Exodus 12:1-14
John 13:1-17 & 31-36
Humanity thrives on story, we make memories of stories, we create memorials. In a vacuum, we will create stories to explain. Recently, I was visiting a friend's church and on the walls were gorgeous old photos and art work, but no one seemed to know the origin, or the stories behind these images. I am told there are those today, who so want to have history, to create memory, that they go to Antique stores to buy other family's photos to hang ion their walls, to create a heritage a memorial.
Twenty years ago, I had the great opportunity of being part of a tour of the Soviet Union. Part of the heritage of Communism was that Stalin was asked what to do about the Churches, and his response was "Do not worry, those old grandmothers' will die out as will the memory of the Church. But what he did not expect, was that the grandmother's would bring infants in their arms, to describe to them using the artwork and icons on the walls the memorial story of faith. I recall a tour of the Summer Palace at what was then Leningrad, and a tour guide who was identified as being a member of the Communist Party showing a painting by Rembrandt of “The Prodigal Son”. From Art History classes in High School and College, with reference to the Bible, we had learned that the figure with long robes cradling the other in his lap was Rembrandt's image of God, and the emaciated faceless figure in rags who looked like a survivor of the refugee camp at Dachau was The Prodigal, who represented Humanity. But this member of The Party, had a vastly different interpretation, devoid of faith that there is a God. For her, the resplendent figure was "The State", and the kneeling figure was a self-portrait of Rembrandt renouncing all worldly goods and worldly desires, bowing down to serve the Father/State/Mother Russia. Honoring Memorials, we have to be extremely careful to appropriate art, music, ideas, values from a different time and culture, that in addition to whatever we may want the image to represent, that we honor what the creator of their time and place had meant.
In John's description of the Last Supper, Simon Peter who has previously been identified as the Foundation for the Church, one who would become the archetype for the Pope and therefore for all Christianity, is described as misunderstanding Jesus' motives in washing their feet. Again at the Table, Peter misunderstands and vows to never deny Jesus, yet does three times before the morning. There is caution here from the Evangelist, that the Church/ Christianity, will regularly get the meaning of this memorial wrong!
Often in recent history, churches/ we, have tried to reclaim the lost sacred act of washing the disciples' feet. But the point is not the act of foot washing. Peter assumes that the water has some special purpose or power, which it does not, it is water. Again it is assumed what Jesus is doing is an act of sacrifice, but according to John's Gospel it is not. The cataclysmic event that changed history, according to John, was God so loving the world as to send the only begotten son into the world, and that the incarnation is what has changed the world. The point is not the foods we eat, or how they are prepared, or the words we say, or what new interpretations we +2000 years later can find to bring to them.
The point of the Passover is that Almighty God, the Creator and Judge, cared so much God entered into creation to save the oppressed slaves and make of them a people, a nation, Israel. The point of the Last Supper, which is interrupted by the foot washing, is the intimate affection of Jesus serving as loving host, which then allows us to to participate in this meal as Jesus offering himself to us, all the while knowing that despite our protests we are self-absorbed humans. We need to describe this as “Jesus Offering Himself” and not as Jesus giving up his life, because he never ever gives up, if anything by this memorial he embraces life, our life and the importance of his life al the more.
We are a people attracted to the dramatic, to the symbolic. Throughout Lent we have had Elder Nichols blow the Shofar, because this is an ancient musical instrument of faith dating back at least to Joshua and the rams' horns being blown by the Levites as they marched around Jericho. The Shofar is sounded at Yom Kippur's Day of Atonement, as it is a mournful sound calling people to repent. There were special instructions as to who was allowed to blow the Shofar, it was not to be blown by children, or pregnant women, not by those with mental problems, not by the weak or the angry, but only by those who are resolute in faith. Some blow as one long blast, while others use a series of short breaths. The point was not so much how it was blown, but that the people would be able to hear it as a serious call to repent.
