April 2, 2017 "Does God Care"

Ezekiel 37: 1-14 John 11: 1-45 We have come full circle from Ash Wednesday, reminding people that from ashes you arose, to ashes and dust and death, we return. Yet what God can do with dust! As humans we appreciate philosophical problems, There is a Thesis: You are Loved and an Anti-thesis: We die, lifeless, to the earth we return. The question of Frankenstein, the question of all the contemporary Apocalyptic films and books, and the Bible this morning is After Death, What? Are we still loved? Can there be Spirit? Can there be hope, even when there is no life left in us? When our sons were born, we showered them with love. Like all young parents, we were attentive not only to feeding schedules and bathing, but singing to them, reading bedtime stories, giving to their every need. For Christmas when they were 2 and 4 years of age, I set up an aquarium in their room as a nightlight. There was a filter, heater, light and plants, gravel, rocks, shells. Despite my describing that there were Swordfish, Zebras, a RedTail Shark, Gourami and Glassfish that you could see their organs; to our sons they were Kermit, Fred, Wilma, Barney, Fozzy, Miss Piggy, George, Superman and Gonzo. Everything was marvelous for about two months, until one morning I found Wilma died and made her disappear. Immediate reactions included denial, that they could still see Wilma hiding in the rocks. Then Fred and Barney each had to have graves dug in the backyard. I think we could have found acceptance, except the 2 year old tried to feed the fish by himself, and blanketed the surface with the dry flakes until all died at once. Whether we are 2 or 4 or 22 of 44 or 82 or 104, death is a harsh reality. Now there was someone to blame, and that someone was smaller and weaker, and more naïve. When as parents we tried to intervene, it became our fault. Followed by the whole household giving in to despair. Then desire just to take the tank away. There could never be replacement for Miss Piggy or Gonzo, Fozzy, Kermit, George, Barney, Fred or Wilma. For the people of God, the earliest memory was not Adam and Eve, not Noah, not even Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. The earliest memory of the people of God had been our ancestors were Slaves of Egypt, who cried out to God and not only did God hear their prayers, God cared, God loved so much as to enter in, to set people free. In the New Testament, whether we begin at Bethlehem or with John the Baptist, there is the affirmation that “God so loved the world, God gave God’s only son.” We begin with the reality that we are loved, God cares. However, the greatest, most powerful Nation in history, the City of David, with the Temple of Solomon, was attacked and destroyed, and No One asked for forgiveness, no one prayed to God, those not killed were carried off in bondage as slaves and prisoners of war. 70 years passed in Babylon. During that era people began to wonder and doubt. There are dead bones in a far off land, which is not home. Does God no longer care? Did God love our ancestors and not us? Judaism has a different tradition about death than North Americans. This is not the Mitch Miller song of De Hipbone connected to Thighbone connected to anklebone. This is not a Disney Cartoon of bones rising up to dance on graves. Judaism does not allow embalming. They bury the body as soon after death as possible, sealing it in a stone tomb, or beneath a stone sarcophagus, with an earthen bottom, to allow and encourage the body to decay into the earth without being desecrated by animals. But after the body has decayed, the family return to take the bones from the tomb or sarcophagus to place within a stone estuary, no longer than the length of a femur. In a distant and foreign land, there would have been no place for burial of all the bones of all that had died. Ezekiel’s vision was the reality that after 70 years in a foreign place, there were piles of dead, and can we ever have hope again. Having been so destroyed, can the people of God ever again believe that God cares? There are so many forms of death. Despite all the Weddings we celebrate, American statistics are 50% ending in divorce. So many communities are filled with boarded up storefronts, abandoned mills, hopes and fears of whether America can be Great Again. The overwhelming number of people addicted to opiates, to alcohol, heroine. The point of the vision of Ezekiel is that the only way the people can believe anew, the only means for bones to come together to live, or dead corpses resurrected, or for human beings to know God cares, and God loves us, is if we as people of faith own what happened, tell one another, only if we pray for the Spirit of God to come. Often prayer is a Christmas list of all our desires. At times prayer becomes like begging / bargaining. But in Ezekiel, and Jesus’ Lazarus, the prayer of the faithful is like the command of God in Creation “Let there be Light” “Let there be Life!” The Lazarus story has always been odd. First, we know that the most powerful part of the Gospel is that Jesus was raised from the Dead, so why two weeks prior do we spoil that by telling this story of Jesus raising someone else? Different from other passages we preach every 3 years in rotation, this comes up every year, WHY? When we heard the story of Mary and Martha, we never named a brother Lazarus; yet when Jesus learned of Lazarus being ill to the point of dying, why did he tarry? The accusation of Martha is, our question to God, “If you cared, you could have come, and God could have prevented this?” Why did the holocaust happen? Why have there been genocides and terrorist attacks? Does God not care? Does God not love us? Is God not all-powerful? Or twisting reality, did God cause death to happen to make us suffer? The answer to which is no. As human beings, we have unique ability that nothing else in all Creation was granted. We have a Freedom of Will. We can choose to do evil, to do harm to others, and no one, not Superman, not MacGyver, not even God can stop us from exercising our Will. Also, as much as we rebel against it, as much as we resent it, as much as we want someone, especially God, to intervene and save us and those we love, we are mortal. Why did Jesus dally two more days, because death is a reality for us all, that not even God can prevent? So something else must be going on in this story to be so strange? This story of Lazarus, like Lazarus at the Gate, I believe to be parables, about the love of Jesus. In recent years, through archaeology we have come to know that the Roman Empire was persecuting all who stood up to their rule. Jesus was not the only person ever crucified, in fact 200 people were crucified per day, such was their fear of challenge, their fear of people. Yet, Jesus, this Rabbi from Galilee was uniting the people. There was great suspicion and fear of him, both by Roman Authorities and Religious authorities as well. For Jesus to go to Bethany, and to raise Lazarus from the tomb was declaration of the love of Jesus, the love of God being greater than fear of death. Even practical, pragmatic Martha responded: “Lord, there will be a stench!” The sacrament too is a parable, which points at reality, God loves us; all the brokenness, broken trusts, blame, death, abandoned hopes; and we respond but there is more, God cares.