God is Out There

Nearly five years ago the Prime Minister of Australia gave an apology on behalf of the nation to the people we called The Forgotten Australians and former child migrants.

These were people who were removed from their mothers at birth because their mothers were unmarried, or were removed from their homes in the UK because they were displaced from their families after the war, or their families were persuaded that their kids would have a far better life in Australia.  Barnardos Homes and the Fairbridge Foundation were the big players in overseeing the settlement of such children in Australia.

Many of these children grew up believing they were orphaned when in fact they were not.  Some were adopted into new families.  Others lived in orphanage-like institutions in which many of them experienced terrible things.

I find it very hard to imagine how alone such a child would have felt.  I guess there are a number of situations in life where people can feel desolated and alone in a way that almost paralyses them.  Maybe this is how those Disciples of Jesus felt before they apprehended and understood the Resurrection.

The Disciple whom Jesus loved – John – writes his Gospel some 60 or so years after the death of Jesus and he is very keen to remind all his readers that Jesus made certain promises to his followers that meant they should never feel like that.

The promise is rendered in the Good News Bible as “When I go, you will not be left alone.”  In the NIV renders it “I will not leave you as orphans.”  Being an orphan can be an extreme form of being alone – and it can lead some into a sense of despair.

I guess that when his disciples heard these words their first thought might have been “Of course you won’t leave us orphaned.  This movement is starting to build.  You’re here for good, right?”

Just a chapter earlier in John’s story, Jesus says that the hour has come for him to depart from this world and join his Father.  In the context of this kind of familial language the idea of not being orphaned is filled with meaning.

In going to meet his own Father, Jesus knows that some of his friends will feel abandoned, and so he prepares them by saying that the loss ahead of them will not be the final ending that it appears to be.

“In a little while,” he said, “the world will see me no more, but you will see me; and because I live, you also will live.”

He is saying to them – and to us – “You will not be as alone as you feel.”

This section of John’s Gospel is not just a word of comfort, of course.  Jesus often seems to link words of comfort with some form of critique.  Just as we might be developing the idea of resting in the everlasting arms of that holy embrace, Jesus goes on to tell us what love actually is.

Contrary to modern ideas, love is not a feeling.  Love is not a mood or a magic spell under which we sometimes fall.  Love is something related to action.

"Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me.”  It is as if Jesus is saying that we will not be left orphaned, but we will be adopted into his family, and there we will all live by god’s rule of love.

It is perhaps worth noting that I Jesus’ day becoming an orphan was not a psychological issue.  Rather it was a life and death issue because by it most would be thrust into abject poverty.  Jesus is saying, then that he is offering us all a way of LIFE.  And we are called to pass it on.

Jesus will not leave us orphaned, but we are called to a radical way of loving by which no one is orphaned – by God, or by humans.  And we can do this to others, even though they are not our children, by leaving them without our help in a time of need.  As we have been embraced by Jesus and God, whom are we called to fold in loving and protective arms?

The way this is all possible is through the gift of the Father and the Son to us all – “another helper,” he says, “who will be with you always – the spirit, who reveals the truth about God.”  We may feel like we are very inadequate for this “loving“ of others we are called to do, but Jesus reassures us that the Spirit will be our helper.  It is the Spirit’s work to EMPOWER us for the ACTION of LOVE.

We will have more to say about this in a couple of weeks.  Let us for now be reassured by these promises – we will not be left alone as orphans; indeed we will receive another Helper, the Spirit of God, by which we can know that God is always with us.

I am the Way

I have three different map books in my car.  I have a map book for the City of Perth and Suburbs.  I suppose most of you have that one. 

But I also have Country Roads and Tracks of WA.  This has maps of all the roads in the country – even the gravel roads between farms and things. 

And I have a map book of Country Towns in WA.  It has street maps for all our towns.

With these three books I can get anywhere I want to in WA.  Before I set out on a journey I like to have an idea of where I am going.  Sometimes once I have looked it up I don’t have to refer to the book again.

