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Death Is Not The End

Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in which of us. Amen

April is a month filled with mixed emotions for me. It is the month of my birthday. It is the month that my son and daughter-in-law were married seven years ago. It is the month that my grandfather died, 42 years ago on my 13th birthday. It is also the month in which I had to attend my niece’s, Julianne, funeral. And in many years, like this year, it is the month in which we celebrate Easter. Yes, for me, April is a month filled all kinds of memories, with feelings of excitement, fear, anger, sorrow, grief and with great joy.

Our texts today are filled with all kinds of emotion, too, aren’t they? Ezekiel, was a prophet that was called to issue a doom-filled warning to a rebellious people. But, he was also a prophet that was called to proclaim a sense of hope that all was not lost for those who would hear God’s words and repent. When Ezekiel entered the valley of dry bones he witnessed a horrific scene of death. And in the midst of this horrific scene God said to Ezekiel, “Mortal, can these bones live?” In the midst of death, God asks about life. Personally, if I were Ezekiel, I think my answer would have been filled with anger. Lord, you know they are dead, you know they cannot live anymore. But instead, Ezekiel says, “O Lord God, you know” (Ezekiel 37:3).

As Ezekiel looked upon the scene, he knew the bones represented the people of Israel. He knew it meant that his people were as good as dead. The Israelites were dead to God’s ways, but in the midst of this death God says, Ezekiel, my word never dies. My word is the word of life. My word can give life even when death has seemly won. Ezekiel, God says, “Prophesy to these bones…” Let them once again hear my word. Through my word, my breath, or in Hebrew, a word I love to say, my “ruah”, which means spirit, breath, wind, will enter the dead and life will come again. Even in death, God promises the he can bring new life.

Lazarus, a man that we are told Jesus loved, got so sick that his family and friends knew he is going to die and, so, they sent word to his good friend. They knew who Jesus was. They knew he had healed the sick and they wanted him to heal Lazarus. But when Mary, Lazarus’ sister, told Jesus, he didn’t rush to his friend’s side, instead, he continued his work. It was not until after Lazarus died, that Jesus went to see him and by the time Jesus arrived, his beloved friend has been dead four days. The family was in mourning.

We all know that feeling of mourning death, don’t we? As I said, I feel it every April when I remember my grandpa and my niece. I feel it every July when I remember my father. Death is ugly and it hurts. Mary and Martha wept, as do their friends and when Jesus sees their pain, he, too, felt the loss, he, too, wept.

Death is never easy. In fact, I think the best description of death is in this story. Experiencing the pain of loosing a loved one, Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha was shocked, and as we read already, she says to Jesus, “Lord already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Did you know death has a smell to it? I don’t think most of us know that, because in our culture, we keep death cold. We put the dead on ice, literally, so that we don’t have to experience the bad smell. But for the ancient world, they did not know of such things and so, when they placed a body in a tomb, after a while the smell permeated the area and they knew all to well that had a bad smell. In fact, to best describe how bad it smelled, I prefer the King James Version of this story. After Jesus tells them to take the stone away, in the King James Version it says, “Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto to him, Lord, by this time he stinkith…” (KJV, 11:39). Death stinks!

But, as we know, although it stinks, it is not the end! Oh, it hurts, it causes pain, it leaves an empty feeling in us, and most often it causes feelings in us that we cannot explain, but, in death, God says to us, “Mortal, can these bones live?” and our grief stricken response can only be, O Lord, you know… To which God responds to us prophecy my word, or know my word for in my word I promise you my ruah, my breath of life. Out of death God promises new life.

“Lazarus, come out!” Jesus said. Come out of death and experience new life. Brothers and sisters, death stinks but we are people of the resurrection, which means w know death is not the end. But even knowing this, we often live our lives in fear of death, any death. Oh, I am not saying we should want people to die. I didn’t want my grandpa to die. I didn’t want my niece to die. Even now, after 15 years after the death of my dad, I feel the pain of that loss of him in my life. But, I do know that a promise of new life has been given.

We fear death so much, we even fear the death of things practices, don’t we? We fear and we refuse to let old ways die? We fear and refuse to let habits that keep us from experiencing God and his life-giving ruah. Often, when faced with an opportunity to let our old ways go, we prefer to put them on life-support because we would rather hang on to the old ways than let them die and allow a new-life to begin.

It seems to me, that in the church, the place in which resurrection is preached and taught and proclaimed, we fear death the most. We fight to hang on to our worship styles, our languages, our programs, our … you name it. And most often we hang on to these ways, even when they are killing. We would rather do something that we know how to do and complain about it when it doesn’t work, than let it die and try something new.

As you now, we have been talking about change on Wednesday evenings and two weeks ago after worship someone said to me, Pastor, why do we have to change, I like things the way they are, I am comfortable. My response to that is, we are not creating change, we are called live into change. Change will happen with our without us. As a 13 year-old boy, I liked my life. I liked my grandpa coming over every Sunday after we went to Mass with bagels and lox. I, too, liked my life. I was very comfortable in my life, when my baby sister had a beautiful little girl who I loved and adored. I loved having a father in my life who was also my best friend. But, they all died and change happened even when I fought it. And once I lived through the initial pain, I came to believe that God walked with me through those times and was offering me a new life.

God’s ruah is alive and well and it is sweeping through our lives and we can ether go with God’s wind, or we can hunker down and pretend it is not present. Just like the Israelites who failed to feel God’s breath when Ezekiel spoke, or like those who failed to allow Jesus’ call to allow change to come into their lives, we, too, fear and fight death. We would rather place our lives on life-support than experience the unknown of change.

Can you hear Jesus calling us into new life? He is calling us out. (call out individual names…) But to experience new life, we cannot come out on our own, according to our text today. When Lazarus came out, that new life he calls us into, s not a life of loneliness. It is a life of community. When Lazarus arose, he was still bound to death and as he stood there Jesus said to the community around him “Unbind him and let him go.” We are all called to unbind others and let them go, not to hold them back.

Brothers and sisters, our challenge today is to practice dying. As we journey to the cross can we practice letting go of those things that are killing us and holding us back? Can we practice facing death, knowing that Jesus will be there in that death calling our names and commanding those around us to unbind us?

Death stinks, but it is not the end! Praise be to God. Amen.

Tags: Sermons