In the Passover, while there is description of every element as a symbol: on which night the Seder is to be eaten, the posture of how we sit, unleavened bread, the lamb-bone and charoseth, bitter herbs and saltwater, the open door and empty chair, and the questions asked by a child. I think the most powerful part of Passover is the Call to Create A Memorial, which describes take a sacrificial lamb for your family, and at the Haggidda recite:
“Lord, it would have been enough for You to create the world. It would have been enough for You to give us life. It would have been enough that You formed every element with seeds of its future. It would have been enough that when we sought our own way, when we abandoned You, You never gave up on us. It would have been enough that You appointed the Stars and sun and moon and seasons for our growth and development. It would have been enough that You brought us through illness and suffering. It would have been enough that You gave us hope and vision. But YOU LORD, God of the Universe, Maker of heaven and earth, You entered in to save us. You acted in Love and Grace. Thank you.”
In the Seder of Passover, we remember that “life is fragile and we are children marked with blood.” Time and again, circumstances could have gone a different way, but while the world has known great suffering, while there have been plagues and pandemics, fires and floods and wars, Almighty God, who also experienced all of this, chose to love each of us. There must be a purpose for us to take up in response, because God loves us and created us for this time and place.
Throughout all of human history, there have been WORSHIP WARS. Here, I am not referencing Holy Wars fought for the liberation of oppressed people, or between Gods and between cultures, even between good and evil. WORSHIP WARS are not even the Crusades between Christians, Muslims and Jews, or the wars that continue today over lands sacred to both indigenous people.
WORSHIP WARS are the little jibes that take place over the time of worship, or if someone is sitting in our place, which hymns we sing and with what instruments, whether the children leave early or later, whether Baptisms and Offerings take place in response to the Word Read and Preached or as an act of Confession. All of which come back to our human desire for control, to be found to be righteous and therefore to judge. This morning someone described their son who worships and teaches Bible Study at a Congregational Church then rushes to the Catholic church each week, so as to receive Communion. I would not have considered it except that a few moments later someone greeted me describing “I guess you have not had as many worship services this week as we have at the Catholic and Episcopal Churches,” as if the number of times per day or per week we worship were an issue rather than our faith and relationship to God.
Worship is a unique act in human culture. In some times and places Worship is Didactic and Moralistic, in others extremely Rational and Doctrinal, at times Worship has been considered entertainment, at other times evocative, at times political, and at others a celebration of art and poetry. The point emphasized by both our readings this night, is that WORSHIP needs to be done RIGHT. Not as ritual, not as routine, not misunderstood as magic or sacrifice. In Worship we recognize God offering us love, unconditionally hosting us in God's house, feeding us without reservation; and in worship we are allowed to respond as we choose to God.
What is striking in John's description of the Last Supper is his emphasis on Loving: One Another. Where Matthew, Mark and Luke have the Sermon on the Mount and The Beatitudes, articulating what it is to love, the need to love neighbor as ourselves, parables explaining what it is to love our enemies and to love neighbor; John's Gospel is demonstrated in this one discourse at dinner (by Jesus' overt intimacy, stripping before the disciples, washing their feet as a loving host, drying their feet with the towel wrapped around his loins), that we love those with whom we are at table. In so many ways it is easier for us to discuss and accept the need to love our enemies, or to love our neighbors, than it is to love those who are our family, to forgive ourselves, to love those at table with us.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
WikiChurch, April 17 Palm Sunday 2011
Isaiah 50
Matthew 20:29 - 21:19
This week a piece of information was sent to me over the internet, which shocked me.
75% of all the churches Catholic, Pentecostal and Protestant did not celebrate a single baptism last year There once was a time in which the identity of America and those of the Church were synonymous. For the last 50 years, churches have been losing members faster than they had been gaining, but still we comforted ourselves in the blanket that the world was “implicitly” Christian, that people do believe. Suddenly we awake to the realization that not only does the culture not worship as we had been doing, but in many parts of our world, there is a belief that those who claim belief in God are hypocritical, insincere and out of touch with reality.
Recently a good friend was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, he was over 40 and overweight, but as we talked together we came to realize that our families have a history of Diabetes and Heart Disease, we do not get enough exercise, we enjoy comfort foods and desserts and a glass of wine, and the result is self-fulfilling. The problem cannot be solved by a quick diet, instead there needs to be a change of life. Is not this the problem of the Church? We have become a people waiting for others to come and join us. We are a people known for our meals and our fellowship, for entertainment and programs that occupy our time rather than feeding the world, and serving others.
