Dry Bones

                      "Valley of the Dry Bones" c.1935          Ben-Zion Weinman  (1897-1987)

When we hear the story of the Valley of the Dry Bones in Ezekiel, it isn’t long before we are trying to remember the words to the Sunday School song: “The hip bone’s connected to the thigh bone….”  And, “ZAP!” any interest in deciphering the meaning of the passage goes out the window. Yet the message is an important one.


So, set aside neck bones and shoulder bones for a moment (you’re humming it, aren’t you?)  and listen to the conversation God has with the prophet, Ezekiel.

“Tell these bones that I, the Lord, will put sinews on them and breathe life into them, so that they will come back to life and know that I am the Lord.”

And so, Ezekiel does and the bones come back to life. Wow!  We’ve all seen bones, bleached by the sun: fragile, dried out, inert. God is speaking, in metaphor, to those whose faith has dried up.  

How dried out is your faith? Your love of God? Your participation in the community of faith? Lent is the time when we consider the quality of our spiritual health and God's answer is always the same: “Return to me. Enter my fold. Hear my words and I will give you life and vitality – live so rich that you cannot imagine it.”  Such is God’s call to us. Return. Repent. Re-engage. God wants to put sinews on our bones, and life into our hearts.

Such is the Love of God in Christ Jesus.

Tend My Sheep

March 22, 2017

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Rev. Liz

The LORD is my shepherd; *

     I shall not be in want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures *

     and leads me beside still waters.

He revives my soul *

     and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.                                                                         Psalm 23: 1-3

                                             "Life Out West"                D. Whitehead

At our Vestry meeting the other night during our Bible Study, we were talking about sheep and lambs, and Jesus’ mandate to “feed my sheep,” and to “take care of my lambs.”  One Vestry member commented that we are drawn to lambs because they are cute and cuddly – but then they grow up into sheep, which are harder to love because they can become obstinate, dirty, and stupid. Her point was that Jesus asked us, mandated us, to take care of them all – not just the cute, fuzzy ones.  

This Sunday, we will read together the most famous psalm of them all, the 23rd Psalm. In it, we realize it the writer believes that the Lord is his shepherd.  As Christians, we believe this too.  The good news is that our Lord loves us and accepts us as his own whether we are cute and fuzzy little lambs or tired, old, obstinate sheep. Thank goodness for that! The Lord provides for our needs, brings us to green pastures, and revives our souls.

In turn, our Lord asks us to do the same with those around us. “Feed my sheep; take care of my lambs,” he said.  Tend to those who are cute and fuzzy, but also to those who are restless, irritable, and discontent. That is our call.

Sustenance

 “Rabbi, eat something.” But Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.”   John 4: 31-34

The last thing this volunteer is thinking about is where his next meal is coming from or why he isn’t home watching the latest episode of Dancing with the Stars. His food, his sustenance, is the pure contentment we find when we follow the way of Jesus: helping others, doing unto others what we would have them do unto us.

We all know the feeling: the satisfaction, the warm in your belly contentment that comes from doing the right thing. Whether it is teaching English as a second language or picking up litter, we know the feeling that comes from altruism. Whether it is serving hot lunches at Trinity Soup Kitchen or reaching out to a lonely senior, the Kingdom of God is found in those exchanges.  

When we murmur and moan (as the Israelites did while wandering in the desert), it is a sign to us that we need a fresh infusion of the Kingdom of God. We find it not in complaining, but when we get out of ourselves and connect with others.  Our sustenance comes from service; joy and happiness come from jumping into the Kingdom of God wherever we encounter it.

Seek ye first the Kingdom – and JUMP!   

Born Again

Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  John 3:5-7

The Providence Journal  1903

In this complicated conversation between Jesus and the Pharisee, we come face to face with the phrase “Born again.”  This phrase has become a sort of fundamentalist litmus test – where people ask each other “have you been born again” in order to assess another’s faith.  It is time re-claim this phrase and understand it as the scripture intended it.

So what is “to be born again?”  As Jesus explains it, we must be born twice. The first time, through water, speaks to human birth – that moment when a baby emerges from the womb and draws one’s first breath. Being born again, being born in the Spirit, is another thing all together.  Some say it is a decision we make as adults, independent of others, to decide to follow Jesus – but many others believe that it is that moment in Holy Baptism when the Spirit binds us to a community of faith entrusted to teach us in the ways of following Jesus.    

What do you think?  Is it one or the other? Or is it both? To argue these divergent viewpoints is to risk missing the Truth that God is bound to us inextricably; that there is nothing we can do to separate ourselves from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.  And when we recognize that, then life becomes anything but rigid and stiff; life becomes flexible and increasingly comfortable with living in the paradox that is life. 

Return. Rend. Re-Orient.

Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing.    Joel 2: 12 

Yad Hasmona Biblical Garden    Israel

"Rend your heart and not your clothing"  seems to get at the very heart of what in means to keep a "Holy Lent."  Lent should never devolve into just "giving something up."  For what is the good of that? Losing a few pounds? Feeling triumphant that you can temporarily overcome some addiction?  Pleasing a spouse or a parent?

Neither is Lent about focusing on our fallen nature, as many of us have heard it preached before. Lent is about returning to the Lord.  It needn't be a public show apologizing for our misbehavior; God already knows all that.

Lent is about our hearts.  It is about returning to God and remembering whose we are. When we return our focus to God, there may well be some repentance and fasting, but not always. Sometimes, just the returning is enough.  In simply returning, in rending our hearts, we may just find ourselves deeply thankful for God's forgiveness and grace and mercy. And isn't that the point?

Return. Rend your hearts, Re-orient.

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