Lent V A Resurrection is Coming April 3, 2011

We are in a season of hope. Green buds and shoots are popping out of the ground. Spring daylight hours are increasing at a rapid rate making it easier to plant those early seeds like lettuce and peas and to stay outdoors later.

All this as we are about to enter the most holy time of our faith.

This last week of Lent we are brought into texts that give us hope. They tell us that there is a God who gives life even in the face of death. They tell us that we are accompanied by a Messiah who shows us the power of God’s love over death.

We are all faced with death—whether we are young or old, we have encountered the passing away of something or someone in our lives and find we go on in the face of this loss and grief. In our gospel today, Jesus’s friends Mary and Martha tell Jesus that there brother Lazarus whom Jesus loves, is dying. Jesus seems to deliberately wait to go to them, and when he arrives Martha tells Jesus that if he had been there Lazarus would not have died.

Jesus is doing something of power here though, where the God’s power over even death will be shown. Lazarus is not only a little dead, he has been dead four days. Nevetheless, the power of God through Christ gives him life again. He rises from the grave as Jesus’ command, he comes forward out of death.

We also see this power over death in the dry bones of the desert which are brought back to life, sinew upon sinew. God’s power is coming, like the bringing back to life the bulbs that have lain in under the snow and cold all winter. Everywhere we see the power of God to liven the world, bring sap into the trees, and new life to those who believe in God’s grace.

There are many ways that we not only deal with death but we ourselves are dead and dying. We may have given up on something or someone that means much to us. We may have given away our life in activities that do not feed and nourish our soul. We may see no hope for the world, be cynical about our own future. In all our ways of being dead, God is offering us hope and resurrection.

Even things long dead, like dry bones and a body long in the grave are given new life. When we think we are worthy of new life, God is saying all are worthy. When we believe that this is all there is, God is saying, wait til you see what I have for you next.

When we are like the psalmist crying out of the depths, we can also see where God is trying to give us redemption and forgiveness. When we can’t forgive ourselves, God is ready to give us another try and another, until we realize we are worthy of God’s love and grace.

My soul waits for the Lord, the psalmist tells us. Mary and Martha and Lazarus waited for Jesus and it seemed too late. God’s mercy comes when we think it is too late, when we don’t believe we can be redeemed from the deadness of our hearts and our grief and our anxieties about our lives. God comes to take our hearts of stone and bring us hearts of love. God’s mercy is always there at the right time.

Our texts this week tell us what to expect next week: of death that is not final. In this last week of Lent, they tell us to prepare for the passion stories, the stories of death but knowing that this death will ultimately bring life. We prepare our hearts for next week’s palm procession and the readings of betrayal, and suffering and death, as we also cling to the hope that death is not the final answer.

Wherever in your life that things are dying, we are called to let them go and let God’s power of life bring new buds and green shoots, with the light and warmth of God’s Sun. Wherever you have lost hope, prepare yourself to have hope restored, to know that even out of the depths God has gifts of forgiveness and redemption and new life.