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May my words be acceptable to God;
faithful to the teachings of Christ;
and inspired by the Holy Spirit;
that we may be blessed by the same Triune God.

When the Bishop is here, she blesses us with a Franciscan prayer which has the final line:

May God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in the world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

When the Bishop blessed us after the Renewal of Ordination Vows on Friday evening, this part of it struck me in relation to Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of the Dry Bones. As I suppose all prophets do, Ezekiel has to have enough foolishness to believe that a nation crushed, captured and in exile can be restored by the Almighty YHWH. The vision is the restoration of a people, of a community, of hope. This vision was of the difference in the world of the Israelites that most claimed could not be done:

Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost.

It was a sign from YHWH that they will one day be restored, bone to its bone, sinews and flesh. The impossible will be possible, and hope is not lost.

The same with Lazarus. There was no life left in him. According to Jewish custom, after 4 days, the soul is no longer in the body.

“Take away the stone.” Then Martha said, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”

May she be blessed with enough foolishness to believe that what others claim cannot be done can indeed be done!

We are confronted with these two stories of accomplishing what others claim cannot be done: the restoration of life, not as zombies, but as real humans. This is their new life in YHWH, their new life in Christ, to be lived to the full for the glory of God. And while these stories point us to the end-times when God promises that our own resurrection in Christ will be realized, we have to remember that these are messages for us today, as followers of Jesus, and that we can expect the impossible to be accomplished both for us and by us.

The Collect helps us prepare for the impossible:

among the swift and varied changes of the world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found

We plead for God to help us love what God commands so that we can navigate these swift and varied changes, within which there is much that seems cannot be done.

So, Paul tells us to focus the Spirit, which requires faith, rather than to focus on the flesh, which is simple human centrism. It takes no effort for us to focus on the flesh. But it requires faith to live in the Spirit. Back to our reading from Ezekiel, YHWH gave those bones-and-flesh wind and breath – their spirit: Ruach gave them life. It takes faith and the guidance of the Spirit – to have ruach breathed into you – to hold onto these stories of dry bones coming to life and Lazarus being raised from the dead, and to know that one day we will be raised from the dead into a new life – not into this life so we continue doing what we always do, but into a new life that is of a character that surpasses our understanding.

Some say the church is those dry bones, on a march to death, irrelevance and obsolescence. That’s what the numbers suggest.

The Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe was asked at a conference recently about the substantial decline in membership and attendance in The Episcopal Church and the long-term implications. The interviewer Jonathan Rauch said to the Presiding Bishop:

People look at the mainline churches generally and the Episcopal Church specifically, and they say, ‘Let’s face it, the numbers just aren’t there. It’s an aging church. It’s going to diminish quickly. A turnaround is just not in the offing.

Rauch paints a picture of the Church as almost dry bones! Those declining numbers are reflected across the country, including in our own community. But the Church is not just about numbers. The Church is actually more about vibrancy and mission and ministry than it is about numbers. And can we prove to ourselves and others that St Stephen’s can remain vibrant in its mission and ministry?

At Coffee Hour, we will have a conversation about the ministry of Invite – Welcome – Connect that the Vestry has been reviewing over the past year. It’s a way to breathe life into our mission and ministry, to make sure that God’s purposes are being accomplished by us in this place to the minimum degree possible. It seems like it cannot be done, like it’s too much work.

The swift and varied changes of this life have shifted demographics, priorities and understanding toward the Church. In response, the Church has focused on the institution and how to preserve it. We have spent the last 30yrs, then the last 20yrs, then the last 10yrs, then the last few years fretting about the death of the Church, and many both within and outside the Church say that we are foolish to think anything can be done about it.

But we need to set our mind on the Spirit! The ruach – wind, spirit, breath – from God can bring life to anything, and if we are foolish enough to believe we can do what others claim cannot be done … well … if we fail, we are no worse than we are now, and if we do accomplish what others claim cannot be done, then imagine our surprise! Invite – Welcome – Connect reminds us to set our mind on the Spirit and not on the institution: the Spirit of who we are, why we are here and whom we are for. We are here to love God and love neighbor, to believe in and to await for ourselves that new life that Ezekiel, Mary and Martha witnessed.

