Pre-mature Obituaries
Dear church,
How would you feel about reading your own obituary? What would be written about you and your life that people remember you for? Those who are famous and of a certain age have their obituaries written well ahead of time. It’s all set up in the newsrooms of the world. Journalists have long done their homework. They already know what they are going to write when Clint Eastwood, the legendary actor and film maker dies. Or Judy Dench or Sir William Attenborough, the famous naturalist. It’s all prepared in the news archives of the world, ready to go when they go.
Today’s readings from Scripture are heavy on death and resurrection, as is always the case on the 5th Sunday of Lent. Ezekiel 37 and John 11 are the preludes to Easter, introducing us to the hope that reigns supreme in our faith: death defying hope, death accepting hope, death surpassing hope. The overwhelming message is: life will always come back, no matter how hard the human race is working on its own destruction. God creates life out of our bones and out of our most boneheaded decisions for God is the life that keeps coming back. The world is on fire, times of distress and suffering are felt in many places right now, and yet we are preparing for the Resurrection, Easter, Feast of Life.
In the vision that the prophet Ezekiel shares in the 37th chapter, he finds himself in a bad place, a valley of death, filled with bones, decay and the whiff of yesterday. And the Lord asks the prophet, “Son of Man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” (Safe answer!) Then the Lord said to Ezekiel, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.”
It’s interesting that God uses a middle man here for his life-giving work, isn’t it? He engages a mere mortal in the work of resurrection. It’s a promotion of sorts. In the creation story of Genesis, God breathes life into Adam. In this prophetic text he engages a human being in the work of creation. Ezekiel is one of us, a “Son of Man.” He says,
“So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’”
It’s a dramatic vision, and it becomes clear now that this vision is a prophesy about the people of Israel. When you think about it, it’s rather amazing and miraculous that Israel exists today, no matter how we feel about their politics right now and their part in the current war. This ancient tribe of people was written off more than any other tribe in the world, and they have come back every single time. This prophesy from Ezekiel 37 reverberates throughout all of history: dry bones, old hopes, vanished dreams are being given new life by the grace of God. And it connects with the great story of the Resurrection told in the Christian gospels, urging us to believe in the eternal power of life rather than the temporal power of death. Even as we all must depart from this earthly life, we are anchored in the Life that keeps coming back, in Christ, in the Easter story.
Let me tell you the story of a man who woke up one morning and read his own obituary. Can you picture that? It was the year 1888. His brother had died. And the journalist got the two mixed up. The man’s name was Alfred Nobel, the one who had made a fortune with dynamite.
On that morning, Mr. Nobel stared at the paper and read the headline: “The King of Dynamite has died.” A French newspaper offered this beautiful line: “Le marchand de la mort est mort” ("The merchant of death is dead"). The paper concluded rather poignantly that Nobel "became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before" through his invention of dynamite.
As these news blurbs found their way to Sweden and landed on the desk of the old man, you can imagine how very pleased he was with his post-mortem portrayal! Nobel was angry and hurt. He felt misunderstood and misjudged. In his opinion, he had done a few things other than making dynamite and fuel wars. Had he not used his power and influence to break down barriers between nations and bring about peace?
But that wasn’t mentioned in any of those obituaries. And it was a wake-up call for him. Horrified by his public perception, he decided to show the world his noble self. He wound up dedicating almost his entire estate to set up a fund for what we now know as the Nobel Prize. For the last 130 years, this fund has financed large cash prizes, awarded to the world’s best researchers for advancements in Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, Literature, Economics and Peace.
Maybe we all need to read our obituary ahead of time. What would be in there? Would we change anything we have done, add anything, question anything? Most people sincerely want to live a good life and do good. But sometimes we get side-tracked or discouraged. Most of us have noble intentions in them. But life pushes us in other directions. Yet, we are called to be co-creators, to speak life into the dry bones of the world, to remind mere mortals of the life-giving breath that we all share. God breathes through you.
Amen.
