Resurrection and Life

Lent 5 - Today's readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14 (Valley of the dry bones); Psalm 130; John 11:1-45 (Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead)

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My dear friends in Christ, is it just me or does it feel like a YEAR has past by, instead of just one short week!? What a wild few weeks it has been! In this season of Lent, we are used to spending this time contemplating the desert places and being cast out into the wilderness... but I think this Lent we have journeyed even further out into the unknown and perhaps we ourselves have stumbled upon a valley of dry bones. Or maybe we’ve not only stumbled across this valley, but feel ourselves to be a heap of dry bones.

In this time of our lives, with the state of the world, our bones may feel like they are dry. With each day our bones are getting drier and drier from isolation, grief, and fear. And yet this morning we hear a word of resurrection and life. Ezekiel looked on the valley of dry bones, seeing nothing but death and decay, but God was present. The Lord shows up and sends the Spirit upon the dry bones and raises them up to new life. God breathes the breath of life into them and makes them new.

At the time of this prophecy Israel was broken, many Israelites had been captured and taken to Babylon in exile. The Israelites were saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely’(Ez. 37:11). Now that may have been thousands of years ago, but these words rang true to me this week in a way they never have before. I have found myself these past few weeks mourning the loss of our time together, grieving over the fact that we cannot worship together in person, commune together, or even comfort one another with a hug. I have cried out to the Lord, begging God not to let me loose hope and not to cut us off completely from one another.

The Lord said to the Israelites/to the valley of dry bones, ‘I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act’ (Ez. 37:14). This past week, I felt that God had also said that to the Church today. As we livestreamed last week, so did many other churches across the globe. And it didn’t stop there. People, pastors, churches all over the world got online to offer up prayer, song, and comfort to one another. People are rising to the challenge to be neighbors in the midst of a pandemic. Delivering groceries, sharing art, putting messages of hope and love in chalk on their driveways and in their windows, and sewing hundreds of face masks to make up for the shortages in many of our hospitals. God is present and at work in our midst. The spirit of the Lord is within you and your dry bones shall live.

Now please do not hear me saying that this means all is well and there is no reason to grieve. In our gospel reading today we hear that Jesus WEPT. Jesus knew the Spirit would soon breathe the breath of life back into Lazarus’ lungs and still he wept. He wept for the grief he felt at Lazarus’ death and he wept for Mary and Martha who’s pain was before him. Jesus wept. God grieves when we grieve. God weeps at the loss of a child. Jesus acknowledges the pain and leaves space for it. And THEN God acts. THEN God transforms that death into life. God says, ‘I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25), I will put my spirit within you and you shall live (Ez. 37:14).’

We worship a God who meets us at the well and offers us living water, who brings sight to the blind, and raises the dead to life. We worship a God of life. But make no mistake, our God knows death. In Christ, God hung from a tree, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. He descended to the dead SO THAT nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God. The God of life spoke the entire cosmos into being and breathed the breath of life into the first human that the Spirit breathed on the valley of the dry bones and continues to breath on us today. God is present and at work. Weeping with us and calling us back to life.

There is power in the Word of God, enough power to create all that exists. There is power in the Word of God, enough power to raise up a valley of dry bones to living human beings once more. There is power in the Word of God, enough power to raise Lazarus from his grave. Christ calls out, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ and life emerges from the tomb. Surely Christ will show us the same fate. Surely soon enough our Lord will call out to us, inviting us to come out of quarantine and gather together again. Surely the Lord will unbind us too and revive us with the breath of life once more.

When God asks, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ May we all proclaim, ‘Yes, Lord, Yes! With you there is life.’

Resurrection may seem a distant reality.. but it is a sure promise from our Lord.

I pray you may find hope in words of God, for they are powerful enough to rattle your bones and call you to new life.

This is most certainly true.

Amen.

*Visit https://www.seedsoffaithlutheran.org/our-gatherings for a live recording of worship