November 2022

Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” (John 11:32-36) A Reflection on the Account of Lazarus – John 11:1-44 The story of Lazarus’ death and resurrection is one of the most difficult and dramatic pieces of Scripture and I’ll admit that on the onset, I don’t understand it. I don’t understand why Jesus takes his sweet time when he first hears of Lazarus being ill. I don’t understand why he tells his disciples that Lazarus is “asleep” rather than dead. I don’t understand why he chooses to bring Lazarus back at all — does a man who has been dead for four days even want to come back? And I definitely don’t understand why Lazarus virtually disappears from the Gospel narrative once his grave clothes fall off. Why is he never heard from again? In many ways, the story of Lazarus is shrouded in mystery. But today, this week, now, I cling to the two words in the narrative I do understand: “Jesus wept.” For me, this is the heart of the story, that grief takes hold of God and breaks God down. That Jesus — the most accurate revelation of the divine we will ever have — stands at the grave of his friend and cries. It has taken me a long time, though, to appreciate Jesus’s tears in this story. When I was a little girl, I didn’t understand why Jesus cried when he knew that Lazarus was about to come back to life. Why mourn when joy is minutes away? As a young adult struggling with my faith, I didn’t understand why Jesus cried after intentionally staying away from Bethany during Lazarus’s illness. Like some of the onlookers in the story, I responded to Jesus’s gri

Barb Reed worked on making a quilt made of Relay for Life Shirts from over the years that were donated by Rosie Winters. People were able to see the complete quilt at the relay on September 24th. While there raffle tickets were being sold for the quilt.

Butterfield’s VFW Post 9607 on Oct. 3 celebrated 75 years of serving local veterans and their families.