Worship Notes for Sunday, April 6

Worship Notes

The Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year A

April 6, 2014

The Season

Our journey through Lent is nearing the climactic week the church calls “Holy,” beginning with Palm/Passion Sunday next Sunday. Today, we hear the fourth in a series of four long narratives from the Gospel of John, the story of the raising of Lazarus. The previous narratives featured the Pharisee, Nicodemus, who came to Jesus “by night”; the Samaritan woman at the well, who became the first witness to Jesus outside the circle of his disciples; and, last week, the man born blind, who ends up seeing more clearly than those who had had their sight since birth. He “sees” Jesus for who he is.

In Word

Aside from the accounts of the resurrection of Jesus, there are hardly any more dramatic texts in all of Scripture than our First Lesson from Ezekiel and our Gospel from John. In Ezekiel, God brings new life to a field of parched bones; in John, Jesus raises Lazarus from the tomb.

In our First Lesson, we see dry bones in a parched valley. The Lord asks the prophet, “Mortal, can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3). The prophet responds, “O Lord God, you know.” The Lord then commands the prophet to speak to the bones and to alert them to “hear the word of the Lord,” for the Lord will cause breath—spirit—to enter them. The Lord will open the graves of the dead. Out of the chaos of death and destruction, God brings new life. It is a word of hope for a scattered and beleaguered community; it is a word of hope also for us.

As the Lord opened the graves in the valley of dry bones, so, too, Jesus opens the grave of his friend, Lazarus, dead four days. Martha, the dead man’s sister, protests when Jesus commands that the stone be rolled away from the tomb: “Lord, already there is a stench!” (John 11:30b). The corpse is beyond resuscitation! Jesus authenticates his claim, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25), and, in so doing, seals his own fate. While some believe in him as a result of this dramatic event, others report him to the religious authorities, who plot his death. Can there be any more bitter irony than cruel death to the very One who gives life?

In our Second Lesson the Apostle Paul insists that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in our mortal bodies, giving us life (Romans 8:11). It is that same Spirit that brought new life to the dry bones.

Our psalmist sings the plea of all the dry bones scattered through all of human history: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord; O Lord, hear my voice!” (Psalm 130:1-2a). The psalmist knows of the life-giving Spirit of God, and all of us join in singing with our psalmist: “I wait for you, O Lord; my soul waits; in your word is my hope” (v. 5). With Lazarus, with the Apostle Paul, and with all the dry bones in all the valleys of the world, we await the Spirit of God with hope!

In Song

Our Song of the Day, “I Am the Resurrection,” by Minnesota composer David Haas, is a canon in three parts, each part overlapping the others. The simplicity of the tune brings home to the heart the profound message of Jesus’ promise: “I am the resurrection, I am the life, all who believe in me shall live.” Our Sending Hymn, “Awake, O Sleeper, Rise from Death,” sends us forth singing: “Awake, arise, go forth in faith, and Christ shall give you life.”