For those who are
fans of the Walking Dead, you may be thinking that today’s readings are just
for you! If that is the case, I regret to inform you that this is not a
Biblical drama about holding onto our basic humanity in the face of
overwhelming forces. In fact, it might even be just the opposite: Biblical
encouragement to let go of our limited human experiences in order to be caught
up in the presence of God. Not as much fun as killing zombies, but I assure you
it’s a better place to be.
Yes! These readings –
as gruesome as they may sound – are not about re-animated flesh in service of
desire. They are about the expectation of life and hope and joy and peace. They
are about the power of God and our ability to believe in it; to be caught up in
it; to even be immersed in it.
That word, “believe”,
figures prominently in our Lenten experience this year. Over the last several
weeks we’ve heard over and over about the power and the purpose of belief in
Jesus. We started Lent with the temptation of Jesus to worship Satan. Jesus was
forced to state his belief in God (and in himself as God’s son). Then we had
the story of Nicodemus and the claim that all who believe in Jesus will be
saved, because Jesus came to save and not to condemn. Next was the Samaritan
woman – the outsider who brought a whole village to faith while the disciples
were on their lunch break.
She told them about her belief in Jesus and they
believed after they saw him for themselves. Then last week we had the man who
was blind from birth, and through him Jesus taught about spiritual blindness
for those who did not believe in him as God’s son.
Today we have this
fantastic vision of Ezekiel about believing in the power of God to raise an
army of dead soldiers – which is really more of a metaphor for the ultimate
restoration of God’s people. And as if to say, “No foolin’!” we have this story
of Jesus allowing his friend to die, so that he can be sure that everyone knows
that God is revealing Godself through him. And stuck in the middle of that we
have a little clip from Paul to remind us not to get too hung-up on the physical
act of resurrection. Instead we are to place our hope and trust in the actions
of the Holy Spirit of God.
These passages are
incredibly encouraging, but they also ask us some pretty pointed questions. The
most obvious is whether or not we believe in the power of God to restore, to
redeem, and yes to even raise the dead to new life?
In the valley of the
dry bones, God is pretty clear with Ezekiel. He leads him all around as though
to inspect the bones. It sounds pretty clinical, but I can’t help but wonder how
it would have felt. I can’t help but remember stories I’ve heard from a friend
who witnessed a mass grave in Iraq while serving in our military.
As I wrestle with
the reality of this metaphorical vision, I can’t help but be transported in my
own mind to the slave dungeon I entered in Ghana so many years ago. There were
no bones, but the feeling of evil was palpable. Suffering seemed embedded in
the walls of that place, and I was filled with disgust for it.
It is in these
places of extreme suffering that God asks us if we believe that new life can
take place. As we look at the bones and we think of the extremism in our
politics and our conflicts, which masquerade as expressions of faith, Ezekiel
gives us the only good and true answer. “O, Lord God, you know.”
But here’s where it
gets sticky. God told Ezekiel to prophecy – to speak truth – to the bones. God
told Ezekiel to call out for the bones to be restored with sinew and flesh, and
God told him to call out for God’s Spirit to fill them with life. For these new
creations to live there had to be a connection between the Word of God and the
Spirit of God. That much is clear, and the same is true for each of us, for we
are called to be prophets even as we await restoration. We are called to speak
truth to the bones we see all around us.
I hate to admit it,
but some of us seemed to be lamenting over the bone yard of the church even as
we trimmed hedges and worked to beautify God’s property yesterday. I was
reminded that it was actually around this time last year that we began talking
about God’s calling for mission and ministry and how these old buildings can
best be used. In true Presbyterian form we were just building some momentum
when the floods came last August.
In some ways it
feels a little like the Lazerus story to me. Jesus heard about his friend’s
illness and said, “Perfect! Let him die so I can show everyone the power of
God.” Of course, good old Thomas thought they were on the fast track to
martyrdom, and when he got there Martha said, “You’re late.” And everyone
seemed to wonder why Jesus – who so obviously loved his friends – did not keep
this from happening. Not only that, but no one had any idea what Jesus was
talking about until Jesus told them to unbind Lazarus from the funeral cloth
around his body.
Now, let’s be clear.
God did not flood our state, create the second costliest disaster in our nation’s
history, and displace 140,000 people as a demonstration of power or judgement
or anything else other than a world with forces of nature that sometimes
require chaos to stay in balance. However, in the midst of this there was this
little congregation looking for vision and purpose that just happened be
willing to host people from all over the country so that homes and lives and
communities could be restored.
At the heart of it
all is that we believe that God is in our midst. Just as Jesus gave thanks that
God had received his prayer before he called for Lazarus to come out, so we
have the expectation that what we do is in response to the life giving Spirit
of God.
Through all of the
pain and suffering and general nonsense of the world, we have to remember that
God is the one who gives life, and we are immersed in it. Like a fish in the
sea – like the air we breath – the life giving presence of God is what holds us
from cradle to grave and beyond.
I can’t tell you why
or how Jesus would save Lazarus and not someone else. I can’t tell you why my
house was spared in the flood and another was not. But I don’t think that’s the
point of the Gospel. The point is that we can believe in Jesus as the one who
revealed God’s true nature to us. We can trust that believing in him offers
eternal life, but we cannot wait until we are nothing but bones to live that
life. And we cannot look at the bones in our community without expecting new
life.
We cannot look at
the injustice in our city and say that it’s someone else’s problem. We cannot
even expect that because our congregation houses volunteers that none of our
members need to join a work team for a day (or even put together a group for a
Saturday project).
What we can do is
expect the Holy Spirit of God to give us the ability to see the bones in the
first place. We can expect God to give us the words to speak and the will to
act. But most of all, in order to hear God’s call, we must set our minds on
spiritual things – those actions and relationships that demonstrate the heart
of God.
Each of us will need
to live this faith in our own way, but God has also called us and formed us as
a people, bound by God’s life giving Spirit in order to unbind those who God
calls into newness of life! We can do that if we can speak the truth and trust
in God to act in and through us. If we can live as a people who believe in the
life giving presence of God, then not only will we experience resurrection in
our own lives, but we will demonstrate it to others in such a way that they
cannot help but believe!
I pray it will be so
with you and with me as we continue on our way toward the cross and the promise
of the resurrection! And to God be the glory, now and always. Amen.
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