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March 9, 2008 - "Running in Reverse" - The Rev. Vicky Ney
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March 9, 2008 “Running in Reverse” The Rev. Vicky Ney
Text: Ezekiel 37:1-14 & John 11 (selected verses)
Nothing sends me down memory lane—reminiscing about the past—like a phone call from an old friend. This happened to me about week ago. My old friend Karen, whom I have known since we were in first grade together, made a surprise call to me. She and I went all through school together. We even went to the same church.
That phone call triggered lots of memories for me. I thought about the old church. I thought about school. I even thought about my old school teachers—especially my fifth grade teacher, Miss Osman. I don’t remember her first name. Back when I was in elementary school, I don’t think we particularly thought any of our teachers were real people. It probably didn’t dawn on me that she even had a first name—other than Miss!
Anyway, Miss Osman was a great teacher. She seemed rather elderly—although now that I think about it, she was probably close to my age! She was very kind and gentle and loving. I don’t ever remember her yelling at any child in my class.
Miss Osman would usually allow my class to watch a movie about once or twice a month—a real treat. She would send to the County lending library to find a pertinent movie on some subject we were studying. We loved to see those great big film boxes sent up to our class room—and they were big boxes—for those big reel to reel movies. I loved walking into class to discover the shades drawn and the 16mm projector all set up facing the big pull-down screen at the front of the room. We all knew we wouldn’t have any work to do that afternoon—just sit back and watch a film.
Thinking back, I feel a sort of kin-ship with Miss Osman. I think she must have had as much trouble with the technology of her day as I do with ours today. She had 16 mm and film strip projectors to deal with and ABDick copiers to hand-crank; I have computers and power point projectors in my arsenal of troublesome machines! I have a feeling she was as nervous using machinery as I am using mine today. The reason I’m making that assumption is that when those big old films were done, usually the person in charge let the film run out all the way to the end. Then they would rethread the machine and flip the “rewind” switch. Not Miss Osman. She wasn’t taking any chances. Instead of rethreading the whole film projector to rewind the film, she would stop the film just before it finished the first reel, and turn the dial to “reverse.” She was probably afraid she wouldn’t be able to retread the machine correctly!
Until she turned the projector light bulb off, the film was then viewed backwards—but in fast motion! We would all laugh hysterically at the antics on the screen; things that had disintegrated suddenly were reconstituted, buildings shaken to pieces by earthquakes took their previous shape before our eyes, people who had been knocked to the ground suddenly sprang back to life. It looked very funny.
As I was thinking about our scripture passages for today, I realized that is almost what was happening in those verses—God’s power to run the film in reverse—actually to run life in reverse—God’s power to solve life problems we can’t solve. God’s power to bring life out of the grave.
Think about the passage from Ezekiel for a moment. What did you see? Bones—many, many bones, a graveyard (actually a battlefield) with unburied bones, all over the ground. But a little further on in the passage you see an unexpected spectacle! Ezekiel speaks God’s Word and while he’s speaking, as the old spiritual goes, “the leg bones’s getting connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone. The hip bone’s connected to the back bone…” God says, “I will make you live and breathe again.” God’s power makes the scene run in reverse.
Now think about the passage from John 11. A friend of Jesus has died. He’s already been placed in the family tomb. All the mourners are there. The family is crying.
But Jesus says, “Roll the stone away from that grave. Lazarus, come out!”
Everything is running in reverse. Wow! This is certainly not what anyone expected!
I’ve always had one question to ask about this story: How did Mary and Martha and the mourners react to this event? They watched a man who had been dead for four days—“undeniably, reliably, most sincerely, dead”—wrapped in burial cloths, walk out of a tomb. Did the people standing there scream or gasp? Did they hold their breath? Were they stunned speechless with their mouths hanging open? All of the above?
There was obviously shock, to say the least. I’m guessing that Lazarus looked rather Mummy-like. Probably no one moved, because Jesus had to tell them to unbind Lazarus—take the grave wrappings off. In that moment, right before their eyes, death ran in reverse back to life.
Next question—did everyone just fall down at Jesus’ feet and proclaim him to be God Almighty? Definitely not.
I think that there were four types of people—four different reactions from the people who witnessed Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead.
