A NEW TIME

April 6, 2014

Lent 5

Ezekiel 37:1-14

John 11:38-45

(prayer)

Welcome to the final Sunday within the season of Lent for 2014.  In one week, we will begin our walk of Holy Week:

W  Sunday’s Palm Waving >>

W  Thursday’s Last Supper >>

W  Friday’s Crucifixion >>

W  Easter Sunday Surprise.

That ‘surprise’ is not really a surprise for us.  We already know that Easter is coming; not only can we look on a calendar and find out what day it will be [you may have noticed that it moves year by year; it is always the Sunday after the first full moon after the spring solstice] – but I mean more than that.  We don’t just know that Easter is coming because of the calendar, but because our faith invites us to know that resurrection follows execution in the story of Jesus.  Even the Sundays don’t count in the ‘forty days’ in Lent – every Sunday is a mini-easter when we can’t pretend that we don’t know how this story turns out.  A post-Easter people cannot ignore their past. 

And so, here we are (two full weeks before Easter) and we are already reading what sound like resurrection passages:

W  Ezekiel bringing life into a valley of dry bones; and

W  Jesus raising Lazarus four days after he dies. 

But ‘resurrection’ is not my intended focus for today.  I want to focus on what happens after the renewed life has entered the world.

//

In Ezekiel, the Bible tells us that the prophet is transported by the Spirit to a valley filled with dry bones.  Reading between the lines of the narrative, we can presume that these dry bones came from the scattered remains of old battle: these are the soldier victims of war.  The prophet follows God’s instructions and invites the bones to come together and re-form all of their organs and flesh.  Then (after dem bones have rattled back together) we have the image of a very orderly collection of soldiers, standing in perfect formation, but they were not alive: ‘they had no breath in them’.  So, Ezekiel (again on God’s instruction) calls on the four winds to blow breath into this mighty host. 

They are raised into a new time; the battle that ended their lives in the valley is long gone.  It would make sense that the remains included soldiers from both sides of the original battle.  I just don’t think that the purpose of this reanimation was to get back to fighting. 

{{breathe in – en garde!!}}

Let’s agree that they are not likely raised to fight a long gone battle.  With new the spirit of life, their future is open.  Most soldiers in the ancient world were not career warriors, they were mostly conscripted farmers and craftsmen.  If it was me, I wouldn’t want to fight a new war when I found out that the old one was over. 

I know that this was just a vision for Ezekiel and it probably ended before the Prophet found out what these new living beings did with their fresh breaths, but we do know that there was no need to re-fight the old battles. 

//

The Spirit enlivens for a new time.

//

//

We know almost nothing about Lazarus’ back story.  The gospel of John begins his tale by telling us that this friend of Jesus had taken ill – presumably gravely ill.  News of his illness reaches Jesus, but he doesn’t rush to Lazarus’ bedside.  Later, Jesus does decide to make a trip to Bethany after he learns that Lazarus has died.  On arriving, John tells us that Jesus is greeted by both of Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary, both of whom express disappointment that Jesus hadn’t come earlier.  They knew of Jesus’ abilities as a healer and so desperately wanted Jesus to have had the chance to heal Lazarus before he died.  But Jesus got there too late.

Mary and Martha had no expectation that Jesus could do anything now - other than comfort the other mourners.

That’s where we picked up the story today.

Lazarus come forth! 

Surprise!

//

The bible doesn’t say it explicitly, but the implication is obvious – not only is Lazarus given new breath – the illness that killed him is also gone.  It would make no sense for Jesus to raise Lazarus only so he could re-live his illness and die again in short order. 

Like the old soldiers in the valley, Lazarus is raised into an open future - a new time.  Jesus had said that God’s glory would be known through the experience of Lazarus’ illness and death.  Being re-enlived to an open future is a sign of the Glory of God.

//

//

So, in our scriptures today, we have two metaphoric expressions of the notion that we can be born into a new and open future – where we are not bound by the demises of our past.

//

Here’s an example where I hope this can be true.

//

While there always have been voices who promoted peace and understanding among strangers, ‘peace’ has always been a small, mostly ignored, concept.  In every part of the globe, in every culture, in every era of human history, there has been an accepted, systemic fear of and condoned violence to "the other" – the one ‘different from us’. 

The best we have been able to do is to have pockets of peace and understanding - but there has always a boundary where that fear (particularly fear that comes from selfishness, greed) takes over – a fear that expresses a desire for control in the midst of perceived scarcity. We get worried that we won’t have enough (whatever we define that to be), so we watch how widely we draw our circles.

//

We have been able to create these pockets of peace and understanding and acceptance based on circles of family, tribe, region (people, nation), beliefs (theological, philosophical, sociological), language, economic divides [we don’t build ‘gated communities’ so that we can a wide circle of equality and peace], and we have even been prone to divide ourselves on characteristics that we can’t choose like: skin colour, gendre, orientation. 

The truth of human history is that we have been less peaceful with those outside of our pocket.

//

Even progressive ideas in the Bible like that of Paul in Galations 3:28 where he wrote - "there is no longer male or female, jew or greek, slave or free" was limited.  Paul prefaced those words within the bubble of those ‘baptized in Christ’ – but since Paul’s time, we have limited even further.  Still today (within some sub-pockets of Christianity), men and women are not seen as ‘one in Christ’ as Paul envisioned – in parts of Christianity where women are not allowed to fulfill the same roles in the faith community as men. 

Even those who can claim to be remaining truer to the Apostle’s intent should not be too proud about it - as Jesus said (in Mt 5:46), "If you [only] love those who love you, what reward do you have?"  Jesus goes on to say, "Love your enemies [the stranger, the other, the one outside of ‘your’ circle]."

