Some thoughts in lockdown inspired by Ezekiel and Lazarus

Theme for the Week
On Wednesday night last week, vestry discussed how we might continue to be church if and when we were put into lock down. I am now very grateful for that conversation. A lot has changed in 9 days. Covid-19 is now being transmitted in the community and we are in lock down. For many of us this is a deeply unsettling time, full of uncertainty and fear about the future, either because of our work situation, our health or our age; or some combination of the above.
Just when we needed the support of our church family we can no longer gather. But church is NOT cancelled. Lockdown means that we must find new ways to be church. Church is not just the gathering on Sunday morning at our services. Our gatherings are important, but they are not the point. The point is that when we gather, we remember we are God’s community. Together we are shaped by the words of the liturgy (most of which come from scripture), the scripture readings set for that day, maybe the sermon, and our prayers. We are also shaped in the radical act of gathering around the table as equals remembering not only Jesus’ last supper, but every time he gathered with and fed or was fed by the poor, the gentile, the excluded. We are invited to join the crucified and risen Christ in God’s mission of generosity, compassion and justice. We are still invited to gather, even if we are not physically present in the same building, so that we can still be God’s community being shaped to be people of God’s mission of generosity and compassion.
This week we are offered some powerful stories. Firstly, the vision of the dried-up bones of the nation of Israel being raised with God’s life. And then we have the story of the raising of Lazarus – like all signs/miracles in John pointing beyond itself to Jesus death and resurrection.
Howard Wallace offers us these thoughts.
“Today’s gospel reading, the story of the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-45), has obvious and clear parallels to the Ezekiel passage. …. Together, they challenge our thinking about the full significance of resurrection in Jesus Christ. Resurrection is not simply a matter of being raised from the dead, and in Lazarus’ case it is a unique case for presumably Lazarus would have died again at some later time. Resurrection is not simply concerned with the ‘after life’ but with the raising of broken spirits, of bodies as good as dead, of hearts that lack strength and courage, of communities that are fractured, of relationships that have waned or become fractious, of peoples who have lost hope etc. While Ezekiel’s vision may not have direct connection to resurrection in the way we might normally see it, it does remind us that the resurrection that is in Jesus Christ and the risen life in him reaches to this side of the grave too giving new life and hope where there has been only ‘dry bones’ in the past.”[1]

May we know Christ’s risen life in these hard times, giving new life and hope in the dry bones of our fear, uncertainty and anxiety as we find new ways of being God’s community.
Please look out for one another. Look out for your neighbours. Be kind to yourselves and each other. Stay calm. Stay safe. Wash your hands.




[1] http://hwallace.unitingchurch.org.au/WebOTcomments/LentA/Lent5A%20Ezek37.html


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