Finding Life in Dark Times
This sermon can be listened to here
Gate Pa – 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year A - 2020
Readings:
Psalm - Psalm: 130
First Reading - Ezekiel 37:1-14
Second Reading - Romans 8:6-11
Gospel - John 11:1-45
What I want to say:
Our lives have been turned upside
down. We are having to rethink how we live our lives. We are in a strange new
land for the next few weeks at least. How are we feeling after a few days of
lockdown? How are we feeling with Covid-19 around us?
Ezekiel was given a vision for those
whose lives had been turned upside down, who were having to rethink how they
lived their lives. They were in a strange new land.
Martha and Mary, with the death of
their brother Lazarus, had their lives turned upside down and were faced with
having to rethink how they lived their lives. They were in a strange new land.
What I want to happen:
What does it mean to be church in
this land?
The Sermon
1. Introduction:
Our lives have been turned upside down. We are
having to rethink how we live our lives. We are in a strange new land for the
next few weeks at least.
How are we feeling after a few days of
lockdown?
How are we feeling with Covid-19 around us?
How are you feeling about church at the end of
this first week? Some of the media have talked about church being cancelled.
But we have not been cancelled.
2. Church and our Liturgical Tradition
In my research I did 10 years ago for my
Masters I suggested that
“In our tradition worship is an encounter
between the Living God and God’s church which changes and shapes those who
participate as individuals and as church… Some of the descriptors of the Anglican
Liturgical tradition at its best include: it is accessible to all those present
so that they may participate; its genesis goes back to the earliest liturgies
of the Christian church through the work of Thomas Cranmer; it has a particular
flow and structure; it invites people to worship in common with Christians
throughout the ages and the world in the use of common texts; these texts and
structure are Spirit inspired and preserve and proclaim the universal faith of
the Church in God and as such belong to the whole church; the use of scripture
is central; is more than words. This list was not exhaustive.” [i]
So we are trying to find ways that we can all
participate in the worship of our church community, knowing as we do that
others are gathering across Aotearoa-NZ and around the world to worship in very
similar ways using the same or similar readings and very similar liturgies.
These texts were inspired and preserved to proclaim the universal faith of the
Church in God.
I guess a question might be – what does this
faith look like in unsettled times like these?
3. Ezekiel
This
week we are offered some powerful stories.
Firstly,
the vision given to the prophet Ezekiel for the people of Judah now in exile.
They had suffered double
humiliation. Their leaders were either captives in exile or executed. All that
gave meaning to their lives had been deliberately destroyed. Jerusalem was
gone. The temple, the place where God’s glory, the shekhinah, had resided, had been
torn down. The Ark of the covenant was gone. Now they were taken into exile to
serve new masters. Their lives had been turned upside down. They were in a
strange new land far from all that gave them meaning. They were having to
rethink if and how they worshipped their God now the temple was gone. They were
having to rethink how they lived their lives. They were like dried-up bones left after the slaughter of
battle.
This
vision was not an event, but a powerful image given through Ezekiel to those
people in this foreign land, being raised with God’s life. Even in this place
of captivity God was with them offering life and hope.
I
wonder how this image might speak to how we are feeling after nearly a week in isolation
and lockdown, and longer with all the uncertainty this virus brings to us all.
What
is it like in this foreign land living in our homes?
In
what ways do we feel like dried up bones?
How
do these words of Ezekiel speak to us?
4. Lazarus
We have vision of Ezekiel because
the gospel set down for the 5th Sunday in Lent in Year A is the raising
of Lazarus from dead death. In John’s gospel this is the last of seven signs or
miracles. Last week we heard the second to last sign of Jesus healing the man
born blind. This last sign, Lazarus rising, closes out the first half of the
gospel. It convinces the Judean leaders (Jews) that Jesus must die. The rest of
the gospel is focussed on Jesus journey into Jerusalem, last supper, arrest and
trial, crucifixion, and then resurrection. This story we heard today acts as the
hinge. The exact centre of John 11 is Martha’s confession of faith in Jesus as
the Messiah and Son of God, which is precisely the purpose of the gospel as
expressed in 20:31. This is the main theological statement of the gospel and it
is said by a woman. Women often play significant roles in John’s gospel. But that
is another sermon.
