Lent
5A 2014
Father Adam Trambley
April 6, 2014 St.John’s Sharon
Word. Our word. God’s
word.
Word. The Word who is
life
For dry
bones
For Lazarus
For us.
Word.
We underestimate the power of the word.
Words once meant something.
Spoken
blessings were sought.
Spoken
curses were feared.
Your word
was your bond.
When a word was given,
Heaven
and earth were moved
To
follow through.
Words were not spoken lightly
And
a commitment made
Was
a commitment kept.
Physically, words carry change.
The sound
of our words
Resonates
inside us
Until it
comes out and
Vibrates
everything around us.
When we speak,
A power does
indeed flow from us
And affects
every atom and every cell
Surrounding
us.
Spiritually, words resonate throughout earth and heaven.
Our words flow from our hearts
And are
carried on our breath,
Which means
they are connected
To
our spirit
And can
connect us
To
God’s Spirit.
Our words speak of us,
Reveal what
is in our hearts,
And, when
spoken with integrity,
Powerfully
project our personality,
into
the wider world.
When God wanted to create the cosmos
While the
Spirit hovered over the chaos
God spoke
his Word
And there
was light, and land,
And living
creatures and,
a few days later,
us.
When God wanted to redeem fallen creation,
The Word
became flesh
And dwelt
among us.
When God wanted heal,
He said,
Take
up your mat and walk
Little
girl stand up
Lazarus,
come out.
And the
wider world realigned around his words.
The Word
Spoken from
the heart of God
Carried on his Holy Spirit
Brings God’s power, his light, his
life
To
the world.
In today’s dry bones reading,
God gives Ezekiel the command
To speak words
Carrying the kind of
Compelling presence
Present in God’s own word.
“Prophesy to these
bones”
God says to Ezekiel.
Tell them
they will come together and live.
Ezekiel prophecies to
the bones.
He speaks a word
Saying that they will
have sinew and flesh and skin
And that breath, or better yet,
spirit
will swoop back into them
and they will live.
As the word is spoken--
The prophetic word
Spoken from both the depth
Of the soul of the
prophet
And from the compelling command
Of the Almighty--
As the powerful
prophetic word is spoken,
A sound like a great quaking
surrounds the speaker
As bone connects to bone,
and sinews, flesh and skin stretch
over the bones.
Then the prophet
prophesies again
Speaking to the Spirit
To come from the four corners of the
earth
That the breath of life might blow into
the slain
that they would live.
The word spoken on the
breath of the prophet
Announces the new life carried
Upon the breath of the Spirit of God
And these bones live.
The life-giving word
of the prophet overcomes
the words
of death spoken by those
who became bones:
“our bones
are dried up”
“our hope
is lost”
“we are cut
off completely.”
Then the Lord says to Ezekiel,
Let them
know that they will live.
Let them
know that they are not
Trapped
in their tombs.
Let them
know that I am the Lord.
Knowing the Lord like Ezekiel,
Aligning
our lives with the Lord’s life
Carrying
out the Lord’s commands
Means speaking the same life-giving words
Spoken by
God.
The prophetic word is nothing more
Than making
God’s word resonate
Through
the vocal chords of the prophet.
The prophetic word is allowing
God’s
Spirit in us to speak out
The
Word of God’s Spirit.
The prophetic word uses our personality
To project
the power of God
In the
places we go.
But the dry bones became dry bones
Because
they didn’t know
God’s
life and
God’s
hope and
God’s
love.
The people of Israel spoke strong words
To each
other before becoming bones,
But the words
were words
Of
despair and
Darkness
And
death.
They were effective words,
But they
were words of cursing,
Not
of blessing,
And the
people died.
God commanded Ezekiel
To speak
God’s word of life.
We see in Jesus, the capital-W Word,
Such a unity
with God
That every
word he speaks
And
everything he does
Resonates
with the word
Of the
Almighty.
He is entirely about God’s purpose,
And his
words are powerful:
I am the resurrection
and the life.
Father, I thank
you…you always hear me.
Lazarus, come out!
The Word who is life
Speaks a
word and gives life.
God’s powerful, life-giving word
Is not
reserved
For Old
Testament prophets,
For Jesus
and the apostles,
Or for the
great saints of ages past.
God’s powerful, life-giving word
Is also
meant to be spoken by us.
To speak God’s word,
we have to
know it
and we have
to want it.
We come to know God’s word
As we read
scripture
As we study
As we pray
And as we
live with others
Also trying to know God’s word
In our church, our
family, or our community.
And then, of course, we listen
For
whatever God might say
Specifically
to us.
We come to want God’s word
For us and
for others
As we
undertake the spiritual disciplines
That
train us to do God’s will.
We fast, we
tithe, we pray for others,
We love our
neighbors
When
it would be easier not to,
And we
repent of our sins
When
we commit them
And allow
others to hold us accountable
So
we sin less in the future.
When we know God’s word
And we want
God’s word
We
speak God’s word.
When we speak it
We bring
it.
Sometimes we speak it in church.
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
And the Lord is with us.
We say Peace! to
each other,
And if we
mean it
God’s peace is present between us.
We say The Body of Christ
And we
receive the
Real body
and blood of Christ.
We say Lord have mercy,
And Thy will be done,
And Thanks be to God
And even Amen.
And our words are actually
Cooperating
with God’s word
To accomplish
God’s work among us.
We also have important opportunities
Throughout
our life
To speak God’s word
To others
And change their lives.
To tell people who have never felt unconditional love
That God
made them
And loves
them
No matter
what.
To tell people who have made a mess of their lives
That God
will forgive them
And let
them start over.
To tell people who are handcuffed
By anxiety
and fear
“Be Not
Afraid!” and
That God
will make a way.
To tell people who believe that they are
Dried up,
and hopeless and cut off,
That God
has a plan and a purpose
And a new
life for them.
And to tell people who are in denial
About the
harm they are causing
Themselves
or others
The
God’s-honest truth
So that
their eyes might be opened.
To speak words of blessing upon our children
And our children’s
children
That they
might know and serve the Lord
And receive
every good thing,
Because
blessing our children matters.
To give up cursing or using our words in ways
To hurt or injure
So that our
mouths speak
Solely the
Word of the Lord.
And become
instruments exclusively dedicated
to
his purposes.
God has given us the power of our words,
And our
words matter.
We, like Jesus and Ezekiel,
Can speak the life-giving word of God.
Those around us are desperate to hear it.
If we want to be obedient,
We need to
speak it
And if we don’t want to speak it,
We better
sing it.
Word!
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