Loving God, you come among us in the midst of sorrow and despair and bring with you hope and new life.  Open our hearts this day to the power of your Spirit, that we, too, might be transformed from death to life; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    In our readings today, we find a few things that might seem to us to be all too familiar: Illness and death and grieving and dry bones and lost hope.  There are a number of people in our community right now who can relate to these things, myself included.  Grief is never easy.  Illness is never easy.  And death is never easy.  Those who are in their nineties will tell you that dry bones have their challenges, too.  However, as we are reminded today, none of these things are any match for the power of God.

    It doesn’t matter if it is dry bones that have been lying there for years.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a stinking body that has already been dead for four days.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a pile of ashes, or a body that’s been blown to bits, or somebody who’s been lost at sea or in outer space.  For God, resurrection is entirely possible, with a brand new body included!  In fact, whenever Jesus encounters a corpse, each one ends up getting raised to life again.  As one author says, Jesus “has that effect on the dead” (Robert Farrar Capon, quoted in Sundays & Seasons).

    However, we do not need to wait until we literally die in order to experience resurrection.  You may have noticed in today’s gospel that when Jesus tells Martha that her brother will rise again, Martha immediately jumps to the end of all things.  She believes that there will be a resurrection “on the last day” (Jn. 11:24).  However, Jesus is not speaking about the end of all things, but about right now.  “I am the resurrection and the life,” says Jesus (Jn. 11:25).  “Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

    The thing is that Jesus continues to have the power to transform lives even now.  In fact, isn’t that what the gospel is all about?  In Jesus we move from death to life, from self-centeredness to love, from isolation to community.  In Jesus we move from brokenness to wholeness, from legalism to grace, and from judgment to forgiveness.  Jesus is all about transforming hearts and lives, breathing new life into those who had lost all hope.

    The challenge for us is to allow that transformation to happen, and to participate with God in bringing that same resurrection promise and power to others.  In the most recent issue of the Canada Lutheran, Bishop Michael Pryse wrote about those who grew up in the church but now consider themselves to have no religious affiliation.  He suggested that many of them have rejected participating in the church because they have not witnessed any evidence there of the life-changing power of the gospel.  In other words, they don’t see the love of Jesus in evidence, and they don’t see people who have died to self and have been raised to new life in Christ.

    It is quite a sobering column that he writes, actually, and well worth thinking about.  After all, if we’re not here to grow up into Christ and to allow the Spirit of God to breathe new life into us, why exactly are we here?  The Spirit gives life.  Jesus brings life in all its fulness.  So if there are no signs of this life among us, we have a problem!

    That problem usually arises, not because of God’s absence, but because of our tendency to put ourselves in charge rather than God.  I love the image that Pastor Annemarie used this past Wednesday when she talked about Jesus being in our hearts.  She talked about how it’s not all about inviting Jesus into our hearts, because Jesus is already there.  Instead, it’s all about allowing Jesus to come out of our hearts and to love and to bring life through us.  Perhaps sometimes we try to keep Jesus safely locked up, so that we can do what we want to do.

    So as we think about transformed lives and resurrection now, what exactly does that look like?  For some people, it is a radical transformation, coming from a life of crime or a life driven by addictions to a life that is lived for Jesus.  For others, it is a transformation from sickness to health, especially when it is clear that God is the one who has brought about the healing.  For some, it is an encounter with God at a low point in their lives that breathes new life into them and raises them to life.  For others, it is a gradual change in behaviour - from greed to generosity, from self-centeredness to love, from hurtful words to healing words, from judgment to love and forgiveness.

    Jesus is all about transforming hearts and lives – and it begins with us, and then gets passed on to others.  One of the interesting details in the story of the raising of Lazarus is the way in which those who are standing by are asked to help.  It is quite obviously the power of God working through Jesus that raises Lazarus to life.  However, those who are present are asked to help.  “Unbind him, and let him go” (Jn. 11:44).  The community is asked to participate in God’s action.

    We, too, are asked to participate in God’s redeeming work.  We, too, are asked to help others whom God is ready to raise to new life.  We, too, are asked to look around us and to ask, “What is God doing, and how can we help?”  This is part of letting Jesus out, and allowing God to work through us.

    A final word, though, for those who might still find themselves in the valley of dry bones today.  Sometimes, we need to sit in the presence of God and simply breathe.  In Ezekiel, the spirit and the breath and the wind are all the same word.  And so when we sit in the presence of God and breathe, we are allowing the Spirit of God to move freely through us, and we are breathing into ourselves the presence and the power of God.  There are times when we feel as if all hope has been lost and when we only see death around us.  Those are the times when we most need the Spirit of God, and when we most need to be in God’s presence.

    For our God is the God of resurrection, who brings life out of death, healing out of pain, and hope out of despair.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

Lent 5(A)                                    John 11:1-45
April 6, 2014                                    Ezekiel 37:1-14
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2014 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved