Sermon for Sunday, 2 April, Ezekiel 37:1-14. Psalm 130. Romans 8:6-11. John 11:1-45

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1 Sermon for Sunday, 2 April, 2017 Ezekiel 37:1-14 Psalm 130 Romans 8:6-11 John 11:1-45 May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen Reading through this morning s lessons, I couldn t help but notice how they sounded like a low-budget movie depicting the zombie apocalypse. Picture it.old dry bones being raised and infused with life. And the dead Lazarus coming to life and stumbling from his tomb, burial cloths intact. It seems a bit macabre and preposterous. People without faith would call these stories ridiculous, fantasy. People of faith, however, seek the meaning behind the stories to find the hidden nuggets. Whether these stories actually happened historically, I believe they re true. Their truth and worth and power resides in how these scripture readings touch our hearts; what they say to us individually and how can they make a difference in our lives and how we share our lives with our community. The story of the dry bones found in this morning s Ezekiel reading is one of the most imaginatively dramatic readings in all of Scripture; one of the richest in terms of visualization and imagery. We find ourselves wandering in a dusty, dry valley which is strewn with bleached out, crumbling bones. These are not whole skeletons, rather bones and skulls strewn wildly over the floor of the valley. This is truly a valley of 1

2 death. This vision from Ezekiel occurs during the time when the Israelites were exiled in Babylon, and it portends their return to the land of Israel. The vision of these bones represented a deceased nation, a sense of displacement, of wandering far from home and of a deep sense of longing to return. Just as we are feeling drained, dried out and brittle in this dusty valley, the bones began to reassemble themselves with a great clatter. Sinew and muscle cover the bones, then blood and skin. They look like restored and whole bodies, but they are not alive. Not yet. Not until the breath of God suffuses them with life.this breath called forth from the four winds restored them with life, spirit and hope and transformed them from scattered bones into living beings. It was resurrection. How does this story speak to you? This story represents to me, life. We ve all experienced phases when we ve felt depleted, dried up, and dead inside, and whether this was due to the death of a loved one, the dissolution of a relationship, the estrangement of a family member, or a frightening medical diagnosis, it leaves us defeated and dissipated. When we feel this way, we may go through the motions of living; we put one foot in front of the other, we breathe in and exhale, but we have no spirit, no life, no hope. In this condition, we are separated from God, we are in exile, we are like those scattered dry bones. When have you felt used up and dead inside? What dry bones and dry times have been present in your spiritual life? What brought you through this dry valley? What can we learn and how can we grow from spending time in the lonely and parched periods of our own spiritual journeys? Can you envision your spiritual bones with new flesh and blood? The dry periods make us feel abandoned and disconnected, but just as the breath of God breathed new life into those long ago skeletal 2

3 remains, it can breathe new life into us as well. One of our Lenten challenges is to repair relationships and be right with God; let that breath come into you and restore you into the image that God meant for you to have. St. Augustine wrote that the restless heart can only find rest when it returns to God. This reading then, as strange and weird as it seemed, carried a theme of renewal, resuscitation, restoration, rest, rejuvenation and resurrection. It was a vivid reminder that God not only gives life, but restores life. That through the love and grace of God, unimaginable transformation occurs. Death never has the last word, even when all signs of life are gone. God asks of Ezekiel can these bones live? Ezekiel responds, Oh Lord God, you know. And God does know and he set about restoring what had been lost. He told Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and prophesy to the breath; symbolizing that through prophetic preaching the nation of Israel would have new life breathed into it and would live again. The exiles would return; the temple would be rebuilt. The powerful Gospel story of Lazarus being raised from the dead continues this theme of restoration, resuscitation and transforming death into life. John is the only Gospeler that includes the story of the raising of Lazarus, and this scripture is right in the middle of John s Gospel; a hinge between what came before and what was to come. Interestingly, Lazarus was not a prominent figure in New Testament scripture; he was the brother of Mary and Martha, friends of Jesus who lived in Bethany. His name, Lazarus, is an abbreviation of the name Eleazar which means whom God helps. But we are told that Lazarus was the one whom Jesus loved; this points to a close personal 3

4 relationship. Could this be a case of less is more.the less he was scripturally known, the more importance this event carried? This reading was not so much about Lazarus as an individual as it was about denying the finality of death, of transforming death into life; what that symbolized, the one who brought it about and the responses of others to the act. John s Gospel is the most incarnational, the most divine portrayal of Christ. In his book The Gospel of John; Tales of a Jewish Mystic, John Shelby Spong suggests that Lazarus was not a historical person at all, but rather a symbol and a sign. The Interpreter s Commentary on the Bible sees Lazarus as symbolic of every believer who loves and is loved by Jesus. How does the story of Lazarus resonate with you? Does it help your understanding of the Gospel to see Lazarus as a historical individual or as a symbol? Whatever you believe, this scripture undeniably carried a powerful and transformative message, then and now. Jesus performed miracles that were indicative of God s power and grace, and all the Gospels cite examples. John, however, calls these acts signs. What would be his purpose in calling them signs? I think John wanted to make a distinction that these extraordinary acts were revelatory in nature, that they pointed to something to come; they could lead to a new perspective, a new consciousness; that they would bring us to a divine conclusion. Just as highway signs give us the information to lead us to our destination, I think these signs served a similar purpose. Given the narrative placement, this scripture seemed a precursor of the death and resurrection of Jesus, an indication of his future. And in the raising of Lazarus, the act indicated that God s end time promises were already being realized. This passage then can be 4

