April 9, 2011
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New life for dry bones
Have you ever been bone weary? Have you ever been chilled to the bone? Do you say you can feel something in your bones? Our bones are the center of our earthly self. Our bones are the last part of this human body to decay and disappear when we die. Our bones define what we look like. Some of us put more trappings on top of our bones than others but still it is our bones that define our basic shape. We depend on our bones for almost everything we do. Our bones are to this earthly body what our soul is to our eternal self. When we break a bone, we are in great pain and often doing things becomes much more difficult. When our bones are weary, chilled, aching, it is difficult for us to want to do anything.
One of the most difficult aspects of doing interim ministry is that I come to congregations that are bone weary. They have been through a difficult time. Many times they have a sense of dread about the future; they may even have lost all hope. Sometimes I feel like Ezekiel, called into the desert to preach to the dry bones. I trust in the promise of God that my words will carry the breath of God to bring new life to the hopeless dry bones. God says even when we feel dead and without hope there is hope in God. God will open up the graves and bring us out healthy. You can’t miss the connection between Ezekiel in the desert bringing new life to dry bones and Jesus at the tomb brining new life to Lazarus. God has the power to breathe new life into that which appears dead to us. I do not claim to understand why Jesus let Lazarus die when he had the power to heal him even from a distance. He healed the centurion’s companion from a distance. Jesus said it was to show God’s glory by glorifying Jesus. We have to trust God even in the worst of circumstances so our faith brings glory to God. If our faith does not sustain us in the most difficult circumstances then it is no faith at all.
There is much to be considered in the words of Jesus when the tomb of Lazarus is opened. He says, “Unwrap him and let him loose.” Other versions have Jesus saying, “Unbind him”. The Ezekiel story has God releasing the dead Israelites from their graves. Receiving God’s breath of life for our weary, dead bones requires our being liberated from what binds us to the past. We cannot experience new life if we are unwilling to have the graves of the past opened up or to have our grave clothes removed. When we cling to the trappings of the past we are clinging to our grave clothes. We don’t want to be released from them, we want everyone else to put on grave clothes and join us. When refuse to have the issues of the past dug up and exposed to the air, we are refusing to be healed of the past and let it go. For some of us, keeping things buried and unresolved is more important than breathing new life into us. Those old issues have become our identity and we cannot imagine existing without them and we miss the new life offered to us.
It is clear we are not able to breathe new life into ourselves. That would be like giving yourself CPR, it just can’t be done. We may be tempted to take things in our own hands or to despair when God does not appear when we believe it is time for something to happen. We hear the frustration on the part of Mary and Martha that Jesus didn’t come in time to save Lazarus. There is a gospel hymn that says “Isn’t it great even when He’s four days late, He’s right on time!” I will excuse the male language for God because the concept it right on target. There is no late in God’s timing. Mary and Martha wanted Jesus there four days earlier but Jesus came when it was right in God’s timing. I honestly struggle with why God would have chosen to have Lazarus die and Mary and Martha to grieve so but my faith says God’s timing is right and it is not for me to understand or approve. Jesus we are told wept at the grave of Lazarus, Jesus must also have struggled with why this had to happen this way. Did he weep for Lazarus? That seems unlikely because Jesus knew Lazarus would live again. Did he weep for the pain and suffering the death of Lazarus has caused his good friends? This makes sense to me. Or possibly, Jesus wept because he knew he would be calling his friend Lazarus back from eternal peace to once again struggle with the demands of living. Lazarus was being called back to life to be part of watching his friend, Jesus, be arrested, tortured, and crucified. I have reached the point in my life when I realize that death is not the most frightening circumstance we face. We will watch those we love get sick, suffer, and leave us. We will have times when we rejoice in the death of someone close to us because they are released from the torment of this life. We will watch as nations make war on each other. We will watch as those with power make war on the powerless. We will witness natural disasters with great loss of life and suffering. Clearly there are worse things for us to endure than the passing from this life to the life eternal.
God says I can bring you out of your graves of despair, loneliness, fear, and weariness and bring you new life. I can give you back your hope and your passion and lead you to the Promised Land. God can breathe new life into the weary bones of each one of us if only we are willing to come out of our graves and cut off our grave clothes and live as God shows us to live. Amen.