In 1966, an Issue of TIME magazine was published that shocked the world, the cover was completely black, with the words “GOD IS DEAD”. This should have been the climactic moment of Christianity professing faith in the Resurrection, that while Human Culture had killed God, God's compassion, love and sincerity could overcome even death's ability to destroy. But instead, we accepted the headline as truth and moved on. If anything the last 50 years have professed the reality that HUMANITY IS DEAD for we have become less and less concerned with the needs of others, and more and more preoccupied with our comforts, with our food, with entertainment and activities that fill our days. Nation upon nation are rising up in revolution, claiming that The Emperor has no clothes, all that we had trusted and believed in Religion, Science, Politics and Government, Education, the Economy cannot be trusted to provide for our needs.
Just as with Type 2 Diabetes, we need a change of life style. For Diabetes, it is as simple as two things, Diet and Exercise. For Christianity, the change is also in two things, from an Internal Focus to an External Focus, and from Program Development to Nurturing People. Christ's great Commission was not that we should sit back and wait for the believers to enter our church, not that we should do faith better, but rather that we were to go out into the world to serve and disciple as he had done for us. The point of faith is not what we get out of believing, but that our lives have different meaning, different priority. Time and again as Jesus is begged by the blind and lame and children “LORD HAVE MERCY, SON OF DAVID HAVE MERCY,” in Greek: HOSANNA. Jesus never stops to ask What's in it for me? And those who were healed are not described as going home satisfied, but rather that they each followed him him serving others. The point here is not a numbers game, of how many baptisms, or members or children, but instead focusing upon serving those who are in need without reservation or concern for limitations.
Having grown up during this time, I would share with you that the Church, and by that I do NOT mean the Presbyterian Church only, but all churches, had become so afraid of connotations related to EVANGELISM, that we were afraid to say the word, referring to Evangelism as The E Word and “SALVATION” had dropped out of the Church's vocabulary all together. The Gospels each tell a different story about the life and purpose of Jesus the Christ. But in every one of the the Gospels, those who cry out for need do not cry HEAL US! Or MAKE US COMFORTABLE! Or even MAKE US SAFE! But rather SAVE US, for the path each had been living, we each have been following only leads to death.
I am told that in California, there is a church in Bel Air, that recognizes the people who live in their community are involved in the entertainment industry, in making Movies and Television shows. And what they have begun doing is screening movies and watching television shows together, then talking about them. In conversation about the themes, in conversation about the characters, these who are producing and writing and acting in the shows are being effected by talking about their faith. What if we gathered together to talk about the real circumstances in our lives? Business decisions, our fears and frustrations over our kids and our parents, the very real temptations in marriage, what it means to retire. In recent years, in this community, we have created a series of non-profit corporations, for the Manor, the Food Pantry, the Clinic in Sudan, even short-term ecumenical activities, we have made into corporations. What if we put that same ingenuity into our faith?
One of the fastest growing parts of the Internet, is WIKIPEDIA. As a child, our family had an ENCYCLOPEDIA which contained all the information and knowledge at your fingers tips. One of the earliest versions of this was even referred to as THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE. Wikipedia is an electronic version of the Encyclopedia. The added difference being that as INFORMATION is expanding so rapidly, instead of Britannica publishing Wikipedia, all those using the resource are able to add information to the discussion. 13,000,000 people are registered users of Wikipedia; making it the 7th most populated site in the world, in the last month alone 135,000 people have not only received information from Wikipedia, but contributed their own information to the database as well. WIKIPEDIA has become the source of All Knowledge, and has spawned specialized information sources about every topic, one of my favorites is WIKI-WOOOKIE which is knowledge about everything in Star Wars. There was of course an earlier version, before Wikipedia, called Nupedia, but Nupedia required that all information being added had to be screened and checked by a controller before being published, which slowed things down and gave the interpretation of the editors. The world today lives in a WIKI-WORLD where each is able to participate and to add to the sum of all, the world's knowledge. Rather than being pure, abstract fact, Wikipedia is very definitely influenced by the users, with the body as a whole interpreting, and redefining as information is amassed. What if the faith were to move from the comfort and stability of Committees, where we control what is appropriate and how to regulate spending, to a WIKI-CHURCH, where every person were able to add to the conversation?
