1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. 3 He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?"

I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." 4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD."

So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."

10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. 11 Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act," says the LORD.

1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. 3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." 4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, "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." 5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, 6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7 Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again."

8 The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" 9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. 10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them." 11 After saying this, he told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him."

12 The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right."

13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. 14 Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. 15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him."

23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."

25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" 27 She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world." 28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you." 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him.

30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 37 But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days." 40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me." 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go." 45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

Sermon for Lent 5A Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45

March 17, 2002 Beth Ernest

On the one hand, the story of the valley of dry bones dates back to a time in Israel’s history when the people were in exile. The prophet Ezekiel, along with other Israelites, had been taken away to Babylon. Would their nation ever exist again? Would their dry, scattered bones be reunited in the land promised to them, with the future promised to them as a people? On the outside, all indications were a big, fat, NO. So, on the one hand, the story is about these ancient people who were beyond hopelessness and have now been given a vision of a new hope.

On the other hand, the story of the valley of dry bones lives on today. As Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, says, every generation needs to hear this story—including our generation. For death is among us still, as are separation, hopelessness, and a basic lack of the strength and courage to go on.

In the last decade we have seen stashes of bones in many places. We see images brought to us on our TV or heard of in horrific radio reports. Mass graves of Kurdish bones. Fields of Rwandan bones, Tutsi, and Hutu. Graves of Bosnian and Serbian bones; in India, Hindu and Muslim bones; mountainous valleys of Afghan bones, and closer to home, a marsh full of scattered bones in Georgia. The aftermath of all these dead bones are survivors living dazed, haunted lives.

Can these bones live? Can new life arise where hopelessness dwells? Can it happen in our generation? In our day? As the Negro spiritual on this story says, "Hear the Word of the Lord!"

Hear the word as it comes in the story of Lazarus. This story happened long ago, at a time when a particular family grieved a particular young man who died of a particular cause. We do not know all the details, only that Jesus should have been there to heal his friend, but he did not come. In fact, he waited where he was for two days before Lazarus died and then decided to go. And so, long ago, two sisters grieved, one resigned, one angry, running to meet Jesus and confront him, asking why Jesus had let them down.

Just as Jesus made a rash statement in last week’s reading, saying, "I am the light of the world" (Jn 9:5), today he makes another bold claim. Talking to Martha he says, "…I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world" (Jn 11:25-27).

It is in this claim and promise that the story lives on beyond the hamlet of Bethany 2,000 years ago, for it is a story that shows the ability of Jesus Christ to not only say he is the resurrection and the life, but to be that in the life of his friends, Lazarus, Mary and Martha, and by extension, in our lives, too.

"Lazarus, come out!" And out he comes, shrouded in his wrapping of death. Four days he had been dead, but Jesus has opened the tomb. Lazarus was not just resuscitated, he had not experienced temporary blockage from choking on a pretzel, he had been dead! Dead in body, for he was wrapped in his death shroud and lying in the tomb. He was dead to his family and community, for they had gathered and were actively mourning him. But now his body is alive, his position in the community is restored; he is among the living!

In the next scene beyond our reading the wailing-funeral-guests-turned-joyous-resurrection-witnesses tell the authorities. Because Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead, the Jewish leaders now get real serious about getting rid of him. The implications of such a miraculous sign cannot be missed by the authorities or the people. The Sanhedrin, the Jewish court gathers and the conspiracy against Jesus swings into high gear. Before they had been trying to stone him, chase him out of town; now it is a no-holds-barred death conspiracy. It is soon clear that Jesus has emptied one tomb, but will soon become the occupant of another. Jesus willingly put his own life on the line to save his friend, knowing that this miracle could not be ignored and knowing that his every step would now lead to his suffering and death..

And so we see the curtain slowly rising on what will become Christ’s final passion, his journey toward Jerusalem, toward the cross, toward the tomb, all for us, his friends. Not just for Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, of that day long ago, but for Lucy and Tina and Josh and Chris and Steve and Rachel…for all of us. People who, as the apostle Paul wrote, "were once far off (but now) have been brought near by the blood of Christ" (Eph 2:13).

One of our members sends me the most amazing e-mails. I don’t know where he gets them and I don’t think I want to know. The latest one is a media clip showing a woman in labor. As she screams, the baby is ejected from the womb, bursts through the window of the delivery room, hurdling right out of the hospital and out through the skies. Over open fields the baby boy zooms, crying. As he continues at a blurring speed over hill and dale, he grows, now shouting! He is a young boy, then a teen, then a young man speeding like a bullet over the earth’s surface. Now he is a young man, now losing his hair, now definitely aging. Still shrieking. At last, he starts to lose altitude. A cemetery is in view and WHAM, the now old man smashes through the top of a grave stone and down into the grave, in a cloud of dust. The whole clip has lasted maybe 30 seconds.

These words follow: "LIFE IS SHORT. PLAY MORE." It ends with the logo for some incomprehensibly-named company. If the makers had been a church, perhaps it would have said, "Life is short. Pray more." But the message is clear—our physical life ends in death and the way there can be a harrowing experience.

In my reading for today’s sermon, I found this thought-provoking statement, "apart from trust in God, the world is a cemetery" (Preaching through the Christian Year A, Trinity Press: Philadelphia, 1992. p. 178). Doesn’t this say something about the biblical meaning of hope, that is, our stance toward the future, based on what God has promised in the past.

Do you know people who are living their lives as if the world is a cemetery? People for whom play is out of the question and day to day existence is drudgery or fear? Years ago I was on a street car in Vienna, Austria, on Christmas day. I was young and happy and had a bag of brightly wrapped Christmas presents, as I was on my way to a party with my dear friends who were like family to me. An elderly widow dressed in the dreary, drab colors common to all elderly, Austrian widows eyed me. She looked at my packages. She looked at my young face. "Na, ja," she sighed "for some of us it is just a wait until the grave." So much for my good mood that day!

"Apart from God, the world is a cemetery."

Who are the living dead? Those who are not in Christ. Those who are chained by worry. Those who are lost in grief. People who are frozen in a state of inaction, blinded by choices, existing but not doing much more than breathing. The living dead are people who have lost hope, and isn’t that easy to do? Not only individuals but churches, nations, tribes and even neighborhoods might be among the dead. We wait for Jesus to say, "Lazarus, come out!"

We wait for Jesus to say,

"You thought life was impossible, but it is not."

We wait for Jesus to say,

"You thought your grief would destroy you, but it doesn’t have to."

We wait for Jesus to say,

"You thought your problems were insurmountable, but I’m going to give you another way to think about them."

We wait for Jesus to say,

Isn’t that the message we need to hear? Isn’t that the message we long for? Isn’t that the message the world needs so desperately? And not just hearing it, but experiencing it. First Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life," and then he went on to prove it in the raising of Lazarus, and in his own triumph over the grave.

God told Ezekiel, "Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel" (Ez. 37:12).

God will bring us back to the land of the living. God will fulfill in us a hope that is more than wishful thinking.

What is it that is dead inside you today? What is it that you have given up hope for? What is scattered and dried up, like bones in the desert? Whatever it is, hear the voice of the Lord: