If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. (Romans 8.11 biblegateway.com NRSVA)
Resurrection isn’t just about life beyond death. For Paul it’s about life right now - not the life we have got accustomed to, the life we settle for, the life that seems all right when we can fill it with things to do and places to go, but life in all its fullness.
Paul believes we are spiritually dead even when we feel most alive. Life in all its fullness isn’t about living and breathing. It isn’t about excitement, sensations and new experiences. It isn’t just about appreciating each new day - each unique sunrise or sunset, flower or taste. Life in all its fullness is about being spiritually alive - knowing and feeling that the Spirit which raised Jesus from death dwells in us. It’s about being raised to a new plane of experience, a fourth dimension, an awareness of God with us in Jesus.
The ordinary sort of life is going to pale very quickly if we have to spend most of our time trapped within four walls. The life that ‘he who raised Christ from the dead’ can offer knows no boundaries. It’s endlessly stimulating, encouraging us to look outwards even when we can’t venture outside.
The Lord said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord... I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live…’ (Ezekiel 17.11-14 biblegateway.com NRSVA)
Ezekiel is prophesying to the Exiles from the Land of Judah. He calls them ‘Israel’. They feel they are part of a dying cause. The life is draining out of them. Their inspiration has dried up. They have nothing to look forward to. The future seems bleak.
Resurrection is not just about life after death, it’s about new life for us now. Last time we heard how it has the power to turn our own lives around. Today Ezekiel tells us that it has the power to turn whole communities around. If we are willing to open ourselves up to his influence, God can put his spirit within us and make our communities live again - vibrant, envisioned, buzzing with inspiration, hopeful, outward looking.
People are hoping that we can use this time of dramatic and unprecedented change to rethink the way we all live together in community - perhaps living more simply but appreciating life more. For that hope to come true in our wider community we will need to become leaven in the lump, inspiring and encouraging others.
But this is a message for the Church as well. If we can allow God to put his Spirit within our Christian community then this time of trial could still be a time of resurrection, a time when we can emerge to new life.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! ...O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities. (Psalm 130.1-2 & 7-8 biblegateway.com NRSVA)
If last week’s psalm (Psalm 23) seemed perfect for our situation, Psalm 130 is equally relevant. Things are going wrong. Part of the trouble has been caused by the nation’s unpreparedness, its failure to put lasting values before popular slogans and the pursuit of quick profit. But now the chickens have come home to roost. Something terrible is happening and ‘out of the depths we cry to you, O Lord’, hoping that God will be attentive in our time of trouble.
Perhaps we should have been more focused on those lasting values when times were good. Perhaps we should have built stronger social bonds and better prepared for the time of crisis which we always knew was coming. Perhaps we should have cried to the Lord when the going was good. But the Psalmist hopes that God is not going to say, “I told you so!’’ You don’t mark ‘our iniquities,’ he says, ‘There is forgiveness with you.’
And so we come to the end of the psalm which its assertion of hope in God’s redeeming grace. ‘O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel .’
In our last reading we reflected that this pandemic could be a chance for a radical transformation of the way we live in community, with a renewed focus on togetherness rather than personal prosperity. Today we are reminded that God has the steadfast love to stand by us in our time of trouble and the power to help us turn the situation around.
‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’ (John 11.4 biblegateway.com NRSVA)
This is the most difficult verse in the whole story of Lazarus. It makes Jesus look rather insensitive and lacking in empathy. Lazarus is undoubtedly seriously ill and seems certain to die, yet Jesus says there’s no need to worry; ‘This illness… is for God’s glory.’ How can that be? How can any illness, especially a serious illness, glorify God?
John must have been aware of this because he goes on to emphasis that Jesus was, in fact, upset about what had happened. He tells us that Jesus ‘was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved’, that he wept and that he was ‘again greatly disturbed when he came to the tomb’. Illness is real and the stench of death cannot be disguised. It’s a harrowing scene.
John’s point is that, like Paul, he sees resurrection as a sign of what Jesus can do for us now, not just as a promise for the future. In fact, he says that Jesus cannot keep us from dying when our time comes. Instead, the promise is that ‘those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.’
Right now we can begin living the sort of life that Paul talked about in Romans Chapter 8 and we can live in such a way that death loses some of its sting and ceases to be the final full stop in our story. This sort of life allows us to be unbound and set free, even when we’re cooped up or locked in by illness or calamity, and it brings glory to God.
Comments