I AM THE WAY

In our reading from John today we are reminded of some very famous words of Jesus.  “I am the Way”, he said.  What do you think he meant by that?

Let’s not consider this as a statement that stands in isolation from a context.  John has placed these words within a story that has a very clear purpose for his readers.  The people who chose the others readings to accompany this one understood this, too.

If we were to say what the big theme for today is it would be “Don’t worry”.

We need to remember that John is writing this some 50 years after the first Easter.  By this time he has seen the kind of trouble the early church would have to struggle with.  They faced persecution from two directions.  The Romans saw them as trouble makers and as traitors to the Emperor.  The Jews saw them as heretics.  Life as a Christian was not going to be easy.

When most of us read the opening comments of Jesus about “dwelling places” we almost always think about heaven – our home after this life has ended.  Maybe that is what John intended.  But there is another idea embodied in this term “dwelling places”.  It can also be referring to a resting place along the way.

Some of you may have read that epic tale of JRR Tolkein, “The Lord of the Rings”.  

Frodo and his friends embark on the journey Gandalf has charged them with.  After their first battle encounter they are taken to Rivendell, where the Elf-King lives, for what was a long rest.  The subsequent battles get worse and the resting place stays get shorter.  In this there seems to be a parable of our journey along the Way of Jesus.

So, when Jesus refers to resting places, could it be that John wants his readers to be reassured in this life, not about the life to come?

If we take it this way, then it sits more closely to the things that are said in the remainder of the story.  Thomas and Philip obviously don’t get it.  And they are obviously anxious about things that lie ahead of them.  Jesus tries to reassure them that staying close to him will ensure that they stay safe.  In fact being close to him is the same as being close to God.

So Jesus says these words we all love so much.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Many Christian pilgrims over the centuries have found great reassurance from this idea that Jesus is the Way.  We so easily understand life as a journey.  We like this idea that Jesus is indeed the Way to God.

But Thomas and Philip wanted more instructions.  He wanted a bit more detail.  Now I don’t know about you but when you are in a situation where you are asking someone the way, which would you prefer?

Someone who says:

• ·         “Go down here to the end and turn right;
• ·         when you get to the second road on your left turn into it;
• ·         go three kilometres down that road to a sign which says “Shelter here” with an arrow;
• ·         follow that road till you come to the green letterbox on the side of the road and turn in.”

Or someone who says:

“I’m going that way.  Come with me.  I’ll get you there.”

Jesus is saying the second one to us.  “I am going that way.  Come with me.”

This is actually the simplest starting point for all Christians.  When you sing up to be a Christian there is no contract with pages and pages of fine-print – spelling out the conditions that apply. 

All you have to grasp a hold of is the “B” word – BELIEVE.  Believe in God.  Believe in Jesus.  And when you believe in God it changes everything.  Just ask someone who doesn’t believe in God what they make of life.  Their answers won’t satisfy you like the prospect of living in relationship to God the Father and Jesus.

There is nothing here about any creeds.  There’s nothing here about belonging to a particular church.  Jesus simply asks us to believe in him and God.  When we do that, when we then live in a relationship with him, then we will know the Way.

I want to speak particularly to those of you where were Confirmed by the Archbishop so recently.  But I think the rest of us have things we might need to hear too.

When you said you wanted to be baptised, or confirmed, you were obviously saying that you believe in Jesus.  How could you not?  But what happens next? 

Some people think that when you become a Christian you have to be good.  This thought gets them into lots of trouble because they then start asking: “what are the rules?”  This is a bit like Thomas’ and Phillip’s questions.  But Jesus says simply “Believe in me.”

Okay, so you say you believe in Jesus.  I think there are three key ways you show that:

•      You hang out with Jesus’ other friends.  This means being here or in your homes with other Christian friends talking to each other and encouraging each other about your life in God.
•      You start talking to God and Jesus.  Sometimes this means prayer.  Sometimes it means that conversation that goes on in your head.  You should never again be caught talking to yourself – God will always be there to be the one you talk to.
•      You read stuff about God and Jesus.  For most of us this will be reading our Bible.  This is our most important written resource.  But God can also speak to us through the Christian books people have written for us.  God can speak to us through devotional books we might use.  God can speak to us through the words people have written for songs that we sing.

