March 13, 2005 - The Fifth Sunday in Lent - Father Fred Myers

FIRST READING: Ezekiel 37: 1-14
PSALM: 130
SECOND READING: Romans 8: 6-11
GOSPEL: John 11: 1-45

Aren't these wonderful stories?! I love these stories! Stories about the bones, the dry bones - the foot bone connected to the knee bone, or whatever - those bones are going to walk around!

And then there is the story of Lazarus. As I was thinking about these lessons, I told Stephanie during the week that I would just like to have the people sit down while I read this; because this is a story, and stories were told by people to other people, from mouth to ear, mouth to ear, before they were ever written down. And they are wonderful, wonderful stories. Some of them may not be factual, but they're true; and some are true and factual; but we don't have to worry about that. What we need to hear is what the people who wrote these stories and who have told these stories through time after time after time are trying to tell us about God. What is it that we need to know about our relationship with God, God's relationship with us, and our relationship with one another?

It is wonderful when these stories come together like they did today in the lectionary, where one compliments the other. In the first story, we heard from the prophet, Ezekiel, and we heard about a community that had died - a community that is no more, a community that had been broken up and had been sent into exile and is now coming back to their own land - and Ezekiel tells them that God has said, "I will bring you back to life. I will give you this land." And, behold, he must have been a true prophet, because what he said came true, and the community came back together as the Jewish community. The Israelites came back together, and they were given the land, as Ezekiel had promised them, or as God has promised them through Ezekiel.

And then we move on to the New Testament, and we hear the story that John tells us about the raising of Lazarus. Now, we have moved from a community to a human being, to a single person. It tells us one more thing - that God loves us individually, and that God cares about us individually, and not just as a community. God loves both the community and the individual. We hear the story about Lazarus being raised up and being brought back to life.

These are wonderful stories that tell us about who God is and who we are. I was thinking about how these stories impact my life, and I thought this was sort of like the law in physics, where somebody said you cannot create energy, nor can you destroy it. You can convert it, like solar energy can be converted into heat, and steam energy can be converted into mechanical energy, which can be converted into electrical energy. It is not destroyed; it is just converted. In my mind, I like to think that this is what the story of God is all about. We don't die - we don't die. Through this Lenten period, we have been concentrating on God's grace to us, and God's message to us, and God's love for us, and God's energy working in us, as a people, as a community and individually.

Jesus, at the tomb of Lazarus, was working with the people who were around Him. He kept telling them, "I want you to see". Even to His disciples, He said, "I want you to see what the glory of God is like, what the grace of God is like. That is why I am doing this. I am not doing this because I am some sort of magician and want to impress you. I am doing this because I want you to understand what God is like, who God is, and what the grace of God is like." So, in this our Lenten journey, we can concentrate on these lessons and learn them and understand who God is - who God is for you and for me, and who God is for our community.

In our community right now, we are having one of the biggest rifts going on in the Anglican Communion that I have ever witnessed or experienced, and I don't care to witness or experience it again. Anyhow, it is going on, but my trust is that God is somehow going to heal this, and that, somehow, God is going to bring new life into it. It may appear differently than it was yesterday, but it is going to be through God's grace that it is going to happen. It is God's energy being converted in some way. You know, sometimes things die within me or within you, I am sure. Sometimes, I don't have the zest for life that I think that I should have, and it has died within me. Or, sometimes, a relationship will die, but God can take that relationship and take that zest for life that has died and convert it and make something new and better out of it. And that is our hope. That is where we are right now in our Lenten journey - listening to what God has to tell us about God's energy.

Next week, we run head-long - as Stephanie pointed out in the announcements - we run head-long into the final weeks of the life of Jesus. We walk with Him, and we walk that journey with Him through His suffering, through His trial, through His death, and, finally, we reach Easter, where we see all of that converted into something splendid and wonderful and glorious. And we shout the "A" word, that I am not allowed to say during Lent. You know, the "A" word, Alleluia? And we shout it. We shout it aloud, simply because we become quite aware of God's gracious gift of grace and power within us - the power to convert us. Paul says in his letter today, "We are now in the Spirit. We have been baptized in the Spirit". And that promise holds out for you and for me, for our community and for us as individuals. Praise God!

AMEN