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We are called to many resurrections

Fifth Sunday of Lent (A), Ezechiel 37:12-14.

In the course of the Lectionary’s overview of Old Testament salvation history over the last four weeks, our overture readings have presented us with Adam and Eve, with Abraham, with Moses and his people in the desert, with David and the land that God had promised His people. On this Sunday we encounter another basic element of salvation history: the future.

This Sunday’s reading is from Ezechiel. The prophet Ezechiel belonged to a priestly family in the sixth century B.C. Because of his prominent position among the people, he was deported to Babylon in 597 B.C., 10 years before the final destruction of Jerusalem. In Babylon he was called by God to a prophetic vocation in 593 B.C. He was in Babylon, dutifully pronouncing the message of God, when the Babylonians finally destroyed Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah in 587 B.C.

Chapters 33 to 39 of Ezechiel seem to have been proclaimed during and after the final siege of Jerusalem. The Israelites in exile were losing their hope. They looked upon themselves as nothing more than dried up bones, with no life and no future. In the first part of chapter 37, God brings Ezechiel to a plain filled with dry bones and empowers him to bring the bones back together and to put sinews and muscles on them and make them come alive again and stand upright, "a vast army."

In the second part of chapter 37, from which our reading is taken, God explains the raising of the dry bones. "Even if you were dead and dried up like heaps of dry bones," God says, "even if you are utterly dead and buried, I will bring you up out of your graves and make you live again. I will bring you home, not because you are a saintly and obedient people, but just because I am God and this is what I have decided to do."

What we have here is an oracle of hope. God promises a future to this exiled and dried-up people. It is not because of their merit, either individually or collectively. It is simply because God is generous and has long-term plans for the children of Abraham and Moses and David. God will never allow them to dry up and blow away, never allow them to settle down into their graves forever. On the contrary, God will bring them to where He wants them to be in spite of the situation in which they find themselves, in spite of what they have suffered. God’s plan for His people always includes a future. The story of their salvation is never quite ended. However desperate the situation, God will breathe life into His people again. No matter what happens, God will take care of them.

This reading from Ezechiel teaches us about the concluding stages of salvation history. There will always be life. There will always be rescue.

The long Gospel reading for this Fifth Sunday of Lent in year A (John 11:1-45) is about the resurrection of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. In raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus not only demonstrates His power over life and death, but also suggests that what Ezechiel had foreseen for the whole people was beginning to be brought to fulfillment by Him. The subject matter of this long Gospel reading and this short overture reading is not the Christian doctrine of individual immortality and resurrection from the dead but rather, the determination of God to make His people live, no matter what their particular circumstances might be.

There are all kinds of death in the world around us: death of the body, death of the spirit, death of our common aspirations. We are invited in dozens of ways to forget about a future sharing in the life of the Lord and settle for comfort, satisfaction, security, power, immediate individual fulfillment. When people learn from their experience that such goals are not satisfying, they tend to dry up and curl into their graves. Why bother? Why struggle? Nothing makes much difference.

Yet in these readings from Ezechiel and from John, God’s word reminds us that there is always life in store for us. If we accept what God offers us, we will experience resurrection, a return from disillusion and disintegration. We will be restored to vigor. We are called to look forward to resurrection, not just the one final resurrection at the end of time, but to repeated resurrections as we experience the repeated interventions of God in our lives.
Death and destruction for God’s people are never the last word. The history of salvation, corporate and individual, is the history of resurrection. And the history of salvation is not over yet.

For reflection and discussion

Where do I see death in myself, in the church, in the world?

Have I experienced resurrection in my life?



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	*Overtures* Reflection on the first readings of the Sunday liturgy By Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk We are called to many resurrections Fifth Sunday of Lent (A), Ezechiel 37:12-14. In the course of the Lectionary’s overview of Old Testament salvation history over the last four weeks, our overture readings have presented us with Adam and Eve, with Abraham, with Moses and his people in the desert, with David and the land that God had promised His people. On this Sunday we encounter another basic element of salvation history: the future. This Sunday’s reading is from Ezechiel. The prophet Ezechiel belonged to a priestly family in the sixth century B.C. Because of his prominent position among the people, he was deported to Babylon in 597 B.C., 10 years before the final destruction of Jerusalem. In Babylon he was called by God to a prophetic vocation in 593 B.C. He was in Babylon, dutifully pronouncing the message of God, when the Babylonians finally destroyed Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah in 587 B.C. Chapters 33 to 39 of Ezechiel seem to have been proclaimed during and after the final siege of Jerusalem. The Israelites in exile were losing their hope. They looked upon themselves as nothing more than dried up bones, with no life and no future. In the first part of chapter 37, God brings Ezechiel to a plain filled with dry bones and empowers him to bring the bones back together and to put sinews and muscles on them and make them come alive again and stand upright, "a vast army." In the second part of chapter 37, from which our reading is taken, God explains the raising of the dry bones. "Even if you were dead and dried up like heaps of dry bones," God says, "even if you are utterly dead and buried, I will bring you up out of your graves and make you live again. I will bring you home, not because you are a saintly and obedient people, but just because I am God and this is what I have decided to do." What we have here is an oracle of hope. God promises a future to this exiled and dried-up people. It is not because of their merit, either individually or collectively. It is simply because God is generous and has long-term plans for the children of Abraham and Moses and David. God will never allow them to dry up and blow away, never allow them to settle down into their graves forever. On the contrary, God will bring them to where He wants them to be in spite of the situation in which they find themselves, in spite of what they have suffered. God’s plan for His people always includes a future. The story of their salvation is never quite ended. However desperate the situation, God will breathe life into His people again. No matter what happens, God will take care of them. This reading from Ezechiel teaches us about the concluding stages of salvation history. There will always be life. There will always be rescue. The long Gospel reading for this Fifth Sunday of Lent in year A (John 11:1-45) is about the resurrection of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. In raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus not only demonstrates His power over life and death, but also suggests that what Ezechiel had foreseen for the whole people was beginning to be brought to fulfillment by Him. The subject matter of this long Gospel reading and this short overture reading is not the Christian doctrine of individual immortality and resurrection from the dead but rather, the determination of God to make His people live, no matter what their particular circumstances might be. There are all kinds of death in the world around us: death of the body, death of the spirit, death of our common aspirations. We are invited in dozens of ways to forget about a future sharing in the life of the Lord and settle for comfort, satisfaction, security, power, immediate individual fulfillment. When people learn from their experience that such goals are not satisfying, they tend to dry up and curl into their graves. Why bother? Why struggle? Nothing makes much difference. Yet in these readings from Ezechiel and from John, God’s word reminds us that there is always life in store for us. If we accept what God offers us, we will experience resurrection, a return from disillusion and disintegration. We will be restored to vigor. We are called to look forward to resurrection, not just the one final resurrection at the end of time, but to repeated resurrections as we experience the repeated interventions of God in our lives. Death and destruction for God’s people are never the last word. The history of salvation, corporate and individual, is the history of resurrection. And the history of salvation is not over yet. For reflection and discussion** Where do I see death in myself, in the church, in the world? Have I experienced resurrection in my life?

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