March 29- Fifth Sunday in Lent<\/strong><\/h1>\nEzekiel 37:1-14<\/strong><\/p>\nThe enigmatic poet Emily Dickinson\u2019s famous words are appropriate for a sermon that hangs off the Hebrew Scripture assigned to the day:<\/p>\n
Tell the truth, but tell it slant<\/em><\/p>\nSuccess in circuit lies<\/em><\/p>\nToo bright for our infirm delight<\/em><\/p>\nThe truth\u2019s superb surprise<\/em><\/p>\nA lightening to the children eased<\/em><\/p>\nWith explanation kind<\/em><\/p>\nThe truth must dazzle gradually<\/em><\/p>\nOr every man be blind<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cTell the truth, but tell it slant\u2026\u201d is Dickinson\u2019s prescription for a humanity that truly has trouble bearing too much reality, at least all at once.<\/p>\n
And, Beloved, let\u2019s be honest: there is tons of heavy truth in these days. Truth about this pandemic, truth about the health of our loved ones, concerning truth about the health of our congregations\u2026too much truth.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t suggest you tell it slant. I don\u2019t suggest you bludgeon people, either.<\/p>\n
All this heavy truth is perhaps why we have historically destroyed those who tell too much truth.\u00a0 In<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2020\/03\/Canva-Megaphone-Speakers-on-Wooden-Post-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nancient days they called them \u201cprophets,\u201d though you might not associate prophecy with truth-telling. So much of what passes for \u201cprophecy\u201d these days has to do with predicting the future, but that\u2019s not actually what a prophet does, nor is it indicative of who a prophet is, at least in the Bible.<\/p>\n
Prophets are truth-tellers.<\/p>\n
Ezekiel was already a priest, but just being a priest doesn\u2019t make you a prophet. Priests perform ritual acts, but prophets perform acts of truth-telling, often to powers that don\u2019t want to hear it. Sometimes priests and prophets are one and the same\u2026but it takes intention and risk.<\/p>\n
And the book of Ezekiel is one of powerful truth-telling, using allegory to speak to Israel in a time of great confusion.<\/p>\n
Because as he\u2019s standing over this valley of dry bones God tells him to proclaim more truth: to the bones, and to the wind, forging an alliance between the human and the elemental to show forth God\u2019s work in the world.<\/p>\n
Is this not what we essentially do as pastors in the Rite of Baptism? Do we not prophesy to the human (the baptismal candidate) and the elemental (the water) at the urging of God to cause new life to enter into not only the human but the world writ large?<\/p>\n
This text is a baptismal text. It\u2019s a text about new life.<\/p>\n
And what truths need to be told in these days of confusion? Perhaps there is a call to be honest and ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2020\/03\/Canva-The-Holy-Bible-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>careful about human touch with Covid-19 spreading like wildfire.\u00a0 And, along with that call, perhaps the prophet in the digital pulpit would do well to remind people that this is not a \u201cforeign\u201d virus, as viruses don\u2019t have nationalities, and we must resist language that pits humanity against each other, especially in times of crisis.<\/p>\nNew life will come for the world, but we are called practice caution in these days. That\u2019s some tough truth, especially for those who already don\u2019t get their touch-needs met enough: the lonely, the aged, the stigmatized, and the unwell.<\/p>\n
So maybe some truth-telling today might name that, in this time of social distancing, we must find safe ways to reach out to those who already feel distant. That\u2019s some deep truth.<\/p>\n
Deep truth-telling can change things, by God.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s even been known to make things that were once dead alive again.<\/p>\n
Perhaps that\u2019s why it gets another hearing at the Easter Vigil every year.<\/p>\n
Prophets don\u2019t tell the future, they tell the truth. In this Lenten season, what is the truth your assembly needs to hear, by God? And what is the truth they need to say to this world too often dominated by dry bones and hot air?<\/p>\n
John 11:1-45<\/strong><\/p>\nThis reading is plagued by a lack of brevity, which only works against the preacher if you\u2019re not imaginative with how you proclaim it. I suggest, if possible in this new reality, you split up the text between several voices. I know in our digital reality this would require some planning and coordination, but it is worth it.<\/p>\n
And once the text falls on their ears, you then have the ability nimbly navigate this longer reading in a way that lands with more than sentimental impact. Sentimentality is one of the dangers of this text, I think. And in the world of proclamation, sentimentality is akin to pity: it deflects true emotion by keeping distance.<\/p>\n
