The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
Lately, I am finding myself putting off my evening routine of reading the newspapers thoroughly. Partly, I suspect, it's the "mid-winter blahs." Partly, it's the fact that there seems to be so much bad news lately...the cost of gas, the housing crisis, the renewed hostilities in Israel and Bosnia, the global warming thing, and snow, snow, snow (I beg your pardon for using that four-letter word!). I suspect you know the feeling, don't you?
And guess what that brings us to? Today's Bible readings, that's what. Somehow, the Commission on Liturgy of the General Convention picked out exactly the things we need to read about, this dull and dreary mid-winter Sunday. So, let's dig into the Scripture and see what it has to say to us today.
The first reading tells us about the prophet Ezekiel and his vision of dry bones. This vision probably occurred at a time about halfway through the period of exile that the Jewish people spent in Assyria. The vision most likely takes place in the great valley in Judah where the Assyrians conquered the Israelite army before driving the surviving population into exile, and so the bones had lain there for a number of years under the hot desert sun.
Ezekiel, who was descended from a family of the Temple priests, remained behind in Israel. You can imagine how depressed and hopeless things seemed to those left behind: the nation defeated, the Temple torn down, much of the population taken into slavery and exiled, the king and his sons put to death so as to destroy the government of Israel. And then, look at those heaps and heaps of bones, reminding Ezekiel of all the horrors that had happened. He must have wondered what had happened to God's promises to King David.
You remember that God had promised David that his royal line would always rule in Jerusalem and that God would make Israel a place of honor and glory. God had promised that all the nations of the earth would be coming to Jerusalem to worship in the Temple and to enjoy the glories of Israel. And Ezekiel looked around him at the tangle of dry, broken bones, and wondered, "What has happened to God's promises? Can we really trust them?"
And then God ordered Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. It must have seemed a senseless thing to do. How could that help? But, much to Ezekiel's amazement, the bones began to move and re-assemble themselves into skeletons again.
Again, God said, "Prophesy!" Again, Ezekiel obeyed. Somehow, the bones began to be covered with tendons and sinews, muscles and fat, and finally skin and hair. They looked like living people, but they were not alive.
And then, God did something that takes our minds and hearts clear back to the day when God created the first man. He caused the breath of life, the Spirit of God, to go into the bodies that had been miraculously reassembled, just as he had breathed the breath of life, his own Spirit, into the first man. They were literally "born again," long before that phrase became a catch-word for a group of churches.
And that is how God taught Ezekiel that there is always hope. No matter how terrible the events that have occurred, no matter how hopeless the situation seems, no matter how depressed and defeated we feel...that's when God shows us, again and again, that there is hope. That's when we discover that after the funeral, we can once again smile and even laugh, although it may take some time. That's when we find that after we lose a partner, a parent or a child, we can once again find a meaningful and fulfilling way to live. That's when we find that after losing a job, we are able to find a better or more satisfying one.
There is always hope, God said, as he repeated his old promises: the people of Israel would return home, Israel would again become a great nation, and other nations would flock to Israel. It happened, you remember; the people did come home, rebuilt the Temple, rebuilt Jerusalem, and had several hundred years of peace before the next invasion and the next defeat and the next going into exile. Then they came home again, only to be conquered again, first by the Greeks and then by the Romans, a century or so before Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. Later, after the Romans threw the Jews out of Israel, in the year 70 AD, burned the Temple and persecuted the Jewish people, many years passed...until 1948 when Israel itself was re-born. Now, Israel has been renewed and rebuilt. And it is now going through another time of turmoil...and the people still have hope. Somehow, they will get through it, with God's help. Somehow, God's promises will come true, again and again.
The Gospel is almost a re-enactment, on a small scale, of Ezekiel's vision. Jesus got word that his dear friend Lazarus was sick unto death, and he waited until he was sure Lazarus had died. Heartless? No. He needed to bring hope back to the people, not only for their own condition under Roman occupation, but also as a way of reassuring his own followers about the fact that his coming death was not the end. I would like to read to you what one of the Fathers of the Church, a bishop called Peter Chrysologus, had to say about Jesus' raising of Lazarus:
On his return from the underworld, Lazarus comes forth from the tomb like death confronting its conqueror, an image of the resurrection to come. Before we can fathom the depths of meaning behind this miracle, we must consider the way in which our Lord raised Lazarus to life. This action appears to us as the greatest of all his signs; we see in it the supreme example of divine power, the most marvelous of all his wonderful works.
When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he remained where he was for two days. You see how he gives full scope to death. He grants free reign to the grave; he allows corruption to set in...he allows the realm of darkness to seize his friend, dragging him down to the underworld, and to take possession of him. He acts like this so that human hope may perish entirely and human
despair reach its lowest depths. The deed he is about to accomplish may then clearly be seen to be the work of God, not of man.
And so, once again, Jesus, God the Son, teaches his people that no matter how terrible the situation, no matter how impossible it seems that it can ever get better, there is always hope. When we, like Jesus, turn to God and say, Father, I know you can do this, please do...hope returns, life returns or takes a turn for the better, and we learn anew that there is nothing that can defeat the power of God to care for his beloved people...not, as Paul says, dominions or powers, kingdoms or princedoms or majesties...nothing, nothing, NOTHING is hopeless if we only dare to honestly and sincerely place our trust in God. Amen.
