hope and confidence versus fear and apprehension in the midst of the war against Iraq, we are hearing more and more about another kind of depression.  Newspaper and magazine articles are tracking the increased sense of anxiety in America, a growing number of our citizens – including teenagers and even younger children – are taking prescribed medications we call “anti-depressants,” and through my conversations with people in this church and across our city, I am picking up an undercurrent of confusion and discouragement, mixed together with some signs of despair.

 

And if all of that sounds downright “depressing,” then the question is: How can we deal with it as Christians and as Americans?  Does our faith in Jesus Christ make a difference at a time like this in our lives?

 

II.

 

That’s what Mary and Martha wanted to know, needed to know a long time ago.  They lived in the village of Bethany just east of Jerusalem, where those sisters and their brother Lazarus had welcomed Jesus into their home (Luke 10:38-42).  In fact, the 11th chapter of John’s gospel tells us that Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus, indicating that He had spent time with them and grown close to that family as His confidants and friends.

 

So when He heard that Lazarus was sick unto death, Jesus said to His disciples, Let us go into Judea again (verse 7).  But by the time they finally arrived, Lazarus had already died.  When both sisters – first Martha and then Mary – came out to meet Jesus on the road, they cried Lord, if only you had been here, our brother would not be dead (verses 21, 32).

 

And in what biblical scholars refer to as the shortest verse in the scriptures, John reports as an eye witness that Jesus, who was deeply moved and troubled by all of this: Jesus wept (verse 35).

 

Now what Martha and Mary wanted to know, what they needed to know was whether or not their faith in Jesus made a difference when the chips were down and they found themselves walking through the valley of the shadow, with no one else to turn to and nowhere else to go.

 

And so it is for you and for me, as we come face to face with the realities of life and death, disappointment and sorrow, sickness and suffering, and what the Spanish mystic Miguel Unamuno called “The dark night of the soul” when depression settles in.

 

At that moment, whether it comes upon us suddenly or over a longer period of time, we want to know, we need to know if our faith in Jesus Christ can and will make a difference in our lives.  And the good news of the gospel proclaims that faith does make a difference, all the difference in the world, as the Lord leads us from the darkness into the light.

 

It begins with a decision to lean into our depression.  For most of us, that is neither easy nor comfortable, because when depression invades our lives, we want to run away from it.  Facing the fear and the pain seems more than we can bear.

 

Dr. Fred Craddock, one of this country’s finest preachers and a good friend of this congregation, tells the story about a woman who felt sick but was afraid to see a doctor.  She avoided getting help and increased the pace of her work at home and the office.  But the pain grew worse until finally, her husband insisted that she consult a physician.

 

She pointed to her stomach and said to the doctor, “This is where it hurts.”  After a thorough examination, the doctor gave his diagnosis: “abdominal influenza.”  “Is this the end doctor?” she wanted to know.  He smiled and explained how they were going to treat her stomach flu, and within a month, she was better.

 

What made that woman well, said Fred Craddock, was not only the medicine, but being able to name the problem and then deciding to deal with it.

 

So it is with depression.  We can try to hide from it.  We can anesthetize ourselves with alcohol and pills.  We can fill our daily calendars with frantic schedules and work from dawn to midnight.  Or we can shut the door, draw down the shades, pull up the covers and refuse to face the daylight.  The truth is, the healing process cannot begin until we have named the problem, called it depression, and confessed that it is too much for us to handle all alone.

 

In a helpful booklet entitled “Climbing Up from Depression,” written by a registered nurse named Clair Bradshaw and a Catholic priest, Father Herbert Weber, I found these words and had them printed on the cover of our church newsletter this past week:

 

         “At some time or another, everyone experiences depression.  You feel down on life and down on yourself, and usually after a bad day or a bad week, your mood lifts.  But sometimes depression lingers on, in spite of your best efforts to pull out of it.

         Whatever the circumstances of the depression you feel, there is reason to hope…let God love you back to health and wholeness through the hands of helping professionals, the miracle of modern medical treatment, the hearts of caring friends and your own desire to be well.

         As you emerge from depression, life will begin to look better and brighter to you.  You will remember what it means to feel content and at peace.  And you will discover the beauty within and without that you never knew existed.”

