Date: March 9, 2008 Lent 5
Scriptures: Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45
Sermon: Life and Death Matters
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This year’s season of Lent began about 5 weeks ago with an Ash Wednesday evening service here in the sanctuary. Afterwards, I know that some of our worshippers went across the street for coffee. I wonder if any other the other patrons or Tim Horton’s staff noticed the sign of the cross made with ashes that was imposed on some of the foreheads.
Not too long ago, in a country not so very far away, on one particular Ash Wednesday, “a hospital chaplain left the hospital shortly before noon and attended a service at a nearby church. As a part of the worship, the minister inscribed on the chaplain’s forehead a cross made of ashes mingled with oil. The chaplain returned to the hospital, ashes still in place, and began to visit the patients. One of the patients, a woman, noticed the ashes on his forehead and, thinking it was a smudge of dirt, grabbed a tissue, spit on it, and said, ‘Come here, hon, you’ve gotten into something.’
He artfully avoided the tissue and said, ‘No, they are ashes. They’re supposed to be there.’ She looked at him, puzzled. He began to talk to her about the meaning of Ash Wednesday, how the day meant that God was with us when we were weak and vulnerable, how we were but dust, ashes, and God was with us, taking us toward Easter even when life was broken, tragic, and sad.
The woman thought for a moment, and then she said, ‘I think I want some of that.’ He slowly reached to his forehead, borrowed some of the ashen smudge, and with his finger traced on her forehead the sign of the cross” [Thomas G. Long, Testimony: Talking Ourselves into Being Christian, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004), pp. 126, 127].
During these weeks since Ash Wednesday, God has continued to take us toward Easter, “not rushing into new life and bypassing death, (for there are no shortcuts), but rather walking with purposeful steps” [“Out of the depths Lent 2008 worship materials,” Leader, Winter 2007/08 (Newton, KS: Faith & Life Resources), Vol. 5/No. 2, p. 42] toward next week’s events of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday betrayal, Good Friday’s trial and crucifixion, and then to Easter joy.
“Some of that,” the mixture of human frailty and the power of ‘God with us’ has likewise been shared with us these recent weeks as we re-traced the scriptural stories of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, his meeting the Samaritan woman at the well, and Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus by night.
Today’s scriptures, however, describe more than Ezekiel or Mary & Martha having gotten into something which can be wiped off with a little spit on some tissue. More than human frailty, they describe human mortality – death.
The Jewish exiles to whom Ezekiel prophesied -- lived, but in truth had no life in captivity. They were as lifeless as brittle, dried-up bones. They were without hope. Yet, through the prophet Ezekiel, God told the Israelites that the graves of exile would be opened and the people would return to their homeland with the gift of new life. Their return would be as miraculous as if bones came together, joined by sinews and covered with flesh. Even then, only after God’s Spirit was breathed into them would they truly rise and live.
Mary and Martha, on the other hand, face the death of their brother, Lazarus, not as a metaphor for the loss of something else, but as a real, four-days’-stinking-reality of death in their family. The first half of the story crescendos from Lazarus being ill, to him being seriously ill enough that Jesus is notified of his condition, to Lazarus dying, to both sisters telling Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died,” to scoffers taunting: “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” The irony of Lazarus’ very name, which means “God is my help” is surely not lost on the bystanders or his family.
“Thorton Wilder once imagined that life in God’s care is like a beautiful tapestry. When viewed from the pattern side, the ‘correct’ side, the tapestry has an intricate and magnificent design” [Long, p. 125]. The back side, however, tends to be messy. Here, the broken threads and knots show. All of this, the beautiful and the messy, is life in God’s care. Sometimes though, it seems that we experience much more of life on the messy side.
Several years ago, Harold and I visited parts of Scotland and toured a number of castles. In one of the castles, a woman was creating a tapestry that (as we could see) would eventually cover an entire wall. Placed near her in a spot purposely at tourist-eye-level was a sign:
Please refrain from speaking to the tapestry workers.
I suppose that the purpose of such a request was so that those creating the tapestry would not be distracted from their work and make mistakes, or that they would work more quickly if not engaged in conversation.
