St Andrew’s Church, Lismore
Fifth Sunday of Lent (Year A)
26 March 2023
[ video ]
Our readings today offer two powerful images of profound loss and devastation:
- The valley of dry bones vision in Ezekiel 37, and
- The death of Lazarus, from the village of Bethany outside Jerusalem
As is often the case with the lectionary cycle, there is a kind of intertextual symmetry between these readings chosen for this final Sunday before Holy Week commences on Palm Sunday next weekend.
On the one hand, we have a vast valley in ancient Palestine covered with the scattered bones of the cream of Israelite and Judean society not long after 600 BCE.
On the other hand, we have the carefully gathered and wrapped corpse of Lazarus laid in a tomb by his grieving sisters.
National catastrophe and family tragedy.
The scale is different, but the sense of devastation cuts to the core of those involved.
As the vision unfolds before Ezekiel, he hears God saying to him: “Mortal, can these bones live?”
Is there any future for these people, their nations and their families?
And we overhear similar conversations between Jesus and the sisters of Lazarus in the Gospel today:
Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
The depth of the pain, and the extent of the loss, is not limited by the number of people killed.
A letter from the Vice-Chancellor
A strange thing happened during the week as I pondered what I might say on this last Sunday before Holy Week.
As a member of the teaching faculty of the University of Divinity, I received an email from the Vice-Chancellor of the University, Dr Peter Sherlock.
Peter was reflecting, as he often does, on just what value we theologians add to our wider society here in Australia.
He is currently engaged in a research project tracking the careers of people who have studied Theology but not chosen to work within the life of the churches.
In his own words, Peter’s research examines:
… how their theological education has played out in their professional lives, primarily in areas other than religious ministry. All have made significant contributions in fields such as social justice, education, community development, journalism, art, medical ethics, executive leadership and politics.
He goes on to share the interim findings of this research:
theological graduates stand out from their colleagues because of their capacity to think outside the box, to interpret and question their context on a larger scale than others, to look to the long term – and to treat other humans with compassion because they are seen through a unique lens.
Let me repeat that powerful set of words, but with a small adjustment:
[the people of St Andrew’s Church in Lismore …] stand out from [others] because of their capacity:
- to think outside the box,
- to interpret and question their context on a larger scale than others,
- to look to the long term –
- and to treat other humans with compassion because they are seen through a unique lens.
At our best, people of faith—whether university-educated or Sunday School-trained—stand out from [others]because of their capacity:
- to think outside the box,
- to interpret and question their context on a larger scale than others,
- to look to the long term –
- and to treat other humans with compassion because they are seen through a unique lens.
Saying YES to the future
I have laboured this point, because I think it is important for us during this time of transition.
These insights—I think—speak to the immense spiritual gift which we have in our hands, and which we need to share with those around us.
This is our mission to the community of Lismore and its surrounding villages.
We look at the valley of dry bones (which in our case looks like houses damaged in the massive floods last year) and we dare to imagine a fresh start for our city and our villages.
God says to us: Community of Andrew, can these bones live?
From the grieving family to the devastated Far North Coast: Can these bones live?
Is there a future here?
How do we imagine its outlines?
How do we choose to live with compassion despite all that seems broken and … frankly, over?
Peter Sherlock included in his email some reflections on a recent interview with the well-known journalist, author and Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi man, Stan Grant. Sherlock notes that Grant:
… passionately [affirms] that:
- theology is the only discipline that can truly account for the state of our world,
- that faith is the only practice that can sustain human communities through incomprehensible suffering from the horrors of war and colonialism to the violence that humans inflict on one another.
- Only theology has the necessary scale of vision in its apprehension of divine and human natures to meet these tasks, where politics and philosophy fail.
While Sherlock and Grant are speaking about academic theology, they are also describing us and calling us to embrace who we are … at our best.
Is the Anglican Church in Lismore a valley of dry bones?
Are we busy preparing our church for burial?
Can we even imagine a future in which this church is truly a light set on a hill?
Stan Grant would tell us that only people of faith can give our city and our nation a future worth having.
This is not just an Anglican thing.
Together with other churches and together with other faiths, we are called—like Ezekiel—to speak of a future over the valley of dry bones, and—like Jesus—to call for Lazarus to come out of the tomb.
Lismore needs us to recover our mojo as people of faith.
Imagine if that happened!
From this link you can listen to Stan Grant’s 2022 Brian Jones lecture, “Faith in Troubled Times”