Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45
There is a lot to talk about in these texts today. I do hope that you will take some time for further reflection during the week because we would be here all day if I tried to address every morsel in the banquet of goodness that we find in the text today. I say that metaphorically, but did you know that Ezekial actually ate a scroll? That was back in chapter 3, and he said it was as sweet as honey!
You can say that I lack his level of commitment, and I will not argue that point. What I will say is that our reading in the Gospel of John is a tipping point in the ministry of Jesus. From this point, his destiny is set, and he is on his final journey to Jerusalem and the cross. We see that clearly in the beginning. Even Thomas gets it when he says, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
Of course, this passage is about more than the expectation of the cross. It is about the experience of resurrection and salvation! It is about bearing witness to the power of God, and it is about a God who weeps with us as we grieve; a God who knows that our grief is not the end, but it is very real to us.
In Ezekial we have more of a metaphorical resurrection, even though it is described in very visceral terms, that applies to a people group more than a person. Then in Paul’s letter to the Romans, we are reminded what it means to really be alive through the presence of God’s Spirit.
Before we get too much further into all of that, I want to remind you that, during the liturgical season of Lent, we have been exploring the Six Great Ends (aka purposes) of the church – an idea that is almost as old as Jazz, but not quite. They were developed in the early 1900s, a time of great social change when we were dealing with things like child labor, immigration, women’s rights, and the invasiveness of new technology. Good thing we’ve solved all that, yeah?
So far, we’ve gotten through the first four, and while I don’t imagine anyone is going to be asked on the street what these things are about, I am hoping to keep a sense of the whole in our minds. That said, today’s recap of The Six Great Ends Of The Church is in the style of the “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” book series…
● If you give a bunch of disciples the good news about Jesus we're going to want to show and tell everyone because we believe it leads to salvation – in this life and the next.
● That means that, since we have been saved, we’re going to see everyone as God’s beloved children, and we’re going to treat them that way, too.
● When we treat others as God’s beloved children, all we say and do glorify God!
● If we are glorifying God by loving others, it means that our priorities are guided by a right relationship with God and all of God’s creation.
● If our priorities are guided by a right relationship with God and all of God’s creation, then we want everyone to enjoy the same kind of relationship with God and each other.
That last one was the one for today, which is otherwise known as “The Promotion of Social Righteousness.” What I said was that “we want everyone to be in a right relationship with God and all of God’s creation.” We can quibble over words and phrases, but let’s not.
The point here is that God’s unconditional love moves us to care for others and to create a world where caring for one another is more an expectation than an exception. If we keep that in mind as we look at the phrase, Promotion of Social Righteousness, then we see that it is really about encouraging or creating a space (promoting) where people (social) do the right thing (righteous). This is essentially the message of the Prophets through the ages.
If we go back to Ezekial, and there is a valley of dry bones, we find that it is because the people of Judah not only went after foreign Gods but also neglected the poor and took advantage of the immigrants among them. At the point of our reading today, the people have been taken into Babylon, and God gives him this vision of a valley of dry bones.
Sometimes I think we all feel like those bones; dried up and brittle. Sometimes we all feel like we’re on our own, cut off from God or just wondering why God doesn’t get a little more involved in the problems of the day. Certainly, we all have our troubles, but certainly, this must be the way someone feels when they lack housing and have no one to call on for help; or when they are seen by others as a label or a type rather than for who they are; or in cases of abuse or neglect; or any time that it seems there is no one in your corner but you, and maybe God. Ezekiel was in that kind of space when God said, “So…these bones. Think they can live?”
Ezekiel was at least smart enough to say, “Only you know that.” Then God said, “Prophecy to them. You tell them what I will do.” he did; and they rose – not like zombies or some freakish undead things, but as a people. Then God breathed God’s Spirit in them…and they lived. Take a moment and breathe that in. If you ever wonder if God is with you. Just breathe.
