The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
March 9, 2008
Vol. 11 no. 10

Everything But...
           The last leg of John’s Gospel trilogy is looming nigh. Lazarus, the central character who never speaks a word, knows how to listen - “I heard the voice of Jesus say,” ‘Lazarus, come out!’” The old hymn does not say that exactly, but Lazarus already knew the tune.
           The two famous scriptures being read are pretty close in theme. Ezekiel’s surreal vision of the valley of dry bones has also been sung, “dem bones, dem bones....” Can’t we relate to that image in our region of the “pile of bones”? In Ezekiel’s vision, however, there was no hope as there was in Wascana’s early days. Israel had been conquered and annihilated by the Babylonians, the city of Jerusalem burned, and Ezekiel himself had been carted off to live in a foreign and strange land. The religious life of faith had been eliminated with the destruction of the Temple, and the Jews no longer knew how to worship, asking, is there still a God to worship?
           The first part of that image is all too apt - dry bones bleaching in the scorching sun, no flesh, no connecting tissues, no life. But the word of the Lord summons life out of death, the sound of rattling bones knitting together is deafening. Death is deadly silent, a sad nothing; life is annoyingly noisy, a sound eternal.
           Four days in the tomb was the evidence that Lazarus, like Israel, was fully dead. The Gospels talk a lot about “on the third day,” but adding an extra 24 hours is the sign of death to all who heard. Lazarus could hear only Jesus’ voice and came out of the tomb wrapped in a different version of swaddling clothes, stumbling along, blindfolded as well. He did not have to utter a sound, everybody else had to be gasping and shouting. Life is never silent.