Dem Bones

By Pat Lee

(Based on John 11:1-45; Ezek 37:1-14)

When I read the story of Ezekiel and the valley of the dry bones, I can’t help thinking back to the fifties and a song that was popular on the radio then. “Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones (x3), now hear da Word of da Lord”!

[My thanks to Michael K Marsh for aspects of the following reflection.]

Last week how blessed we were to have Psalm 23 as our appointed psalm. It was exactly what we needed to hear. We needed to be reminded that the Lord is our Shepherd and we shall not want. We needed to be assured that all shall be well.
Last week we stood in the valley of death. This week we stand in the valley of the dry bones. They’re not too different. Look at what is happening in the world today with so many nations at war. Reading about the valley of the dry bones – it’s exactly what we, our country, and our world need to hear. Why?
Because it’s a story of hope. It’s a story of promise. It’s a story about a people who have a future. If ‘all shall be well’ is the theme that runs through Psalm 23, then ‘you shall live’ is the theme that runs through the valley of the dry bones.

Three things came to mind about Ezekiel. The first one was that he saw. The Lord brought him to the valley of dry bones where there were not just a few bones, but thousands. This made me wonder what his first reaction was at seeing them. I think my reaction would have been to weep over seeing so many people who, most probably, had been slain in battle.
Back in 1987 I visited one of the burial grounds in Germany where my father-in-law, who was a pilot during the Second World War, was buried. The sight of thousands of graves of young allied airmen, was so overwhelming that the tears flowed, hence my wondering about Ezekiel. Did he feel emotional about what he saw?

The second one was that he listened. The Lord told him to prophesy over these dead bones so that they would come together and be covered with flesh and tendons. And again, to prophesy that the winds would come and fill the bodies with breath. At this stage he was probably feeling very uncertain and powerless.

The third one was that he obeyed. He prophesied as the Lord had commanded him to do and the bones came to life. Wow! What a sight that must have been. I think it would also have been a great relief.

Then the Lord said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and have done it, declares the Lord.’” (NIV)

There is a link between the story of the dry bones and the Gospel reading, a difference being that only one man was brought back to life this time. But what else is in this reading that links back to the Ezekiel story? It’s another example of a story of hope, promise, and a people who have a future.

Jesus was more than just an acquaintance with this family. He was a family friend. So why did it take so long for him to go to Bethany, less than two miles from Jerusalem, when he knew Lazarus was ill? It was because Jesus had a message that wasn’t just for Martha and Mary, but for all who had come to comfort the sisters in their loss, and for us.
Martha went out and met Jesus when he was still some distance from Bethany. You can hear the anger, bitterness and even admonishment as well as disappointment in her voice when she says to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Perhaps that was her grief talking – a natural reaction when someone we love dies.

Mary went out to meet Jesus too, and fell at his feet, and also said the same thing as her sister. “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” Unlike her sister though, only disappointment seems to be in her voice. As we all experience disappointment in our lives, especially when things don’t turn out as we expect them to.

They both wanted answers and explanations, just as we do.

Attempting to insulate ourselves from disappointment, and demanding once and for all answers to life’s questions, is to close ourselves to the vulnerabilities that make possible real life, love, intimacy, and relationships with God, and with one another. It limits what we are willing to risk giving or receiving. It leaves the stone in place over Lazarus’s tomb, and refuses to consider God’s question to Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

While we might want to escape our disappointments, life wants to use them. Life will not waste our disappointments, and Jesus always stands in the middle of life. Disappointment calls into question our assumptions about life, ourselves, each other, and God. Disappointment opens our eyes to a different way of seeing.
Isn’t that what he’s doing with Martha and Mary?  “I am the resurrection and life.” “Take away the stone.” “Did I not tell you that you that believed, you would see the glory of God?” “Lazarus come out.” “Unbind him and let him go.” With those words Jesus is holding before Martha and Mary the valley that they are currently walking through. “Son of Man, can these bones live again?” He’s asking them to take a risk; because the body has been dead for four days. He’s asking them to trust, just as Ezekiel had to do.

Did Jesus have disappointments in his life? He sure did. He not only had the disappointment of the death of Lazarus, but the crucifixion, Peter’s drawn sword and violence, Judas’s betrayal, the disciples sleeping in the garden, the way his Father’s house had been turned into a ‘den of robbers’, his disciples arguing about who was the greatest, the disciples’ misunderstanding of who he is, the world’s refusal to receive him … and in myriad other ways.