And if nothing else, our story today is saying to us we will never be alone.  If we accept that Jesus is the way, if we believe in him, then nothing will ever get in the way of us being with God.

Let me finish with some words that are much more recent than these stories we have read today.  A little over 100 years ago Minnie Louise Haskins wrote these words:

And I said to the man

who stood by the gate of the year:

Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.

And he replied:

Go out into the darkness

and put your hand in the Hand of God. 

That shall be to you better than a light

and safer than a known way.

The Good Shepherd

There are two factors mitigating against our getting the most out of this idea of Jesus as The Good Shepherd. 

Firstly, most of us have long since moved to city life and lost any connections we might have had with a rural past.

Secondly, the way sheep farming has been conducted in Australia from almost the beginning has created a whole lot of different ideas about the role of the shepherd. 

Look for example at these words from our nearly most famous Australian song:

“Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong,

Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee.

And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tuckerbag:

You’ll come a waltzing Matilda with me.”

This most famous of Aussie folk songs underscores the yawning gulf between the value of one sheep in Jesus’ day and its value in Australia today.

In this folk song (a freedom song, actually!) one of the land-holder’s numerous sheep wanders down for a drink at the water hole.  The tramp, maybe an unemployed shearer looking for work, who is camped there, sees a mobile meal, grabs the jumbuck, slaughters it, and shoves the meat in his food bag.

Flocks in those days (1895) numbered up to 50,000 sheep.  One sheep out of so many was of little significance in the great scheme of things.  One jumbuck was a minor matter, with no personal relationship with its owner.  Value is purely monetary.  The jumbuck, or sheep, has no sentimental value in this situation. 

To understand Jesus when he calls himself the good shepherd, we have to put ourselves back in a very different rural setting, where shepherd and sheep have a close relationship.

Sheep were precious creatures, like valued pets.  A flock of 100 was extra extra-large.  Many flocks were no more than 10-20.  The sheep knew their shepherd’s voice and followed him.  He knew each by name.  They might have had names like Spot, Blackie, Timid, Bossie, Wanderer, Whiteface, Horny and so on.  By day and night the shepherd lived with them.  He was always there for them.  He would risk his life to save any one of them.

THE SHEEP AND THE SHEPHERD

I want to explore an idea or two about the implications of this for us as the Community of the Holy Cross in Hamersley.

Over My Dead Body

When the parable speaks of the shepherd lying in the doorway – being the gate – it seems to me that we are reminded that God’s care for us is absolute.  It is a bit like Jesus saying to us that any threat to harm us will meet his challenge that it will be “over his dead body”.

I suppose the Easter story has demonstrated the validity of that.  But it is a reminder that there is nothing we need to be afraid of.  This is what Psalm 23 speaks to us most about, too.

The Good Stuff is Out There

Some people have thought the sheepfold represents the church.  I don’t buy that.  It is not an adequate image.  The flock of Christ is much larger than any one sheepfold.

The fold was a place for short-term protection and hand-feeding.  For most of the year the sheep stayed in the open with their shepherd.  Let’s not forget this; the flock spent much more time out of the fold than in it.  Out in the open at night the shepherd was still the door: Nothing could get at the flock except by getting past his defence.  No sheep could leave the flock unless he permitted it.

You may notice in the Gospel Reading that there is more emphasis on going out than coming in.  In fact, it is only when the shepherd allows them to leave the circle of safety and go out that they can find pasture for themselves.  The fold is not the natural domain of the sheep.  The world is.  “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”

You and I, the flock of Christ, may be hand fed by the Lord here, but there is also good pasture out there in the wide, dangerous world.  There we are not handfed; we are supposed to feed ourselves.  There is always ample pasture in the places where Christ leads us, if we will only take the opportunity as it arises.

Those sects, or groups like the Exclusive Brethren or the Amish, who cut themselves off from the world, are missing out on the wonderful pastures of God that are in the secular world.  They wrongly think that the flock is only safe when it is gathered into the fold – or the church enclave.

