Living In God’s Abundance

Ezekiel 37: 1-14 & John 11: 28-44

Roger Lynn

October 29, 2017

Stewardship Commitment Sunday

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

(click here for the video for the whole worship service - including this sermon, which begins at 00:24:00)

Life! Abundant life! Bubbling up to overflowing. That is the gift God offers. In the story of Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, and in John’s story about the raising of Lazarus, the message is clear. The life which pours forth from God cannot be stopped. We might lose sight of it. We might doubt it. We might believe there is only death. But in the end, God’s life is the reality which wins out. Even when it seems as if we are nothing but old, dry, disconnected bones. Even when it seems as if we might as well be dead and rotting in the grave. Nothing in heaven or on earth can stand in the way of God’s abundant life when we choose to open ourselves to the flow of that transforming reality.

And what makes the story of this abundant life particularly powerful and pointed is that God doesn’t just make it happen. In the midst of all the dramatic details contained in both stories which we read this morning, one detail is especially surprising. We are called to participate in the process of making this abundant life manifest in the world. In the face of the valley of dry bone (a metaphor for the desolate lives of the exiled people of Israel), God doesn’t just wave a hand and snap a finger and magically transform the whole scene. Ezekiel has to get involved. “Prophesy to the bones,” God tells Ezekiel. “Speak a word of hope in the face of what seems to be hopeless death. Speak a word of God! Proclaim the good news that God’s Spirit, God’s breath, God’s holy and powerful Ruach is able to blow through even the most lifeless places in our lives and in our world and bring forth new life! Prophesy, Ezekiel!” Ezekiel doesn’t bring the life. He doesn’t heal the brokenness. But he has a role to play. He is called to participate.

The same is true in the Lazarus story, in an even more directly challenging way. In the face of everyone believing that death is the final, defining reality, Jesus declares that it simply is not true. It is not death now and life somewhere down the road, maybe, if you’re good. It is life now. It is life always. It doesn’t matter if we can’t see it. “But Jesus, you don’t understand. He’s already starting to stink! How can there be life here?” There can be life here because God’s abundant life is everywhere, all the time, no matter what! “Lazarus, come out!” And then comes the surprise. Not that Lazarus comes dragging up out of the tomb, death trailing after him like so many old rags tangling his arms and legs and threatening to trip him up. We know all about feeling like death warmed over, weighed down and tangled up with all the death-filled choices we seem so very good at making. And not even the fact that somehow Lazarus has found new life. We’ve come to expect that sort of thing from God (even though we also tend to forget in those moments when it would be most useful to remember that God is all about abundant life). No, the real surprise comes when Jesus turns to the gathered crowd and says, “Unbind him and set him free!” What are you waiting for? Can’t you see that he needs help? You’ve got work to do – holy, sacred work to do. God may be the source of abundant life, but it doesn’t do a lot of good if nobody hears about it. It doesn’t do a lot of good if they stay all wrapped up in their death rags. For God’s abundant life to really become manifest in the world, we have to participate in the process. We’ve got to take the risk of getting out there and sharing ourselves. 

Now, you may or may not remember, but this is a stewardship sermon. You may even have thought that I forgot this was supposed to be a stewardship sermon. But I didn’t, and it is. In just a little while we are going to have an opportunity to make a financial commitment to this congregation. It’s vitally important that we do so with an awareness of the context within which our commitments take place, so I want to make this as clear as I possibly can. God is the source of rich, abundant life. We are all recipients of that abundance. It flows freely all around us all of the time. Any giving which we engage in, any commitments which we make, occur in response to God’s gift of abundant life. Indeed, we are called to participate with God in the ongoing process of sharing abundance with the world. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? I hope and pray that you will take this opportunity to share yourself with the world as a partner with God – financially as you are able, personally as you are led, freely as you are freed. Together, may we truly learn to live in God’s abundance so that God’s abundance can live in us. Amen.