Fifth Sunday of Lent: A New Live Lived with Authenticity for Justice and Inclusion

Today on this Fifth Sunday of Lent, I have a great deal on my mind.  This past week has been terrible with the budget fights in Washington, DC, along with the Supreme Court electoral mess in Wisconsin.  The Republican controlled House of Representatives are determined to wipe out so called "entitlements" known as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Not even on the forefront of the minds of those doing such things, are the millions of middle-class and low income Americans who are in need of the programs and services they want to eliminate.  All for the sake of giving away billions of dollars in tax breaks to wealthy corporations, and their CEO's.   All of the money in the United States can be found for tax subsidies for the oil and nuclear energy industries, while women's health care and programs that assist people in need, there just is not enough money for those any more.  I am going to say it, it is an ass backwards system.

How should Christians be responding to all of this in our time?  What does this weekend's Scripture readings have to say about the situation the Church and society finds ourselves in?   How might we become instruments of justice and equality where oppression and neglect are so visibly destroying the lives of so many people?

Ezekiel 37:1-14 (NRSV)

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. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 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."


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


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.' 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, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. 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.

Blog Reflection

Notice that the dry bones mentioned in Ezekiel are not one individual.  "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel."  A community once filled with concern for the stranger, interest in doing justice for those oppressed had become selfish and most likely greedy. 

As Out in Scripture says:

The well loved “dry bones” passage of Ezekiel 37: 1-14 dramatically illustrates the theme of the texts for this week: God’s desire that we enjoy not just life, but liveliness.

To live is to see beyond our own prejudices and deeply held "traditions" and see the names and faces of real people who need to hear and understand the message of the Gospel.  All persons are of high value to God.  God see's the "liveliness" in diverse groups of people, not just those who are Caucasian, white, male, wealthy, healthy, heterosexual and so on.   God calls upon us to "enjoy not just life, but liveliness" among all of God's people.


Injustice and oppression brings about death and destruction.  They dry up all of the running water and vegetation that gives life to communities of persons.   When people are excluded, people become proud to be alone and isolated from those who are different from themselves.  Out of exclusion comes greed and an unquenchable thirst for power and prestige. 


A great example of this is the ongoing problem in Uganda, where a petition of over a million people has been brought forward to pass the bill that would mean life in prison or even the death penalty for women and men who are openly LGBT.   This is the result of evangelists here in America, who have taken the message of hate into Uganda and filled the people there with the "false witness" of what LGBT is about.  Such moves are not about just being "correct" in their information.  It is about created dead societies of people who through the forcing of false information, seek to see a society gain a sense of "power" over people who are different than themselves.  It is a way of building a "society" that "fits" their ideals.

John 11:1-45 (NRSV)

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, "Lord, he whom you love is ill." 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." Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.


Then after this he said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." The disciples said to him, "Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" 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. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them." After saying this, he told them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right." Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."


When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "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. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world."


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." And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 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. 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." When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see." Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" But some of them said, "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"


Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 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." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, "Father, I thank you for having heard me. 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." When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" 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."

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

 Out in Scripture offers more insights.

Ezekiel and John 11:1-45 offer a different view. Indeed the sign of God’s presence and power is precisely in the body coming back to life. Homophobic culture insists that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people crucify their liveliness (live celibate lives) in order to be deemed righteous by the church. Yet, we must prophesy resurrection to all such persons. Just as Ezekiel summons Israel out of the grave of exile into its cultural life and liveliness, so LGBT people are invited by God out of denial and self-hatred, guilt and thwarted attempts at forced celibacy.  We are called into life (authenticity) and liveliness (passion).

In the gospel of John, life comes as we come out from the grave (closet?) and liveliness comes as we shed our grave clothes (unfetter the body).  It is interesting that at the end of Ezekiel 37:7-9 the disembodied bones end up with sinew, flesh, skin and ruah (spirit), but no clothes.  Similarly, Lazarus ends up in the same state with Jesus calling for the cloth to be taken off him (John 11:44). Nakedness is celebrated here as God calling forth new life.  Just as when we were born, are bodies are exposed without shame.  

In this message of life and liveliness, there is a sense of urgency. John unambiguously shows us Jesus’ error – he thought Lazarus would not die, thus he waited before going to attend to him. Yet Lazarus did die, and understandably Mary and Martha were disappointed that Lazarus’ special friend had not come when summoned. 

Do we also disappoint when we passively wait in the face of the death-dealing attitudes of condemnation, ostracism and scapegoating sometimes heaped upon LGBT people?  Who suffers when we have waited for an opportune time to speak? Or, when we wait for a better time to assert our rights to life and liveliness.  We invoke Psalm 130 to justify our waiting. Yet the waiting (qwh in the Hebrew) of the psalmist is instead an active preparatory waiting – as a runner in a relay begins running her leg of the race before the baton is passed. We must not wait for God to arrive, we must begin running before God hands us the baton.

Part of celebrating a life of equality and inclusion is living the fullness of who we are, with a sense of appreciate for God's beauty in having created us as LGBT.   

Heterosexism with it's insistence that all must be straight in order to be happy and healthy, shields not only LGBT people, but others from learning the truth about how wonderful and holy LGBT people are.  Homophobia which is the result of heterosexism, causes a fear and a reaction to that fear that is destructive for LGBT people as well as the Church an society.   

Because of how much these forces work against LGBT people, it is so difficult not to find within ourselves a sense of internalized homophobia, and live in shame of who we are.   Even though we may have come out many years ago, and are now living and working on our own.   Even if we find ourselves in happy and holy relationships.

Jesus calls LGBT people today, just as he called Lazarus to "come out" and live our lives as resurrected people. LGBT people are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live with a sense of authenticity.   We are not called out by Jesus in today's Gospel to live our lives ashamed of who we are. That is why LGBT and many others like us, need this Gospel today to remind us that God's wish for us, is to be alive and celebrating who God has made us.  

As God has called us out, so God also calls us to be instruments of equality, justice and inclusion for ourselves as LGBT people and many other's on the margins of socieyt and the Church.    

We are not called just to "lay down and die" when some Bishop or Priest says or does something that is utterly wrong.   Jesus calls us to "come out" and be the voice for those who remain oppressed because of politics, religion, spiritual and social stigmatization.   

So how can we take this Gospel and Ezekiel and affect change in our society? In what ways can we take the events of this past week and all of the evil that is around us in the Church as  well as all of society and be resurrected people, calling forth those communities that have become the dead"valley of dry bones?"

It is up to each of us to decide what we will do and how we will live the meaning of today's Scriptures. I think all of us knows where we are living as if we are dead. I also think that we also know that we do not have to remain dead in those places. Jesus calls us to "come out" and live as resurrected people.

Prayers

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect for Fifth Sunday of Lent, Book of Common Prayer, page 219).

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
        We have tried to live as we were taught,
        denying our bodies, denying our liveliness.
        Yet we have known this is not your way.
    We have trembled before the gift of liveliness.
        We have tasted it and turned away
        to inauthentic repentance and superficial guilt.
        Yet you pursue us relentlessly with your embrace,
        with your acceptance, with your love.
    Forgive us for rejecting your acceptance.
        Forgive us for rejecting our body-selves.
        We now accept your gift, just as we are.
        In the name of Jesus, fully-embodied Christ, Amen. (Prayerfully Out in Scripture)