For over a thousand years of the Church's history we were the authority of what is true and just and right. In a Wiki-World we give up control, we trust the amassed body as a community to self-regulate. Several years ago, this church began allowing others to use the church's resources. One of the users was the Public Schools in a program for kids who had gotten into trouble and been expelled from their regular classes. Early on in about the second year, we discovered one of the kids was trying to sell marijuana, by hiding it in the trash can underneath the liner and five other kids were the buyers. We had a member of the Church who was a NY State Trooper, who along with their Teachers and the Pastor sat down with the kids to let them know they had been caught. Six months went by when once again we found marijuana in the bathroom, that one of the students was trying to pass to another. I recall the feeling of embarrassment and fear for the future of the program, when meeting with the Session to explain what had happened. But the Session had two responses “These are kids who have had a history of getting into trouble, we have to expect things like this might happen, and they got caught, right?” and “The first time six kids were involved, this time just two, that's success!” In a Wiki-World of being the WIKI-CHURCH we give up control, of dictating how people will interact, how we will teach, and instead we learn from one another, we learn from the questions that are asked and the needs that are presented rather than trying to teacvh what we are comfortable with having known.
Matthew 20:29 - 21:19
This week a piece of information was sent to me over the internet, which shocked me.
75% of all the churches Catholic, Pentecostal and Protestant did not celebrate a single baptism last year There once was a time in which the identity of America and those of the Church were synonymous. For the last 50 years, churches have been losing members faster than they had been gaining, but still we comforted ourselves in the blanket that the world was “implicitly” Christian, that people do believe. Suddenly we awake to the realization that not only does the culture not worship as we had been doing, but in many parts of our world, there is a belief that those who claim belief in God are hypocritical, insincere and out of touch with reality.
Recently a good friend was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, he was over 40 and overweight, but as we talked together we came to realize that our families have a history of Diabetes and Heart Disease, we do not get enough exercise, we enjoy comfort foods and desserts and a glass of wine, and the result is self-fulfilling. The problem cannot be solved by a quick diet, instead there needs to be a change of life. Is not this the problem of the Church? We have become a people waiting for others to come and join us. We are a people known for our meals and our fellowship, for entertainment and programs that occupy our time rather than feeding the world, and serving others.
In 1966, an Issue of TIME magazine was published that shocked the world, the cover was completely black, with the words “GOD IS DEAD”. This should have been the climactic moment of Christianity professing faith in the Resurrection, that while Human Culture had killed God, God's compassion, love and sincerity could overcome even death's ability to destroy. But instead, we accepted the headline as truth and moved on. If anything the last 50 years have professed the reality that HUMANITY IS DEAD for we have become less and less concerned with the needs of others, and more and more preoccupied with our comforts, with our food, with entertainment and activities that fill our days. Nation upon nation are rising up in revolution, claiming that The Emperor has no clothes, all that we had trusted and believed in Religion, Science, Politics and Government, Education, the Economy cannot be trusted to provide for our needs.
Just as with Type 2 Diabetes, we need a change of life style. For Diabetes, it is as simple as two things, Diet and Exercise. For Christianity, the change is also in two things, from an Internal Focus to an External Focus, and from Program Development to Nurturing People. Christ's great Commission was not that we should sit back and wait for the believers to enter our church, not that we should do faith better, but rather that we were to go out into the world to serve and disciple as he had done for us. The point of faith is not what we get out of believing, but that our lives have different meaning, different priority. Time and again as Jesus is begged by the blind and lame and children “LORD HAVE MERCY, SON OF DAVID HAVE MERCY,” in Greek: HOSANNA. Jesus never stops to ask What's in it for me? And those who were healed are not described as going home satisfied, but rather that they each followed him him serving others. The point here is not a numbers game, of how many baptisms, or members or children, but instead focusing upon serving those who are in need without reservation or concern for limitations.
Having grown up during this time, I would share with you that the Church, and by that I do NOT mean the Presbyterian Church only, but all churches, had become so afraid of connotations related to EVANGELISM, that we were afraid to say the word, referring to Evangelism as The E Word and “SALVATION” had dropped out of the Church's vocabulary all together. The Gospels each tell a different story about the life and purpose of Jesus the Christ. But in every one of the the Gospels, those who cry out for need do not cry HEAL US! Or MAKE US COMFORTABLE! Or even MAKE US SAFE! But rather SAVE US, for the path each had been living, we each have been following only leads to death.