Now, cool as that story is, there is no historical account of a formerly dead army running back into battle. There is, however, an account of a reformed people of Israel that were able to return and rebuild the temple that had been destroyed. The story doesn’t end there, and thank the Lord for that, but the emphasis for the people of Judah became less about a military solution and more about identity as a people seeking to do the right thing for one another and for God.
This is still true today, and we see the roots of some of the modern traditions of Judaism in our story. We see it in the solidarity of the disciples and in the activity of the mourners who went with Mary to meet Jesus and then followed them to the tomb. These are the ones who took note of Jesus’ tears. These are also the ones who said, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of a blind man have kept Lazarus from dying?”
Now, that was the third time someone has said that about Jesus, all of which happened after Jesus said, “For your sake, I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.”
While that sounds a bit like Jesus is, once again, using someone’s suffering as a teaching tool, this time is a little different. It says that Jesus waited two days before leaving, but it also says that Lazarus had been dead for four days when he got there. Jewish customs at the time required someone to be down for three days before they were declared dead, so it may have been that Jesus knew Lazarus would be dead whether he waited two days or not. The extra day just gave everyone else time to realize that Lazarus truly was dead.
Of course, what Jesus said was, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory.” Then later he tells the disciples that Lazerus is asleep, and when that confuses them he says, “Lazerus is dead.” Well, one thing I do know is that fans of the Princess Bride can rejoice because there is an argument to be made here that what Jesus meant was that Lazarus was only “mostly dead.” You would probably lose that argument, but you can still make it.
What Jesus was saying, which they had no way to understand before his own resurrection, is that death cannot stop true love. In terms of the gospel, Jesus was doing two things. He was letting them know that they still had work to do and that the only way to accomplish it was to attend to the presence of God in their midst.
In the same way, Jesus told Mary and Martha that if they believed in the active presence of God they would see the active presence of God – then he called Lazarus to come out, and he did!
I can’t deny the fact that there are many among us who wish that God would return our loved ones and make them whole again. Right now there are people across the globe who are mourning losses on battlefields and schoolyards and in silent struggles over inclusion and identity that have become the straw figure of public debate to bang and hang and harrang.
What sticks with me in all of these things, and what I believe is the key to connecting this witness with a call to promote social righteousness, is the shortest verse in the whole story. Verse 35, “Jesus began to weep.”
John Calvin has been quoted as saying that Jesus wept because none of them understood what he was there to do, and that may be so, but the text says that it was the weeping of others that moved him. I imagine that there are times when our indifference or lack of understanding about the active presence of God may lead to God’s lament, but what we see here is a God who weeps with us; a God who allows us to be in the state we are in and honors it with tears.
In a word, what I am describing is empathy – the ability to understand and share in the feelings of another. That seems to me to be the whole point of the cross of Jesus, and what we find in this story is the hope that each new day carries its own kind of resurrection, for Jesus is both the “resurrection and the life.”
I could give you a thousand different stories of how I’ve seen the resurrection play out in the life of this congregation, but I’ll close with a memory of a saint who is certainly now in God’s embrace.
Robert Nash was a gentle giant that many of us had the pleasure of knowing. His primary flaw was that he was overly generous, but he truly believed in the power of God to transform lives. One of the last gifts that he left in the world was to Family Promise, a non-prophet that we’ve partnered with for many years, which allowed them to buy a new home to care for families that are experiencing homelessness.
The thing to know about Robert is that if you threw a term at him like “Social Righteousness” he would probably politely excuse himself from the conversation, but if you told him a story about a person in need he would do whatever he could to make that person’s situation right.
Friends, the call of the gospel as we have it today is to know that God does the same for us. God weeps for and with us, but still calls us to come out of our tombs. So it is with us, that our brokenness; our limitations; our dried-up bones are not the end. If anything, they are only the beginning of what we can be and do through the Spirit of God!
At least, I pray it may be so with me, and with you, and to God be the glory. Now and always. Amen!
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