First of all, some people were angry. That’s almost hard to imagine, isn’t it? Instead of being happy for Mary and Martha, they were angered that Jesus just walked right in with his “super powers”—voo-doo, witchcraft—whatever—and did what they believed only God could do. Well, yeah! He was God, but they didn’t understand that! Watching Jesus bring Lazarus back from the dead angered some of them so much that it set in motion the events that led to Jesus being arrested and sent to the cross.
The second type of person who watched this miracle was the rational explanation-type. You know the type, people who have trouble accepting that the supernatural can sometimes overlap with the natural—that there must be a rational explanation. I can picture a few of them walking home later saying, “I told you Mary and Martha put Lazarus in the tomb too soon. He probably wasn’t even dead yet.
And then there was the type of person who has collected enough life experiences to feel comfortable with the “mysterious” in life—who feel that the supernatural does indeed occasionally overlap with the natural. They can’t explain it, but, oh well….They just sort of scratch their head in bewilderment, and go back to whatever they were doing. No big deal—just another of life’s surprises.
And finally there are the people of faith, who see this “mystery,” the overlap between the natural and the supernatural, as the evidence of God’s actions in the world.
They see that Jesus, who was God in the flesh, has the power to reverse something as awful as death.
I believe Martha was in that last group. In recording the conversation between Martha and Jesus, the writer of the Gospel wants us to be clear who Jesus really is. Jesus says to Martha, “I AM the resurrection and the life.” In that statement, Jesus tells all of us that he and God are one. The Old Testament constantly told us that God has power over life and death. And here we know that Jesus shares fully in that power with God.
The promise of resurrection and life is not at some distant time in heaven. The promise of resurrection and life is already available in the person of Jesus.
When Jesus defeats the power of death, the world—all of us—meet the power of love incarnate. Because God loves the world, God gives Jesus to us for our salvation. We heard these words very clearly earlier in this Gospel: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
As miraculous as this story of Lazarus is, it is just a prelude to Jesus final victory over sin and death that we will celebrate again in two weeks on Easter morning. Easter proclaims once and for all that the power of death cannot remove us from life with God—that NOTHING can ever remove us from life with God.
Let’s just go back to Lazarus’ tomb for a moment. After Jesus told Martha that he was the resurrection and the life, he asked her, “Do you believe this?” Martha replied, “Yes, Lord, I believe.”
But just a few short minutes later, as Jesus was ready to call Lazarus out of the tomb, Martha interrupts Jesus and basically says, “Just a minute, Lord. If you’re thinking of going in that tomb or bringing him out, just remember that he’s been dead four days and he stinks!”
Martha’s fabulous confession of faith just a few minutes earlier could not prepare her for the fullness of Jesus’ identity or his power. She wasn’t prepared for the gift of new life.
Let me ask you a question: Are we prepared for the gift of new life?
I think Jesus’ question to Martha, “Did I not tell you if you believe you would see the glory of God?” is really an invitation to us. The Good News is that God promises us NOT just life after death, but life BEFORE death. Abundant life. Empowered life. Life that is buoyant with hope. That is what resurrection really is—life in the midst of graveyards and broken dreams and disappointments and dead ends. Hope in the midst of hopelessness.
I think we all might be a lot like Martha. We say we believe. We recite the creeds. Maybe we say we understand that Jesus is God incarnate and that he forever changed the course of human history. But the question is, do we LIVE as though Jesus decisively altered the human experience of life and death? Do we live that way?
Anxiety and fear are things we seem to know very well at this point in history. Wars and rumors of wars are everywhere. Terrorism scares us. The financial markets cause us anxiety. Disease, infections that are antibiotic resistant, cancer, heart disease make us tremble. We have heard so much tragic news that when the news is good, we often miss it.
But my friends, we have the ultimate Good News of all time. We have been set free! We are freed to live our lives without fear. Free to forgive, free to love, free to live, because God is still in charge.
That wonderful hope in the completion of God’s purposes for all creation is not some nebulous futuristic time—it begins right now. We can make a new start—today. It’s never too late. We can rise out of any tomb that imprisons us—relationship difficulties, family problems, ill-health, addictions, dead-end jobs, boredom. Jesus has given us the power to run it all in reverse and find new life.
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