So, what is the valley that you are walking through right now? A broken relationship with family or friend, a death of someone you loved, a terminal diagnosis of a loved one, of ongoing pain, depression or grief? We all have our valleys. Whatever it is, it’s a place where Jesus has walked and shown the way forward. It is not the dark place we often think it is. We need to take it to him because he is the Shepherd who will lead us out of that valley.

The valley that is the question mark of life becomes the exclamation mark of God: the exclamation mark of love, the exclamation mark of life and light, the exclamation mark of mercy and forgiveness, the exclamation mark of wisdom, beauty, and generosity, the exclamation mark of hope, healing, and compassion, and, ultimately, the exclamation mark of God’s “yes” to you, me and our lives.

“Son of man, can these bones live again?” The answer to that question echoes throughout the valley that we are walking through right now. Yes they can! Yes they do! Yes they will! 

Seeing Truly

by Rev Megan Means

(Based on John 9:1-41)

“Who truly sees?”
Do we really see?
Here are a few quick pointers into this story: Firstly, let us reject the notion that this man’s blindness was caused by sin; rather, let us be cautious about assuming we know why people suffer.
Let us note that in the Hebrew prophets, blindness is often symbolic. It is more about spiritual perception rather than focussing on physical healings, as saliva and clay were commonly used in ancient healing practices.

The man here was not just blind, he was also a beggar, and socially marginalised and, ironically, after healing he faced interrogation and continued exclusion.
And remember that Jesus, the disciples, and the Pharisees are all Jewish. Which should lead to self-examination, not blaming another religion.

So, “Who truly sees?”

[I am using some Lent material from The Desert and the Garden by Sarah Lea West https://sarahleawest.art/?v=c97b334ffd41]

A man born blind meets Jesus and sees for the first time. However, the miracle of restored sight is really not the conclusion of this story. This man’s healing disturbs the established order of things. The neighbours debate, the leaders are cynical, and the parents distance themselves in fear. Seeing, it seems, is more threatening than blindness.

Light in John’s Gospel follows a theme of revelation. Light reveals things as they truly are. When the man begins to see, his sight strengthens his voice and he begins to speak out. His witness unsettles those who prefer a narrative that fits inside a neat and predictable box. As the man continues to speak, even Jesus’s disciples are forced to question their own assumptions about sin … worth … and who God favours.

Faith in Jesus is the focus, and the story tells us something about what that means.
Faith includes willingness to see and do the truth, rather than to find false meaning in the hard circumstances of others. Suffering or social location, and whatever else may define people in the world’s eyes, do not reveal anyone’s actual inner truths.

The light of Christ exposes injustice as much as it illuminates beauty. It shows what is hidden in plain sight: those rendered invisible by poverty, disability or exclusion. In every age, institutions have found shelter in darkness because light tends to hinder control. Yet liberation begins with the courage to see things as they really are.
To follow Jesus is to learn to see again, to allow God’s light to touch our illusions and revolutionise them. The light that healed one man still moves through the world, challenging us to live as people who refuse to look away.

Where in our own lives and communities do we resist seeing what is right in front of us because it might unsettle what feels comfortable or familiar?
How does Christ’s light challenge the stories or assumptions we have about who is worthy, who is to be included, or who is whole?

Prayer
Light of the world,
You open our eyes to see what is real,
to that which is beautiful,
but also the wounds we would rather ignore.
Give us courage to face what your light reveals.
When truth unsettles our comfort,
keep us from turning away.
When we glimpse injustice or pain,
teach us to respond with love and resolve.
Let your light restore our sight
where fear has kept us blind.
May we learn to see what is real,
and choose truth,
even when it unsettles us. Amen.

Stand Firm

by Pat Lee

(Based on Matt 4:1-11; Gen 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Ro 5:12-19)

For those of us who have attended an Ash Wednesday service in the past, we may have heard the words, when we received the ashes, a paraphrased quote from Genesis 3:19: “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The ashes that are placed on our foreheads are placed in the sign of the cross, a symbol of hope. We begin the season of Lent by reminding ourselves that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. But it is a cross-shaped reminder, done with conviction that when we bind ourselves to Jesus, we bind ourselves not just to his death, but also to his resurrection.

Adam and Eve did not have to return to dust when they died, because everything in the Garden of Eden was perfect, and there was no sin.  They had the freedom to eat anything in it. But God commanded them not to eat from the “tree of knowledge of good and evil”, because, if they did, they would die and return to dust, as in Genesis 3:19.

Then the serpent appeared on the scene and that changed everything, because he tempted them to eat the forbidden fruit, telling them they would “become like” God. So, they ate. They disobeyed God’s command. Sin began.