It is not so.  The whole world is God’s.  The Good Shepherd is out there with us.  In our working and our talking, in our relaxing and enjoying, among our friends or neighbours, in our great literature and art galleries, in our universities and Rotary or Lions Clubs, there is pasture for the Christian.  

Out in the sunshine and rain, on smooth roads or rough, toiling or resting, climbing or descending, the shepherd has green pastures to show us if we only allow him to.  

We will never find those pastures if we hide away in exclusive flocks and huddle in folds where we are hand-fed by prattling pastors who, in spite of their loud voices, are actually  frightened of the world themselves.

The Risk-taking Good Shepherd wants us to take Risks

It is clear that God took a huge risk in the Incarnation – it might not have worked, Herod might have succeeded, who knows.

Jesus was also a risk-taker.  He left home and associated with all the “wrong people”.  He challenged the religious elite and their rules.  He exposed the domination system of the Romans as ultimately powerless. 

And I think he is challenging us to be risk-takers, too.  Too often in the church we want to play it safe, but we should learn a lesson from history. 

A century or so before Jesus was born a group of zealous men formed closed communities down near the Dead Sea at a place called Qumran.  These shut themselves way from the world in a tight knit flock within a safe sheepfold.  They cut themselves off from God’s wider world.

Although the discovery of a few of their scrolls made headlines in the twentieth century, their influence on the stream of history has been minimal.  They played it safe and waited for God to do something dramatic.  But tucked away in their monasteries by the Dead Sea, they remained unaware that in Galilee and Jerusalem God in fact was doing the most remarkable thing this world has known.  The whole Jesus event seems to have passed them by.

The challenge for us in this parable is that trusting in Jesus no matter how scared we might be, we are called to discover what he is doing in the world around us and to take the risk of bringing God’s Kingdom in there and then.

Resurrection Day

Resurrection Day has arrived.

We celebrate this Easter Day each year because it is important for us to go over the story again.  When we tell the story it reminds us of the depth of God’s grace and love for us.

It is also true that we celebrate the Resurrection every Sunday when we gather for worship and share in the Lord’s Supper.

But it is also true that we celebrate the resurrection every morning when we awaken to a new day.  That in itself is like being raise from the death of sleep to the life of a new day.

So what I am wondering today is “What does the resurrection of Jesus mean for you?  Right now?  Here today?”

I think we all know that the Resurrection of Jesus is a very powerful declaration of God’s love for us.  It is something that we believe changes the whole cosmos.

But what difference does it make for you?

For some of you your understanding of the resurrection might have been the one thing that gave you hope for a new life when you were running away from your homeland to keep safe.  In finding a place of refuge you have experienced NEW LIFE in a very practical way.

Some of you may have been going through some very dark times in your lives.  Maybe illness.  Maybe stress in your job.  Maybe broken relationships.  When you look at the Resurrection you might find the courage to hope for a new life too.

By the resurrection of Jesus we are able to have a deep personal relationship with God.  If nothing else, the Jesus story tells us that Jesus was God who came among us and lived like us.  He showed us what God was like and he showed us what we can be like.

A long time ago in England there was a battle between the English and the Normans at a place called Hastings – 1066ad it was.  Against a much greater enemy, the English were almost winning.

This was in part because a rumour had started among the Norman troops that their leader – King William – was dead.  They were all losing heart.

Unfortunately for the English, the rumour was not true.  When King William heard about it, he took off his helmet and rode up and down among his troops shouting “I am alive!  I am alive!”

The result was immediate.  It was almost as if these dead bodies of soldiers were raised to new life.  They found new courage. 

I suppose this story gives a glimpse of how the disciples might have felt after they had seen Jesus crucified and put in the tomb.  They were certainly sad but I am sure they also lost heart.

The message from the Angel in Matthew’s account has a sequence to it.  The angel says “Do not be afraid.”  How easily fear gets in the way.  It prevents us from living the great life God wants us to have.  But the angel tells us – Do not be afraid – he is alive.”

