Sermon - Rev Judith Perry 

Well, what do you expect? The last Sunday before Palm Sunday, the Fifth Sunday in Lent, things are going to get a little morbid; death, skeletons, bodies etc. 

It is after the raising of Lazarus that the Jewish authorities plot to kill Jesus. They also plot to kill Lazarus. In a week there was the triumphal march into Jerusalem, which we commemorate next Sunday. 

Let me talk a little bit about that old prophet Ezekiel who recorded his extraordinary dream vision. But I’ll start with a few words about death to put today’s readings into context. 

When a baby is born, and lies in its adoring mother’s arms, there is only one prediction about that child that we can make with absolute certainty: it shall die. 

Death is our universal fate. It is the fate of individuals, families and nations. When Ezekiel had his extraordinary experience of a valley filled with human bones, he was seeing the death of the Jewish people.  

Valleys like this did exist. After a battle the bodies lay where they had fallen, and the birds and animals picked them clean. 

Most of Ezekiel’s people were dead. Conquering armies had wrecked havoc with a few surviving in a ravaged countryside, a few thousand also surviving as captives in a far land. He saw the death of his people, the death of hope. 

We all have a basic fear of death, in our nature, genetically passed down from our distant ancestors.  

Unless we are worn down by long, painful illness, or suffer acute depression, we won’t easily settle for death. By nature, we revolt against it. The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas hit a universal nerve: 

    Do not go gentle into that good night,            

    Old age should burn and rave at the close of day; 

    Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

His protest, his anger against death, is far healthier than the multitudinous denials with which our culture tries to hide from the fact of death. 

Listen to what we tell each other. She passed on – passed what? Did she pass on some old clothes to the church rummage sale? She died. 

She lost her husband. How careless of her. Maybe he is the other supermarket aisle, by the magazines, reading Popular Mechanics.  

Or the one marketed by the funeral industry, “Celebration of Life”. It is a funeral where we gather to remember the dead, and we talk about their life, but you can’t get away from the fact that someone is dead. 

Death is either our fate or our destiny, depending on your viewpoint. Not many of us look forward to it. Most pretend is not going to happen; not soon, anyway. 

So now that old prophet, Ezekiel, who is living in exile, has a vision where he sees a valley of dry  bones and talks to God and God talks to him. They have a conversation. 

When we do honestly face death, there comes the question: “Can these bones live”. In our reading from Ezekiel, it is God who puts that question to the prophet: “And the Spirit said to me: Mortal man, can these bones live?” 

Ezekiel gives, perhaps the only logical response: “O Lord God, only you can answer that.”  Only God knows. 

Unless the Mysterious and Holy Source of all life speaks the word, the dead shall be dead forever and ever. 

With Ezekiel, God takes the initiative.  

Ezekiel is asked to preach the word of God to the valley of dry bones: “Preach to these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Behold I will cause spirit to enter you, and you shall live. ” 

It seems weird, but he preached to a valley filled with dry bones.  

So, he recounts: “As I preached, there came a noise and a rattling; and the bones came together, each bone to its right partner.” Then followed sinews and flesh, but they still remained lifeless bodies. 

Ezekiel preached the word God to them again, and “the spirit came into them, and they lived, and they stood up, an exceeding great host.” 

So here may be an explanation: the most probable interpretation of Ezekiel’s vision, given his situation, is that through the word of God preached by loyal prophets, the Jewish nation would be reborn and live again.  

The Holy Spirit, who like a mother who brought life at the beginning, would bring life again. 

About the Holy Spirit, in Hebrew and in Greek the word, “Spirit” is declined in the feminine. In the Trinity the Holy Spirit is feminine, but when it comes to being translated into English, those old boys couldn’t stand it. 

They changed her gender to make God completely masculine. Trans! 

Ezekiel wrote for his contemporary Jews. It was not a prophesy for centuries in the future, but when the Christians came along, they added a new layer of interpretation. 

Christians saw Ezekiel’s vision as a foreshadowing of the new life that would come through the word of Christ Jesus and the outpouring of His Spirit. 

As we move nearer to Good Friday, we are coming up against His ugly death. Jesus will be crucified and placed in a stone tomb. 

At the end of Good Friday, the question will be: “Can these bones live?” 

In our lectionary readings we prepare for that moment by reading from St John’s Gospel about the raising of Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. 

Lazarus dies and is entombed while Jesus is absent. A grieving Martha comes to meet Jesus as he travels down the road to Bethany. There follows a dialogue around the theme of the dead being raised up to life.  

Martha believes it in a general sort of way- some time, in the future, on judgement day.  

John then writes the words that have been subsequently used at millions of Christian funerals: “I am the resurrection and the life. They who believe in me, though they die yet shall they live, and whoever believes in me shall never die.” 

In the story, Jesus backs up this message with the word of command. Standing in front of the tomb, Jesus cries: “Lazarus come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet trailing the burial clothes, and a napkin still across his face.” 

This story was very precious to the early Christians. Jesus was not only raised from the dead on Easter Day, but with him came the promise that they too would be raised. “Because I live, you shall live also.” 

Death is still very real, It cannot be postponed. It comes to us all as it had from the beginning. It still makes us anxious. It still separates us from those whom we love.  

But death is not the final word. The last word is always with the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life. 

That which Ezekiel saw was for the Jewish nation. Jesus offers a resurrection gift for us all. Can these bones live?  Yes! The fact is, John shows us a Jesus who, in the context of his own certain death, raises the dead. We shall really, really die. But we shall also really, really live. 

 “I am the resurrection and the life. They who believe in me, though they die yet shall they live, and whoever believes in me shall never die.”