Looking up the root of the word sin as used in both the Old and the New Testaments, this is what I found.
Hebrew (khata or chata), used in the Old Testament, means ‘to fail’ or ‘miss the goal’ of hitting a target, or to ‘stray from the path’, often in the context of violating God’s commandments of failing to meet ethical expectations.
Greek (harmartia), used in the New Testament, originates from archery, referring to missing the bullseye. It implies a ‘failure, error, or mistake’ in fulfilling the goal of loving God and others.

Essentially, the original concept is less about being ‘evil’ and more about ‘missing the target’ of being in alignment with divine will.

 So Adam and Eve missed the target, failed, and strayed from the path with their disobedience of God’s command. However, they aren’t the only ones who have disobeyed God. They are not the only ones who have faced the devil’s temptations and fallen. After Adam and Eve there was their son, Cain, who killed his brother out of jealousy. By the time Noah came along, God was ready to erase this world and start again. But he, Noah, found favour “in the sight of the Lord”, so he (and we) were given another chance.

After Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all had their struggles. Joseph and his brothers, too. When Moses led God’s people into the wilderness, you might say it became pretty easy hunting for the crafty serpent. And once God’s people made it to the ‘Promised Land’?
Remember Saul and David?

Over and over in Scripture, even the heroes of our faith succumbed to the temptations of the devil. There were moments of great faith, to be sure. Moments when God’s people looked the tester in the face and said, no. Daniel, for example. But all too often, sin won out. The devil won out. In fact, ever since Adam and Eve brought sin into the world, humanity has found itself captive to sin, unable to free ourselves. To put it simply, we are not strong enough to overcome sin on our own. None of us is. No one throughout history, except for one.

What makes today’s Gospel reading so important?
It is because it shows Jesus doing what no one else had ever been able to do: Locked in a battle with the devil at his strongest, Jesus emerges victorious, resisting his every temptation, and passing his every test – not just for himself, but for us.

Someone has written, “If every copy of the Bible were ever destroyed, and we had only this single page which tells the story of Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness, it would be enough.”

Why would it be enough?
Because it shows that what Adam and Eve could not do in the Garden of Eden, and what God’s people could not do over and over again, and what you and I cannot do on our own, Jesus was able to do. Because Jesus won over the devil, and sin, you and I can too by facing him without fear.

James 4:7 says, “Humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him.”

So, what does Jesus’s victory in the wilderness teach us?
First, before it shows us what we can do, it shows us what Jesus did. He defeated sin, death and the devil for us, and later he “finished” it completely on the cross. It shows us that during this season of Lent we can trust that Jesus is right there alongside us. We can learn from his words and deeds. We can learn what he did and try to pattern our lives after his.

Second, we learn that the timing of this story is important. It happened right after Jesus was baptised. That teaches us that baptism doesn’t preserve us from temptation, but prepares us for temptation by uniting us with Jesus. With his help and him at our sides, we can overcome our own temptations.

When we are tempted, it’s good to remember that the devil knows the Bible too, and can quote it. That’s why we need to stay rooted in God’s word. Jesus quoted the Word back at the devil; we need to be able to do the same.

The words in Romans 5 are quite difficult to get your head around when you first hear them, but I think it is a good explanation, if lengthy, of what Jesus did for us. It can be summed up in the last two verses: From the New Living Testament, “Yes, Adam’s sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.”

I read in Our Daily Bread this story. “After years of struggle and crying out in prayer, Frank quit drinking. He attributes his continued sobriety to God’s work in his life. But he also made some important changes. He no longer kept alcohol in the house, watched for warning signs in his thinking and moods, and was wary of certain situations. He leaned on God and knew not to leave an opening for temptation or sin.
“‘Be alert and of sober mind,’ the apostle Peter warned. ‘Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.’ (1 Peter 5:8) Peter knew we needed to be watchful because the devil’s attacks are often unexpected – when it seems like your life couldn’t be better, or you think we’d never be tempted in a certain area.
“James too warned his readers to submit to God and ‘resist the devil’. When you do, our enemy will flee (James 4:7). The best way to resist him is to stay close to God through prayer and spending time in Scripture. When we do, God comes near to us (v8) through his Spirit (Romans 5:5). James also offered this encouragement: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
“We all face challenging moments in life when we are tempted and struggle. We can rest knowing that God wants us to succeed and overcome. He is with us in all our troubles.”

When I read this I thought that it was such a comfort to know that someone else is on the same page as me.