5 viewed as a bridge between Jesus public ministry and the events related to Passover and Jesus death and resurrection. Jesus received word that Lazarus was sick and dying, and Martha and Mary wanted Jesus to come immediately to save their brother. Jesus delayed his trip to Bethany, because he wanted the disciples and others to see and believe. When he arrived Lazarus had been dead for four days and the scene at the tomb was one of despair. Both sisters were upset that Jesus did not come immediately, as their brother was surely dead and beyond help. When Jesus looked around him and saw the grieving friends and family, he wept. Was this a sign of love or regret? Was he engaging in the very real human emotion of empathy? Were his tears an indication that he was truly human; sharing the need for friendship, and grief at the loss of a friend. Or did he weep because he felt his message would never be understood or accepted? Whatever the reason, John s statement regarding Christ s tears was a departure for him; as he almost always portrayed Christ in an incarnational light.emphasizing his divinity rather than his humanity. Why the departure at this juncture? Was this John s way of acknowledging that Christ died a very human death and yet through his resurrection, proved that death could not conquer his divinity or diminish God s promise? Did John emphasize the tears of humanity in order to stress the ultimate divinity of Christ? Jesus told Martha I am the resurrection and the life and then he put his money where his mouth was, and proved it. Christ demanded that Lazarus get up and come out of the tomb; and the crowd must have thought that Jesus had lost his mind. The Jewish belief that the soul separated from the body after three days, would 5

6 have meant that to bring back life after four days would have been unthinkable and impossible. And yet, the Gospel tells us that Lazarus responded to Christ s voice and came out of the tomb still bound up with his burial cloths. The crowd must have been astounded and filled with overwhelming feelings of gratitude, joy and perhaps fear. Many who witnessed this began believing. It s worth noting that the Gospel of John did not use the word belief, as a noun. He almost always used the term believing as a verb, indicating movement, action, transformation, a sign of something to come; and the passage points repeatedly to the importance of the act of believing. Like Lazarus, we long for resurrection and an unbinding that allows us to dream beyond boundaries and experience life renewed. Dreaming beyond boundaries is to imagine what ifs. What if this was a world of wholeness, inclusion, health and prosperity for all? This Gospel lesson invites us to imagine resurrection, renewal, and transformation in people and communities who need God s presence in the here and now. Imagination though can be hindered by perceptual distortion, by not being able to think outside the box, to be unable to break mental paradigms that have worn thin. When Jesus told his disciples they would return to Judea to be at Lazarus tomb, they cautioned Jesus not to return; they were more concerned with matters of the flesh, namely the safety of their own hides, than matters of the spirit and they could not imagine what would occur at the tomb. Resurrection confronts us as an urgent call.a sign.beckoning us to the possibility that those whom our world deems socially, physically, spiritually, emotionally and morally dead might live into new restored reality. We pray that those that find themselves entombed and bound up for whatever reason can emerge, come into the light and cast off 6

7 that which binds them, to live anew. We also must challenge ourselves to ensure that our attitudes and actions or inactions don t contribute to some of the symbolic burial cloths which are keeping others tightly bound. The crowd that day was transformed from mourners in despair to believers celebrating restored life. The love and grace of God, enacted through Jesus Christ brought back one who was exiled to the dead. The rest of this story will be played out in the next two weeks. Today though we are left to wrestle with the question of how can we dream beyond boundaries and imagine a better world with transformed life, spirit and being for both individuals and communities if there are people in this world like those 2,000 years ago, fearful and wanting to squash transformative hope, new life and unimagined possibilities? And there are people in this modern world like there were back in Jesus time. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, these are words from today s psalm, and while these seem to be words of anguish and hopelessness, this psalm is actually known as a song of ascents; literally meaning going up. It speaks of God s love and redemptive power. Perhaps a good definition of depths would be a state that we cannot leave without God s help. This psalm speaks of repentance which means saying goodbye to the old self and leaving an entrance for God to act in our lives, bringing about rebirth and transformation. Breathing life into us. Paul s words to the Romans echoed these thoughts. His words were a prophetic call for personal and social transformation; an embodiment of a faith that engages the spirit. For Paul, life was more than blood coursing through veins, it was resurrection power indicative 7

8 of a transformed reality. Lent is a time of affirming that our life according to the flesh is dead and new life and peace are available through the spirit of Christ.the same breath that breathed life into dry bones, that breathed life into Lazarus breathes life into us. It is the breath that allows us to dream beyond boundaries and effect transformation. Where might we find the valley of death today needing to feel the transforming breath of the living God? Will we be agents to bring God s breath into a world that needs resuscitation? These are things to ponder as we near the end of our Lenten journey. I close with a reflection on the movie that is breaking all records at the box office.beauty and the Beast. This is a story of hopelessness, fear, anger, seclusion, prejudice. but it s also about love, grace, hope, trust and transformation. Through the gift of love, a life is transformed from a dismal existence into one filled with sweet promise. The power of God s love and transformation resides in all of us if we are able to see, to challenge boundaries, to dream of unimaginable possibilities and to work to remove that which binds hearts and minds. Amen 8