Living Again
John 11:38-45
Ezekiel 37:1–14
March 9, 2008
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
Rev. Sandy Messick

• This just in: As of March 8, 2008, it is official, the wildflower season has started. Desert USA.com shares this report: “The hot spots for wildflower sightings are Southern California between 29 Palms and Amboy, CA and the southern part of Joshua Tree NP. Sand verbena is showing shades of purple in the Palm Desert and Palm Springs regions. The bloom is starting in Death Valley and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Reports indicate that Arizona is blooming near Phoenix, Tucson. and in Organ Pipe NP.”
• Why, one might wonder, is it such big news that wildflowers are blooming in the deserts of the Southwest? Such big news that at the bottom of one of the web pages there is a colorful graph, constantly moving showing the strength of the wildflowers in the desert Southwest, and daily, almost hourly reports are submitted from travelers detailing the flowers they have seen and where they have seen them.
• Marshall South, a writer for Desert Magazine back in the 1930s and ‘40s, and a man who loved the desert and all it held, and who also coincidentally was my grandfather, certainly understood. During those years he wrote monthly reports about life in the Anza Borrego desert east of San Diego, California, and more than once, he talked about the spring wildflowers in bloom and what it signified. In March of 1944 he wrote, “No one who dwells in the desert will ever quite get over the thrill of seeing new life unfold after a steady downpour has brought moisture again to a long parched earth. No matter how accustomed we may become to seeing this miracle year after year there is always something mysterious about it. This season, in particular, the change was startling; for the dry spell had been long and hard…Then came the rains…Everywhere there was a sense of slumbering life having suddenly awakened. Under the lee of almost every big rock delicate little ferns had unfolded their green fronds…All the cacti, especially the beavertails, looked plump and swollen and alive with new strength. And in all the rock crevices…tiny leaf edges groped towards the sunlight. It was a sort of mass resurrection.” And then again, in May of 1944, “White and yellow and scarlet and blue, close-packed, confident, irresistible – once again the annual battle between death and bitterness and life and beauty has been fought out on Ghost Mountain. And once again – as it always will be – new life leaps up triumphant. Desert spring – spring anywhere – always is something to deeply stir the heart.”
• Maybe the fascination with desert flowers in bloom is simply that inner craving that we all face, for hope to overshadow despair, for beauty to overcome barrenness, for life to triumph over death.
• These two stories from scripture this morning are such stories. The first story, the reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, is a word from God to the prophet Ezekiel. It is a story of death, lifeless bones strewed across a desert landscape. It is the story of the people Israel, in exile, a people without hope. The second story, the story from the Christian Scriptues, is also a story of death. It is the Gospel of John’s account of the death of Lazarus. The part I didn’t read this morning is the part where Jesus first hears of Lazarus’ death. We don’t know much about the relationship but we know that Jesus loved Lazarus. So this is a story of grief, of sorrow, and of the anger that is born from that grief and sorrow. The story, the part I didn’t read this morning, begins with Jesus hearing that Lazarus is ill. As Jesus makes his way to Bethany where the grieving sisters, Mary and Martha, mourn, he is greeted by anger. “Jesus, if only you had been here our brother would not have died. Why, Jesus, why?” Despair, grief, pain. All of those normal human emotions that we each know at some time in our lives. All of those normal human emotions that arise in the face of death.
• But suddenly, into both of these stories life sweeps in. A fresh wind sweeps through the desert. Jesus sweeps into town. And suddenly, where before there was only death and mourning and grief, suddenly life appears, new life, hope.
• Both of these passages, Ezekiel and John are sign stories. They are stories about the awesome power of God. Perhaps they are not literally true. Perhaps they are not historically accurate, but they are true nonetheless. And their purpose is not to recount an actual event, but to point the way to something else. To point the way to God.
• These are stories of God’s power over the dark forces in our world. Forces of war and oppression and disease and separation. God’s power even over that most powerful force in our world, even over death itself.
• For all that these two stories were written hundreds of years apart, and to different audiences they are written with the same purpose in mind, they are signs, pointing the way to God.
• First, these stories from Ezekiel and John remind us that God cares deeply for God’s people.
• The passage in Ezekiel was a word of hope to a people who thought they had been forgotten by God. A people living without hope, suddenly hearing that God knew them and would call them home. Verse 14 reads, “I will put MY Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken it and performed it.”
• In John, we find the shortest verse in the bible. In verse 35. In the NRSV it reads “Jesus began to weep.” But in other translations it’s even shorter, “Jesus wept.” Overcome with emotion, Jesus wept. Grieving the loss of his friend, Lazarus; seeing the pain in the eyes of Mary and Martha; recognizing the grief that was so thick in the air around him, Jesus wept.
• These are stories that remind us of a God who knows us intimately and loves us fully and who weeps with us in our sorrow and rejoices with us in our joy. God cares deeply for God’s people.
• But they also remind us that God works in God’s own time.
• John tells us that after Jesus hears about Lazarus being ill, he waits two more days before traveling to Bethany. This detail of the story makes no sense if we are looking at this as a literal, historical event. What kind of friend dawdles when his loved one is lying at death’s door? It’s not like he had to arrange a plane flight. It’s not like he had to make childcare arrangements or get time off of work. Yet John is careful to tell us that he waited two more days that God’s power might be made known. It makes no sense as a literal detail in a story, but when we look at this passage as a story that tells us about God, it reminds us that God isn’t at our beck and call. God works in God’s ways. But not seeing immediate results to our prayer requests isn’t a sign that God isn’t listening.
• Likewise, in the story from the Hebrew scriptures, the people Israel, too are waiting. Ezekiel is a prophet during the time of the Babylonian exile. The people were mourning the loss of their homeland, they were strangers in a foreign land. But for many, they believed this would be a short-lived sojourn. Any day now God would bring them back home. Ezekiel tells his listeners that indeed, God will bring new life to them, but not soon. Someday. And that their task is to remain faithful in the meantime.
• These are stories that remind us that God does bring spring after winter, but only after. It will come, perhaps not today, but it will come.
• But most importantly, these are stories that remind us that God’s power can triumph even over death. They are stories that offer hope.
• By the power of God’s word, old bones can dance in the desert and suddenly there is new life.
• By the power of God’s word, Lazarus can shed his grave clothes and dance with his sisters and celebrate new life.
• Tulips can break through frigid wintry soil.
• Old churches can be transformed and reclaim new life.
• Broken and forgotten visions can break free and blossom in new and unexpected ways
• Flowers can bloom in the desert.
• These stories from Ezekiel and John, these are sign stories, promise stories.
• Ironically, according to the gospel of John, it was this very story that was the last straw for the religious leaders. After hearing of Lazarus’ rebirth, the religious leaders began to fear the power of Jesus. And later in this same chapter we are told, from that day on they plotted to put him to death.
• Still, for us, they remain good news from God.
• They are good news when we are the bones lying in the desert.
• They are good news for us when we are the ones buried in a cave, buried in the rubble of our own doubts, fears, and despair.
• They are good news for those who are grieving and lost and without hope.
• These stories stand as signs for us:
• That in the end, God will have the last word. In the face of all evidence to the contrary, God will have the last word.
• And that word is “live” Jesus called out to Lazarus, “Come out of the tomb and live!” God called out to the dry bones in the desert, “Come together and live!”
• And God still calls out to each one of us: In Jesus’ name, “Live”
• By God’s grace, “Live”
• For heaven’s sake, “Live.”