I am told that in California, there is a church in Bel Air, that recognizes the people who live in their community are involved in the entertainment industry, in making Movies and Television shows. And what they have begun doing is screening movies and watching television shows together, then talking about them. In conversation about the themes, in conversation about the characters, these who are producing and writing and acting in the shows are being effected by talking about their faith. What if we gathered together to talk about the real circumstances in our lives? Business decisions, our fears and frustrations over our kids and our parents, the very real temptations in marriage, what it means to retire. In recent years, in this community, we have created a series of non-profit corporations, for the Manor, the Food Pantry, the Clinic in Sudan, even short-term ecumenical activities, we have made into corporations. What if we put that same ingenuity into our faith?
One of the fastest growing parts of the Internet, is WIKIPEDIA. As a child, our family had an ENCYCLOPEDIA which contained all the information and knowledge at your fingers tips. One of the earliest versions of this was even referred to as THE BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE. Wikipedia is an electronic version of the Encyclopedia. The added difference being that as INFORMATION is expanding so rapidly, instead of Britannica publishing Wikipedia, all those using the resource are able to add information to the discussion. 13,000,000 people are registered users of Wikipedia; making it the 7th most populated site in the world, in the last month alone 135,000 people have not only received information from Wikipedia, but contributed their own information to the database as well. WIKIPEDIA has become the source of All Knowledge, and has spawned specialized information sources about every topic, one of my favorites is WIKI-WOOOKIE which is knowledge about everything in Star Wars. There was of course an earlier version, before Wikipedia, called Nupedia, but Nupedia required that all information being added had to be screened and checked by a controller before being published, which slowed things down and gave the interpretation of the editors. The world today lives in a WIKI-WORLD where each is able to participate and to add to the sum of all, the world's knowledge. Rather than being pure, abstract fact, Wikipedia is very definitely influenced by the users, with the body as a whole interpreting, and redefining as information is amassed. What if the faith were to move from the comfort and stability of Committees, where we control what is appropriate and how to regulate spending, to a WIKI-CHURCH, where every person were able to add to the conversation?
For over a thousand years of the Church's history we were the authority of what is true and just and right. In a Wiki-World we give up control, we trust the amassed body as a community to self-regulate. Several years ago, this church began allowing others to use the church's resources. One of the users was the Public Schools in a program for kids who had gotten into trouble and been expelled from their regular classes. Early on in about the second year, we discovered one of the kids was trying to sell marijuana, by hiding it in the trash can underneath the liner and five other kids were the buyers. We had a member of the Church who was a NY State Trooper, who along with their Teachers and the Pastor sat down with the kids to let them know they had been caught. Six months went by when once again we found marijuana in the bathroom, that one of the students was trying to pass to another. I recall the feeling of embarrassment and fear for the future of the program, when meeting with the Session to explain what had happened. But the Session had two responses “These are kids who have had a history of getting into trouble, we have to expect things like this might happen, and they got caught, right?” and “The first time six kids were involved, this time just two, that's success!” In a Wiki-World of being the WIKI-CHURCH we give up control, of dictating how people will interact, how we will teach, and instead we learn from one another, we learn from the questions that are asked and the needs that are presented rather than trying to teacvh what we are comfortable with having known.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
"What We Believe", April 10, 2011
Ezekiel 37:1-14
John 11:1-45
This morning, we confront several questions, as we read our Bibles:
Did these things happen? Could these things really happen? What does it mean? And, So What?
A while back, I preached at the Installation of a new pastor in an inner-city Church. She had been working with latch-key and street kids, to get them to join the church instead of joining rival gangs; trying as much out of self-preservation as anything else to develop relationships with these young teens that would lead them off the street and into the community of faith. The whole Presbytery gathered, along with members of the church in the Sanctuary, as I began to preach, I saw the group standing at the door talking. SO I stopped what I was doing and invited them to come in, telling all that they were welcome. The whole herd began shuffling up the aisle, but instead of sitting in the pews, they came right up onto the chancel and made themselves comfortable. Meeting them where they were, I took off my robe and began telling the story. At which point one of the young men asked: DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN? I looked around, in the eyes of all the ministers of the Presbytery, and the church members, and the faces of these searching for what to believe, and at that moment, whether it HAD HAPPENED or not, I WANTED TO BELIEVE IT HAD.