//

As I have been thinking about this, I am coming to believe that we are, now, living in a new time (just a few decades old, really) where the idea of 'universal respect for all' is beginning to assert itself (regardless of creed, culture, economics, etc.). 

We sometimes have been tragically confronted that our inability to live peaceably with each other is a characteristic of the human experience that many of us no longer want to condone – no longer want to accept as ‘just the way things are’. 

Remember Rodney King (c. 1992) who, during the LA riots (which followed the acquittal of police officers who had repeatedly hit him with batons during an arrest the previous year), tearfully making the public appeal "Can we all get along?"

This sounds good: that we should all be able to get along.  But it is not happening universally, so it can’t be that easy.  Even those who are pacifists sometimes have to admit the possibility that… peace is often a “nice, but impractical” goal – especially in the big picture.

//

I have often quoted Maragret Mead because I believe in the truth of her words:  “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Mead’s thesis is that once an idea takes root, if it has staying power… actions, policies and public opinion will follow, until change is palpable and experienced – until we move into a new normal.

And… I think we are getting ‘there’ when it comes to discrimination.

Discrimination (in any form) is no longer defensible in many circles.  

At the height of European imperialism in the 18^th century, we were so convinced that we had the ideal most civilized culture that we saw other people as savages – as lesser – as ‘the other’ not worthy of our equality, unless they became like us.

//

One of the last attempts to preserve discrimination allows for equal, but separate opportunity.  History shows us that separate but equal solutions are not to be good enough (look at racial segregation in USA; or attempts in Canada to avoid same sex marriage by allowing for the separate, but equal civil unions). 

For more and more people in this new time, claims to having a monopoly in civilization, AND notions of separate, but equal are not acceptable levels of discrimination. 

Discrimination (overt or subtile) has always only been clung to by those afraid of ‘the other’ – the one who is different, the enemy – the one who Jesus commands us to love. 

Discrimination is not yet a thing of the past; we’re not there yet.  Some communities are further ahead than other), but I think I can say that, increasingly, systemic discrimination is fading away; and personal discrimination is increasing finding itself without support. 

Live and let live is the model in this new time.

//

Last Sunday, while I enjoyed a few days of study leave, I went to church at McDougall UC in Edmonton where the UCC Moderator, Gary Paterson, told a story of people looking up at starry night sky and proclaiming "I am small… and I belong". 

Those of you who attended the Friday morning video study group three weeks ago would have heard the CBC’s science reporter, Bob McDonald, tell us that the when the circumference of the earth was first measured it was learned that 90% of the globe was unknown at the time.  Similarly, based on the latest calculations on the overall mass of universe, we know that 95% of it has not yet been seen – the best line in Bob McDonald’s presentation was: "our ignorance is far greater than our knowledge". 

That should make us feel small, but we also can know that we are not outside of this great mystery; we are part of it… we belong.

//

To admit that we have more to learn that we do to teach is a reminder to appreciate the value of humility.

I am coming to believe that humility is the path to the widest possible peace and understanding. 

The prophet Micah got it (What does God require of you? Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. - Micah 6:8)

Now we need to get it and…make it real.

// 

I am small, and… I belong.

I am smart, and… there is much I do not know.

And I deserve respect.

So do you (friend, family, stranger, similar and different)

I am challenging myself to live with enough humility to know that respect is also due to the earth and all its creatures - to star dust, swirling galaxies, quantum singularities, and that 95% we don't yet understand.

//

Humility leads to Respect.

Respect leads to Understanding.

And Understanding leads to Peace.

//

May it be so. 

Amen.

***offering***

A MINUTE FOR RECONCILIATION

By the Rev Blaine Gregg

Last weekend, I gratefully took some study leave time (including the Sunday) to attend much of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission event in Edmonton.  The TRC was organized as part of a huge legal settlement agreement between the Government of Canada, various Church denominations (including the United Church of Canada) and first nations, metis and inuit people who were affected by the government-organized and church-run Indian Residential School System.

There were (no doubt) honest and noble intentions among many of those who ran and taught at the schools (I heard many, many people say they had no idea of some of harsh effects); even so we can’t ignore the impact on families and communities: having to live without most of their children for some or all of the year because they had been taken away to live at schools in faraway places like St. Albert or Red Deer – where these children were expected to learn in a foreign language [English or French]; where they were expected to dress in European styles, have European haircuts, and learn the history and philosophies of the cultures of those who immigrated to Canada – often at the expense of their own history and language.  The truth is that the IRS system had a dramatic effect on the future direction of the first peoples of this land.

The main purpose of the TRC events (through its many dozen regional events and seven big national events [Edmonton was the final one]) was to allow people affected by residential school experiences to share their stories and to put ‘their truth’ on the record for current and future generations.

Individual experiences (most certainly) did vary.  As stories were told, they were respectfully heard.  I suppose each hearer can make their own judgement of what is believed or questioned on the small scale.  But, the undeniable big picture is that we (as Canadians) can no longer ignore the truth that the collective experience of the IRS over parts of two centuries portrays an unmistakable and immutable pattern of:

W  regular corporal punishment [accepted almost everywhere until recent decades, but particularly bad in these schools],

W  psychological and cultural abuse, and

W  unmistakably intentional acts of cultural assimilation based on an imperialistic belief in European cultural-intellectual-racial-and-religious superiority. 

//

There was good within the Indian Residential School system - that truth was told too. 

And… it is also true that this good came at far too high a cost!