March 9th 2008 Sermon By B Wright

Homily March 8 and 9 2008 Brian T. Wright, Deacon in Training

Is Lazarus in you?

Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk aroun' Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun' Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun' I hear the word of the Lord! 1 The Old Testament lesson for today is one of my favorites, perhaps because I remember the joy of singing that African-American Spiritual with children and other adults in Sunday School. Ezekiel received his famous vision, The Valley of the Dry Bones, during Israel’s 70-year Babylonian exile. It is a stark yet hopeful vision of the remnant of Israel being restored to life and rising up. However, God’s question and Ezekiel’s answer are as timely today as they were over 2,500 years ago. He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." I liked one interpretation of this passage that I read: The major theme in Ezekiel’s vision for the exiles is the power of the love and grace of God. God takes his disobedient people when they are at their lowest, reassembles them and breathes new life into them. Then God reminds them of his covenant with them and fulfills it once again by returning them to their homeland in Jerusalem. This is a God of unconditional love, there are no bounds in His love and mercy and His power is limitless. This is a God of life. Ezekiel’s vision acts as a reminder that God will never abandon his people. The interpretation makes clear that faith that is dead can always be brought back to life and that God will always be there to support that re-creation and empower it with the breath of the Holy Spirit.2 The bottom line: faith that is dead can always be resurrected by God through the breath of the Holy Spirit. Today’s Gospel is the seventh and final sign that John uses to validate the divinity of Jesus. John’s seven signs are the changing of water into wine at the wedding feast (2:1-11); the healing of the royal official's son (4:46-54), both of which happen in Cana; the healing of a paralytic (5:1-9) in Jerusalem; Jesus feeding of the five thousand (6:1-14) and his walking on water (6:15-25) in Galilee; giving sight to a man born blind (9:1-12) in Jerusalem, which ignited the resentment of the Jewish leaders and finally the greatest of the signs - the resurrection of Lazarus (11:1-45), which literally sealed Jesus’ fate among the religious leadership and will directly lead us to Palm Sunday and His Passion next week. John used these signs to illuminate Jesus as the Christ and direct us to the Son of God. Lazarus, Jesus’ dear friend, is sick and near death when his sisters Martha and Mary send a messenger to Jesus. We are told that when Jesus receives the message he tells his disciples: "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." And although his current location was a two-day journey away from Bethany, Jesus elects to stay there for an additional two days. The Gospel goes on to tell us that Lazarus had been dead for four days by the time Jesus approached Bethany; hence, Lazarus was most likely already dead when Jesus received the message from his sisters. It is interesting to note that the Jews of that time believed that the soul or spirit of a person remained in the vicinity of the dead body for up to three days before departing. Jesus’ arrival on the fourth day would have signified him coming after the departure of the soul. There was no way this man Lazarus could possibly be restored to life … he was dead and was rotting away in the tomb. He had become a part of the Valley of the Dry Bones!

Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun' Two days after receiving the message about Lazarus, Jesus gathers his disciples around him and says "Let us go to Judea again." He has made a decision to return to the place where they had recently tried to stone him and where he knew he would meet his fate. Imagine you are part of this group of disciples: first Jesus tells you that a friend he loves dearly is sick but will not die; then he elects to stay where he is for an additional two days; now he tells you let’s return to the place where they intend to kill me; and finally he tells you that Lazarus is asleep … in fact dead … and he is going to wake him up as a sign for the disciples so that they will believe. Wouldn’t you wonder what is going on here? It seems confusing at best and then one of your fellow disciples, Thomas, says “let’s go with him so that we can die also.” Somehow the disciples have completely missed what Jesus is saying about Lazarus. They are totally focused on the events of the past and are predicting what will happen upon their return to Judea. Jesus leaves, returns to Judea and after two days’ journey, meets Martha and a group of people outside of Bethany who are mourning Lazarus. In what is one of the most vivid descriptions of the humanness of Christ recorded in the Gospels, we feel his angst and pain as he listens to Martha’s lament that had he been there Lazarus would not have died. Jesus tells Martha that Lazarus will rise again … something she believes will happen at the last day … but not this day. Jesus then tells her and the disciples, "I myself am the resurrection and the life …The man who believes in me will live even though he dies, and anyone who is alive and believes in me will never die at all. Can you believe that?" "Yes, Lord," replied Martha. "I do believe that you are Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into the world." 3 Martha’s response acknowledges the divinity of Jesus but does not directly answer Jesus’ question. Jesus does nothing and waits for Mary, who arrives weeping with the same lament as Martha, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus is moved to tears, weeps and asks the sisters to show him where Lazarus is buried. Listen as John tells us the end of the story: Jesus was again deeply moved at these words, and went on to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay in front of it. "Take away the stone," said Jesus. "But Lord," said Martha, the dead man's sister, "he has been dead four days. By this time he will be decaying ...." "Did I not tell you," replied Jesus, "that if you believed, you would see the wonder of what God can do?" Then they took the stone away and Jesus raised his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of these people standing here so that they may believe that you have sent me." And when he had said this, he called out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with graveclothes and his face muffled with a handkerchief. "Now unbind him," Jesus told them, "and let him go home."4 Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun' We are approaching the end of Lent with all of its somberness and we are beginning to anticipate the Paschal Mystery with all of its glory. A mystery so deep that it defies human explanation yet holds the promise of redemption for every Christian believer. While the coupling of the Valley of the Dry Bones and the story of Lazarus have obvious and powerful physical resurrection messages, I would prefer to focus on a more subtle yet very real resurrection message … the truth that unfolds as we discover Christ within us, the truth about passing from the opressive slavery of sin to the complete freedom in the love of God. 2

Recently during a bible study on Paul’s epistle to the Galatians I was asked if I had ever been a victim of oppression. It caused me to reflect on my life and whether a privileged white Anglo-Saxon male like me could really suffer oppression? The more I pondered the question the more I realized the answer was yes. For much of my life I was oppressed by a drive to have to be successful and I was oppressed by the death of a beloved child. The result was even though Jesus has always been there as my friend and companion on my journey through life, I was spiritually dead, much like Lazarus in today’s Gospel. I had bound myself in the clothes of burial (albeit they probably looked like suits), laid myself to rest in my own well crafted tomb (a nice well furnished house) and rolled a rock in front of the entrance to make sure the Son did not strike me (closed myself off from those who love me and buried my feelings and emotions). I was in my own Valley of the Dry Bones. Dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun' But a strange thing happened to me, the Holy Spirit rolled away the rock that blocked the entrance to my heart and I heard my name called just as Lazarus did his. I began to discover Christ within me. I slowly came out of that tomb into the bright light of the Son and those who already knew Christ and kept the faith ministered to me, unwrapped my burial clothes and set me free - free to be transformed and made into a true disciple, free to become a servant of the Lord, free to live a joyous life. Ezekiel saw the vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones and heard the Lord say, "Mortal, can these bones live?" He was smart enough to answer, "O Lord GOD, you know." Martha, Mary and the disciples heard Jesus talk about being the resurrection and the life but they didn’t fully understand the message. Then Jesus’ words were made flesh and Lazarus was resurrected from the dead! While Jesus’ followers may have struggled with their own doubts and disbelief, the religious leaders saw the signs of how he could lift the oppression of death and return a dead man to life and, much like the demons who knew Jesus when he cast them out, knew they had a problem. How they dealt with that problem becomes the story behind Jesus’ Passion and Holy Week. I give thanks that you are here today in worship but how about you, brothers and sisters? Are you oppressed? Have you wrapped yourself in burial clothes? Have you retreated to the tomb and considered yourself spiritually dead? Are you starting to rot and stink or are you ready to live a full and rich life full of love and service? Are you ready to hear his voice call your name? If you are, today and this week, listen to that refrain, dem bones, dem bones, gonna walk aroun', in your head, think about Ezekiel’s Valley of the Dry Bones, how they came together and became human-like yet still spiritually dead, think about how God breathed into them and they became alive and rose up … then prayerfully open your heart, listen and hear His words: “Lazarus, come out! Amen 1

James Weldon Johnson, African American Spiritual Jeff S. Ward, Exegesis of Ezekiel 37:1-14, homepage.mac.com/bpirwin/knox/PDF%20Files/Exegesis%20Sample%20(Ezek37).pdf 3 J B Phillips New Testament, John 11, http://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/CP04John.htm 4 Ibid 2

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