Then he says “Go and tell his disciples that Jesus is risen.”  When they did that – half afraid and half joyful – they met Jesus.  When they met Jesus they did what comes naturally.  They worshipped him.

On Thursday evening I mentioned a story to you by Wendell Berry in which Jaber Crow has a vision of what life could be like in the church – a vision of the church the way it will never be, but a vision that inspires our faith.

Galal said to us on Friday that we should have courage in our faith.

Archbishop Roger told us yesterday that through the resurrection of Jesus and our baptism all those markers of difference between us have been washed away.  We are no longer able to get caught up in fighting over our differences.

Today I say to you – live the resurrection every day.

Wendell Berry in a poem he wrote called Manifesto: Mad Farmers Liberation Front makes it clear to us that if we are to live in Resurrection ways, everyone else will think we are mad.  That is because the ways of the world are so opposite to the ways of the Gospel.

He says:

So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute.  Love the Lord. Love the world.  Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. 

He even says many other things that even you English speakers might puzzle over.  The very last phrase of his poem is what I want to leave with you.  He says:

Practice resurrection.

I leave it with you because I don’t really know what it means.  I can’t easily explain it.  But I know it is something I must do.  Many times I will not get it right.  Every day I will practice it.  I trust that the Lord will trouble your mind as you try to understand what it means for you.

A Maundy Meditation

The human feet are amazing.

It is an infinitely flexible thing that is very hard for robots to imitate – but it is the 26 bones in each foot that enable us to walk upright. 

It is also amazing, when you think about it that those few square centimetres of the soles of your feet carry the full weight of your body – which represents quite a bit of pressure per square centimetre.  Is it any wonder that these little appendages to our legs get rather tired by the end of a day?

Consequently there are few things that can equal the sensational pleasure of a good foot massage.  We work them hard all day yet we rarely afford them the pleasure of a good rub to relax all those muscles that control all those bones.

Dusty and arid places take their toll on feet so it is not surprising that many of the peoples who live in such places have social rituals that involve the washing of feet.

Here, at the end of his life, Jesus knows exactly how to show his disciples how much he loves them.  “He had always loved those in the world who were his own and he loved them to the very end.”  In order to express his love for them he washes their feet.

There is an incredible intimacy in this story – as there is in the stories of the two women who anointed or washed Jesus’ feet – as Jesus stoops gently and graciously to attend to the feet of his friends.  In this simple act of cleansing, Jesus draws even closer to his dear friends.

But Jesus was concerned about greater things than just giving hid friends a nice feeling.

Where our other Gospel writers tell a story about the Last Supper, John focusses on this gesture of humility and service by Jesus as his ultimate act before the crucifixion.

In his conversation with Peter he makes it clear that participation in this is an essential expression of our desire to follow in his Way.  He offers this with an ultimatum – “If you do not let me do this for you, then you will no longer be mi disciple.”  Accepting this means going all the way to the cross with him.

When we let this become a bit more personal we begin to realise that it is about letting Jesus get close enough to us to wash our dirtiest dirt away – the really cleanse us.

But this foot washing is more than a personal call to follow Jesus.  It is more than a one-on-one experience.  Jesus is laying before his disciples a sacramental vision: a vision of the promises between God and us.  It is a vision of Christian community at its best. 

Interestingly foot-washing has never been elevated to sacramental status in our protestant tradition, it certainly has elements of sacrament.  A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward spiritual reality.  This sacrament conveys to us a vision of what can be in the community of God’s people.

We need such visions, visions of what we are striving for, visions of how God wants us to live with one another.

American novelist and poet Wendell Berry wrote a wonderful story he called Jaber Crow.  The main character in the story is the town barber who is also the church cleaner.

One day, after he had been doing this faithfully for a number of years Jaber had a kind of epiphany or revelation about this congregation of people he knew so well.  An overwhelming vision takes hold of him.  He sees the community of this congregation “perfected beyond time by one another’s love.”  It is a vision of the community as it will never be: PERFECT.

