Readings:
Ezekiel 37:12-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:8-11; John 11:1-45

The Lord Yahweh says this: ‘I mean to raise you from your graves, my people… I shall put my spirit in you and you will live.‘
Ezekiel 37:12, 14

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.
Romans 8:11

Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection. If anyone believes in me, even though they die, they will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die’… ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.‘
John 11:25, 26, 43, 44

The theme of today’s reading is new life, promised in Ezekiel, realized in Jesus’ raising of the dead Lazarus.

This is a powerful theme, so powerful that it can numb rather than enliven, bewilder rather than enlighten. It is difficult for us to engage with ideas which are beyond our experience, so we touch our mental forelocks to ‘life after death’, ‘eternal life’, ‘resurrection of the body’, not denying their possible truth, but not letting them affect us while we get on with the messy business of day-to-day life. Yet if these themes are important, they must be important for us now.

Although the British public is not noted for its interest in theology, yet when the Bishop of Durham raises questions about the meaning of the resurrection, there is indignant outcry and accusations of heresy. We would prefer him to leave the resurrection alone, a secure article of faith which is to be accepted, but not explored.

When national controversy about the nature of the resurrection was raging, one writer pleaded with Christians that they should stop trying to prove that we shall have a material body after death, and concentrate instead on the unlikelihood of our having a material body now! The mystery is not only in the future: the mystery is also now. Each of us is a mystery, a conglomerate of billions of cells, each cell a mystery in itself, carrying within it all the information necessary to construct the whole body, each cell within affecting and being affected by every other particle in the universe, each cell not a piece of solid matter, but an energy charge. We are living mysteries, our conscious minds grasping only the tiniest fraction of the reality that we are. Pondering the mystery of our being can open our minds to Jesus’ message, ‘I am the resurrection’, and help us to move out of the narrow prison of our own thoughts, ideas and unquestioning assumptions into a new, less fearful and more hopeful reality, which is now, not just in the future.

Using our imagination on the raising of Lazarus can put us in touch with our present reality. Watch the miracle happen, then become like Lazarus in the tomb, bound in grave clothes, in total darkness. Hear the footsteps and the voice saying, ‘I am the resurrection’, and hear the stone being moved. Hear Jesus calling you by name and saying, ‘Arise, come forth.’

This can be a most revealing exercise, different for each one. We may find ourselves saying, ‘Thanks, Lord, but I prefer to stay where I am’, or we may find we are afraid to move, or unable to move, or suddenly become aware of how tomb-like our present way of life really is. The exercise may arouse in us a sense of hope, rekindle a longing for freedom, which has, perhaps, been buried for years, or help us to see our present circumstances as less hopeless than we had thought. Whatever happens, speak with God about it and ask him how we are to react to it.

The reality for all of us is that God is continuously calling us, in all the events of our life, out of death into life. How we respond to this call now, determines how we shall be in the future. So speak to God who is now calling you. Ask yourself, ‘How have I responded to him in the past? How am I now responding? How do I want to respond in the future?’ And we can leave the details of that future safely in his hands!

Prayer
God, source of all life and love, free us from the tombs in which our fears, past hurts and resentments imprison us, and draw us into your eternal life now and forever. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.