Can these bones live?

29^th March – Lent 5

Ezekiel 37: 1-14. The bodies of a defeated people left unburied, their bones picked clean by animals and dried and bleached by the hot sun is a vision of utter defeat and lifelessness and without hope. As such it can be allowed to speak powerfully into many historical situations as well as be applied to our personal post death futures and the future of all things. “Can these dry bones live?” is a question that could be posed to the current state of civil society and economic activity. The answer is clear from the text. The people are re-constituted and finally have the breath of God breathed into them. This foretaste  of the notion of new life out of death can be applied as I say to many different situations, large and small. Ultimately it tells us that God is the author and sustainer of all life – and can even bring new life out of death.

Romans 8: 6-11. Life according to the “flesh” or the “Spirit” are not talking about two separate parts of a person (an explanation that has led to historically and religiously harmful views about the human body) but two ways of living. Living according to the flesh is living in a way that is shaped by and controlled by the values and standards of the world as opposed to living by and being controlled by the values and standards of the kingdom of God. We are talking here about two separate mindsets and one set on God means life and peace. The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead, is the same Spirit that lives in each believer, and our hope is vested in the hope that the spirit that gives us life and peace now, will raise us also on the last day.

John 11: 1-45. The raising of Lazarus is puzzling in that Jesus (according to the story) knew that he was going to die but delayed going to Lazarus so that when Jesus raised him it would be a miraculous sign, the last and greatest of the “signs” in John’s gospel that started with the turning of water into wine. Carrying on the theme of God being the author of life, the Spirit that ultimately would raise Jesus from the dead, here works through Jesus, to raise Lazarus but there is a very important difference. Lazarus was not resurrected to eternal life; he was re-vivified to live the rest of his mortal life until he presumably died again. When Lazarus emerged from the tomb he was still bound, also in stark contrast to the resurrection stories of Jesus in the gospels where the linen cloths were laying in the tomb. In both instances though the Spirit of God the Father is Lord of life, both in this mortal realm and in the next.

The valley of dry bones is a picture that will resonate in these dark times when we look around at the health, social and economic devastation being caused by the coronavirus crisis.

“Can these bones live?” is a question that we might all be tempted to ask. The unequivocal response from the Judeo-Christian tradition is a resounding “Yes!”

The Christian gospel says that from the depths of despair, unjustly inflicted suffering, feeling forsaken, mockery and finally death on the cross, the Spirit of God raised Jesus from death to eternal life. This is of course the central motif of the Christian religion – that no matter how bad things are – even from death itslef there is no darkness so dark that God cannot bring forth light and life from it.

This holds true for our own mortal life of course – life after death - but this motif holds equally true for situations in this life also.

From a specifically Christian perspective it is what the late great Harry Williams CR called “True resurrection” and so offers a Christian perspective on all disasters in the world including the coronavirus Pandemic.

Christianity has always been a truly realistic faith in that it recognises pain suffering and death and looks it square in the eye, bears it when necessary but hopes in redemption. We have never shied away from the reality of suffering and loss and even says we can often grow from it.

The shortest verse in the Bible occurs in the story of the raising of Lazarus – our gospel reading this Sunday morning. It is “Jesus wept”

On the Cross Jesus also says “My God, my God Why have you forsaken me?” so along with grief, he also knows the spiritual darkness of feeling being abandoned by God.

In short, Jesus knew and felt exactly as we do in our darkest moments. After his death there was then silence for a day – a time of blank mind-numbing confusion – until that most glorious day – Easter Sunday – when the whole picture changed, and new life emerged from the grave.

Easter Sunday was the day that new hope, and new life and new possibilities dawned upon the world. Christians are called to live life according to this trust in a God who is able to bring life out of death is what Paul means by living according to the Spirit.

“Hope springs eternal in the human heart”, says Alexander Pope in his ethical poem on the state of man called “An essay on man” a poem which sought to vindicate the ways of God to man. A people without hope are a broken people but a people with hope can work miracles.

My love and prayers are with you all.