In 2 weeks we will celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our celebration is not a commemoration, a looking back, something nostalgic. Our celebration of the Resurrection – by the way, which is every Sunday Eucharist! – Our celebration of the Resurrection is our belief and testimony that the Resurrection continues, is never ending, and that we will be raised on the Last Day. Jesus will do what others claim cannot be done.

But what if we claim that this cannot be done? What if we can’t believe either the resurrection of Lazarus or the Resurrection of Jesus? What if we can’t believe the miracle? What if we’re here only because Sunday mornings make us feel good? What if we need more information, more data, more proof!

A large part of me – a scientist and a theologian – says “Who cares!? Who cares if this miracle is provable?! Does it really matter?!” Can we not understand the implications of the Resurrection to New Life without the proof? What is the proof or lack of proof going to provide you? At the moment we have lack of proof. Lack of proof proves nothing! There’s lack of proof for many small, medium and grandiose things in our lives, including the Big Bang Theory! I’m not refuting the Big Bang Theory. I’m just saying that it’s currently just a theory, for which there is some evidence, which has yet to be proven, and we accept it as fact. Nobody cares that the Big Bang Theory hasn’t been proven right or wrong. So, lack of proof proves nothing: it doesn’t prove it’s wrong; it doesn’t prove it’s right!

Proof that the Raising of Lazarus happened: what does that do for you? Proof that it didn’t happen: what does that mean to you? Is this something that you’re going to discuss over your dinner table? If so, what do you hope the final outcome of that conversation will be? In corporate America when there’s a dispute, a common pathway forward with the disgruntled person is to sit down and ask them, “What is it that you are trying to accomplish, what is your desired outcome, and how will you feel if the outcome doesn’t go your way?” So, as you sit, down at the dinner table and discuss whether or not there’s enough proof for the Raising of Lazarus or enough proof that it didn’t happen, what are you hoping to accomplish, and how will you feel If that doesn’t happen? Focus on the flesh, says Paul, and you will be disappointed. Focus on the spirit, and a great many things are possible!

To set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

So, at Coffee Hour, we are going to have a conversation about that which others claim cannot be done. We have no proof of the outcome of this ministry until we try it. And may God bless us with enough foolishness that we believe that we can make a difference in this world.

So, what was the Presiding Bishop’s response to the Valley of Dry Bones and the resurrection that Rauch claimed cannot be done? Sean Rowe responded:

That’s not the teaching of Jesus, which reminds us that this Church will remain no matter what … the body of Christ will remain in the world … I believe that this is an opportunity for us to recalibrate, to rethink, to step back for a moment, to think about how we can strategically then step forward and make an impact on the world. [God will] ultimately take us to a different place, to a promised land, to a land of hope and to a place where what Jesus says is not only words, but lived reality.

The Presiding Bishop reminds us that what others claim cannot be done can be accomplished through Jesus. That’s because, fundamentally, we don’t believe that death is the end, and that the miracles in today’s scriptures – proof or not – point to a land of hope. We believe that death is not the end, and we are foolish enough to believe that we can breathe life into this Church and into this parish.

May God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in this world,
so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

The Bishop stops there with the Franciscan blessing, but there is one last line:

so that you can do what others claim cannot be done,
to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

I want to tag on that we do not forgot God’s call for social justice in our mission and ministry. As we navigate the swift and varied changes of this world, of this community, of this parish, let the life that we breathe into our mission and ministry always be a call to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. Let us be ever mindful of the spirit of our children and of the poor and marginalized. Quoting the Presiding Bishop, again, in the wake of the murders of peaceful protesters in Minneapolis:

As Christians, we must acknowledge that this chaos and division is not of God, and we must commit ourselves to paying whatever price our witness requires of us. Our church will continue to be tested in every conceivable way as we insist that death and despair do not have the last word, and as we stand with immigrants and the most vulnerable among us who reside at the heart of God. We will be required to hold fast to God’s promise to make all things new.

The ruach – the breath, the wind, the Spirit – breathed into those dry bones – remains within us so that through the power of God, the end is never the end – only a new beginning.