That is where we are with the Story of Lazarus. We, more than any generation before us, know the limitations of life and death: How fragile the globe with hydro-fracking, earth-quakes, Tsunamis and Oil Spills; How fragile our political systems with one nation after another in revolution, with our own government having postured over one program and another whether to shut-down the government; How fragile the economic structures; With the passing of an entire generation, what Tom Brokaw described as “The Greatest Generation” we know just how fragile and limited life is. In order to question whether Lazarus could be raised from Death to Life, whether Ezekiel's Vision of the Valley could happen, we must each question whether we believe Reality to be fixed and limited, hard fact, or whether Life is PERMEABLE, allowing hopes and dreams and commitments to at times empower the Impossible to be possible?
FAITH IS NOT ABOUT Correctly Answering a Formula of Questions. Eight years ago, when this couple stood before the Church, family and friends, they were asked if they wanted to married, and responded “I DO” just as this morning, they stood with us claiming the desire to believe and to have their children believe in “Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior”. But the point of Faith comes not when we have driven cross country to stand up in our best clothes, but when we are at our worst. When there are deadlines at work, and the bills are due, and the children all have the flu. Tragically, we tend to reserve passages like this one about Lazarus, for Funerals, for Easter or Pentecost, instead of reading it and questioning it in light of our lives. The climax of this passage is in verses 25 and 26, where Jesus professes: “I Am the Resurrection and the Life.” This last week at the Lenten Soup Suppers, we named that as reticent as any of us are to discuss Sex or Money with our children, regardless of how old they are, what we most avoid discussing is Death. We hope and believe that in this life our Forgivenesses outnumber our Sins, and that we can live in communion with one another and God. But Death represents that Denial of Life, Denial of Relationship, the absolute End. The Question of this passage is whether God has power over Death, whether Jesus as the human manifestation of God, God present with us has control over life and death? If not, all of faith is moral and theoretical philosophy, and like those in Jesus' time who believed there was no resurrection, all there is is this life. But, if Jesus could raise Lazarus from death to life, if Jesus did call Lazarus out of the tomb, then faith is not only a theory a way of moral life, but everlasting communion with God, not only after life but in this life also!
What we know of Lazarus' Sister Martha from this passage and Luke, is that as much as she wants to believe, as much as she wants to have close relationships with Jesus and neighbors, she is a pragmatic realist. She was distracted by cleaning and cooking to host Jesus, rather than listening and taking in. Here, as much as she wants to believe, as much as she had hoped Jesus would have gotten there in time to stop Lazarus from dying, once dead and buried four days, she knows that when the tomb is opened there will be a Stench. Ironic, that for Martha and the Disciples, SALVATION seems to have been about STOPPING from Death, a Miracle Cure that would cause Lazarus not to die. How much more powerful that once in the grip of death, once pronounced dead and buried four days, Jesus had power to Call Lazarus from Death to Life!
The Vision of Ezekiel in the Valley is probably the best known passage of Ezekiel. This is now the fourth vision that the prophet has had. Different from Isaiah or Jeremiah, EXILE has begun. The Monarchy of David, the Kingdom of Solomon each are destroyed, a lack of hope, a lack of faith, long years of war have killed the people, and any life any hope they had was carried off in exile. Each of the other visions begin THE WORD OF THE LORD came to me saying... Whereas this vision starts out “THE HAND OF THE LORD WAS UPON ME and led me to a valley of dead dry bones”. This vision is unique, both in questioning whether those with no life left in them, no faith or hope left, can live and believe again; and also that for this to happen Ezekiel must call the dead to live. The SO WHAT of faith is that while God raised up Jesus from death to life; while Jesus Called Lazarus from the tomb; here Ezekiel, a person of faith like us, is used by God to call the dead to live.
This is a horrifying image. It is a forgotten battleground, where the bodies of the dead, hundreds of thousands were not buried, but left in the sun to decay and to rot, for scavengers to eat. The bodies and bones were scattered over time, and so much time has gone by that even the marrow within the bones has turned to dust and blown away. There is nothing resembling life here, nothing resembling humanity it a place of absolute death and abandonment.
