Colourful Dreamer

You can listen to this sermon here  Gate Pa –   5 th Sunday in Lent - Year A - 2023 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: I wonder how we are at the moment? - How many of us feeling like field of dry bones in Ezekiel – in need of breath of God? With Mary, Martha and Lazarus we are invited to know Jesus as the “resurrection and the life.” What I want to happen: What does her story offers us about Jesus life for us today? The Sermon      1.     Introduction: It is odd to think of where we were three years ago. Just into the new strange land of lock down Trying to work out how to do church online – what did that even mean? We did pretty well compared to many other places I had to be careful...

Jesus weeps for his friends in their grief. He weeps at the death of Lazarus. He weeps as he stands on the edge. To raise Lazarus will change everything. He will deliberately begin his journey into his end – our journey to the cross. hree years ago everything changed for us, for better and for worse. Since Covid hit the news and then our shores we lived fear and grief. In this time war has erupted in Ukraine which has further exacerbated the western world’s Covid induced cost of living crisis. This year we have endured flooding and cyclones and watched people’s lives being inundated. It almost feels like we have stood at the cross for a long time. Jesus continues to weep. In this Sundays gospel reading (John 11:1-45) Jesus says that he is the resurrection and the life. Too often we drop “life” out of this and just read “resurrection” as refereeing to something happening later after we die. But this is all about now. Mary, Martha and Lazarus are invited to live life now in God’s image...