The Rev. Rob Fisher

St. Dunstan’s Church, Carmel Valley

Lent V

Texts: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Romans 8:6-11; Psalm 130; John 11:1-45

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit – Amen.

Frank Oz is a name that you may not know.

You definitely have heard of his creations.  He is a master puppeteer.

Along with Jim Henson, he created the Muppets, and he performed the parts of Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy, and others.  On Sesame Street, he did Grover, Bert and Cookie Monster.  And for the Star Wars movies, he was Yoda.

Even while he has fun with these puppets, he obviously takes his work very seriously.  I have heard an amazing story about his family’s puppeteering background.

Frank Oz’s family name is actually Oznowicz.  His father was Jewish and his mother was Catholic.  The whole family were puppeteers in Europe, and when Hitler was on the rise, they naturally created a Hitler puppet to poke fun at the Third Reich.

Before long, they realized that they needed to flee for their safety.  Most people I suppose would destroy the Hitler puppet, but they decided instead to bury it.  They marked the spot so that they could find it again, but I am sure when they left the country they knew they would probably never have the chance to return.

Thankfully, Hitler was ultimately defeated, and after World War II was over, they did return.  And they dug up the puppet, like exhuming a grave, and kept it in the family.  It was part of their family history.

Apparently, Frank Oz still owns this ragged puppet, and it is on display in his apartment.

Puppeteering may be seen as just silly entertainment for children, but for him—and for all serious puppeteers—it is a heartfelt and emotional art form.  A good puppeteer gives life to an inanimate bit of fabric.  A great puppeteer gives it character and heart.  That is precisely why the Muppets have made such an impression on our culture.

***

Making a puppet come to life is something we can relate to.

Giving life to dry bones—that is a little more far out.

In the famous vision of the prophet Ezekiel, he is brought into the middle of a valley, and it is full of bones that are very dry.

The Lord leads him all around the bones.  There are very many, and they have been there for a long time.  Imagine looking out at a desert valley filled with countless white, still, lifeless bones resting under a blue sky, untouched for many years.

And in the vision the Lord says to Ezekiel, “Mortal, can these bones live?”

Ezekiel gives the question back to God, saying, “O Lord God, you know.”

God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones that the Lord will cause breath to enter into them, and they shall live.

It is an extremely vivid image.  God says to the bones, “I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

The key word here is breath.  Ruah.

It is the same word as Spirit.  It is also the same word as wind.  It was the same word as when God breathed into the nostrils of Adam and gave him life.

It is invisible, but powerful.

It is the Spirit that animates flesh, and creates the miracle that is life.

***

We take the air for granted because we can’t see it, and because we don’t have to think to breathe.  But without each breath of air that we take into our lungs, we cannot live.

We take human life for granted almost in the same way.

We encounter people every day, and we don’t think of the miracle of each life we meet.  How in the world could we?  It would blow our minds if we saw the glory of every single person we encountered.

But I believe that God does see humanity like that.  He sees the immeasurable beauty and worth of every single human being, even when we fail to live up to our potential.

***

Ireneaus of Lyons said, famously, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”

Ireneaus implies that there is a difference between being alive, and being fully alive.

The difference between being merely alive and fully alive makes a very big difference.

Sadly, we are not always awake to our own lives.

We are not always able to taste, smell, and touch the joy available to us in every moment.  Sometimes it is because we are weighted down with worry.  Other times it is because we are distracted.

From time to time, all of us need to refocus our hearts.  Contemplative Christians tell us to slow down our thoughts and pay attention to every breath.  Every intake of air and spirit, and be fully present to this very moment, no longer with divided attention.

The Buddhists would call this mindfulness.  Jesus calls this being awake.

***

It is about being fully alive.

Obviously, life happens within the span of our birth and our death.

What matters is not how many days we live, but what we fill our days with.

It matters a lot if we are awake for each of our days.

On the mere literal level, we have an account of a vision by a prophet of the Lord breathing life into dry bones.  In the Gospel, we have a miraculous story of Jesus lovingly bringing his friend back to life after being “asleep” for four days.

The more-than-literal meaning to these stories is that Jesus comes to wake us up, too.

To make us not just physically alive, but spiritually alive.

To open our eyes to the fact that we are loved by our creator.

To put God’s glory upon us.

***

One important detail to the story of Lazarus is that when the sisters send a message to Jesus, they do not use Lazarus’ name when they tell him what has happened.  Rather, they say, “The one whom you love is dead!”

His name is not Lazarus.  His name here is “Beloved.”

That is our name, too.  Perhaps that is what God most wants us to wake up to.

—Amen.