How wonderful though, that our God engages us in conversation, accepts our questions, and out of the ‘wrong side of the tapestry’ in the brokeness of life, also questions:
Can these bones live? and
Where have you laid him?
These questions may rattle us and make us want to avoid eye contact with these scripture because they confirm that all is not picture-perfect --with us, with the world, our families, our congregation. Maybe our dreams have died, our faith has become dismembered, or our relationships lifeless. Maybe we or someone we know is quite ill and will likely be going to heaven sooner rather than later.
But, as a Christian woman I met this winter concluded from the midst of the messiness in her life:
If the worst thing that could happen to me is that I die,
and the second worst thing is that I live, what do I have to fear?
She understood Jesus’ words:
“Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
When Jesus said this to Martha and asked her if she believes this, she says, “Sure, in the end.” And of course, we want to be saved at our end, too. God desires that we all be saved, not from death, but even in death, to be forever with God in Christ in heaven.
But Jesus says in effect, “What about now?” Certainly the words of scripture are true, that “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). That means starting right NOW. Jesus saves those who believe --at their end, at their death and beyond their death. But He is Saviour, the resurrection and life for believers right now too! We need Him right NOW; there are things from which we need to be saved NOW.
And God needs our help now. That may seem like a strange concept, God, the LORD of the universe, needing our help, but it’s true. God saved, is saving, and will continue to save the world, but asks us to work together with God, in partnership to help with what God is already doing.
In Ezekiel’s vision, yes, it was only by the breath of God’s Spirit that the re-formed bodies actually live and stand up, but God first intervened through the words of the prophet. God, who is perfectly capable of resurrecting the dead, didn’t need Ezekiel. But the words spoken by the prophet become the means by which the saving power of God can be unleashed.
How often have we said under our breath – or out-loud –to God about a situation, or a person, or ourselves, “Can these bones live?” And God speaking in our heart, or through another person may not even waste breath saying ‘YES’ because God’s already saying, “Roll up your sleeves, start warming up your voice, start mixing the cement, plug in the kettle, thread that needle, start praying on your knees, go make friends with that kid....You’re my partner in this. I need you. Believe the meaning of your name, Ezekiel: God strengthens.”
Yes it was by Jesus’ divine power, calling “Lazarus come out!” that raised him and enabled the dead man to come out, his hands and feet still in the grave clothes. But it was to those around him who after witnessing this miracle that Jesus gave the task of unbinding Lazarus and letting him go. Jesus’ power intervenes in ways that are impossible for us, because Jesus is the Son of God, and we’re not. But we are not merely to be standing around with our hands in our pockets. We become the means by which the saving power of God is further unleashed.
We can’t be pulled out of ‘death’ or deadly situations or habits by ourselves, or by self-improvement. That’s the gospel of self-help. On the other hand, neither are we to sit by in a corner waiting for God to walk through the door and rescue me, or them, or her. The Holy Spirit is already at work breathing life. We join in that life-giving activity, at times, embodying the life and love of the Saviour.
In each of these scriptures both Ezekiel and Mary and Martha were asked to ‘believe’ before they saw the sign. There are times when we too are asked to believe before there is proof, and even when there seems to be anti-proof. One writer calls this “faith without a net” [on-line scripture discussion].
Last week, at the retreat I mentioned, “You believe in God. But do you believe God?” I ask a similar question this morning, “You believe in Jesus, the baby that came at Christmas, but now that he’s all grown up, do you believe Him?” I’m issuing a call to believe that Jesus is who he says he is – the resurrection and the life--because your life and my life depends upon it, right now, and later, and forever. And the lives of other people depend upon you and I believing, for when we believe it’s possible for God in Christ to restore life to lifeless situations. We can partner with him so that at times we may become the means through which new life in Christ begins again or through which it can be sustained.
Life and death matters to God. It needs to matter to us.
Let us pray:
You love us and sometimes weep for us too, Jesus.
And so we ask that by the Holy Spirit,
you remove the stone from our hearts
so that we may hear you calling to us --
to come to you
believing that you are the resurrection and the life for the whole world.
In faith without a net, but with your loving arms to catch us,
we echo the words of your friend Martha, saying:
“Yes, Lord, I believe.”
To the glory of God, we pray this. Amen.