But what Jaber sees is powerful enough to feed his faith and keep him moving towards something better than this present reality.

Jesus left his Disciples and us with that sort of vision.  His parting gift to us all is a stunning image of Christian community at its best.  He leaves us with a vision of a place where Christian brothers and sisters love and care for one another as he has loved us.

This is a picture for us of Jesus’ very commandment to us to love one another as he has loved us.

Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche communities around the world describes it in these words, and then asks us two questions.

“To wash the feet of a brother or sister in Christ, to allow someone to wash our feet, is a sign that we want to follow Jesus, to take the downward path, to find Jesus’ presence in the poor and the weak.

“Is it not a sign that we too want to live a heart-to-heart relationship with others, to meet them as a person and a friend, and to live in communion with them?

“Is it not also a sign that we yearn to be women and men of forgiveness, to be cleansed and healed and to heal and cleanse others and thus to live more fully in communion with Jesus?”

It is in this that these two sacraments merge tonight – the foot-washing as a sign of our love for one another, and the Holy Communion as a sign of God’s eternal and cosmic love for us all.

Waving Palms with Passion

We tell this story year after year.

It is the story that is the foundation of our faith.

There is no other story bigger than this.  Jesus was born and lived among us as one of us.  The religious and political rules of his day were afraid of him.  They killed him.  They thought it would be the end.  But we know it was not.

We tell the story today in a different way from what we will do next week.

Today we began with the joy of the palms.  You cannot tell this part of the story without feeling it was a happy thing. 

But did you notice the change of mood when we came inside.  Everything changed once we started to read the Passion story.

On the Lord’s Table this morning I have an Icon of this story.  Somehow it captures both these moods.  Jesus is coming into the picture followed by his happy disciples.  You can see the palms and the clothes on the road.

But you can see the religious leaders in the gateway to the city.  That man in front is not holding a palm.  He is holding a whip.  These are the people that in a few days will be calling out “Crucify him!”

This change of mood in the story is like the change of mood in the crowd.  On this day they loved Jesus.  Next Friday they want to kill him.

What happened?

I am not sure at all.  Nobody really knows.  But I can tell you what it makes me think of.

Remember the story Jesus told of the Sower.  He told us about the wheat that fell on stony ground or among the thorns.  The seeds took of growing very quickly to begin with.  Then they got choked by the weeds or ran out of soil.

We are all in danger of being like this.  Now we are cheering for Jesus.  Another day we will have no time for Jesus.

How will we protect our life in Jesus from this?

Can I suggest a couple of things?  You probably know it already.  But it is good to be reminded.

Spend regular time with Jesus. 

This can be for Bible reading.  This can be for prayer.  When we began Lent I suggested this was a good time to do a little extra.

As we begin Holy week we have even more chances to do this. 

·        Devotional Book for Holy Week

·        Special Services over Easter Weekend

This can be a very special time of devotion for you all.  I would like to encourage you all to plan now to spend next weekend as quietly as possible.  Don’t let busy things fill the gaps between our services.  Come to all the services if you can.  Let this most sacred story sink deep into your soul.  Make the whole weekend of Easter your special time of devotion to Jesus.

Spend time in your faith community.

The story of Jesus makes us all brothers and sisters.  We have all kinds of names for the church:

·        A family

·        The body of Christ

·        The Kingdom of God

The importance of these names is that they emphasise that we belong together. 

In the Letter to the Hebrews we are warned very strongly not to neglect meeting together.  This is a very important thing.  It is in this place that we are encouraged in our faith.  It is in this way that we grow in our faith.

We now begin this most Holy Week of the Christian year.  May you join with those waving the palms in rejoicing in the arrival of the Son of David.  May you continue in your faith with the women at the foot of the cross.  May you not have occasion to deny him as some of his friends did.  And if you fail him in any way may you feel his loving arms calling you back into his loving embrace.  Amen.

Agents of the Resurrection

Whenever we took our kids on a holiday in the car, the travelling time seemed interminable to them.  We did all sorts of things to distract them.  We had music tapes of stories and songs that they really loved.  And I remember taking Ben and Laura to Carnarvon by myself so I organised for both of them to have their own Gameboy Console to play endless games on.

