In the Dry Valley... (5th Sunday of Lent)

Welcome to our second Sunday streaming broadcast of Morning Prayer in this time of the COVID Crisis. 
 
Is it so hard to believe that Lent is almost over?  The 5th Sunday in Lent is already upon us and the dramatic events of Holy week beginning with Palm Sunday are but one week away.
 
Our sojourn into the desert of this barren Lenten existence was first greeted with a memory.  We were reminded of that which is certain- since the very dawn of creation where God, formed us out of the dust of the earth and then BREATHED life into us.
Back on Ash Wednesday we greeted the Lenten path with a memory, “remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
“ “Mortal, can these bones live?” I answered, O Lord God, you know.”…“Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
 
The reading of the valley of the Dry bones from Ezekiel is one of my favorite Old Testament readings.  The best line of all is “Mortal, can these bones live?” Can these bones live?
 
Ezekiel was the prophet among those deported when the Babylonians first took Jerusalem in 598 BC. That the bones are dry symbolizes the lifelessness of the exiles- they are now strangers in a strange land, they have been stripped of all that they have and many are slaves.  They lack the hope that one day the Kingdom of Israel will be restored to its former glory as it was under the rule of King David.
 
Event the Psalmist sends forth a prayer from personal trouble, “Out of the depths, I cry to you O lord, ; Lord hear my voice.”  Is this not our prayer too at times?
    
Especially now when we are told to stay home.  In my phone calls to some of you this past week you tell me about the present circumstances and protocols that say you cannot visit family and friends in care homes, or hospitals,  when some of you are now shut-in or working from home
or are even out of work
because the industry and the economy are in crisis-  THIS is a time where we find ourselves in the dry valley.  It is the place were we pray to the Almighty: “our soul waits for the Lord, more than watchman for the morning.”
 
Mary and Martha waited for Christ, to come to the aid of their brother Lazarus, who is ill;  and when Jesus shows up two days later, Martha said to Jesus, “Where were you?”  Why didn’t you come when we called you, Lazarus was ill and you could have healed him, now he’s dead and it’s too late.  In fact, he’s been dead four days now.
 
In the wisdom of the Church, the lectionary once again lends itself to some of the most beautiful and poignant verses in scripture. 
 
That in the midst of Lent, a time where we corporately and with great intent go to great lengths to point out to ourselves and to others the miserable sinners that we are and that we are more and more in need of God’s salvation. Yes, dear friends even in the Episcopal church we can say that we need to be Saved.  We are but dust and to dust we shall return.  We need salvation from loneliness, salvation from self-centeredness, salvation from stark individuality that cares for nothing but itself, salvation from the hunger of power and control.  We like the Samaritan woman  desire the salvation of the life giving water, we long to go wash the mud off of our eyes that we may begin to see the world in a new way.
That those readings of the Samaritan woman, the blind beggar, and rising of Lazarus appear in this Lenten season is no accident.  They all are about renewal, about community coming truly alive.
 
These stories are about restoration, not of individuals, both about communities being redeemed.  The bones and Lazarus both stand to represent not just individuals, but those individuals participating in community.   We should look beyond the obvious, that Lazarus’ resurrection is strikingly similar to the account we soon will hear of Jesus’ resurrection.
When Ezekiel, asks, “How can these bones live?”  The prophet is speaking to us as a community.
 
There is no doubt that many times our lives are like those bones set before Ezekiel.  We feel without hope, that there is no life within us.  Out of the depths we cry to God, “Can these bones live?!” There are times when we as individuals are metaphorically, dead and living in darkness what seems to separate us from Christ is a large rock that seems so immovable.  And yet, Christ is there weeping with the power to roll away the stone and cry out , “Lazarus, come out!”  All of a sudden our darkness turns to light and we can emerge from the darkness and let loose the ties that bind us. That the obstacles that block our path will be cast away, that we will be raised anew
 
And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act,” says the Lord.
 
All this is great heady stuff of poets and preachers.  But what of all of us and members of this community?   How will we continue to be people of the resurrection? 
 
I think we are in an exciting time.  Yes.  Exciting.  We are NOT becoming like the bones of Ezekiel that have form and muscle, but no life.  God continues to breathe life into our bones,  the Holy Sprit is very much in and among all of us.    When Ezekiel is told to speak to the breath- the Hebrew word there is ru-ach.  Unlike the “wind” that blows the dust, ru-ach is breath that animates us.  In our Hawaiian context this is the “Ha”.  The ru-ach is the same breath that was breathed  into us at the dawn of creation. There is a spiritual quality to the ru-ach as there is a spiritual quality to our whole self.
 
It seems odd I know to speak of this now, because it seems that this is might be more of an Easter Sermon than a 5th Sunday of Lent one, but don’t you see?  That’s the point.  We are all people of resurrection. We are Easter people.  We are the people whom bones have been brought back to life, where breath of life has been resorted.  We are the people who time and say, like the Samaritan woman, “Give me this life giving water.” And through the water of baptism we have been reborn, raised anew in the power of the Holy Spirit.
 
  We are the people who in ways are blind.  Our Lord comes along makes some mud and asks us to go wash and we can see the world in a new way.   Jesus weeps and rolls away the stone, and calls us by name. We are Easter people.
 
That Easter joy cannot be fully understood nor appreciated without the darkness that is the  “depths out of which we cry.”  The valley of the dry bones.    And of course I know it’s hard to talk about being Easter people when I know we will not be physically together on Easter Day.
Even though we cannot be together on Easter morning, the stone is still rolled away, and the risen Christ lives among us. In Christ, death does not win even when there is evidence to the contrary. 
Lazarus was in the tomb for days, and Mary and Martha were in their grief, And we might think that this would be the end of it.  Martha thought so- she says to him, but he’s been in the tomb for four days.   Christ speaks to darkness of the tomb and told Lazarus to come out.    
 
God in Christ is speaking to us even now in this moment and time of our darkness, he is standing with us as we look out in the valley of the dry bones.  We ask him, “can these bones live? Our hope is lost and we are cut off completely.” And God, says to us, “ I will bring you up from your graves, O my people, I will put my spirit with you, and YOU SHALL LIVE,”
 
How will these bones live? (Self)  How will these bones live ? (others)  The breath of God already dwells among us.  Paul in Romans says “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.”

In Christ we have been brought up from our graves.  At the font of baptism we have been reborn; in our prayers we lay bare our bones, and sinews, and flesh that Christ may once again speak to the breath call us as he did Lazarus, and say “Come out!” and bring life to our mortal bodies.