Breathing Life into Death

Passiontide begins today, this is reflected in the lectionary readings which begin with death and end with life. 
 

Two stories of new life being breathed into one who is dead. In the account in Ezekiel (37:1-14), long time dead, nothing remaining but the old, dried bones. In the story in John (11:1-45), recently dead, not yet dry bones but a “stench” (39) of decomposing. In both stories the result was regeneration, life prevailed.

 

I have blogged before about the detail of these texts and the resurrection of Lazarus so today I am going to speak tangentially, just ponder on the idea of death and life. 

 

But before I do that, I want to highlight a couple of phrases from John which I think are worthy of note.

 

 “I believe that you are the Messiah, the child of God, the one coming into the world” (27).  In the gospel of John, Martha makes this declaration. In the synoptics it is accredited to Peter. I suspect if I asked the question, “Who said, ‘you are the Messiah’?” the default answer would be Peter. So, I want to highlight Martha, this wonderful woman who is accredited with making this declaration about the Christ — one of the first to do so.

 

Second, I want to highlight the importance of friendship in this text. Jesus’ friendship with Lazarus was obviously one of deep love and affection. So much so that when Lazarus needed Jesus, Jesus responded and went to him even if it meant potential harm to himself. The disciples reminded Jesus that they had tried to stone him in that location. They were amazed he would try to go there again (8). Yet, for the sake of friendship the disciples were willing to go and die with him (16). Certainly, the stoic influence is clear, friendship entails a duty to help even in the face of possible persecution. I think this story illustrates the value of true friendship which is often overlooked.

 

So where do my ponderings of death and life take me. They entangle with the idea of “being as Christ to those we meet” — how can I as an individual or we as a community breathe life into areas where we see death. (Metaphorically speaking)

 

In the last couple of weeks, I have been brought face-to-face with a couple of areas where I saw “death”. The experience was unsettling and deeply disturbing. 

 

The first was on our journey home from our wonderful trip seeing our son and daughter-in-law. We drove home leisurely via a coastal route through Maryland and Delaware, breaking the journey with a couple of days at the Rehoboth beaches — lovely. Sounds idyllic, yet as we drove, we became aware that we were surrounded by death. Miles and miles of factory farms, usually attempts to keep them hidden with trees but nevertheless visible from the road. I’m sure there are many more we didn’t see. We also passed the processing plants where the young birds are cruelly killed with the names Tyson and Purdue emblazoned on their gates. And the smell — we could echo Martha’s words “There is a stench because he has been dead” (38). There was the stench of death in the air as we drove.  We looked up the data — it is shameful, we are talking millions and millions of animals, sentient beings created by God being subject to cruel lives and cruel deaths. Data from 2019 concluded that 98.8% of all chickens are in factory farms. Our drive brought us face-to-face with the reality of this — at one point +Andy remarked, “It looks like Auschwitz.”

 

The second area that brought me face-to-face with death (metaphorically) was looking at “conversion camps”. I was teaching about them this week but as I delved into the data, practices and harm caused including an increased incidence of suicide I was a little horrified. The situation was worse than I had realized, I was again left feeling a shaken and unsettled. 

 

Conversion therapy is where people (mostly aged 13-17) are subject to practices to change their sexuality after they have identified as gay. Cruel practices which include pharmacology, aversion therapy, electric shock, beatings and exorcism. The U.N. have condemned conversion therapy as a violation of human rights — violates prohibition of torture, violates principles of equality and non-discrimination an violates health care particularly freedom from non-consensual medical treatment (UN-IESOGI). 

 

So, two very different experiences, two areas of “death” that need life breathing into them. If I am to be as Christ, I need to muse on what I can do to breathe life into them. It all feels a little overwhelming, perhaps I just need to begin where Jesus started and “Roll the stone away” (39). A first step — not keeping silent, letting the light in so it can start to shine on these evil, deadly practices.