Because the truth of the Lazarus story is that Lazarus is dead. Very dead.<\/p>\n
We know this because the writer goes to great lengths to note that Lazarus has been in the grave for four days. In ancient Jewish lore, the spirit of the deceased hovered around the tomb for no more than three ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2020\/03\/Canva-Flowers-at-a-Graveyard-300x232.jpg\")
<\/a>days (which, it is worth noting, John makes sure that Jesus actually does physical things post-resurrection, to show he\u2019s not just a spirit appearing to people). The Gospel notes that Lazarus was there for four days, many hours past the time when he might have just been mistaken for dead, or that his spirit would appear.<\/p>\nLazarus is dead. And in these days of rising death-tolls, this can be difficult to claim and name. But it also might be necessary to investigate.<\/p>\n
What are the dead places in our lives? Our feelings of safety and normalcy? Our healthcare system? Our trust in our government?<\/p>\n
Or, perhaps in these intensive quarters, we\u2019re realizing our relationships are dead or dying? Our jobs?<\/p>\n
What used to have life, but is long past that now? These questions bounce around the text this Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
A different sermon might find another avenue, though, through the way that both indignation and hope hold hands in the person of Martha. Mary, rightfully, seems full of grief and regret. But Martha holds out the candle of hope in the shadow of the valley of death, noting that Jesus can ask anything of God and God will provide.<\/p>\n
The imagery of holding both indignation and hope simultaneously strikes me as timely in these days, even as the Earth warms, our politics continue to be divisive, wars continue, and mass shootings become far too regular.<\/p>\n
Perhaps you and your online-assembly will resonate with that theme as well. How do we hold indignation in one hand and hope in the other, well? It\u2019s worth asking and pondering together as a church.<\/p>\n
Or perhaps your assembly needs to ask openly what is binding them and keeping them buried in these days.\u00a0 Is it a budget that can\u2019t be met?\u00a0 Is it division in the pews?\u00a0 Or perhaps they\u2019re tied to a past that is long dead or an uncertain future.\u00a0 Or maybe all of this and more.<\/p>\n
Lazarus is unbound in today\u2019s Gospel, and if you read just a bit more in the scriptures, you\u2019ll find that in the next scene he\u2019s serving Jesus. Not only are his bindings keeping him buried, but they\u2019re keeping him from serving.<\/p>\n
Maybe yours are, too.<\/p>\n
There is so much to pull from this Gospel lesson. Pick an avenue and follow it down that holy path.<\/p>\n
Children\u2019s Message<\/strong><\/p>\nThis might be a good time to allay fears around COVID-19, and explore how God calls us to gather together safely. You\u2019re probably giving this online, and wanting to strike a balance between providing perspective while not alarming them.\u00a0 Be cheery, but honest.<\/em><\/p>\nHave a box of tissues with you to lift up.<\/em><\/p>\nAlright, everyone, I brought something with me and I bet you know what it is.<\/p>\n
Hold up the box of tissues<\/em><\/p>\nRight!\u00a0 Tissues. When do we use these? Give space to pretend for an answer. The children watching will understand this pause. It is part of many shows they already watch.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nRight. When we have a runny nose, or we sneeze, or cough\u2026when we\u2019re sick.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2020\/03\/Canva-Black-Home-Area-Rug-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWhere is the best place to cough and sneeze if we don\u2019t have a tissue though?<\/p>\n
Give space to pretend for someone to answer. <\/em><\/p>\nRight! Doctors say that we should cough or sneeze into our elbows demonstrate <\/em>so that we get good coverage over our mouth and nose with our arm.<\/p>\nWe know that there is a virus going around. They probably have you washing your hands at home a lot right?\u00a0 Yeah, they want to make sure we\u2019re all healthy and don\u2019t spread it around.<\/p>\n
God wants us all to be safe. So, many of us are staying at home. And in this time when we\u2019re being careful not to spread things around, we still want to be safe, right? Because we don\u2019t want people who are sick to get sicker or people who may be very old or very young to get sick, right?<\/p>\n
So, for a little while, I want to show you how to say \u201cPeace be with you\u201d in sign language. It\u2019s something that we can do when we share the peace with one another, so we don\u2019t actually have to touch hands while ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2020\/03\/Canva-Woman-Doing-a-Peace-Hand-Sign-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>doing it. And I want you to send me videos of you doing it! Ready?<\/p>\nThe sign for \u201cpeace\u201d is made by putting your hands together and turning them over, then moving them apart in an inverted V.\u00a0 \u201cWith\u201d is simply bringing two closed fists together.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u201d is made by a simple point or gesture toward someone.\u00a0 You can find visual directions here: <\/em>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=moAv06flgEU<\/a><\/p>\n
