March 29, 2020
Fifth Sunday in Lent
Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-10,14; John 11:1-6, 17-19, 30-45
Today our lectionary visits Ezekiel, as he finds himself in a valley full of dry bones.
And we find Lazarus who has been dead in a cave for four days. It doesn’t get much more dire than that.
It reminds me of the dead and dying in Italy, Spain, and the U.S. Today. People may feel like they are living in a valley of death with the virus at a doorstep, much like Ezekiel. We read reports of mounting deaths in Italy, the likes of which Lazarus could surely relate to.
Sometimes even God’s prophets get more than they bargained for. And today health care workers are getting more than they ever bargain for or dared to imagine. Such are the times in which we live during a pandemic.
In today’s OT lesson, God brought Ezekiel to this grim graveyard as the prophet balancedhimself on broken skulls and sharp bones. God took him by the hand and led him around as if tomake sure he didn’t miss a bone. Death filled all his senses as Ezekiel surveyed the bleak surroundings.
It had been over ten years since Ezekiel, his family and others were marched off into exile from Judah to Babylon. He watched his whole world unravel under the rule of Babylon.
Life in a foreign country, cut off from home, family and familiar surroundings must have been a lonely and hopeless experience.
But just when Ezekiel thought there was no hope left, God’s voice broke the silence: “Mortal,can these bones live?” Standing knee deep in dry, human bones bleached white by the sun, Ezekiel is asked this question.
As we hear this scripture, there is a sense of emptiness,– no movement, no breath, no life.What faith it took for Ezekiel to muster his answer: “O Lord God, you know.”
God tells Ezekiel to prophesy and tell the bones that God’s breath will come into them again.
These brittle dead bones will live and be covered with sinews and flesh. In response to his beliefin God’s living breath, Ezekiel hears a rattling noise as bone is joined to bone.
All of this happened because God said so, and Ezekiel dared to believe.
God brought life out of nothingness and death.
Let us turn our attention now from the valley full of dry, dead bones, to the fresh corpse of one
Lazarus. The setting and time frame is different, but the result is the same: hopelessness and despair.
This time it’s not the nation of Israel that grieves without hope but the two sisters: Mary and
Martha. Their brother Lazarus was sick and dying when they sent word to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” And yet, Jesus did not arrive until four days after Lazarus died and was in the tomb.
No wonder when Martha met Jesus, she told him that if he would have arrived sooner, her brother would not have died. Death seems so powerful and permanent when you find a lovedone hopelessly touched by its’ cold hand. Mary echoed her sister’s feeling when she met Jesus: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
They went home after their brother’s death knowing that Jesus never bothered to show up attheir brother’s funeral. Their last, best hope had let them down. The scriptures are very clearand forceful, but in times of crisis, many people feel the absence of God.
There is pain, loss, fear and anxiety in our community and in our world today.
We humans hurt and struggle to sense life in a world where death often dominates.
Take Ezekiel, he was really in exile and captivity, and the future was bleak for a long time. Jesus was really late for his grieving friends, and Lazarus had already died.
Many of you, at some time in your life, have looked over a valley of dry bones or waited anxiously for Jesus who did not arrive on your time frame. The valley of dry bones in your life may be a dream never fulfilled. Or the fear of you or a loved one contacting the virus.
Like Jesus, you call out to Jesus for help, yet afraid he might be too late, just as he showed uplate for Lazarus. Perhaps you’re thinking, “If Jesus had showed up before the latest virus victim died, his or her life might have been spared, or perhaps you’re praying for something in yourlife, and wondering if Jesus is going to show up.
We all have those days, and these days, are worries may be more frequent. Well, you have a lot in common with Mary, Martha and even Ezekiel. The scriptures are very concrete in their understanding of hopelessness and despair.
Today many may feel like they are buried in a deep, dark cave, like Lazarus. But difficult as it may be, healing begins when we take a long, hard look at our own dry bones, and the graves we dig for ourselves. As Christians, we proclaim that death and its’ manifestations will not win out, rather we embrace the power of hope that comes when God breathes living breath upon us and restores life.
How does this happen? When Jesus stood at the graveside of his friend Lazarus and wept, he too felt the pain of loss. But he also remembered the promise of God to Ezekiel. He said, “Youshall know that I am Lord, when I open your graves, O my people.”
Then the Jesus commanded Lazarus to “Come out.” Lazarus began clawing and kicking at the
grave dirt as he struggled to step out into the blinding sunlight. Jesus told them to unbind the burial bandages and set Lazarus free.
God’s holy breath triumphs over death, over darkness and loss. And as the Apostle Paul reminds, the same breath of God that raised Jesus from the dead will raise us too. What if God were to breathe into these old, tired, dry bones we carry around today in our bodies?
What if Jesus pointed to you and me today and exclaimed, “Unbind him! Unbind her!” Whatwould be let loose in you?
Let go of your fears and worries. What expressions of new life would burst forth from deep within you? What if I told you that you can live during these days of the corona virus in a more calm and collected manor?
I have known many people over the years who were ravaged with illness and suffering — cancer, debilitating pain and suffering – I have sat at their bedside. Yet they were sustained by a deep and abiding faith. They sensed the very real and tangible presence of God with them and in them, and that very belief helped them to be more calm, and to be more at peace. They trusted God to meet their needs – not that their pain was necessarily taken away, but they felt God by their side, and they knew they were not alone.
Not many people think about new life coming out of today’s experiences, yet
what if something new and unexpected emerged? What if you used some of your free time to take more walks and notice God’s handiwork all around you as new blooms and blossoms burstforth? What if you took more time to meditate or pray, write in a journey, or read a good book? What if somehow you viewed your days as Sabbath time?
And what if you took time to notice the ways God is already with you, but you have been too busy to notice?
There is an abundance of good things that are happening if we look for them. The kindness of strangers . . . restaurants serving free meals to the hungry . . . our brave health care workers taking heroic measures, and putting their own lives on the line to help their patients. There are people singing from balconies to cheer others up, couples going through with their weddings with a virtual ceremony, celebrating with friends and family.
Friends, we are living during a time that calls for heroic actions, and that is exactly what we are getting, and you are a part of it when you call to check on our shut in members, or go to the grocery store or pharmacy for someone who is unable to venture out.
“Life is the challenge, not death. The grave is not what you think. It is an empty space, a doorway into more, not less,” Lazarus might have shouted.
4 God wants the part of us that feels dead or buried in a deep, dark cave to be set free, and you
don’t even have to wait until the pandemic is over, and you can feel embraced in love and surrounded by grace right now. It is during the darkest days that a light shines the brightest.
Many Bible scholars see in the story of Lazarus a foreshadowing of Jesus’ own death andresurrection just a short time later. Meanwhile, Jesus arrives, and the dead and the living dance for life and are set free. Jesus called for Lazarus to come out of the cave, and now he calls for us to do the same. AMEN