I wrote this piece for the opening article of the March 28, 2020 eNews of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. The coming Sunday's readings included Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones and Jesus' raising of Lazarus from the dead.
“The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.” – Ezekiel 37:1-2
If I’m honest, on many days it seems like the entire world is nothing but a valley of dry bones. Death is all around. Death of loved ones. Death of human beings we know only as numbers of people who have died from COVID-19. Death of routines and cherished traditions, death of livelihoods and security, death of relationships and any sense of peace. We are in a valley of dry bones. Lazarus is dead.
We are urged to be strong and productive, to not let this coronavirus situation get us down. Do not fear. Do not despair. Keep the economy going at all costs.
We are in a valley of dry bones. Lazarus is dead. Jesus wept. Jesus grieved Lazarus’ death and we need to grieve too. The deaths we are experiencing, individually and collectively, are real deaths. And they need to be grieved.
https://youtu.be/6HeFMkGIhjE
This article from the Harvard Business Review was very helpful to me this week as I tried to make sense of why I was feeling so overwhelmed. In the article, grief “expert” David Kessler says, “The loss of normalcy; the fear of economic toll; the loss of connection. This is hitting us and we’re grieving. Collectively. We are not used to this kind of collective grief in the air.” Grief is natural and necessary in a time like this.
Yet, even as we grieve the death that seems so very present we can almost smell it, we know that there is more to the story.
“I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.” -Ezekiel 37:10
“The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”” -John 11:44
God is able, my friends. God is able to breathe life into the dry bones of our world’s current situation. God is able to bring life out of death.
We grieve death after death after death. Yet even at the grave we make our song.
We weep at Jesus’ death on the cross on Good Friday and we also sing “Holy God, holy and living one, life that never ends, you show your love by dying, dying for your friends, and we behold you living.” (Susan Briehl)
Death and resurrection are inextricably bound. Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning. We will weep and we will rejoice.
The death cries of “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” may seem the loudest right now, but the sweet alleluias of Easter are the distant triumph song that will never let us go.