Sermon preached 9 March 2008 at All Saints Datchworth: Revd. Stephen Fielding

Son of Man, can these dry bones live? (Ezekiel 37:3)

It is a real pleasure to be here this morning for the first time, and I very much look forward to many such occasions over the next few years, if I am invited back.

I have just been given a wonderful book called Rome and Jerusalem – the Clash of Civilisations. It’s about the Roman destruction of the great city of Jerusalem in AD 70. Less than 40 years after the death of Jesus, this most holy of cities was plundered and ravaged, its men, women and children murdered, and the centre of its worship, the Temple, destroyed forever. It was a milestone event for the Jewish people, and it was nothing new. 650 years earlier, the first Temple had been destroyed and the Jewish people exiled - sent into exile in Babylon – a defeated and humiliated people. And as we heard in our first reading this morning, the prophet Ezekiel surveys the destruction of the Jewish people in a vision which has passed into our corporate and collective memory. The Jewish army is seen as a valley of dead and dry bones – lifeless, finished, a corpse. And God asks his prophet Ezekiel a question that puts him on the spot. ‘Son of Man, can these dry bones live?’ Can Israel come back to life again?

What would you have said, if the voice of the Lord had come to you all those centuries ago? How would you have responded to this penetrating and difficult question? ‘I don’t think so?’ Or ‘Are you joking with me Lord?’ Somehow, I doubt if any of us would have had the faith to say ‘Yes, Lord, of course they will’. And Ezekiel, surveying the scene, and reluctant to blurt out the ‘No’ that must have been in his mind, says simply, nervously and maybe diplomatically, ‘Lord, thou knowest’, ‘God, you know the answer to that one’. For the next 5 years, Ezekiel, that great prophet, will encourage the children of Israel to believe that in time, yes, those dry bones will indeed live, that they will one day re-enter Jerusalem, the holy city, that one day the Temple will be rebuilt. It is with tremendous hope and imagination that Ezekiel gets the Jewish people to re-imagine themselves back in their homeland, alive, fully alive again. It is a wonderful picture of hope and promise amid destruction and desolation.

In 2 weeks time, you and I will be reliving the central events of our Christian faith. The self-offering of Jesus on the cross, and the glory of the raising of Jesus from the dead. The restoring to life of one who was most certainly dead, killed by an act of Roman cruelty. What would you have said if you had been a bystander at that crucifixion, and a voice inside had asked you the question ‘Can this dead Jesus live?’ I suspect most of us would have said ‘No. It’s over. We are defeated, as Jesus is defeated. All our hopes finished. All our dreams shattered’. And yet within 2 days, a mighty act of God has raised Jesus from the dead, has spelt an end to death, has announced that what was down and out and most obviously defeated, has been raised to life. This is victory, and from it a tidal wave of spiritual power and life flooded the world.

Last week, I attended the AGM of the Lambeth partnership at Lambeth Palace. This is a partnership of about 500 people who support the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury – just as they supported the work of his predecessors. As you walk through Lambeth Palace and see all those portraits of Archbishops of Canterbury stretching back centuries, you are vividly aware of the glorious past of the Anglican Church. For the last 5 years, Archbishop Rowan has encouraged us to become a mission-shaped church, and the Lambeth Partnership has supported him in his commitment to stimulate and uphold Fresh Expressions of Church. All over the country there have been signs of new life in the church of England, where new communities of believers are being built up alongside existing faithful expressions of Christian commitment, such as our Christian commitment here in Datchworth and the other churches of the Welwyn team. So we heard about the Lighthouse project in Hartcliffe Bristol, where in 2002, two women began to pray for the Hartcliffe estate. They were soon joined by a third person and then by other churches. And they formed the Lighthouse, which meets every Friday, bringing friendship and encouragement in the gospel to new Christians. And we heard about the café churches – the coffee shop as the natural meeting place for people – discussing real life issues of troubled marriages and handling debt. Over 600 examples of Fresh Expressions of Church can be seen on their website, all existing alongside the work of more traditional expressions of faith. And the archbishop told us of the 250 young people interested in ordination whom he addressed only a few weeks ago in a mission to Cambridge.

Those who write the Church of England off are wrong to do so, all over the country there are communities of Christian belief, faithfully saying their prayers, faithfully reading their scriptures, faithfully reliving the narrative of their salvation with Jesus in their midst, faithfully doing good works of love and service.

And what is it that renews and revives us day after day, that gives us hope when times are tough, and build us up when things are down and out? I think it lies in the holy spirit. I can’t find a better way of describing it. And in the great 8th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans, which we heard just a few minutes ago, St Paul makes the astonishing, powerful and amazing claim – that the Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead, is the same spirit which will work within us to give life to our mortal bodies. The same powerful spirit that created the world and still sustains it. When God glorified Jesus by raising him from the dead, he poured out his love, life and spirit on to him, and the overflow of love, life and spirit was poured out onto all who are and will be united to Jesus – the overflowing love pouring into our hearts, there to be claimed by us for our salvation. Do you believe it? It is full of power and life and hope.

So we ask ourselves the question, can our dry bones live? Can the spirit that gloriously raised Jesus from the dead raise us too, revive our flagging hearts, and give us hope for the journey? Can the spirit that brought the children of Israel back from exile to Jerusalem, as Ezekiel said it would, be our spirit too? Can the spirit that changed the first disciples from despair, defeat and depression animate us today? Can that spirit which is at work in new and traditional Christian communities in our Church of England activate, renew and sustain our faith?

It can indeed!

To that same spirit be praise and glory for ever and ever. AMEN