On Ash Wednesday, who would have thought Lent would turn out like this?!             

There is such a shift in the world, so much going on, so many people staying home and working to flatten the curve; to slow down the spread of the Covid-19 panademic. There are unexpected things happening – incredible acts of kindness, wonderful expressions of creativity, and stunning signs of healing in Creation.            

This is a time to keep our eyes and ears and hearts open. We don’t know what will come next, but the way we respond to these times is what will create what comes next.            

Are we prepared to say with our whole heart, the Prayer of the Holy Spirit?            

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of us Your faithful and kindle in us the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.            

In the readings today from Ezekiel and The Gospel of John (found at the end of this sermon), we witness holy healings, holy renewals of life, new beginnings. These are hopeful messages for us at this unique time in history.            

Paul tells us, in his letter to the Romans, “To set the mind of the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace”(Rom 8:6).  We are encouraged to focus on what brings life and peace. And this can be challenging when there is such sudden change and an uncertain future. But we can find that peace that is implanted deep within us; the peace that sustains life even when all around is what does not seem like peace.            

Sharing our stories, just as we share the Bible stories today is one way to support each other going forward; reminding us of a reality beyond the obvious one in front of us. And as we have been praying together at 10am every morning: “Bring us courage to endure what cannot be avoided, for Your will is health and wholeness….”  (New Zealand Prayer Book)            

We see in both Ezekiel’s dry bones and the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead that the bringing back to life is serves to strengthen the bond between God and God’s people; that they know more intimately, whose they are. Jesus said to her (Martha)….”I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” Jn11:25-26. They are alive in a new and different way.            

This could be a way of imagining this time we are in. That we are in a time of metamorphosis. We are cocooned at home, waiting for the sign to come out.            

How does Jesus bring Lazarus to life? He calls him by name. “Lazarus, come out!” And Lazarus responds.            

God calls forth life in the Creation story with His word.  And today in the gospel reading, Jesus calls Lazarus back to life with His word.            

Jesus calls Lazarus back to life so that “for the sake of the crowd standing here, they may believe that You(Father) sent me.” We need to hear Jesus’ word in order to believe. The Word is meant to move us, not explain the workings of God to us. Too often we attempt to read Scripture as a way of understanding God’s mind and hearing God’s word as directing us in very specific ways. Is not the Word of God meant to move and change us. The Word of God is meant to change our hearts and minds so we become more Christ-like, more compassionate, more trusting.                     

This is a time to keep our eyes open to the mystery and power of God working in our lives, accepting the good times with the difficult ones. Not attached to our own preferences, not resisting the events of our lives but engaging with whatever life puts in our path.  Even a pandemic. Responding with the best of our ability with open hearts. It’s work. It takes practice. It requires grounding in prayer. And it’s a very different way of perceiving life. This is the kind of life Jesus is calling us into. A life entwined with an eternal God who loves and leads us. This is the kind of life that takes faith and belief. The kind of life John is telling us about with all his wonderful stories and mysterious and marvellous images of our relationship with God; how intertwined we are if we only we really knew.            

We do not determine how and when we will be called out. But we can exercise our hearts to be ready to respond.            

I did not know I would come down with the Covid-19 virus when I felt the ashes applied to my forehead on Ash Wednesday.            

But now that I am on the mend, I wonder what I will be called out to do; how will I be asked to share my experience? How will God use me to serve life?            

These last days of Lent can be a fertile time; not necessarily a time to get “stuff done,” (I’m too tired still to even think of doing that!) but to delve deep into our hearts and spend time in the quiet to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.            

Give God the room to prepare your heart for Easter. So you are ready to hear the real story behind life and death, and love.            

Amen.  

Ezekiel 37:1-14

37:1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.

37:2 He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.

37:3 He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know."

37:4 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

37:5 Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.

37:6 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."

37:7 So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

37:8 I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them.

37:9 Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live."

37:10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

37:11 Then he 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.'

37:12 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.

37:13 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people.

37:14 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.

Psalm 130
130:1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD.

130:2 Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!

130:3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

130:4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

130:5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;

130:6 my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.

130:7 O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.

130:8 It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

Romans 8:6-11
8:6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

8:7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law-- indeed it cannot,

8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

8:9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

8:10 But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

8:11 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.

John 11:1-45
11:1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.

11:2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill.

11:3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill."

11:4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, "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."

11:5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,

11:6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

11:7 Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again."

11:8 The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?"

11:9 Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world.

11:10 But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them."

11:11 After saying this, he told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him."

11:12 The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right."

11:13 Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep.

11:14 Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead.

11:15 For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."

11:16 Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

11:17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

11:18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away,

11:19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.

11:20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.

11:21 Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 1

1:22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him."

11:23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

11:24 Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."

11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,

11:26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

11:27 She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."

11:28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, "The Teacher is here and is calling for you."

11:29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him.

11:30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.

11:31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

11:32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.

11:34 He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see."

11:35 Jesus began to weep.

11:36 So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!"

11:37 But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

11:38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.

11:39 Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days."

11:40 Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

11:41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me.

11:42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me."

11:43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!"

11:44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

11:45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.