 

We now know that there are different kinds and levels of depression, including chemical imbalances and clinical depression which is a disease that requires the close supervision of physicians and more than likely prescribed medications.  In some cases, it is genetic and carried on from one generation to another.  That’s what I discovered in my own family as I struggled through a year of depression back in 1987, and thank God, I found the help and healing that I needed.

 

Since then, I’ve discovered a very helpful book, “Darkness Visible” by William Styron, who tells his own story and who concludes, saying that depression is conquerable.  “I was restored,” he writes on the last page, “to the capacity for serenity and joy.”  I commend this book to you because it has meant a great deal  to me and to many others in this congregation.  (“Darkness Visible” by William Styron, Vintage Books, New York, 1992)

 

For each of us and all of us, it will be a slightly different situation.  But of this I am certain: when we are finally willing to face it, to name it, and to lean into the reality of depression, then the healing process can begin.

 

That’s what happened to Martha and Mary.  Their brother Lazarus had died and as they acknowledge their pain and sorrow, they asked Jesus to come alongside them, to guide and provide them with His healing power as they walked together through the valley of the shadow.  And step-by-step, they discovered that they were not alone.

 

III.

 

So if you are dealing with depression in your life today, I pray that you will decide to lean into it.  And second, I hope that we can all learn something from it.  Depression can tell us more about ourselves than we may know or want to know.  But one thing it can teach us for sure – we are not perfect, neither are we all-powerful.

 

A young man suffering from hallucinations sat down in a psychiatrist’s office and started to complain about his family, his boss and business associates and some of his friends.  The physician stopped him and said, “I can see that you have some problems.  Why don’t we start from the beginning?”  To which the man replied, “Very well.  In the beginning, I created the heavens and the earth.”  And that depressed the psychiatrist!

 

The truth is, as we lean into and learn from depression, it teaches us that we are not perfect, neither are we all-powerful.  We did not create the heavens and the earth, and we don’t control everything and everyone around us.  We are human beings, and being human means to acknowledge and accept our limitations, inadequacies, faults and sins.

 

If that sounds depressing, if it seems like bad news, then think about this.  God made us and He knows us better than we know ourselves.  Our minds are more complex than the most complicated computer system – but our minds and the emotional systems they control can break down under the pressures and problems we face.  That is where emotional and mental depression slips in.

 

Our bodies are more intricate than any machine on earth, and yet those same bodies can fall apart if we don’t take care of them.  That is where physical depression and illness begins.

 

And our souls are more gentle and lovely than the most beautiful symphony ever composed.  But if we don’t feed our souls with the Word of God, with the worship of the church, with the discipline of prayer and the presence of the Holy Spirit – then our spirits, our souls will lose contact with the Creator and slip out of tune.  That is how spiritual depression sets in.

 

So if depression can teach us one thing, it teaches us that we are not perfect, neither are we all-powerful.  That is why God sent Jesus Christ into this world – to minister to us in our weakness, to show us how to live and to love, to heal our broken minds and hearts and souls and to forgive and redeem us from our sin.

 

That is the good news about Jesus Christ, and He told us so Himself.  I am the resurrection and the life He said to Mary and Martha and to all of us ever since.  Those who believe in me, though they die, yet shall they live (John 11:25-26).  And as we embrace that truth, as we accept that promise, as we live into that hope, the healing process has begun.

 

CONCLUSION

 

Which brings us to one last thing that leads us in the right direction: If, in your own life or in the life of someone you love, if you are dealing with depression right here and right now, then let Jesus Christ help you with it.  He, more than anyone else who ever lived on this earth, is acquainted with our grief and sorrow (Isaiah 53:4).  And just as He came alongside Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus, He has promised to guide us and provide us with all that we need for the journey today and for all of our tomorrows.  His power to lift us up and help us go on is greater than anything that threatens to pull us down or hold us back.

 

And that is especially true as we deal with depression.  The tears that Jesus shed for Lazarus who was dead, and for Martha and Mary in their grief and pain, are the same tears that He shares with us today.  Those tears remind us of a love that will never let us go – for Jesus is our Savior, and He is ready, willing and able to walk with us through the valley of the shadow.  Do you believe that today?  If you do, or if you want to, Jesus Christ has assured us through His life, death and resurrection that the promise is true!

 

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

 

 

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