New Lives for Old

Psalm 130; Ezekiel 37:1-14; John 11:1-45; Romans 8:6-11

Rev. Chris Harbin, Central Baptist Church—Lowesville, VA

09 March 2008

Politicians tell us we will need military presence in Iraq for decades. The ongoing insurgency seems to have no hope for an end. The crisis surrounding Israel and the Middle East continues unabated. Somalia, Ethiopia, and the Sudan continue facing seemingly hopeless crises. World Help brought to mind the implications of the HIV/AIDS plague throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, with seemingly hopeless projections for annihilating most of the populations there within my lifetime. About half of the world’s population lives on less than $2 per day,^[1] 24 times less combined income than we spent on the Iraq war in 2007. Resolution of healthcare issues in our own nation does not seem likely in the near future. Families seem increasingly plagued with accounts of abuse, neglect, distrust, and failing marriage. We are hounded by fears over immigration, economics, terrorism, violence, education, and distrust of institutions tasked with making life safe and comfortable. How can God respond to such real-world issues that seem hopeless?

Today’s readings are once again stories of God’s action in the impossible scenarios of life. Mary and Martha could not imagine Lazarus alive, when he had been dead for four days. Ezekiel had no hope left for the nation being deported into exile, much less to see dried up bones recover flesh and life. Time and again, it seems God had to remind people that as Creator, nothing is hopeless or impossible when placed in God’s hands. We somehow see real-world issues as beyond God’s reach. We may talk about God’s omnipotence, but we live as though we were on our own, with no help in sight. Can there be new life in the midst of the old we know so well?

Jesus was constantly surrounded by folks who just did not understand. We would expect the crowds not to recognize the implications of his teachings. We would expect the religious institution not to accept the dissonant note of Jesus’ message. We read of the disciples like Peter putting their feet in their mouths time and again for failing to grasp Jesus’ teaching. We still expect them to somehow see in Jesus what we have come to expect—one for whom nothing is impossible. We see one who can do as he will—for whom life has no limitations—way back 2000 years ago, anyway. Deep down, we read the gospel in a similar way to which we read fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Anything can happen in those accounts. We suspend disbelief, because they are not stories about our daily struggles.

For Mary and Martha, grief was real. They were struggling not with issues of some account of long ago. They were embroiled in the pain of having just lost their brother. They lived in his home. He was their support. He was their provider. They depended on him to make it in their world. With his sickness and death, their foundation in life was shaken. Mary and Martha could not quite understand why Jesus had delayed in coming. They still loved Jesus, but they could not understand why he had not come to them while Lazarus was still alive. They had laid him in a tomb, along with their hope and security. Now they were taken by despair, grief, and the turmoil of being let down by one they trusted.

“I am the resurrection and the life. One trusting me will live. Do you trust me?”

Ezekiel found himself in a situation of national calamity and despair. Exile and deportation was being forced upon the nation. Israel had been scattered among nations of the known world. They would lose their identity. Judah was now being deported to exile in Babylon. They would never be able to come back together as the people of Yahweh, serving the one true God. Hope was lost. Despair reigned in the stead of faith. It seemed that God had given up on Israel and Judah alike. There was not hope of reversing the tragedy Babylon was wreaking upon Judah. Hope was lost, and the people abandoned.

Then God stepped in with this vision of dry bones. “Ezekiel, do not give up hope. I can grant life to bones that have dried up and lost their flesh. I can also restore Judah. Will you trust me?”

Paul had encountered his share of challenging and seemingly hopeless times. He had been bruised, beaten, whipped, imprisoned, and left for dead after being stoned. He had not given up on hope and trust, however. Life was plagued by real concerns. There were still enemies who wanted him dead. He still struggled to resist those who wanted to force the gospel of Christ Jesus into a straight-jacket of legalism. He was hounded by those who wanted to reverse his offer of the gospel to Gentiles like ourselves. He was run out of town after town as his enemies incited riots against him.

Despite the pressures and issues he faced, he accepted that life did not follow the rules many assumed true. He trusted that God was still involved in his life and leading him in the midst of the seemingly hopeless opposition he faced. He trusted that God could work life in the midst of the distress, suffering, despair, and death that surrounded him. He recognized that he had a choice. He could choose to surrender to hopelessness or trust God for the seemingly impossibility of new life amid the old.

Paul’s was a life surrendered to radical transformation. He found in allowing God to take over his thinking, actions, and perspective that new life arose from death. The old, dry bones he would otherwise see became living, breathing life under the hand of God’s presence. Hopelessness was transformed into new possibility and life in the presence and action of God’s spirit living and working through him.

Setting or focusing his mind on God changed his perspective on the real-world issues he faced. It took him beyond the limits of his faithlessness and doubt. It brought him into a new paradigm of possibility. Life had new purpose, meaning, and hope. This focus of trust on God’s presence and action meant that life could finally be lived beyond the fear of despair.

It all began with a choice. For Paul it was a choice to stop trusting in law, tradition, and heritage. It was a choice to look upon the gospel message with new eyes, seeing how God desired to love the entire world. For Mary and Martha, it was about seeing life according to God’s possibilities, rather than their own limitations. It was trusting that God was not simply interested in granting new life in stories of long ago, but in their lives as well. For Ezekiel, it was a choice to trust that God could bring about what seemed completely impossible. Are we willing to allow God to do something new with our lives?

Are the stories of the Exodus just stories with little more credibility than what we give to fairy tales? Do we accept that the God who granted new life to a band of Hebrew slaves can intervene in our lives as well? When life appears hopeless, do we trust God for new possibilities? Do we trust God with issues of daily living as well as eternity? “I am resurrection and the life. The one trusting me will live. Do you trust? Is God perhaps awaiting us to open ourselves to the impossible he can accomplish in us?

—©2008 Christopher B. Harbin

This sermon in pdf

¹ http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp, updated on 04 March 2008.