Link to Home page
Sunday Services
7:30 and 10:30 AM

 

The
Cathedral Church
of Saint John
Ten Concord Ave.
Wilmington
Delaware
19802

voice: (302) 654-6279
fax: (302) 777-5789

Wheelchair
Accessible

Parking lot
on Concord Avenue

  

Dean’s Sermon
5th Sunday in Lent
10 April 2011

Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:6-14; and John 11:1-45

by the Very Reverend William B. Lane

A Vision of Resurrection

This is the fifth Sunday in Lent, not Easter, but we are given a vision of resurrection and new life in today's readings. Israel resurrected from exile in Babylon to a new life in the land of promise as envisioned by the prophet Ezekiel with his metaphor of the dry bones. Lazarus returned to life through resuscitation, a preview of even greater new life in the resurrection of Jesus, as John tells the story. The promise of God's desire and intention that we participate in the glory of that resurrection as Paul reminds the Roman Christian community.

These stories and declarations of faith remind us of our heritage in the monumental story of God and humankind. Creator and creature, one desiring and the other needing healing of that relationship. One acting to inaugurate that healing, the other often failing to perceive that action; too distracted or self occupied to recognize the grace of God.

In Ezekiel's vision, it is the creative breath, the wind, the Spirit of God, that breaths to life dry, dead bones. And Ezekiel knows that God intends to breath life, to redeem Israel from the death of exile: "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. The same wind, Spirit of God that was in at creation, is now in at recreation.

In John's account of the raising of Lazarus, just as God speaks life into being in creation, so Jesus speaks Lazarus to life from death: 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.

And Paul commends the Roman faith community to live in the Spirit of God. The Spirit that is present at creation, the Spirit present in the redemption of Israel from exile, the Spirit acting in the word spoken by Jesus, this Spirit is now available for all who are the people of Jesus: But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

God is a God of life, not death. Even when death is justified, God turns to life as in the story of the fall in Genesis. So God goes for life with the Exodus and persists in making it available; so again with the redemption from the death of exile; and so again, the victory of victories for life, the resurrection of Jesus.

So if life is so important to God, does it not follow that it must be important to us who call God our heavenly Father? And if your life is important to God, and my life is important to God, might we not surmise that all life is important to God? Must we not go on to say that as your life is important to God, so it is important to me, and if my life is important to God, so it is important to you, and if all life is important to God, so all life is important to me and to you?

The poet and Anglican Divine, John Donne spoke to this: "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. . . ."

Perhaps it might not be necessary to say, but so much points to it being necessary, God, our Father in heaven, does not create statistics, God creates life. Amongst other topics, I have been doing some reading about the Pacific campaign during the 2nd World War. This reading is full of numbers, statistics about the killed in battle. Often the word "just" is used: there were 2000 Japanese killed, but just 720 Americans. Is that meant to make me happy, just 720 dead, but boy 2000 of the enemy. Or should I not pause in my reading and reflect 2720 creatures of God were killed one afternoon in mortal combat? Nothing to rejoice in.

If God is a God of life, and John Donne is correct that we are interdependent, then my life is enriched by your well being and diminished by your wounds. The life of the child locked in an abusive situation in a far off place is no less connected to my humanity than if she or he were a next door neighbor. The joy on the face of a young woman rejoicing in the hope offered by the spring time of freedom in Egypt is my joy, your joy as well. The life draining from the body of one on the executioners gurney is life draining from me as well. In our human mutuality, we are not called to be Sargent Schulz's who "see nothing."

In John's telling of the raising of Lazarus, it is Thomas of all people, the one we label as doubter, who, perhaps intuitively, commits to the interdependence of human life. The disciples have tried to talk Jesus out of going to Bethany out of fear. But when Jesus determines to go, it is Thomas who links his life with Jesus and calls the rest to do so: Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

The life of Israel coming forth from the death of exile, the new opportunity for Lazarus coming forth from the burial tomb, and most certainly the life of Jesus in the new body of resurrection, all connect to my life and to yours and to all humankind in all ages and in all places. No person is an island unto her or himself. We rise and fall together.

Faithfully,
The Very Reverend William B. Lane

Photo of Lesser Celendine with fallen tree in background, by Danny N. Schweers

Dean’s Sermons:

Cathedral Call Letters from the Dean

Back to Top