Advent 2 – Narrative Lectionary 4
December 8, 2013
Grace, Mankato, MN
Ezekiel 37.1-14; John 20.19-23
I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live. (Ezekiel 37.14)
One of the bits of conventional “wisdom” about preaching is that you should preach what you don’t know or ought to know. The idea is that by wrestling with a topic, you’ll have a deeper understanding and appreciation of that topic. For this week, at least, that seems to be the case as I am tasked with preaching about peace. The past few weeks, and perhaps even months, have been challenging, both personally and professionally. And, as a pastor intimately involved in peoples’ lives, yours have been, too. Our lives seem to be one disruption after another interrupted by occasional outbreaks of calm rather than the other way around.
The Israelites of Ezekiel’s time can certainly relate, having experienced devastating disruptions. Their country has been defeated by the Babylonians with the temple and Jerusalem destroyed. They have been forcibly removed from their homeland and are in a foreign country. Their situation is so extreme that it can only be described in terms of lifeless, dry bones. These bones represent the ravages of war in which bodies are stripped by the victors and flesh eaten by the scavengers. And so comes the question that is both poignant and plaintive, “Can these bones live?”
The prophet Ezekiel, an exile just as the rest of them, declares that new life is indeed possible. Death, Ezekiel prophesies, is very real, but it is not final because all appearances to the contrary, God is the author of life. The same God who breathed life into creation, whose wind moved across the waters, whose spirit enlivens everything, including humanity, has not abandoned us, but continues to blow. It will be this same wind, breath, and spirit that will give life where death seems to have been the final word.
Jesus’ disciples experienced one of the most disruptive and tumultuous of times, the cruel and painful execution of their friend and teacher in the most horrific of ways, crucifixion. Hiding behind closed doors in fear and trembling, afraid of the religious authorities, they were as about as “dry” and dead as one can be, even with the amazing news from the women of an empty tomb. Yet Jesus comes among them and, just as the creator at creation, breathes new life into them. With the presence of hope that the possibility new life brings, comes the sense of peace.
The word of peace Jesus speaks is a standard greeting, but on the resurrected Jesus’ lips they are much more. As Raymond Brown says, “… Jesus’ words are not a wish, but a statement of fact.” Robert Kysar adds, “Peace is a gift from the risen Christ and signifies God’s prolonged presence with humanity.” However, Frederick Buechner reminds us, “For Jesus, peace seems to have meant not the absence of struggle, but the presence of love.” The peace the Bible describes is that which God brings, which passes all understanding and that keeps our hearts and minds connected to Jesus Christ.
Former South African political prisoner turned president, Nelson Mandela passed away this week. He was exiled in a prison for 27 years and after winning his release, led his country into democracy. No doubt hope sustained him all those years, but he must have also had a sense of peace that he was doing what he needed to do even in the most difficult of circumstances. This was accomplished through the presence of love. Wherever your bones are dry today, whatever seems dead and lifeless to you, know that Jesus opens the graves of our lives and breathes new life into us. God has put his spirit in us in our baptisms and it continues to blow. We have the peace that only Christ can give us and through that peace we shall live. Amen.
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