Before we finish, let me ask you, “Who here was a Boy Scout or a Guide Guide?”
Today is World Thinking Day (the 22nd of February). This is the birth date of both Lord and Lady Bayden-Powell, who began both the Scouts and the Guides movements. Their motto was Be Prepared.
I thought that very apt for today’s message to us.

God of new beginnings, you meet us wherever we are, and stand by us in the lowest points of our lives. Help us to recognize your presence, even in wasteland. Give us the clarity to know what is right, and the courage to reject tempting alternatives. In Jesus’ Name, we pray …

Divorce and Oaths – a Reflection

by Liz Young

(Based on Matt 5:21-37; 1 Cor 3:1-9)

Continuing the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus reflects on divorce and the taking of oaths.

My husband was very reluctant to divorce his first wife, in the sixties, because it was just not done in his family. But they had married because she was pregnant, and it was before the days of the pill, and they were totally unsuited.
My sister had three boys before she was twenty one, as her GP wouldn’t prescribe the pill while she was breastfeeding; she’s now divorced too.
As I look round the congregation today, I wonder how many of our generation here have divorced because they first married when they were too young.

In Jesus’s day, for the same reason, lack of efficient contraception, women got married at the end of puberty and men at the age of eighteen. But marriage then was more about the exchange of property, and ensuring the birth of children – who would be expected to look after their parents, as they grew older. Marriage was planned and documents exchanged at the time of the betrothal. Among Jewish people the father had absolute authority over the household, including the life and death of his children and selling his children into slavery.
But, as well as rights, he had responsibilities: he was expected to provide his wife and children with all their basic needs.                                                                                                                         Wives and mothers had few legal rights but a lot of practical authority: they prepared meals, baked bread and shared in squeezing olive oil, made butter and tended the animals. In practice, most men realized how much they depended on their wives for their daily comfort.

In Jesus’s time the stability of Jewish families was envied by the surrounding pagan societies. But divorce was available; it was an option for Joseph, Mary’s fiancee, to consider.

John and I married at age 35, for companionship, and shared laughter, as well as safe sexual stability: and I thank God for more than forty happy years.

Many couples are/were not so lucky. My grandparents were founders of the marriage guidance movement in the UK, which sprung into action after World War Two, as many wartime marriages did not live up to expectation. [And, as I wrote this, I realized that changing mores have meant that today people no longer stay in unhappy marriages, or even get married in the first place. So I Googled the end of Marriage Guidance and Relationship Services and found that it had gone into liquidation in 2015.]

Divorce rates vary nationally. Currently the highest rates are in the USA and Russia, and the lowest rates are in Ireland, Greece and Mexico. In New Zealand we are average, with a divorce rate of about twenty per cent, and divorce occurs at an equal rate in all age groups, from 25-65, and the divorce rate here peaked in1996.
Divorce was frowned upon by the church in the UK, and NZ, as I was growing up, and the Anglican Church in NZ still hasn’t formally allowed divorcees to remarry in church. (But has informally allowed it since 1970!)

Jesus was much harsher though. He said whoever divorces his wife except on grounds of unfaithfulness is making her an adulteress.
This makes me question how often my behaviour follows my cultural norm rather than Jesus’s direct teaching.

Then Jesus comments on swearing oaths in God’s name. Not what Jesus was talking about, but I remember clearly the silence that fell over the Special Care Baby Unit in 1980 at Waikato Hospital when I swore while I was having difficulty inserting a drip. I didn’t continue swearing at that time, but I can’t say that I stopped swearing altogether, even if I did change that word to ‘merde’.
The swearing Jesus was referring to, partly, was ‘taking the name of God in vain’, and I’m sure that is something we would all try not to do.

The other reading that I would like to comment on is Paul’s from Corinthians. Paul starts by commenting on the Corinthians’ spiritual immaturity: he notes that they argue, they are divided about their beliefs, and form factions. Ie, human behaviour; very similar behaviour to what we see today, world wide. We’re just human. We form groups of about thirty with common interests who work towards the same goals, and are cautious with strangers. I always value our Opportunity Shop, where a group of women work toward the common good, supporting each other while providing us, the church, with a stable income, and plenty extra that we can give out to charities – local, national and international.

We are fortunate with our leaders at St Francis, and we recognize and value our different gifts.

So, the message we need to take away is that we need to keep our focus on God, on what he has graciously provided for us, and what he requires of us. We need to remember and accept that we are human, we can be jealous and envious, we can form factions and be cautious of strangers. Make sure you greet someone you don’t know this week, and find out their current worries and joys; and make sure when you’re working together you are working for the common good.
And those of us who still have partners, never go to sleep without sorting out your differences.