| The Rev. Catharine W. Montgomery | Fifth Sunday in Lent |
| Grace Memorial Episcopal Church | Year A |
| March 9, 2008 | RCL |
Out of the depths have I called to you O Lord, Lord hear my voice…. The readings for this 5th Sunday in Lent are full of rich images of death…if you want to think of them that way. They are also rich and colorful images of the resurrection of new life and hope. Like us, the Prophet Ezekiel lived in a broken world. In his world, the people of Israel were in exile. Their Promised Land ravaged by war – their cities destroyed, and they were deported to live in a strange land – with foreign gods. Once again they were an oppressed people with no hope.
The Lord leads Ezekiel to the middle of a valley full of disconnected, dry bones. They are the bones of the slain and exiled people of Israel. And God asks Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel says, “O Lord, you know.” Only God knows…. Ezekiel would have looked over the bone yard and like us would think…once you are dead and dried out and your flesh is gone - you are dead.
When I read this passage in the context of our world, I imagine the prophet being carried by God to stand in the bloody bombed out streets of Baghdad or Jerusalem and God asking, “Can these bones live?” Would the prophet stand in mute horror and look over all the battlefields of the last two centuries? What about the exiles in WWI and II, Korea, Vietnam, Can these bones live? Can the exiled dry bones scattered along the hot, dusty roads of Sudan and Rwanda, and Darfur live?
Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel has observed that Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dried bones bears no date because every generation needs to hear in its own time that these bones can live again. Like the exiles of old, we too can at times feel as good (rather, bad) as dead. We are null and void inside. But if we look through God’s eyes, we can see broader realities, bases for hope. God can sustain us and fill our barren experiences with lively hope. Is it possible? Absolutely not, disbelievers aver. But look with God’s vision and watch it happen! (The New Interpreter’s Bible, Introduction to Ezekiel)
Try as we may, we cannot keep death at bay and our questions in the closet. It is hard for us to look at the world with God’s eyes. So we cry out from our depths… ‘Is there a word from the Lord for this broken world?’ Today, in this last week before Holy Week, we find the Word of God for this world in John’s Gospel in the person of Jesus. Reading through the gospel you will find at least seven miraculous events – seven signs surrounding Jesus and his ministry.
In each of these sign stories in John, Jesus performs a miracle and includes a lot of theological teaching along with it. The raising of Lazarus is the seventh sign in the progression and it is the most significant, and it is the one that gets Jesus killed. Jesus says at the very beginning what is going on. When he hears that Lazarus gravely ill, Jesus says, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (v.4). In John’s gospel the words, glory and glorification do not mean a spectacular light show. They mean death by crucifixion.
Further along in the story, Jesus tried again to tell the disciples what this was all about. The disciples couldn’t hear what Jesus was saying because they were afraid of being killed. A few days before Jesus had healed the blind man (the sixth sign) and the Temple authorities threatened to stone Jesus and have him arrested. With Jesus, they all had fled across the Jordan to safety. And now Mary and Martha were trying to get him to come back and help Lazarus. And the disciples were afraid. Afraid of death – afraid of violence. And they cannot see that death is glory any more than we can.
By the time they all arrive in Bethany, Lazarus has been dead for four days. Everyone is weeping and Jesus weeps too. Scripture tells us he was troubled; he was greatly disturbed, even angry ….and he cried. Once again …as in his baptism… Jesus plunges into the river in solidarity with humanity …only this time the river is grief and the water is his tears. Tears wept at the power of death; anger burning at the havoc it causes. Grief - knowing that when he opens the tomb for Lazarus, he will then enter a tomb himself. In spite of Martha’s warning that there will be a stench of death…The Word of God for this world calls out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus did come out. “Unbind him and let him go.” For the authorities it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. They plotted to kill Jesus and get rid of Lazarus too so there would be no evidence of Jesus’ power.
The seventh sign challenges us to redefine what life means. When the prophet Ezekiel looked through God’s eyes, he got a new lesson in anatomy. He saw death reverse itself. Those scattered bones came together perfectly and then were covered with sinews and flesh… held together with skin. God said, “I am going to open your graves…O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live…” It was a sign….not be dissected – but a promise to give hope. “O, Mortal, do you believe these bones can live?”
The raising of Lazarus in John’s Gospel is more than a story about Lazarus being rescued from death. We cannot dissect the story with every scientific principle about death and decay anymore than Ezekiel could when God showed him the valley of bones. The seventh sign is a story about Jesus and his friends from the perspective of God’s eyes and God’s plan for creation. The whole story is about the power of God working in and through Jesus to overcome the power of death.
We are the disciples who just don’t get it, but again I think it is a problem of perspective. Our minds are often on preserving this flesh instead of growing in the Spirit. We just have trouble seeing ourselves and our world through God’s eyes. That means we cannot know what lies for us beyond the grave – what we will be like. It is a matter of faith and trust. With all of these uncertainties how then are we to live knowing that one day we will die? The word of the church to a broken world is this… God has a purpose for this world that is beyond what we can see or comprehend. The Gospels tell us that life spent in the company of Jesus is better, richer, and more life-giving than life without him. Jesus is present with us in our grief and losses just as he was with Mary and Martha. Because of the power of God working in Jesus we no longer have to fear death or let that fear define who we are and how we live. The word of the church to a broken world is this… we are the body of Christ. We are the sinews, the flesh and skin of the church held tightly together by our Lord. We are nourished by his body and blood and live by the breath of his Spirit. It is our mission to try and look at the world through the eyes of Jesus. We are called by our baptism to go to all the dry valleys of hopelessness and bring the love of Christ.
As Christ’s body in the world we are called by our baptism to call people out of the cold, dark stinking tombs of ,despair. We are called to unbind them from whatever it is that keeps them from being human…fully alive. Jesus is on his way toward Jerusalem and his death. Are we willing to walk with him? No matter what happens in the days to come remember what he said…I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?