Maybe, this passage was intended for Mitch Miller to write a song about the Foot bone being connected to the Ankle bone, the Ankle connected to the Shin, and so forth. But I believe, The Valley of Dead Dry Bones describes a world like we populate today. Where people are scattered. Where hope is no longer assured, people live from crisis to crisis feeling powerless over their futures, over what life will be like for their children, even if they will have a retirement. Where faith is no longer a simple matter of residency, and all our neighbors choose which church to walk to on Sunday morning. But rather that we make connections and call people to faith throughout the world.
This morning I overheard conversation between two co-workers: “Listen, I am doing the best I can. You are just asking more and more, and I am afraid it's never going to be enough for you.” Perhaps that crossed Ezekiel's mind, but what he affirmed in response to God was: Only God Knows! then he tried.
What would we say to call the dead to life?
Maybe it is as simple as “Can I help?”, or “We came to the church for our wedding and for our children's baptisms, for Christmas and Easter and family funerals, how could we share our faith in daily life?” Ezekiel has a dual role here, as do all of us. He prophesies to the dead dry bones to join together, he does his organizing and casting of a vision, but then he is also commended by God to prophesy to the Breath. Simply because we show up, because we choose a cause and get others to work with us, does not mean God will be in the place or in our hands. Ezekiel prophesies to the Breath of God, the Spirit. How often have we paused before we begin calling the Spirit of God to be with us? How different the day might be, if before we began we asked the Spirit of God to be with us. Possibly that is a prayer. Possibly, it is a devotion and Scripture reading. Maybe before we do anything else, we forgive those we believe have done wrong, and ask for forgiveness then set about doing God's work rather than doing what we routinely do.
John 11:1-45
This morning, we confront several questions, as we read our Bibles:
Did these things happen? Could these things really happen? What does it mean? And, So What?
A while back, I preached at the Installation of a new pastor in an inner-city Church. She had been working with latch-key and street kids, to get them to join the church instead of joining rival gangs; trying as much out of self-preservation as anything else to develop relationships with these young teens that would lead them off the street and into the community of faith. The whole Presbytery gathered, along with members of the church in the Sanctuary, as I began to preach, I saw the group standing at the door talking. SO I stopped what I was doing and invited them to come in, telling all that they were welcome. The whole herd began shuffling up the aisle, but instead of sitting in the pews, they came right up onto the chancel and made themselves comfortable. Meeting them where they were, I took off my robe and began telling the story. At which point one of the young men asked: DID THAT REALLY HAPPEN? I looked around, in the eyes of all the ministers of the Presbytery, and the church members, and the faces of these searching for what to believe, and at that moment, whether it HAD HAPPENED or not, I WANTED TO BELIEVE IT HAD.
That is where we are with the Story of Lazarus. We, more than any generation before us, know the limitations of life and death: How fragile the globe with hydro-fracking, earth-quakes, Tsunamis and Oil Spills; How fragile our political systems with one nation after another in revolution, with our own government having postured over one program and another whether to shut-down the government; How fragile the economic structures; With the passing of an entire generation, what Tom Brokaw described as “The Greatest Generation” we know just how fragile and limited life is. In order to question whether Lazarus could be raised from Death to Life, whether Ezekiel's Vision of the Valley could happen, we must each question whether we believe Reality to be fixed and limited, hard fact, or whether Life is PERMEABLE, allowing hopes and dreams and commitments to at times empower the Impossible to be possible?
FAITH IS NOT ABOUT Correctly Answering a Formula of Questions. Eight years ago, when this couple stood before the Church, family and friends, they were asked if they wanted to married, and responded “I DO” just as this morning, they stood with us claiming the desire to believe and to have their children believe in “Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior”. But the point of Faith comes not when we have driven cross country to stand up in our best clothes, but when we are at our worst. When there are deadlines at work, and the bills are due, and the children all have the flu. Tragically, we tend to reserve passages like this one about Lazarus, for Funerals, for Easter or Pentecost, instead of reading it and questioning it in light of our lives. The climax of this passage is in verses 25 and 26, where Jesus professes: “I Am the Resurrection and the Life.” This last week at the Lenten Soup Suppers, we named that as reticent as any of us are to discuss Sex or Money with our children, regardless of how old they are, what we most avoid discussing is Death. We hope and believe that in this life our Forgivenesses outnumber our Sins, and that we can live in communion with one another and God. But Death represents that Denial of Life, Denial of Relationship, the absolute End. The Question of this passage is whether God has power over Death, whether Jesus as the human manifestation of God, God present with us has control over life and death? If not, all of faith is moral and theoretical philosophy, and like those in Jesus' time who believed there was no resurrection, all there is is this life. But, if Jesus could raise Lazarus from death to life, if Jesus did call Lazarus out of the tomb, then faith is not only a theory a way of moral life, but everlasting communion with God, not only after life but in this life also!