The enigmatic poet Emily Dickinson\u2019s famous words are appropriate for a sermon that hangs off the Hebrew Scripture assigned to the day:<\/p>\n
Tell the truth, but tell it slant<\/em><\/p>\n Success in circuit lies<\/em><\/p>\n Too bright for our infirm delight<\/em><\/p>\n The truth\u2019s superb surprise<\/em><\/p>\n A lightening to the children eased<\/em><\/p>\n With explanation kind<\/em><\/p>\n The truth must dazzle gradually<\/em><\/p>\n Or every man be blind<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cTell the truth, but tell it slant\u2026\u201d is Dickinson\u2019s prescription for a humanity that truly has trouble bearing too much reality, at least all at once.<\/p>\n And, Beloved, let\u2019s be honest: there is tons of heavy truth in these days. Truth about this pandemic, truth about the health of our loved ones, concerning truth about the health of our congregations\u2026too much truth.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t suggest you tell it slant. I don\u2019t suggest you bludgeon people, either.<\/p>\n All this heavy truth is perhaps why we have historically destroyed those who tell too much truth.\u00a0 In<\/p>\n ancient days they called them \u201cprophets,\u201d though you might not associate prophecy with truth-telling. So much of what passes for \u201cprophecy\u201d these days has to do with predicting the future, but that\u2019s not actually what a prophet does, nor is it indicative of who a prophet is, at least in the Bible.<\/p>\n Prophets are truth-tellers.<\/p>\n Ezekiel was already a priest, but just being a priest doesn\u2019t make you a prophet. Priests perform ritual acts, but prophets perform acts of truth-telling, often to powers that don\u2019t want to hear it. Sometimes priests and prophets are one and the same\u2026but it takes intention and risk.<\/p>\n And the book of Ezekiel is one of powerful truth-telling, using allegory to speak to Israel in a time of great confusion.<\/p>\n Because as he\u2019s standing over this valley of dry bones God tells him to proclaim more truth: to the bones, and to the wind, forging an alliance between the human and the elemental to show forth God\u2019s work in the world.<\/p>\n Is this not what we essentially do as pastors in the Rite of Baptism? Do we not prophesy to the human (the baptismal candidate) and the elemental (the water) at the urging of God to cause new life to enter into not only the human but the world writ large?<\/p>\n This text is a baptismal text. It\u2019s a text about new life.<\/p>\n And what truths need to be told in these days of confusion? Perhaps there is a call to be honest and New life will come for the world, but we are called practice caution in these days. That\u2019s some tough truth, especially for those who already don\u2019t get their touch-needs met enough: the lonely, the aged, the stigmatized, and the unwell.<\/p>\n So maybe some truth-telling today might name that, in this time of social distancing, we must find safe ways to reach out to those who already feel distant. That\u2019s some deep truth.<\/p>\n Deep truth-telling can change things, by God.<\/p>\n It\u2019s even been known to make things that were once dead alive again.<\/p>\n Perhaps that\u2019s why it gets another hearing at the Easter Vigil every year.<\/p>\n Prophets don\u2019t tell the future, they tell the truth. In this Lenten season, what is the truth your assembly needs to hear, by God? And what is the truth they need to say to this world too often dominated by dry bones and hot air?<\/p>\n John 11:1-45<\/strong><\/p>\n This reading is plagued by a lack of brevity, which only works against the preacher if you\u2019re not imaginative with how you proclaim it. I suggest, if possible in this new reality, you split up the text between several voices. I know in our digital reality this would require some planning and coordination, but it is worth it.<\/p>\n And once the text falls on their ears, you then have the ability nimbly navigate this longer reading in a way that lands with more than sentimental impact. Sentimentality is one of the dangers of this text, I think. And in the world of proclamation, sentimentality is akin to pity: it deflects true emotion by keeping distance.<\/p>\n Because the truth of the Lazarus story is that Lazarus is dead. Very dead.<\/p>\n We know this because the writer goes to great lengths to note that Lazarus has been in the grave for four days. In ancient Jewish lore, the spirit of the deceased hovered around the tomb for no more than three Lazarus is dead. And in these days of rising death-tolls, this can be difficult to claim and name. But it also might be necessary to investigate.