Sermon for: March 9, 2008_Lent V_A_RCL
Brian McHugh, priest & vicar
[Ezk 37: 1-14][Ps 130][Romans 8: 6-11][John 11: 1-45]


Dry Bones! It’s a great story isn’t it. Sunday School kids my age remember it, aided by the popular song - “The ankle bone’s connected to the shin bone / the shin bone’s connected to the thigh bone / the thigh bones’ connected to the hip bone ….. Hear the Word of the Lord”. “Can these bones live?”, God asks Ezekiel. It’s almost as if God is looking for a little reassurance. God spends centuries nourishing, guiding, protecting His people Israel for Life, and what is the state of affairs as God chats with Ezekiel? Israel is like a huge field of completely dry, bleached, clattering, dead bones.

I can hear God’s thoughts: “Is anything ever going to bring these people to Life! Will they ever become the people I created them to be?” But, God never seems to get discouraged. God answers his own question: “I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive—O my people! I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. Then I'll lead you straight back to your land and you'll realize that I am God. I've said it and I'll do it.'" God’s problem, of course, is that however generous God is, however forgiving, however faithful in love, we human beings have to cooperate – and there’s the problem.

As far as Life goes, the critical phrase is, “I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live.” This is where Life flows from, says the Bible. We are given Life, made human, by the breath or spirit of God breathed into us. “Life” doesn’t just mean biologically alive. It means far more. The Biblical Creation story says that, after making humanity from the dirt, God breathed Spirit into Adam, and humans became living beings. This morning, the question we are prompted to ask is: What does it mean for me to be truly, fully alive? Maybe it doesn’t grab you, but, as a Christian, it grabs me - a lot.

Even more dramatically we are confronted with the same question by the reading from the Gospel today. What a sight that 4-day-dead Lazarus, wrapped in grave-clothes, must have been to Mary and Martha, their friends, and the disciples, as he emerged from the tomb and later sat with them at dinner! I believe that many were drawn to Jesus because they felt a whole new possibility for their life coming from Him. For the same reason Jesus threatened the religious authorities. They knew deep within them that they were supposed to be leading the people to the Life God wanted them to have. But they had rejected their calling, more interested in prestige and power. Jesus gave new Life to people, by His words, His actions, His teachings. He touched their souls. That’s where these marvelous stories of raising even the physically dead come from. They are a dramatic symbol of how God can yank people from the brink of death experiences to a fuller sense of how we can live, what Life is all about.

“Can these bones live?” That is the question that God asks Ezekiel. It is a very pertinent question as we head for the liturgical celebration of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead in two weeks. This is the core Christian Feast. It affirms and celebrates Life’s power over death in all its aspects. On Easter morning, what will God see in you and in me? Will God see a people - us - risen to new life, flesh breathed into Life by divine Spirit, unafraid, confident, living fully and enthusiastically, full of enjoyment of the Creation, generous in Love, merciful, compassionate, just, full of humility, ? Or will God see yet again a field scattered with bleached dry clattering bones, and asking with a deep sigh, “Can these bones possibly live?!”

Of course we here are not in general unkind or thoughtless or uncaring people. We do what we can to help those who need help, especially amongst our family and friends. But look around at the World, especially at our own country. We are the largest consumers of drugs and alcohol in the world. One out of every hundred of us is in jail – 30 million people! A huge percentage of us are afflicted with clinical depression, including the young, and are on meds to help us manage. Our suicide rate is high, especially amongst the young and the elderly. We are not a happy people – nor is much of the World.

Every year at Easter, God’s words spoken to the prophet Ezekiel are heard again: "I'll dig up your graves and bring you out alive—O my people! I'll breathe my life into you and you'll live. I've said it and I'll do it". And God did it, in raising Jesus from the dead. God hopes that we will hear the message deep within our souls, hear what Her messengers and Her Son taught, and see the path that leads to fullness of Life. We as the Body of Christ are meant to know it for ourselves. But even more so that we can be a light to the World. God want us to know in Christ what Life fully is, and to do as the hymn says – “Lay hold on Life, and it shall be / thy joy and crown eternally”.

Maybe I’m the only one who feels something's missing. But I think we are all called, like Lazarus, like the people of Israel, to become as Christ. Live the Gospel. Help transform the World around us. Two weeks before Easter, and as we prepare to follow Jesus through the journey of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, we are reminded that, like Jesus, we too are meant to rise daily from the dead places we often inhabit and claim the Life God prepared for us. As always, God is ready to help us.

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I sent around on Saturday by email a question: As a follower of Jesus, what (in a few words) is something you strive for, or do, or believe, that makes you a fully-alive human being?

Would anyone like to share (in a few words) your answer?