What we know of Lazarus' Sister Martha from this passage and Luke, is that as much as she wants to believe, as much as she wants to have close relationships with Jesus and neighbors, she is a pragmatic realist. She was distracted by cleaning and cooking to host Jesus, rather than listening and taking in. Here, as much as she wants to believe, as much as she had hoped Jesus would have gotten there in time to stop Lazarus from dying, once dead and buried four days, she knows that when the tomb is opened there will be a Stench. Ironic, that for Martha and the Disciples, SALVATION seems to have been about STOPPING from Death, a Miracle Cure that would cause Lazarus not to die. How much more powerful that once in the grip of death, once pronounced dead and buried four days, Jesus had power to Call Lazarus from Death to Life!
The Vision of Ezekiel in the Valley is probably the best known passage of Ezekiel. This is now the fourth vision that the prophet has had. Different from Isaiah or Jeremiah, EXILE has begun. The Monarchy of David, the Kingdom of Solomon each are destroyed, a lack of hope, a lack of faith, long years of war have killed the people, and any life any hope they had was carried off in exile. Each of the other visions begin THE WORD OF THE LORD came to me saying... Whereas this vision starts out “THE HAND OF THE LORD WAS UPON ME and led me to a valley of dead dry bones”. This vision is unique, both in questioning whether those with no life left in them, no faith or hope left, can live and believe again; and also that for this to happen Ezekiel must call the dead to live. The SO WHAT of faith is that while God raised up Jesus from death to life; while Jesus Called Lazarus from the tomb; here Ezekiel, a person of faith like us, is used by God to call the dead to live.
This is a horrifying image. It is a forgotten battleground, where the bodies of the dead, hundreds of thousands were not buried, but left in the sun to decay and to rot, for scavengers to eat. The bodies and bones were scattered over time, and so much time has gone by that even the marrow within the bones has turned to dust and blown away. There is nothing resembling life here, nothing resembling humanity it a place of absolute death and abandonment.
Maybe, this passage was intended for Mitch Miller to write a song about the Foot bone being connected to the Ankle bone, the Ankle connected to the Shin, and so forth. But I believe, The Valley of Dead Dry Bones describes a world like we populate today. Where people are scattered. Where hope is no longer assured, people live from crisis to crisis feeling powerless over their futures, over what life will be like for their children, even if they will have a retirement. Where faith is no longer a simple matter of residency, and all our neighbors choose which church to walk to on Sunday morning. But rather that we make connections and call people to faith throughout the world.
This morning I overheard conversation between two co-workers: “Listen, I am doing the best I can. You are just asking more and more, and I am afraid it's never going to be enough for you.” Perhaps that crossed Ezekiel's mind, but what he affirmed in response to God was: Only God Knows! then he tried.
What would we say to call the dead to life?
Maybe it is as simple as “Can I help?”, or “We came to the church for our wedding and for our children's baptisms, for Christmas and Easter and family funerals, how could we share our faith in daily life?” Ezekiel has a dual role here, as do all of us. He prophesies to the dead dry bones to join together, he does his organizing and casting of a vision, but then he is also commended by God to prophesy to the Breath. Simply because we show up, because we choose a cause and get others to work with us, does not mean God will be in the place or in our hands. Ezekiel prophesies to the Breath of God, the Spirit. How often have we paused before we begin calling the Spirit of God to be with us? How different the day might be, if before we began we asked the Spirit of God to be with us. Possibly that is a prayer. Possibly, it is a devotion and Scripture reading. Maybe before we do anything else, we forgive those we believe have done wrong, and ask for forgiveness then set about doing God's work rather than doing what we routinely do.
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