The important thing to remember
with these signs is that they point beyond the actual event. In the other 6 stories
of signs there is an event, (the blind man is healed); there is a dialogue (the
blind man has several conversations about his healing); the Jesus uses the
event to teach (John 10:1-21). In each case the sign was important, but it was
not the point. The point was how Jesus used it to teach about who he was as the
light which has come from the Father into the world. In this story the dialogue
and teaching happen before the sign, but the effect is the same. While Lazarus
being raised is pretty impressive, and while it provides the reason why the Judean
leadership decide Jesus really did have to die, it is not the point of the
story. The point is that it acts as a signpost to Jesus own death and
resurrection. Jesus uses this astounding event to show that he is the resurrection
and the life. I have not used the word resurrection for Lazarus because he will
die again. I’m pretty sure he dies again. Unless he is like the Highlander he
is not still around. While he was really dead, stinky dead, 4 days dead, Jesus
brings him back to life. But it is his old mortal body. When Jesus is resurrected
it is a whole new way of being. And it is that that we are offered at the end
of time, however we understand that. Death is defeated. Humanity restored.
Creation renewed.
5. The Story
So today we have this story of
Jesus deciding to return to the danger zone – back to where people want to
stone him. Like us, the disciples are deeply unsure of what is going on, and
like us they fear the consequences. Like
us, Jesus stays in his bubble of disciples, keeping his distance from all those
mourners – not because of covid-19 - but because some of these Judeans have already
tried to stone him – twice. First Martha quietly comes out to find him, keeping
her distance maybe? She understands the risks. Then she returns to quietly tell
Mary. But her sudden move alerts the Judeans that something is up, and they
follow. In the end these Judeans will find him and break his bubble. They will
crowd around as he calls Lazarus out by name from stinky death. Lazarus hears
the voice of the good shepherd and comes back to life and out of the tomb. All
that bound him in death, represented by the wrappings, is unravelled. He is set
free to live. Some are amazed, and some
are shocked at this act.
But wait there is more. Lazarus is
not just raised to life as it was. At the meal that night he reclines at Jesus
breast. This is what it means to be in relationship with Jesus. This kind of deep,
intimate, trusting relationship, embraced in God’s love. God the father in Jesus breaking into our
isolation and fear and offering love and hope. When Jesus says that he is the resurrection
and the life – that is talking about now and the quality of life we have now.
And we need this now more than ever. Like every other sign, we are invited
beyond the story of the miracle, beyond a literal understanding of Jesus’ words,
into the big picture John offers. We are invited to live “God so loved the
world; God is compassion. That is the light that challenges the darkness, the
truth that challenges the falsehood, the caring that challenges the abandonment
- and so leads from death to life.”[ii]
6. Some final thoughts
One
of the commentators I read says that last week we were reminded that blindness,
disease, even little viruses are not a curse from God, not a punishment. They
simply are. But in those times, we are reminded that God is present. Just as
Mary and Martha found Jesus in the depths of their despair and disappointment,
just as Jesus was present for the disciples in their confusion and fear, so God
is present for us in this storm.[iii]
And
like last week these times offer us an opportunity to do the works of the God
who loves.
These
are strange and uncertain times. For many they are times of uncertainty and
fear. But they are also a time we can grow in our trust that God is present no
matter what happens. This time provide us an opportunity to pray about what it
means to be church, and how we live that out for each other and our neighbours.
It provides a time to know the God who loves, and to respond by doing the works
we are able, in love.
Take
time each day to pray
Take
time each day to give thanks for this time
Be
kind to and look after yourself
Be
kind to and care for those in your bubble.
Stay
safe.
Stay
calm.
Wash
your hands.
[i] Youth and Liturgy: an Oxymoron? A study into how and why Anglican liturgy
and the Anglican liturgical tradition are being used in worship targeting young
people within the Anglican Church (Tikanga Pakeha) in New Zealand.
By John Hebenton. 2009
[ii] http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MtLent5.html
[iii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=5423
Comments