Pastor Sherry’s message for March 26, 2023

Scriptures: Eze 37:1-14; Ps 130; Ro 8:5-11; Jn 11:1-45

Have you ever wondered about what you might do if you were God? Jim Carey plays a guy who thinks he can do things better than God in the 2003 film, Bruce Almighty*. (Hard to believe it’s now 20 years old!) You may remember that Morgan Freeman, dressed totally in white, plays the role of God the Father. He gives Bruce His godly powers, then goes on vacation. At first, Bruce does not believe he has God’s powers.

Then he begins to experiment, with hilarious results: He starts his cranky, clunker of a car by simply telling it to start, and is gratified. He walks on water and is both scared and amazed. He produces a spoon to stir his coffee just by thinking it up. He creates a wind in a diner that parts his soup into two pools. As the movie progresses, most of what Bruce does is either silly, or selfish, or vindictive, or damaging—thereby making the point that we humans don’t have the necessary love, maturity, or wisdom to use such power judiciously. If we were God, we would most likely mess up massively.

Our scripture readings today all celebrate the phenomenal power of God, and the very wise and compassionate ways in which He utilizes it in our lives:

A. Psalm 130 sets the stage: In the ancient church tradition of naming the psalms by their first few words in Latin, Psalm 130 is called “De profundis”–or “Out of the depths.” Whoever composed this psalm captures our times of grief, despair, or overwhelm in his 1st verse: Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord. The psalmist is saying “Lord, I am at the end of my resources. Help!” Or, as I said last week, “Lord, I’m at the end of myself. Help!” We can all think of times, can’t we, when we are overtaken by profound despair, debilitating grief, or hopeless depression? If we believe in God and in His power, at some point we remember to call upon Him for help. Verse 2 reads O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If we are wise—and if we trust in Jesus—we take our distress to the Lord.

This psalmist clearly trusts in the Lord. He is very aware that we are all sinners who really don’t deserve God’s mercy, forgiveness, or grace. Yet he counts on it! He waits for the Lord to act on his behalf. My favorite verse is #7 O Israel [O Christ-followers], put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption. In other words, we can and should trust in God to love us despite our shortcomings. In other words, we can and should believe in His ability to overcome our suffering and to redeem our pain—even redeem our messes, if we surrender them to Him. Our God has the power to pull us up out of whatever depths we have sunken into.

B. Paul continues this theme in Romans 8:5-11. Before exploring the meanings of the passage, it is most helpful to begin before verse 5, at Paul’s basic premise expressed back in verse 1: Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What a relief! If I abide in Christ—maintain my heartfelt relationship with Him—my sins aren’t counted against me. And not just me! All of our sinfulness is covered/hidden behind/or rather accounted for by the righteousness of Christ!

Back in the beginning of Lent (2/12/23), I preached on Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthian Church (3:1-9). You may recall that he differentiated between the saved and the unsaved, as well as between spiritual (Mature) Christians and carnal (Immature) Christians. He is making a similar point to the church in Rome in the remainder of this passage: Rev. Dr. Eugene Peterson paraphrases it this way (The Message, NavPress, 2002, pp.2044-2045) Those who think they can do it on their own [overcome their carnal nature] end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life…..

The carnal Christian has a mindset that is controlled by his/her sinful nature. Rev. Dr. J. Vernon McGee says our sinful nature acts like a big bully, constantly trying to ambush us and beat us up (Commentary on Romans, Thomas Nelson, 1991, p.141). It feels like that, doesn’t it? Sin beats us up!

Paul states that the sinful nature leads us to death (certainly spiritually, but often even physically). On the other hand, the Spirit-led mindset leads us into life. The Holy Spirit acts like our big brother who shows up in the nick of time to save us from the bully. I didn’t have an older brother; in fact I saved my little brother’s neck a bunch of times. But even so, I know how good that feels to know the Holy Spirit is willing to go toe-to-toe with the bully and win for my behalf.

Additionally, Paul explains, (MSG, p.2045) But if God Himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of Him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive to Himself? What a blessing!

God the Holy Spirit abides in us and protects us from the bullies. And He also functions to grow us up into mature Christians.

C. This transformative, life-giving power is revealed in Jesus in our Gospel lesson from John 11:1-45. This is the familiar story of Jesus arriving in Bethany 4 days after his friend Lazarus has died. Both of Lazarus’ sisters greet Jesus with faith statements (v.21 and v.32) Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Both sisters trust that Jesus could have healed Lazarus of his fatal illness. Though neither has heard that He has the power to restore a dead person to life, they believe in the final resurrection after we die. Jesus reveals to Martha that (vv.25-26) I am the resurrection and the life. He [or in this case, she] who believes in Me will live, even though he [she] dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.

Then Jesus prays to His Father and proceeds to bring forth a living Lazarus from the grave. The formerly dead man walks out of the grave, but is still bound up in his grave wrappings. He probably looked somewhat like a mummy—alive but not really free—so Jesus directs the onlookers to (v.45) Take off the grave clothes and let him go. Jesus, God-incarnate, has the power to raise a dead person to life. Glory to God!

This is astonishing and defies science as we understand it! If any of you has read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein—which she wrote at the age of 18—you may have noted that it is not only one of the first novels in the horror genre, but it is also a morality tale. Dr. Frankenstein wants to prove that humankind can create something alive from dead matter. He cobbles together cadaver parts, then shoots incredible amounts of electricity into the monster’s body to bring it to life. Later on the amoral, rogue monster kills his creator. The moral is that humans should stay in their own “wheelhouse” and leave the creation of life to God. God can simply call a person by name to bring them come back to life.

D. Additionally, as our OT lesson shows us (Ezekiel 37:1-14), our God can also resurrect an entire nation! By the power of the Holy Spirit, God takes the prophet Ezekiel to a wasteland, desert valley in which he sees the dried, scattered, skeletal remains of innumerable warriors killed long ago in some titanic battle. God then asks Ezekiel if these bones can return to life. The prophet wisely replies (v.3) O Sovereign Lord, You alone know. Like many of us, Ezekiel knows God can do it. He’s just not sure if, in this case, God will do it. But God tells the prophet to command the bones to come to life. Ezekiel does exactly what the Lord has told him.

Even as he is still speaking God’s words over the bones, they begin to move; they reassemble into human form; and they become upright but unbreathing cadavers. .

Then God tells the prophet to prophesy to the breath (v.9) Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe into these slain that they may live. God allows Ezekiel (who speaks for God) to command the Breath—the ruach [the word in the Hebrew for wind, breath, or Holy Spirit] to bring these cadavers to life. He does as directed and a mighty army returns to life! Bruce Almighty asks, “Who has the power?”

Ezekiel and we know that only God has the power to bring the dead back to life! This exercise in the Valley of the Dry Bones was meant to let the Israelites know that God will one day restore that nation–not as it is today, a geographical and political entity that barely acknowledges God. But, at Jesus’ 2nd Coming, as a nation of true-believers.

Our God has such extraordinary, resurrection power over our lives that He can resurrect us when we die. Many of God’s/Jesus’ miraculous powers amaze me. But, given the eternal consequences, none is as important as is His ability to bring us to new life in Christ Jesus, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory over death, through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen!

©️2023 Rev. Dr. Sherry Adams

*Bruce Almighty