But inevitably they would ask the very simple question – “Are we there yet?”

Perhaps you are feeling a bit like that after a full month of Lenten thoughts and meditations – whatever you might have been doing.

Our readings today are a bit like an orchestral overture – giving us a hint of what we are set to catch a glimpse of in just a short while – the Resurrection!

I want you to bring up in your imagination an image of that valley of dry bones that Ezekiel is confronted with in his vision.

You have to admit that it is an extraordinary image.  But it is clearly a metaphor of what God wants the people of Israel to understand – a metaphor so vivid that its message will be unmistakeable.  God would restore the long-exiled nation back to their homeland.  This would be on a national scale like the resuscitation of Lazarus, Jesus’ friend.

I want us to do some work on this story with a Gospel twist to it – perhaps one you might not have expected, but one which is clearly derived from the text.

You all know that I began my professional life as a Primary School teacher and even though I only spent 3 years as a professional teacher, I feel like I have been involved in education all my life, especially in my last few years at YouthCARE as Head of Religious Education and Volunteer Services.  This role involved me in a great deal of training of staff and volunteers for their roles in YouthCARE’s work.

Along the way I have gained a lot of inspiration from the ancient wisdom of the Chinese in this proverb:

“Tell me and I will forget.

Show me and I will remember.

Involve me and I will understand.

Step back and I will act.”

I believe there is something really important for us to understand as we look at the way this story is told.

The Lord transports Ezekiel into this vision and asks him what he sees.  The Lord then asks Ezekiel an important question: “Can these bones live?”

I love Ezekiel’s response:  “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know that.”  It was as if he was retorting back to the Lord “Is that a trick question?”

But the Lord presses on.  “Prophesy to these bones,” he said.

Now Ezekiel was a professional Prophet for over 50 years as best we can tell, and he had always understood that words of prophesy were to be directed at the people – never before had he been directed by the Lord to prophesy to inanimate objects of any kind.  Yet here was the Lord commanding him to do just that.

It is a wonderful story as it unfolds, and the Lord is particular to explain clearly to Ezekiel what it all means – it is of course about the restoration of Israel from the Exile they had been condemned to in Ezekiel’s earlier prophesies.

What strikes me as interesting in this story is this.  It all happens in a vision – it isn’t “real” so to speak – so why didn’t the Lord just explain to him what all the dry bones represented and ask Ezekiel if he thought that he, the Lord, could make them all come alive again?

As the story unfolds it is clear that the Lord wants Ezekiel to be involved in this.  This is where I feel like the wisdom of the proverb is coming in. 

·        The Lord could have told Ezekiel what he was going to do – maybe he would have remembered it. 

·        He did show him what he was going to do – that would make sure he remembered it. 

·        But he went further – the Lord involved Ezekiel in the story.  The Lord told Ezekiel to Prophesy.  I wonder even if there was something of a point being made that the Lord could not actually do it alone – without the voice of Ezekiel to Prophesy.  I wonder if this is what Ezekiel understood.

At the end of the Vision, of course, the Lord did step away and turned it all over the Ezekiel.  It was now up to him.  He had become an agent of the restoration of Israel – if only he would prophesy as the Lord had commanded him.

Now this is a thought I want you to consider.  Soon we will be joyously celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus.  One thing we know about this is that this resurrection was just the beginning of a much greater resurrection in which we can all experience new life in God.  And resurrection has become a powerful means by which people and even whole communities can be transformed.

In what ways, then, can we be like Ezekiel?  Can we see ourselves becoming agents of Resurrection in our communities?  God has shown us the resurrection in Christ but he needs us to be the ones who bring it into being in our communities – empowered by the Spirit of God. 

Teresa of Avilla in Spain penned this wonderful poem:

Christ Has No Body

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes with which he looks with
Compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.
Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks with
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

We are called to be agents of the Resurrection.  May God give us all the grace and the will to share this in our communities.