<\/p>\n What are the dead places in our lives? Our feelings of safety and normalcy? Our healthcare system? Our trust in our government?<\/p>\n Or, perhaps in these intensive quarters, we\u2019re realizing our relationships are dead or dying? Our jobs?<\/p>\n What used to have life, but is long past that now? These questions bounce around the text this Sunday morning.<\/p>\n A different sermon might find another avenue, though, through the way that both indignation and hope hold hands in the person of Martha. Mary, rightfully, seems full of grief and regret. But Martha holds out the candle of hope in the shadow of the valley of death, noting that Jesus can ask anything of God and God will provide.<\/p>\n The imagery of holding both indignation and hope simultaneously strikes me as timely in these days, even as the Earth warms, our politics continue to be divisive, wars continue, and mass shootings become far too regular.<\/p>\n Perhaps you and your online-assembly will resonate with that theme as well. How do we hold indignation in one hand and hope in the other, well? It\u2019s worth asking and pondering together as a church.<\/p>\n Or perhaps your assembly needs to ask openly what is binding them and keeping them buried in these days.\u00a0 Is it a budget that can\u2019t be met?\u00a0 Is it division in the pews?\u00a0 Or perhaps they\u2019re tied to a past that is long dead or an uncertain future.\u00a0 Or maybe all of this and more.<\/p>\n Lazarus is unbound in today\u2019s Gospel, and if you read just a bit more in the scriptures, you\u2019ll find that in the next scene he\u2019s serving Jesus. Not only are his bindings keeping him buried, but they\u2019re keeping him from serving.<\/p>\n Maybe yours are, too.<\/p>\n There is so much to pull from this Gospel lesson. Pick an avenue and follow it down that holy path.<\/p>\n Children\u2019s Message<\/strong><\/p>\n This might be a good time to allay fears around COVID-19, and explore how God calls us to gather together safely. You\u2019re probably giving this online, and wanting to strike a balance between providing perspective while not alarming them.\u00a0 Be cheery, but honest.<\/em><\/p>\n Have a box of tissues with you to lift up.<\/em><\/p>\n Alright, everyone, I brought something with me and I bet you know what it is.<\/p>\n Hold up the box of tissues<\/em><\/p>\n Right!\u00a0 Tissues. When do we use these? Give space to pretend for an answer. The children watching will understand this pause. It is part of many shows they already watch.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Right. When we have a runny nose, or we sneeze, or cough\u2026when we\u2019re sick. Where is the best place to cough and sneeze if we don\u2019t have a tissue though?<\/p>\n Give space to pretend for someone to answer. <\/em><\/p>\n Right! Doctors say that we should cough or sneeze into our elbows demonstrate <\/em>so that we get good coverage over our mouth and nose with our arm.<\/p>\n We know that there is a virus going around. They probably have you washing your hands at home a lot right?\u00a0 Yeah, they want to make sure we\u2019re all healthy and don\u2019t spread it around.<\/p>\n God wants us all to be safe. So, many of us are staying at home. And in this time when we\u2019re being careful not to spread things around, we still want to be safe, right? Because we don\u2019t want people who are sick to get sicker or people who may be very old or very young to get sick, right?<\/p>\n So, for a little while, I want to show you how to say \u201cPeace be with you\u201d in sign language. It\u2019s something that we can do when we share the peace with one another, so we don\u2019t actually have to touch hands while The sign for \u201cpeace\u201d is made by putting your hands together and turning them over, then moving them apart in an inverted V.\u00a0 \u201cWith\u201d is simply bringing two closed fists together.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u201d is made by a simple point or gesture toward someone.\u00a0 You can find visual directions here: <\/em>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=moAv06flgEU<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>careful about human touch with Covid-19 spreading like wildfire.\u00a0 And, along with that call, perhaps the prophet in the digital pulpit would do well to remind people that this is not a \u201cforeign\u201d virus, as viruses don\u2019t have nationalities, and we must resist language that pits humanity against each other, especially in times of crisis.<\/p>\n<\/a>days (which, it is worth noting, John makes sure that Jesus actually does physical things post-resurrection, to show he\u2019s not just a spirit appearing to people). The Gospel notes that Lazarus was there for four days, many hours past the time when he might have just been mistaken for dead, or that his spirit would appear.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>doing it. And I want you to send me videos of you doing it! Ready?<\/p>\n